Florida has about 2 million more people than New York, 21.5 million to 19.5 million, yet it has no state income tax. New York’s tax rate ranges from 4 percent to 8.82 percent, New York City has its own tax rate ranging from 3.078 percent to 3.876 percent. Someone making a good living in New York City is forced to cough up almost 12.7 percent of their income to local governments, in addition to what they have to send the federal government. Why would anyone voluntarily do that?
It’s hard to feel badly for them, they elect Democrats, so it’s a little like feeling badly for someone complaining of a headache while they bang their head against a wall. They bought the ticket, they have to take the ride.
Still, it’s not just taxes, or even crime, it’s quality of life and life itself.
New York has been a disaster when it comes to the COVID pandemic. Governor Andrew Cuomo has overseen more deaths than most countries, and is directly responsible for most of them. His order that nursing homes had to take in COVID positive patients was not only deadly, it was unnecessary.
He did it because he was afraid hospitals would be overwhelmed and he wanted to keep as many beds as possible free for people not living in pseudo-medical care facilities. So, in that sense at least, it was somewhat understandable, if still stupid. But the rush of sick people overwhelming hospitals never happened. The Navy hospital ship sent to NYC and the emergency field hospitals built to handle overflow sat empty.
CARTOONS | Tom Stiglich
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As hospitals were fine, nursing homes were not. Untold thousands died as a result of Cuomo’s order. To put it mildly, that order was a huge mistake. But the unforgivable part of that mistake is that Cuomo let the order stand for 2 months. Nursing home deaths were piling up, families were being devastated, and hospitals weren’t close to capacity, yet the order stood and people continued to die.
Were Cuomo a Republican, he would have been crucified by the press. Since he’s a Democrat whose brother is a noted personality on CNN, he was given a pass. And an Emmy.
Meanwhile, down in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis did not lock down his state, did not order sick seniors into nursing homes, and was demonized by the press. With slightly more than half the deaths of New York, DeSantis is somehow still the problem.
CNN, which slobbers over Cuomo, routinely smears DeSantis, who has no family members on the media’s payroll. New York’s economy is crippled, New York City will be a ghost town now that companies realize they can be just as productive without the massive expense of renting office space, and there isn’t an easy way to make up for that. Florida, on the other hand, has suffered from a drop in tourism, but that’s about it. Yet, somehow DeSantis is the worse Governor? How?
There is no answer, not a real one anyway. Florida is distributing vaccines to the people most likely to face death or severe infection from COVID and people are lining up for it. New York is using a “woke” model for distribution while few shots are actually being given. DeSantis is leaving control of the “last mile” of inoculation to the experts at medical facilities. Cuomo is threatening to fine facilities up to $1 million if they inject anyone from a demographic not on his approved list, even if vaccines sit idle and expire.
