Taxes

New Yorkers get crushed on taxes, at least relative to other states.  The Tax Foundation recently identified New Yorkers as paying the highest percentage of income (12.7%) to state and local taxes of any state in the country.

I have to preface what I'm about to say with the following: (a) I would love to pay less taxes, and (b) New York State has to figure out a way to make its tax climate more appealing to business.

With that said, there is some evidence that we in New York State and Rochester in particular are not being completely robbed (just partially robbed):

• As per Newsweek, the Rochester area has 5 public high schools in the top 500 in the country, or 3 times more than would be expected by population alone.
• In the same Newsweek ranking, New York State as a whole has 60 high schools in the top 500, or double what would be expected by population alone.
• At least one resource has pinned Rochester as the fifth best location in the country to be a teacher.  Cities in New York State account for 30 percent of the top ten.  Paying (good) teachers is a reasonable investment as the first two statistics seem to indicate.
• As of 2011, among metro areas with over 1 million people, Rochester had one of the smallest shares of uninsured citizens (8%), with Buffalo having only 7.5% uninsured.  A generous Medicaid system is likely at the root of this statistic.
• Rochesterians have easy access to two of the top three state parks in the country (Letchworth and Watkins Glen.)