A March 28, 2023 report by WalletHub, a personal finance website, rated all 50 states based on their total tax burden. Their calculation combined property taxes, individual income tax and total sales and excise taxes. New York State came out on top. New Jersey came in 6th, while California is rated 12th.

 A recent letter to the Mid Hudson Times from Assemblyman Jacobson stated “a young person entering adulthood should be equipped to make informed financial choices”. To that end he has introduced Assembly Bill A2298 which would require “senior high schools to provide a course in financial literacy; requires students to complete such course as a condition of graduation.” A companion bill, S04860, has also been introduced by New York Senator Comrie, who represents the 14th Senate District of South Eastern Queens.

This proposed financial literacy course sounds like a good idea. Perhaps the elected officials in Albany should be required to take this as well? According to the 2020 Census, New York State’s population was 20.2 million while Florida’s was 21.54 million.  In 2020 Florida had 1.34 million more people than New York, and that’s before New York’s recent exodus. What is troubling is our state’s 2022-2023 budget was $220.5 billion whereas Florida’s was $112.1 billion for the same period, and this year’s budget once again missed the April 1st deadline.

 Next time your car falls into the many potholes in our roads you can be sure the extra $108.4 billion that New York takes from the taxpayers is certainly not being spent on our roads! And this has been a mild winter.