Contact:
Anthony D’Orazio
1st Vice Chair
Libertarian Party of New York
tdorazio@lpny.org
866-336-3120

The post Libertarian Party of New York To Hold Nominating Convention In Albany County on Saturday, February 19, 2022 appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

While appearing on Kennedy Nation, Libertarian Larry Sharpe officially announced his second run for Governor of New York. In an unprecedented move, he revealed that he anticipates the backing of three political groups: The Libertarian Party of New York, Andrew Yang’s Forward Party which includes many of his left-leaning supporters, and Unite NY which includes many former Republicans.

A recent Zogby poll showed that compared to a two-way race between Kathy Hochul and Lee Zeldin, the addition of Larry Sharpe in a three-way race resulted in 4 points pulled from the Republican, 1 point pulled from the Democrat, and 1 point pulled from undecided voters.

With two additional lines, Sharpe intends to take a rarely-seen approach to campaigning by modeling cross-party cooperation. It is with this strategy that Sharpe expects to reach voters of all persuasions. Sharpe is leading with his “BRO” platform for: Ballot Access, Ranked Choice Voting, and Open Primaries. His platform also includes his “SUS” program, or Step-Up Stipend inspired by the concept of a negative income tax.

He previously earned automatic ballot access for the Libertarian Party when he attained almost 100,000 votes in the 2018 election. This was subsequently revoked as a line item in Governor Cuomo’s 2020 budget. Expecting that Kathy Hochul would continue Cuomo’s legacy, Sharpe garnered the support of Unite NY and the Forward Party to compete with the major political parties for voters in New York State.

Unite NY is an organization intended to bring all political ideologies together to seek common-sense, non-partisan solutions to fixing government, the economy, and democracy.

Andrew Yang’s Forward Party uses a human-centered approach that is “Not Left, Not Right. Forward.”

Larry Sharpe is a native New Yorker, Marine Corps veteran, husband, and father. He is a seasoned businessman, executive coach, management consultant, and a strategic consultant for thought leaders in government, finance, law, technology, media, and healthcare. Larry has taught at Yale and Columbia and has been active in grassroots campaigning since 2018.

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Press Contact:
Name: Resa Willis and Gabrielle Cordova
Phone: 201-222-1001
Email: press@larrysharpe.com

Download Press Release

The post Larry Sharpe Announces Unprecedented Left, Right & Libertarian Coalition for NY Governor appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

Quiter’s 2020 campaign gained nationwide traction within the Libertarian Party, which he believes is part of the reason why leadership reached out, urging him to run for higher office.

“I intend to capitalize upon my success in 2020, carry a message that resonates with everyone, and remind the people that their government belongs in their hands only. They are the power, and they are the solution”, says Quiter.

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Thomas Daniel Quiter is a 2022 candidate for office. He ran for New York State Senate in 2020 within District 52, claiming nearly 13%, garnering almost 14,000 votes.

The post FORMER NEW YORK STATE SENATE CANDIDATE INTENDS TO SEEK LIBERTARIAN PARTY NOMINATION FOR STATEWIDE RACE appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

Albany, NY, June 29, 2021 – Abysmal voter turnout in last week’s primary elections clearly demonstrates the need for election reform and Unite NY has been joined by entrepreneur and 2018 Libertarian candidate for Governor Larry Sharpe in calling on both the Democratic and Republican parties to open their primary processes to give more New Yorkers a greater say at the ballot box.

Last week the four largest cities across Upstate New York held contested democratic primaries for mayor and voter turnout was extremely low, with only 13 to 26 percent of registered democrats turning out to decide who will lead their cities. In Albany, Kathy Sheehan garnered a measly 3,600 votes in a city of nearly 100,000 people. The current leader in the Syracuse race attracted just over 2,700 votes, while total Democratic Party primary turnout in Rochester and Buffalo was 20 and 26 percent, respectively.

Given that these cities heavily favor Democrats, the primary often serves as the de facto election, meaning in a city like Buffalo where there is no general election opposition, only 7 percent of eligible voters will have cast a ballot for the likely incoming mayor.

Unite NY Founder Martin Babinec said, “Voter engagement is a vital part of giving people a voice and breaking the grip our current two-party system has by being tilted towards party bosses with restrictions that shut out competition in the electoral process. The fact of the matter is that people aren’t turning out to vote because they don’t feel like they have a choice or a voice in our current electoral process. That is precisely why we need reforms like open primaries, ranked choice voting, and initiative and referendum so that we can put the power of government back where it belongs, in the hands of the people.”

