Spitzer's Economic Revitalization

Newly elected Governor Spitzer has a lot on the agenda for the first few months of his term. One of his major selling points during the campaign was his experience with economic revitalization. He specifically has targeted upstate New York as an area that needs help.

He has a lot of plans very relevant to our class discussion today. He believes New York's high property taxes are a major deterrent to economic growth especially in the depressed upstate region. In a speech he gave on Tuesday, Governor Spitzer outlined some of his economic visions for New York:

"Soaring property taxes are devastating our state’s families and our economy as well. In the past five years, real property taxes have increased 42 percent — fully three and a half times faster than wages have increased.As a result, all across our state, high property taxes are forcing families to leave their homes and encouraging young people to leave for more affordable states. High property taxes have driven New York’s overall state and local tax burden to the highest in the nation, which is a major reason for our state’s uncompetitive position in the global economy.My Executive Budget will address this crisis by providing $1.5 billion dollars in property tax relief this year. The amount we provide will grow to $2 billion dollars in fiscal year 2008 and $2.5 billion dollars in fiscal year 2009."

At least in theory, Mr. Spitzer seems to be on the same economic page with a lot of us in class. Hopefully, his plans will at least bring back a glimer of upstate's former shine. The rest of his speech can be read here: http://www.ny.gov/governor/keydocs/0130071_speech.html