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Your low on the gas bill. It roughly costs $50-70 per tank (maybe more with the current prices up there), fill it twice a week, times it by 2 cars (don't forget the counties take out nearly $1 in taxes per gallon). Also, the daycare $ is per kid (I paid 1200 month, per kid). Utlities should be higher as well considering home heating in the winter and AC in the summer. Also, NY state has wonderful tax brackets. When you get in that salary range you really get screwed (by the state and fed as well).
Your way of logic is off.
If your income is $140k, your S.O can afford not to work and watch your kids and you wont be paying childcare. If they do work I would hope there income would cover the daycare and some.
My expenses might be low, but that's based on how far you live from work, where you drive on weekends and so on.
Use any income state calculator that has new york state and federal withholdings and you will see that $140k leaves you with roughly $90k.
Now you're telling me taking how $7,500 a month is average? Even Long Island standards you are overspending if you're not living above average on that single income salary.
Every public service and municipality has there hands in the cookie jar and it drives property tax and cost of goods up on Long Island. I stand by my statements that property tax has a huge impact on the cost of living here.
Opponents of the proposed Tier 6 pension reform like to point out that the average annual benefit paid by the state pension system in 2011 was $19,151 — “not a big amount for someone whose [sic] gave a lifetime of service,” as the Public Employees Federation (PEF) puts it in a letter and blast fax to state legislators.
But that commonly cited figure is very misleading. It includes payments to former employees who only minimally vested in a public pension plan–those who worked only part of their careers and those who worked only part-time — many of whom last worked for the government decades ago. It also includes disability benefits and reduced payments to survivors of deceased retirees.
Seriously, $140K is an average salary in comparison to the COL on Long Island. Thank goodness police and teachers get paid an average salary in comparison to COL because then we wouldn't have any.
If you have a family and if you're making less than than six figures, than you can't afford to thrive on Long Island. Not only are taxes high but housing is ridiculously overpriced for what you get too. What should be happening is that the private sector companies pay their employees salaries that are relatively appropriate to the COL of living on Long Island. I find it preposterous that any company on Long Island thinks it's alright to pay only $50-$70K to its employees.
If you really want to solve the problem, get in touch with the county or state government about the issue. If nothing happens, then move. Not everyone is entitled to live wherever they want even if they grew up in the area, especially Long Island where COL is extremely high.
Unfortunately NYC/Long Island has become one of those regions where you need to be pretty well off in order to thrive, particularly if you have a family. If you're anything but it can be very hard making a great living here. It's not just taxes that are forcing people to move, but the other aspects contributing to the high COL in the area as well. One of the reasons I moved out of the area is that the gap between the upper class and lower class is increasing rapidly here, unlike other cities such as like Denver, Tampa, Phoenix, and Houston where there is more of even distribution of upper, middle, and lower class (and is probably because these areas have a much more reasonable COL).
$140K is an average salary based on COLA for LI, the numbers indicate otherwise for Nassau & Suffolk. Many of the arguments boil down to the contention that taxpayers need to support a salary that supports the purchase of a $400K home, there are other options. The issue is not what a home costs, it's about reasonable pay and benefits.
By the way the difference between the top few percent and the middle class is increasing everywhere, not just NY, but that is off topic (unless you are talking about school superintendents).
Salaries are on thing, though they do need to be indexed to the local private sector wages.
The big culprit is pensions. They are killing towns all over the country, whole countries in Europe, and sooner or later our Federal and State govs will be come unsustainable.
It is fundamentally unfair that high paid public sector workers get pensions funded by private sector workers (who make less these days) who have to also fund their own. Everybody should be funding their own pension through a defined contribution plan such as a 401K. We should look at what Australia has done with superannuation plans that have replaced all sorts of pensions and SS like benefits.
You contribute, its your money, you allocate it, you access it when you retire. Money would be managed by the same "Wall Street" people who manage pensions now, for which they will likely be highly compensated for success. If you have a reasonable allocation among managers and asset classes you will do just fine.
In Australia it is compulsory, which seems coercive, but not compared to what we are forced to pay for now via taxes for some other guys pension, and besides its you money and financial security, people need to take responsibility, and this is a good way. In fact, seniors in high school should be taking a course that prepares them for this and demonstrates, using spreadsheet models, over 40-50 years, how much money you can accrue with even modest contributions. Of course you will need teachers that teach such.
Its not fair to vilify the entire industry when the top few were were making up the game rules. I know plenty of wall streeters who were workaholics, made alot of money and PAID A FORTUNE IN INCOME TAXES, which ran New York City. They contributed greatly to the economy including, ALL SERVICE PROFESSIONS.
Same could be said for Long Island's rank-and-fiel cops and teachers who just get out there every day and do their jobs, and who pay their share of property and income taxes.
Cops were eating hamburgers when everyone else in the private sector was eating steaks, now that the economy is in the dumps people are mad that the cops are still eating hamburgers and that they have to as well.
Cops were eating hamburgers when everyone else in the private sector was eating steaks, now that the economy is in the dumps people are mad that the cops are still eating hamburgers and that they have to as well.
Some eat more than hamburgers Married guy with 3 kids at home
Cops were eating hamburgers when everyone else in the private sector was eating steaks, now that the economy is in the dumps people are mad that the cops are still eating hamburgers and that they have to as well.
Police were eating steak long before 2008, need to go back to the 1970's when things started to change.
It was the Democrat Congress, led by Frank Dodd in the Senate and Barney Frank in the House, that made that decision and prevented the Bush administration from reining in Freddie or Fannie who were packaging and re-selling questionable mortgage securities as good investments.
That gov't "dictum" was the Democrat approved and expanded Community Reinvestment Act that gave ACORN and others the power to force banks to make loans they otherwise would not have made.
There were many reasons for the failures, greed by the investment banks, repeal of Glass Steagal, junk bonds sold as financial instruments. Private banks had the lions share of the defaults, the community reinvestment act didn't "force" banks to give loans to unqualified buyers, that was their own doing.
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Married guy with 3 kids at home 
