Seriously a 4% tax on itunes, $.50 more a movie ticket, a couple of bucks to a Sabres ticket, 4% to Satt TV or Cable, Additional 4% tax of clothes, A tax on gym memberships, Increased taxes of beverages. Seriously someone making 30K in Buffalo you will have less to spend on entertainment or keeping yourself in shape than elsewhere.
My question is where does all of this money go?
They are taxing smoking. My question is why aren't they taxing alcohol? They should. It is linked to as many diseases as smoking is.
I cant believe they will tax gym memberships. If people stop going they will just end up with more sick people over time and then that will cost more for the state. I thought most of the taxes were for entertainment and things that were bad for you - e.g. cigarettes, alcohol, soda, etc
It has gotten to a point where you could live in a thriving city for the same cost as living in comatose Buffalo. And why would any one or any company move here if they could move to a better market with similar costs?
Even I , Mr. "I <3 love Buffalo" himself, have thought about moving. This is getting crazy, and scary! What incentives from the state ate people getting to stay in NY? Uughh!
Clearly, it's not going to plowing after snowstorms. =/
So if there is a lesser increase in spending, did the government used to increase spending by more than 1.1% every year till the last budget? How did they fund all that - have they levied taxes like thes in the past as well?
It's a larger budget than last year's budget. That's all it means. With these people you have to be careful, in many cases cuts don't mean actual cuts, rather it means a lesser increase in spending, and a one percent sales tax increase is "just a penny" - they're snakes of the highest order. This is supposed to be their slash and burn, oh my lord we're cutting so much, the sky is falling for the government budget and they're fatter than ever.
So how is spending increasing 1.1%? What are the extra expenses that are not even covered by all these cuts?
I notice I didn't hear anything about cutting down state government at all. Tough to solve decades of issues in one swell foop.