Collins vs Poloncarz

[genoobie]

I hope you're wrong. But someone did make a point that Collins took the stimulus money to put the county in the black rather than creating jobs. Doesn't sit too well with me. Don't know exactly what the solution is. People leave the area not because of taxes, but because there are no jobs. NYC has some of the highest taxes in the area, but they have tons of jobs to go with it. So the high taxes=fewer jobs is a moot point. Toronto has a pretty decent economy in a region that is notorious for excessive taxes. So again, high taxes != job loss. We'll see what happens.

[Vex]

Originally Posted by genoobie

I hope you're wrong. But someone did make a point that Collins took the stimulus money to put the county in the black rather than creating jobs. Doesn't sit too well with me. Don't know exactly what the solution is. People leave the area not because of taxes, but because there are no jobs. NYC has some of the highest taxes in the area, but they have tons of jobs to go with it. So the high taxes=fewer jobs is a moot point. Toronto has a pretty decent economy in a region that is notorious for excessive taxes. So again, high taxes != job loss. We'll see what happens.

Taxes are not the only factor that have contributed to Upstate NY's job and population loss, but they can't be ignored. The other regions you cite do have high taxes but a more robust economy. But this is only because each has a competitive advantage whose benefits outweigh the costs associated with excess taxes. Just an an example, both NYC and Toronto are the financial centers of their countries, and the financial capital of the world in the case of NYC. NYC also attracts top talent. Companies are willing to bear the extra tax burden in order to have access to NYC's human and financial capital. Buffalo has none of these advantages.

As far as using government spending to create jobs and revive the economy . . . I think it's safe to say Keynesian economics has been dis-proven by now. Government spending creates a small number of directly identifiable jobs. However, the costs associate with this spending, while perhaps unnoticeable over a broad base, are more costly in the aggregate and result in a net destruction of wealth. You have to take money out of the private sector where it is allocated efficiently, and put it in the government sector where it is allocated politically and wastefully.

Last point, Erie County is subsidized by the State of NY to the tune of $1 billion per year. You can look at this government cash infusion as a stimulus. Has it worked? The answer is a resounding No! The Buffalo metro still has less jobs than in 2001. If a $1 billion per year was unable to rescue Erie County, why would a $100 million one-time shot do the trick? I would argue that using the surplus to avoid raising taxes in recessionary periods was indeed the smart decision to make.

[genoobie]

I think we can also conclude that years of "trickle-down" theory has been equally unsuccessful.

This is clearly an assumption
"You have to take money out of the private sector where it is allocated efficiently".

The non-competitive nature of government enterprise means they have no marketing costs to bear. In fact, those costs to earn marketshare are what make private sector companies by definition, inefficient. For instance, health care in Canada. Now some may say that their system is not as good as ours (and perhaps on certain points this is true). But, their health care costs are only 50% of what we spend. How can this be? Because they don't have to waste resources on redundant and competitive groups. Is there really a significant difference b/w the HMO's in our area? Nope. But you take the 500K+ that is spent on CEOs salaries, then add the 500K+ that is spent on adminsitrators' salaries, how can you possibly argue that this is an efficient allocation of resources? These are dollars not even spent on health care...

Also, as far as that $1B figure, I'd like to see hard data on how much each county contributes to state coffers and how much they recieve from state coffers (if you have that, that would be great). Are you suggesting that EC recieves $1B more than it contributes (not refuting, just curious)?

[buffalo-mitch]

I can't vote but if I could...

I would've gone with Poloncarz. His main concern with the county is our job loss. 13,000 jobs (albeit 1,000 cut from the county) have been lost under Collins. Attitude wise, many of his former employees at the various businesses he's owned say that he is a total @55hole. This is exemplified by the fact that he did not call to congratulate Poloncarz. I'm glad Poloncarz won, though a little surprised