You’ve seen Andrew Cuomo’s TV commercials, the ones that say, “The new New York is open. Open to innovation. Open to ambition. Open to bold ideas.” The spot is promoting the Start-Up NY program.
Now the results are starting to come in: 76 jobs so far.
In the entire state. From a program that has spent $28 million advertising its own existence.
That’s $368,000 per job.
Start-Up NY sounds great on its face. It’s a tax cut. Who could argue with that? The problem is that it’s a very, very narrow tax cut. It’s only for certain kinds of businesses that do certain kinds of things in certain areas of the state. Surprise: It’s had very narrow effects.
It’s a classic example of how politicians have an irrepressible urge to tinker, to steer, to organize. Tech jobs in university towns are great, but they aren’t defining the New York economy. Start-Up NY’s professed goal? Creating 2,100 jobs. Over five years. Points for modesty.
In a state in which there are 7,775,000 jobs, that’s projected job growth of 0.005% a year. Touting this as “economic development” is like saying you’re going to fight hunger in India by sending Mumbai one box of Minute Rice.
What’s really going on with sluggish job growth? It isn’t a mystery. According to the annual survey by TaxFoundation.org, New York is the worst state for taxes.
That’s 50th, out of 50. (New Jersey was 49th). In unemployment-insurance taxes, New York was 45th. In individual income taxes, 49th. In property taxes, 45th.
A different survey, completed in 2013 by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, ranked states by personal and economic freedom. New York was 50th on that list, too.
Still another study, the Thumbtack Survey of over 12,000 small businesses conducted in 2014, gave New York a D+ on small-business friendliness, one of the worst grades in the country, and a D on difficulty of starting a business.
In 2012 the Institute for Justice ranked the states by the onerousness of their occupational licensing requirements. New York finished 40th (with No. 1 being the least onerous state).
Let’s look at one particular job and what it takes to take this gig in the Empire State. You must:
Complete a physical;
Apply for and receive a license to be an apprentice (don’t forget your $40 check);
Serve a two-year apprenticeship, carefully recording your days and hours worked on the appropriate form;
Go get another physical;
Apply again to be licensed (with another $40 fee);
Complete a state training course;
Await official certification.
What job are we talking about? EMT? Nuclear bomb disposal technician?
No, barber. Two years of study to learn how to operate scissors. Two years is the amount of experience Barack Obama had as a national politician before he announced he was running for president. (Did he even have two physicals in that period of time? Never mind, the health of a barber is much more important to national security.)
Oh, and prospective barbers, after all that hoop-jumping, you’re still a long way from being able to open a barbershop, sunshine. Says the state of New York: “Note: A license to practice barbering does not allow the operation of a business. A separate barber-shop license is needed to operate a business.”
I’d tell you about those requirements, but The Post’s printers wouldn’t give me permission to have them do a 300-page special issue today.
At the same time Cuomo has been struggling to deliver on a promise to create 2,100 jobs, he killed fracking in New York. The Marcellus Shale, which bestrides Western New York and Pennsylvania, directly employs more than 30,000 Pennsylvanians, with some 200,000 jobs partially or wholly dependent on this form of energy extraction. These are high-paying jobs, too. The average wage in the industry in Pennsylvania is $62,000.
Liberal politicians lament the decline of good-paying industrial jobs for blue-collar workers, but when something comes along that sounds vaguely new and scary, their impulse is to yield to noted economists like Yoko Ono and David Letterman and ban the thing.
But we all know only Republicans support fracking. “I would say that is the wrong way to go,” said Texas Gov. Rick Perry of the anti-fracking movement. “There is a lot of misinformation about fracking. I think that localized efforts or statewide efforts in many cases don’t understand the science behind it.”
Oops, did I say Rick Perry? Typo. He didn’t give that quote, Sally Jewell did. Jewell is the secretary of the interior. In the Obama administration. Jewell has won the National Audobon Society’s Rachel Carson Award and sits on the board of the National Parks Conservation Association.
Fracking is a high-tech, high-wage industry: But, sorry, it’s the kind of high-tech, high-wage industry that Cuomo won’t allow. When economically besieged upstaters ask about fracking jobs, Cuomo’s response is: Shut Up, New York.