2018 Libertarian candidate for Governor Larry Sharpe said, “Closed primaries are the number one reason why New Yorkers feel trapped, feel powerless and then check-out. This is proven by the embarrassingly low primary voter turnout this year, after record voter turnout last year. The system is allowing the status quo to facilitate our statewide decay.”

Unite NY is the new political home for independent and moderate voters in New York and is strongly supporting a host of electoral reforms that will take power away from party bosses and put it back in the hands of the people. One of those reforms, Ranked Choice Voting was used in New York City and was extremely successful, driving more than 135,000 more New Yorkers to the polls than at the last open mayoral primary in 2013. That increase in voter participation is larger than the entire population of the Cities of Utica and Schenectady COMBINED.

New York is one of only 9 states that still uses a completely closed primary system, effectively disenfranchising more than three and half million voters in the state who are not enrolled in any political party. The need is even more dire since last year. Under the auspices of a COVID relief bill, five of New York’s seven minor parties lost ballot status, leaving half a million people without a party.

The action Unite NY is calling for does not require legislation, rather, both parties could simply change their rules to allow more New Yorkers to participate in the electoral process.

About Unite NY

Unite NY is a new political home in New York State for Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, independents, and others to come together to seek common sense solutions. This new movement offers a home to more than 3.5 million New York voters not currently enrolled in a major party. Focused on a non-partisan approach to fixing real problems in our government, democracy, and economy, Unite NY supports candidates who understand working together is the only way we can succeed. Further, in 2022, Unite NY seeks to establish a ballot line by running a candidate for Governor to help fill the void created by our loss of 5 of the 7 minor parties previously holding statewide ballot access now eliminated from voter choice as the result of 2020 legislation which tripled the qualification hurdles needed to qualify as a minor party. More information is available at: UniteNY.org

Contact

Andrew Rush
PC Public Affairs
Tel. 518.441.2118
EMail: andrew@pcpublicaffairs.com

The post Unite NY Calls for Open Primaries in New York State appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

The Libertarian Party of New York (LPNY) rejects this scheme, and sees several insidious issues related to this policy.

“This new emotion-based policy may be popular among the vaccinated – who, ironically, should have the least to fear – but accomplishes little other than removing personal choice and proclaiming the righteousness of having been vaccinated.” Cody Anderson, Chair of the LPNY, stated. “This policy allows people who have made the choice not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine to be shamed and segregated, in public, based upon their vaccine status. Further, anyone wishing to attend a public sporting event will be forced to publicly disclose private health information, as the population density of their respective seating sections will be apparent from a distance. The class structure that Governor Cuomo has created around peoples’ vaccination status creates a de facto regime of vaccine mandates – do as you are told, or remain separate from everyone else. Let us be clear: this is not optional participation. This is an invasion of medical privacy and a forcible vaccine mandate.”

For more information about the Libertarian Party of New York, please visit lpny.org. You may also visit Facebook at www.facebook.com/LPNYOfficial, Twitter @LPNYOfficial, or Instagram @LPNYOfficial.

Contact: 
Anthony D’Orazio 
Public Engagement Director 
Libertarian Party of New York
866-336-3120

The post Libertarian Party of New York Condemns Governor Cuomo’s Segregation by Vaccine Status appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

Comedy club owner Dani Zoldan filed suit against the Cuomo Administration for unfair treatment. With help from Larry Sharpe, the 2018 Libertarian Party candidate for Governor and host of The Sharpe Way, he retained Constitutional Attorney James Mermigis to reopen Stand Up NY following New York restaurant and bar guidelines.

Venues in New York have been shuttered since the pandemic began, while restaurants, bars, bowling alleys, pool halls and movie theaters have been able to operate. Venue owners have received no guidance as to when they can reopen. Many New York institutions have already closed permanently including Dangerfield’s—the legendary comedy club which opened in 1969.

Sharpe convinced Zoldan to sue the Cuomo Administration after seeing Zoldan’s efforts to revitalize the comedy industry by holding pop up shows in parks, rooftops, houses of worship and train stations. Elon Musk’s January 13th “legalize comedy” tweet fortified his confidence to move forward.

