Taxes don't cause a reaction, right..and other things

One of the points I have made regularly with liberals who say just raise tax rates and the deficit will be taken care of, etc. They just can't contemplate that people will do what they can do to not have their money taken by force. Then again they seem to think all money is Washington's and whatever you have to from their generosity.

From Division of Labour last week.....

The Tax Hell That Is New York

This story about New Yorkers fleeing the state because of its high taxes reminded me that I had not blogged some related observations from a recent trip to the Empire State.

1. President Obama, who thinks ATMs cause unemployment, would be pleased that the NY State Thruway (aka I-90) has not used machines to replace people handing out tickets as one enters the road. Feeling a bit puckish at one entrance, I decided to tell the person handing me a ticket that I was surprised that I didn't just get the ticket from a machine. Her response: "I get it from the machine and then give it to you." Obama would be so proud.

But there is not junior-assistant-vice-deputy-under-oxygen thief that can be cut....right. Hey Albany, maybe you should look at toll roads....

2. My admittedly non-scientific comparison of NY hotel rates with those in PA and on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls indicates that NY rates are considerably higher. It's possible that the difference, if it in fact exists, is caused by demand side factors but my hypothesis is that it arises from some sort of business tax that NY hotels are passing along (at least in part) to travelers. There's a paper to be written in here somewhere.

3. NY's cigarette tax is nearly $3 more per pack than PA's ($4.35 vs. $1.60). So, kiddies, what do you think NY smokers do? Among other things, they drive to PA to buy cigarettes (they can buy gas too since PA's gas tax is $0.12 per gallon lower than NY's). I took the photo below at the last northbound exit on I-81 in PA. It's a mile or two south of the NY state line and maybe 10 miles from Binghamton. The car at the window has a NY license plate.

One of my brothers worked for a few months in New York in 89 and he got his sticker shock back then. He went to a store and got two cartons of cigarettes and two six packs of beer (this was before tobacco taxes went nuts in the 90s). He handed he clerk two twenty's and my brother was shocked when he was told the cost was seventy-two dollars! Again, this is over twenty years ago

And liberals wonder why people are running from New York, New Jersey, California...