From the New York Post today:

I LOVE New York. But how much should it cost to call New York home? Decades of out-of-control budgets, spending hikes and relentless borrowing have made New York simply too expensive.

Politicians like to talk about incentives — for businesses to relocate, for example, or to get folks to buy local. After reviewing the new budget, I have identified the most compelling incentive of all: a major tax break immediately available to all New Yorkers. To be eligible, you need do only one thing: move out of New York state.

Last week I spent 90 minutes doing a couple of simple things — registering to vote, changing my driver’s license, filling out a domicile certificate and signing a homestead certificate — in Florida.

The guy who wrote the piece? Tom Golisano. If you don’t live in New York, you’ve probably never heard of the guy. Who is he? According to his Wikipedia page:

Blase Thomas Golisano (born 1942) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder of Paychex, the second-largest payroll processor in the United States and co-owner (along with real estate developer Larry Quinn) of the Buffalo Sabres hockey team and of the Buffalo Bandits lacrosse team.

He’s a billionaire (which is a lot of money), and he thinks the Democrat policies of tax and spend (and soak the rich) are making New York too expensive to call home? What about the truly poor slobs who can’t afford to move to a more economically-friendly state?

Oh, that’s right…they’ll continue to vote Democrat. This commenter at the Post gets it exactly right:

State and City political leaders have run our governments as a massive vote-buying machine. As a result, NY’s taxes scare away businesses and the most productive residents, while NY’s spending on Medicaid, Welfare, public housing, and similar programs attracts and retains the least productive residents.

These types of failed Democrat polices run off the truly productive and attract instead the sponges of society.

Tom on soaking the rich:

That was irresponsible — and may just prove to be counterproductive, since the top 1 percent of earners account for about 50 percent of state revenue and are the ones who can and will leave.

Among other hikes in taxes and fees, they raised the marginal tax rate on the most successful (and most mobile) New Yorkers to 8.97 percent, the second-highest rate in the nation.

Bottom line? By domiciling in Florida, which has no personal-income tax, I will save $13,800 every day. That’s a pretty strong incentive.

Like I said, I love New York. But I’m not going to pay any more for the waste, corruption and inefficiency that is New York state government.

I wonder why Tom Golisano didn’t opt to move to California instead? Oh, wait…never mind…

Dear Tom, you’d be welcome here in Texas too.

_________

OTHERS:

Michelle Malkin: “Going, going, going Galt. Who’s next?”

Kathryn Jean Lopez at The Corner: “When President Obama gets done modelling the country after California and New York where will everyone move?”