“When I heard that Stand Up NY, a wonderful venue that my campaign used often in 2018, fell victim to Governor Cuomo’s stranglehold on small business, I knew that I had to help.”

Larry Sharpe

The Sharpe Way team worked with Stand Up NY to retain Attorney James Mermigis of the Mermigis Law Group, P.C., who has a history of success against Cuomo in court. Known as the “Anti-Shutdown Lawyer,” he has filed over half-a-dozen lawsuits against the state, Governor Andrew Cuomo and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio on behalf of small businesses in New York including theaters, pool halls, family entertainment centers, restaurants, and gyms. Mermigis filed a class action on behalf of 1,500 gyms in August. His lawsuit was instrumental in opening gyms throughout the State of New York, as Governor Cuomo issued guidance just days before oral arguments. Mermigis defeated Cuomo and his 17 pool hall clients were granted an injunction when a State Supreme Court Judge in Syracuse, NY found no rational basis for distinguishing between billiards halls, on the one hand, and bowling alleys, casinos, large stores, restaurants and airports, on the other hand. This victory was the only case to defeat Governor Cuomo on a “rational basis” theory in the State.

“In New York now, Saturday Night Live is doing live shows every week, Jimmy Fallon is doing live shows, Jazz Supper Clubs are open and restaurants with incidental live music are open but Stand Up NY is still shut down. The State’s refusal to open Stand Up NY amounts to an unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech. The State has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter or its content.”

James Mermigis

The trio announced the lawsuit on The Sharpe Way show online, on Monday March  1, 2021. In addition to the lawsuit, they are asking people to support the reopening of Stand Up NY and to sign the petition at LegalizeComedy.NYC.

About Stand Up NY: A Manhattan landmark, Stand Up NY opened in 1986. Comics like Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld and Louis CK are regulars in what New York Magazine calls the “incubator of stand-up nobility.” Tucked into a residential block of 78th Street on the Upper West Side, it features superstars as well as the brightest young talent in the business.

About The Sharpe Way: The Sharpe Way show was founded by Larry Sharpe, the 2018 Libertarian Party candidate for Governor of New York  to help heal the nation’s political divide between liberals and conservatives.

PRESS CONTACT
media@standupny.com
(646) 229-1650 (voice/text)
Dani Zoldan

The post Stand Up NY Shutdown Lawsuit vs. Cuomo is No Laughing Matter appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

New York, New York, February 22, 2021: In the wake of the Texas Winter Storm disaster, many are asking, “Is New York next?”

“Texas is a warning for New York. Let’s heed it and change before it’s too late.”

Larry Sharpe

Larry Sharpe, the 2018 Libertarian Party candidate for Governor and host of The Sharpe Way, calls on Andrew Cuomo and his administration to take accountability for the New York Power grid. If the state doesn’t act soon, New York could face a disaster bigger than the deadly Northeast Blackout of 2003 that cost 11 lives and $6 billion while 50 million people were without power for two days. In the wake of the Nursing Home Scandal, Larry Sharpe questions Governor Cuomo’s commitment to the people of the city and state of New York.

“Currently, New York lacks accountability, just like Texas. Swap ERCOT for NYISO and you have the same recipe for imminent catastrophic failure.”

Larry Sharpe

Under Governor Cuomo, serious harm has been done to electricity infrastructure for New England and the state of New York.

New York is vulnerable in several key areas:

• No plan for increased demand
  This is the most impactful issue in New York. As demand increases, supply must also increase or people will suffer and lives will be put at risk.
  Governor Cuomo has actively thwarted plans to increase the natural gas supply for New York. He has banned new pipelines and hydraulic fracking. FERC has projected rolling blackouts to start during winter months as early as 2024 due to increased demand. This is an unacceptable failure of the Cuomo administration.
• Immobility of power
  When the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant shuts down, the lack of a replacement will make New York City especially vulnerable, despite being integrated into the larger Eastern power grid.
• Natural Gas Freeze-offs
  During cold weather, gas wells can freeze and go offline. New York is dependent on Pennsylvanian wells which are susceptible to freeze off.
• Renewables go offline during cold weather
  Windmills can freeze and solar farms don’t work when covered by snow.

“New York needs more entry point substations to bring in energy from Pennsylvania, New England and Canada and sponsor them to remove taxpayer burden.  In addition, New York must be open to Gen IV Nuclear energy in North County. We should be exporting, not importing energy!”

