Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Upstate New York has the misfortune of being in a state where one city dominates everything, saddling everyone else with the heavy burden of New York City.

Upstate New York is going nowhere. It is at the mercy of a state government focused culturally, economically and politically on New York City. The City is the economic engine of the state but it operates in a walled off engine room with few, if any, connections to Upstate New York. Oh, yes, there are the visitors from the City who throw out a few dimes for those who supplies their lattes when the patronize the local coffee shop, but with those dimes come with billions of dollars in added taxes to support a bloated state government no one but New York City wants or needs.

The City folks, of course, argue Upstate gets subsidized, but that’s irrelevant when state mandates are imposing local share costs Upstate New York can’t begin to afford. New York City is a net burden and a very heavy one on Upstate. We get some hints as to just how heavy that burden really is, and how disastrous the fracking ban and current attempt to stop all pipeline development in Upstate New York is, from a Federal Reserve Bank analysis.

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