Where Does the Money Go? Where Should It?

The Cuomo–Scott cage match replicates the American debate in miniature.

By Kevin D. Williamson May 17, 2020

The Cuomo–Scott cage match replicates the American debate in miniature............He took office in Florida in 2011, three days after Cuomo did in New York. The two states had a lot in common at the time: Both had been hammered by the financial crisis, both had lost a lot of jobs during that crisis, and—this part is sometimes forgotten—both had seen significant numbers of residents moving elsewhere...............Both New York and Florida began to make modest population recoveries in 2010, but New York’s petered out................

Between 2010 and 2019, its net domestic migration decline was almost 1.4 million people. Florida has kept growing. It surpassed New York as the third-most-populous state in 2014. New York is probably going to lose a House seat after the next census; it already is losing part of its tax base to Florida, as even Governor Cuomo has been forced to admit.

How bad is it? New York officials currently are scrutinizing dentists’ records and veterinarians’ bills to make sure that former New Yorkers who have relocated to Florida aren’t exceeding their quota of New York days. “If you’re a high earner in New York and you move to Florida, your chances of a residency audit are 100 percent,” Barry Horowitz of WithumSmith+Brown, an accounting firm, told CNBC...........

If you want a flash fact-check: New York State’s budget in 2019 was $176 billion for 19.5 million people; Florida’s was $91 billion for 21.5 million people.) “People move out of New York because they’re sick and tired of the taxes, and now, instead of trying to control his budget, Cuomo wants Florida to pay extra.”.........Cuomo...........has attempted to resurrect the old canard about the so-called blue states subsidizing the red ones, as measured by tax receipts vs. federal expenditures. “They’re not bailing us out,” Cuomo said of Florida and Rick Scott. “We bail them out every year.”

This is a cherished Democratic talking point, but it is not quite true...............again, it’s a dumb talking point, but this is Andrew Cuomo we’re dealing with.............. we have leaned on deficit financing. And that means, at some point, a day of reckoning.“Somebody, eventually, has to write the check.”..... To Read More....