Larry Sharpe

Texas is recovering from their worst and largest power failure in history. Their grid was vulnerable because of neglect and a lack of accountability. New York has many of the same problems. Not only is nothing being done, the current administration is undermining efforts to take proactive action and putting lives at risk.

We need more transparency and accountability at the highest level in order to avoid a repeat of a preventable power disaster.

PRESS CONTACT

Georgia Walker / Dennis Consorte
The Sharpe Way
Phone: 201-222-1001
Email: pr@sharpeway.com

The post The Texas Power Outage: Here’s Why New York May Be Next, Thanks to Cuomo appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

By: Dan Smith

Many New York farmers are hurting, as they are across the nation. The USDA estimates that 42,000 farms have folded in the past four years—many in New York. This is the largest agricultural downturn since the 1980’s and second largest since the Great Depression. Many are calling on President Trump to provide more subsidies, tax breaks and trade protections for American farmers. The New York Farm Bureau and other New York lobby groups are calling on Governor Cuomo and legislators in Albany to do the same.

You’d think that with the countless policies, rules and programs and trillions of dollars spent over the years helping American farmers, we’d have a growing and prosperous agricultural sector. But this just isn’t the case and all of our government’s meddling is a source of the problem, not its cure.

It’s easy to have empathy for struggling farmers, but these programs rarely do more than misdirect resources and mask the real underlying problems. The Economist calls such farm policies, “milking taxpayers”; and think tanks and pundits, left and right, recognize many farm policies as highly destructive.

Despite the reports of family farms receiving the benefits from our government agricultural policies, it’s been reported that “the largest 15 percent of farm operations and the richest farmers and landowners, with incomes and wealth that are many times the national average, receive over 85 percent of all farm subsidies.” In short, our farm policy starts to look a lot more like cronyism the closer you look.

Higher taxes and higher food prices are no way to help. We shouldn’t subsidize these businesses, no matter how romantic the notion might seem.

But there are ways we can help New York farmers.

Eliminate the Minimum Wage and Other Price Distortions

While we should not ask government to enact policies which distort markets—often raising taxes or food prices, we also should make certain that government does not hinder farmers, either. But that’s what happens with the minimum wage: it raises labor costs.  Like many businesses in New York, farmers are feeling the pinch of the minimum wage hikes especially hard. With labor as a primary cost, many farmers just can’t afford to keep up with the escalations each year. The minimum wage is New York farmers’ chief worry these days and it’s hitting  farmers’ bottom line hard, with profits down more than 65% since 2013, according to the New York Farm Bureau.

But while the New York Farm Bureau’s proposed solutions is to seek yet more tax credits to offset the hit minimum wage increases have brought, one might ask: why not eliminate the minimum wage in the first place? Why should New York taxpayers pay farmers so that they can pay employees more, why shouldn’t farmers just pay workers what they’re worth?

Another New York agricultural program requires that large portions of school lunches be sourced not based solely on obtaining the best value of food for our children, but often based on Albany’s political preferences—New York-based food sources. While this sounds helpful and while local-sourced food is popular these days, it shouldn’t be mandated—as it is often much more expensive than can be obtained elsewhere, costing local school districts and driving up our property taxes, which are amongst the highest in the nation.

Further, in New York and at the federal level, it is often the case where farmers’ excess crop are purchased through price support programs or where farmers are paid not to farm at all.  These assistance programs can largely be met by farmers on their own by obtaining crop insurance or through their use of other financial products. Farmers are then free to make their own choices without becoming dependent on government handouts or confused by their market-distorting policies.

Eliminate Licensing and Countless Rules and Regulations

Just as Governor Cuomo shouldn’t be handing out money and favors to farmers, he shouldn’t be standing in their way, either. Cuomo just announced yet more licensing and rules for wineries, breweries and distilleries. These rules, as well as all licensing in agriculture make it harder for New York businesses to get off the ground and compete with other firms across the nation and around the World.

The New York Times reported last month that New York farmers are suffering from “regulatory fatigue.” They lament the “thick rule books laying out food safety procedures, compliance costs in the thousands of dollars and ever-changing standards,” and “unending layering of rules and regulations as more government agencies have taken an interest in nearly every aspect of growing food.” They estimate that apple orchards alone must follow 12,000 different rules and restrictions—a 26% increase from just 10 years ago. All of which drives up prices, with no discernable improvements in quality—with many of the rules amounting to “overkill,” at best but often prove to be totally useless.

