Governor Andrew Cuomo made an amazing announcement last week, one that should catch everyone’s attention. He is hanging up an “Open for Business” shingle for New York, hoping to retain businesses and even attract some to the Empire State.
In announcing this new initiative, Cuomo said in a release, “As we continue to transform Albany’s approach to economic development, we must emphasize the many advantages New York has to offer, including our central location, our wealth of resources, our unequalled network of colleges and universities, and our diverse, innovative, educated and hard-working residents.”
While making New York more business-friendly is certainly a desperately needed measure, there is one major problem with the plan. Cuomo is not making any actual changes to create a more pro-business environment. Instead he is implementing a multi-year $50 million marketing campaign to make people feel better about the high taxes, fees, regulations and Union controls that we impose on businesses in New York.
This goes in the “truth is stranger than fiction” category and has a Brave New World element to it, where how we feel about things takes precedence over how things really are. To put it another way, this is like the government trying to use the Jedi mind trick on the business community, telling entrepreneurs, “You will like doing business in New York, there are no oppressive taxes or regulations here” in spite of what everyone knows to be true.
The administration allegedly got the idea for this when Lt. Gov. Duffy read about a business in Illinois looking to relocate to a better business state and called the owner to pitch him on coming to New York. The owner’s response was a bellowing “you’ve got to be kidding” laugh. Any business that doesn’t directly serve the people would be foolish to consider operating in New York when most states have a vastly better environment for business development and capital investment.
If Cuomo wants New York to be able to retain and attract business, he should make this a better place for business to operate. Cutting taxes and regulations, weakening the stranglehold we allow the unions to place on business owners, and reducing the cost for healthcare and other benefits, would actually make New York more business-friendly. Someone needs to tell Cuomo that the Jedi mind trick only works in the movies.
Robert Hornak is a Queens-based political consultant, blogger, and an active member of the Queens Republican Party.
