New York locked down

NY Post

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday ordered the Empire State to shut down and asked local businesses and manufactures to step up as officials mounted a desperate struggle to slow the corona­virus pandemic.

“I want to be able to say to the people of New York — I did everything we could do,” Cuomo told reporters at the state Capitol. “And if everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.”

The restrictions take effect Sunday night at 8 p.m. and will shut down all nonessential businesses across the state, leaving just grocery stores, pharmacies and other essential operations open. All non-solitary outside activities, like basketball and other team sports are also banned.

The lockdown also requires all nonessential government and private-sector employees to work from home.

Cuomo said the MTA will continue to run city subways, buses and Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road trains. The agency announced Friday it will allow backdoor boarding on local buses beginning Monday to help protect bus drivers from exposure.

“We have to do it, we have to be serious,” Cuomo said.

“Everyone has personal freedom, and everyone has personal liberty, and I’ll always protect that,” he added. “But everyone also has a responsibility to everyone else.”

Laundromats and gas stations will be allowed to remain open, as will liquor stores and restaurants for take-out and delivery service only.

Doctors’ and veterinarians’ offices can remain open, too.

 
 

Happy Thanksgiving

 Here's an obligatory picture of a turkey

  And less appetizing turkeys:

In debt up to our eyeballs

From the Observer:

New York State has the second-highest debt total in the United States, and it’s expected to grow in the coming years, according to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

New York’s state-funded debt is expected to reach $63.7 billion at the end of the current fiscal year and increase over the following four years to $71.8 billion, according to a report released by DiNapoli on Thursday morning. New York’s current total state debt is second only to California’s, which is at $87 billion.

The average amount of debt for every man, woman and child in the state is $3,116, three times the median for all states, the report found. And the annual debt service payments — the amount of money needed to reimburse debts over a period of time — are projected to surpass $8.2 billion by the end of state fiscal year 2021-2022.

NYS population went down this year

From NY1:

Fewer people are living in New York State, although it may not be that noticeable.

According to the latest census figures, New York saw its population drop by about 1,900 between July 2015 and July 2016.

While that's only a decrease of .01 percent, it's the first time the state's population has fallen since 2006.

More than 191,000 people in total left the state during the year ending on July 1.

That number was offset by the fact that New York led the country in foreign immigration and had more births than deaths.

New York has also lost nearly 850,000 people over the past six years, the most of any state.

Taxed to death

From the Daily News:

New York is still No. 1 when it comes to the tax burden it places on residents, a study out Wednesday revealed.

The conservative Tax Foundation, in its annual report, found that New York once again had the highest tax burden of any state in the nation, with 12.7% of income going to support state and local taxes.

New York has topped the Foundation’s list every year since 2005. The latest report comes despite Gov. Cuomo’s repeated claims to have revived the state’s economic climate.

Lots of people kissing NY & NJ goodbye

From Forbes:

More people are moving out of New Jersey than are moving in. The same is true for New York and Illinois. Those three states top the “outbound” list compiled by United Van Lines, the big St. Louis-based moving company that has put together an annual survey of where Americans are moving for the last 38 years. The company analyzed a total of 128,000 moves across the 48 continental states and the District of Columbia in 2014 and came up with a picture of migration patterns across the US.

According to Michael Stoll, a professor of public policy at University of California, Los Angeles, and a consultant to United Van Lines who studies American migration, the moves reflect the increasing numbers of retiring baby boomers who are leaving colder, more expensive states in the Northeast and Midwest in favor of lower-cost locations with retirement infrastructures like Florida and Arizona. Long-term shifts in the US economy and the hit to employment in many states resulting from the slow recovery are also prompting many Americans to relocate.

New Jersey has been stuck at the top of the outbound list for four of the past five years. In 2014 nearly 65% more people moved out than moved in. According to Stoll, the Great Recession hit the state especially hard, accelerating a longtime shift in manufacturing to the southern states, away from the Northeast. Damage done by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and the slow pace of rebuilding since has also driven people away. Plus New Jersey has a population that is older than other states’ and the cold climate is driving retirement-age people south. Further, housing costs tend to be high there, especially in northern New Jersey which is subject to demand from people who work in Manhattan.

New York comes in at second place for some of the same reasons. High housing prices, more retirees and a desire for a warmer climate are driving lots of people out of the state. Like New Jersey, Illinois, at No. 3 on the list, got hit disproportionately hard by the Great Recession, notes Stoll, especially in the manufacturing sector, and the state has had a slow recovery. Though job losses have slowed, the rate of job growth in Illinois is still below the national average and its older population has been relocating.