Leave Farmers and Their Customers Alone

The bottom line is that farmers and food retailers should be left alone to determine the best way to serve their customers. Taxpayers shouldn’t even be participants in distorting agricultural markets.

And consumers should be left to make their own choices in the tradeoffs between quality and price.

To do otherwise is not only wasteful but problematic in that it masks real problems and often rewards cronyism and punishes productivity.

The post New York’s Overmanaged Farmers Are Suffering appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

How New York can review our costly licensure laws and enact smart alternatives in order to drive down costs, improve access to service and open up real job opportunities for New Yorkers

By: Dan Smith

More and more, you need permission from the government to work in good jobs. Fifty years ago, only 5 percent of professions required workers to have an occupational license or certification. Today, it’s over 30 percent. Such licenses often require hundreds or thousands of dollars in fees and months or years of often needless coursework and apprenticeships.

New York is getting hurt by this:

• people who are willing to work are kept out of good paying professions,
• the lack of competition in these professions drives up prices and reduces availability of services to consumers, and
• the hurdles keep people from moving to New York because of the added time and expense to get our state’s approval to work. And it is likely contributing to why many are fleeing New York.

The supposed justification for licensing jobs is “to protect the public’s health, safety and welfare” of workers and consumers. And while that sounds like common sense, it is often just not true.

“The preponderance of the evidence suggests that occupational licensing does little to protect public health and safety. It drives up prices . . . and my research shows there’s almost no effect on the overall quality of service,” says Dr. Morris Kleiner of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota—a preeminent researcher on occupational licensing for over 20 years. “Licensing serves only as a fence, a barrier to entry. It hurts entrepreneurs and those individuals who might work for those entrepreneurs.”

Some evidence which backs up Dr. Kleiner:

• many professions require a license in only a minority of states,
• requirements vary widely between states,
• you typically see no meaningful difference in health or safety outcomes between states which require licenses versus those which don’t, in some cases quality declines,
• you see higher consumer prices and fewer jobs in those states which require licenses.

New York’s Licensing Laws Are Cumbersome and Often Make No Sense

As is common with regulations, licensing requirements have crept into more professions and the requirements almost always grow and grow. They are rarely streamlined or reduced. And there’s often little examination by lawmakers as to why they grow. Lawmakers simply take the word of professionals who stand to gain by limiting competition on themselves. It’s often just crony capitalism. Some of the most egregious examples of extraordinary barriers:

• New York requires a license to become an upholsterer, while 40 other states do not,
• In New York, cosmetologists must have over 1,000 hours of education, for the job of giving skin and hair treatments—that’s nine times the training required to be an EMT,
• Makeup artists require 600 hours of coursework in New York—while nine states don’t even require a license for this profession,
• 28 states don’t even require a license to work as a retail optician, but New York requires a license which takes two years of education,
• 32 states do not require a license in order to operate a crane. But New York does. And New York’s rules require 1,095 days be spent obtaining that license—that’s six times the duration of the few other states which require such a license . . . and almost twice the class time of a four-year college graduate, and
• one must pay a $3,000 registration fee to be apply pesticides to vegetation, a $2,300 fee on non-vegetation.

New York licenses hundreds of professions, so there are many, many other examples. And they are hurting New York.

Much Can Be Done to Create Jobs and Help Consumers in New York

Some states are changing their laws to closely review and limit licensing to only the necessary. New York can and should do this, too. The Institute for Justice has concluded, “New York should evaluate whether such onerous licensing requirements can be reduced, repealed or—if government regulation is necessary—replaced with less restrictive regulatory alternatives.” New York can do this safely by contrasting ourselves with other states and by using the market:

• New York can look to other states where licensing requirements don’t exist or are less cumbersome and examine health and safety outcomes for opportunities to remove or reduce the burden for people looking to get to work.
• New York can look for opportunities to rely on private certifying organizations and consumer ratings agencies in order to take the politics out of licensing.
• Where health and safety are indeed an issue, New York can consider requiring bonding or insurance rather than licensing, to rely on independent experts who can evaluate the financial risk in the marketplace and prescribe financially meaningful education and training.

New York lawmakers should demand credible proof that systematic harm exists without a market solution before considering requiring a government license or certification. The cronies who benefit from the way thing currently are will try and scare us into not changing anything. They want to protect the profits they reap from such government protection. But let them provide real, independent evidence of their claims. They should show why other states get the same or better outcomes without their complicated and expensive barriers.

We should remove licenses where no benefit can be demonstrated, let the market determine the risk in many cases and reset the requirements to match the risk. This will allow more people to get to work in good jobs, drive down costs and improve service for consumers—without risking the health or safety of New Yorkers. It will drive out crony capitalism, create lots of good paying jobs and improve access to services and lower costs for New York consumers.

The post Occupational Licensing and How It’s Killing Our Economy appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

By: Aaron Segal

Since 2010, New York has lost over one million people. It’s losing more every year. In 2015, it fell below Florida. Even adjusted for inflation, the NY State budget has increased by 20 billion dollars a year. Many of New York’s metro areas, such as Binghamton, Syracuse, Ithaca, and Utica, ranked within the lowest 20 out of 400 for economic growth since 2013. It ranks first for education spending, but 19th in education quality. It ranks first for healthcare spending, but 13th in healthcare quality. While spending huge amounts of money on infrastructure, it ranks 22nd. For opportunity, it ranks 44th. Economy: 29th. The pattern continues.

Another factor is alarming. With a decreasing taxpayer base, one would expect New York to reduce its budget, as not doing so would increase the burden on those who stayed. With less people, the costs of necessary services would supposedly decrease, not increase or even stay the same. Instead, the budget has increased, and the required taxpayer contributions have done so as well. Of course, New York, under Cuomo, can deny reality. It can say that the exodus is over, and that offering gigantic temporary stimulus packages to companies will fix everything. It won’t. Higher per capita taxes will drive people out at a faster rate. This is already happened, as 187,000 people left in 2015, while 223,000 left in 2016. This will not stop. The circumstances that drive people out of New York are exacerbated by a lower population and a desperate, out of control government. People will leave faster. Budgets will increase to keep them from leaving. Taxes will increase. People will leave faster yet. The cycle will repeat until something changes. This is reality. The solution is not artificial incentives to bribe corporations like Amazon into setting up their headquarters, the solution is to create a climate for business that is conducive to growth. If New York does not have this, no artificial incentive will change anything.

The artificial incentives are a central part of this horror show. In Cortland, a giant abandoned factory stands, barely being used, as it was built during a ten year tax break period. When you force a business to start paying higher taxes after giving it a break, it leaves. If New York offered lower taxes to compete with other states, businesses may grow and stay. Any decrease in New York’s government size would make a positive impact on the economy. But bribing businesses to stay long enough to create a few temporary jobs is not the solution. It’s like planting a flower in sandy soil. If you take perfect care of it, and give it all sorts of special treatment, it might grow, but if you want flowers to grow on their own, you need different soil. Business owners aren’t fools. They won’t fall for some sort of trick to get them to start a business and pay up ten years later. The only fool is New York, who is paying businesses to come, make a quick fortune, and leave when their time is up. This is not real economic policy. This is what a state would be like if governed by children.

This is not an opportunity to say “I told you so”, or to mock government for its failings. It is not an opportunity for people on one side to mock the other for their abstract errors in state government. This is New York. The state housing the biggest city in the country. New York City, the physical incarnation of capitalism at its finest. The physical incarnation of heroism and industry. And it is undone by politics. New York City was the place of opportunity that immigrants kissed the ground of upon arrival. Now it is a city of government overreach, a poison so great that it seeps into the rest of the state.

Politics aside, something is wrong. One doesn’t have to be a Tea Party radical to see that whatever New York has tried has failed. Nobody would disagree on the statement that it is a challenge to govern so much territory, along with the largest city in the country. But New York can be a state of prosperity again, and the solution is not legal bribery. The solution is not paying Amazon the best package to come here. The solution is fixing the problem at its source, creating a climate for business that is conducive to economic growth. Lower taxes. Privatization. Less subsidies. Less regulation. Any policy maker can cover their ears and drown out the reality that their state is failing. But what they cannot do is control this reality. No extra government program will keep people from leaving. We’ve tried big government, and it has failed. It’s time to give something else a try.

NY Exodus

NY Budget Growth

NY Going Downhill

States Rankings

The post New York Needs Something Different appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.