How”™s life treating you? Not very well if you happen to live in New York state.
How”™s your consumer confidence level? Again, not very well if you live here.
The Siena Research Institute in two separate polls last week found that New Yorkers are neither happy nor confident.
Surprised? Neither were we.
In checking our quality-of-life pulse, researchers found that residents agreed that only eight of 13 major issues ”“ technology, clean drinking water, ensuring the right of minorities, reducing the threat of crime, promoting tolerance, protecting the environment, providing high quality education and taking care of the needy ”“ had improved over the past decade.
The five that failed to show little if any improvement were developing mass transportation, making sure all residents have access to affordable and high quality health care, providing economic opportunity to all residents, enhancing the ability of businesses to prosper in the state and controlling taxes.
When asked if they thought there would be improvement in the future on these same issues, residents said there was little hope of improvement for the five, with many saying it will only get worse.
“Despite a majority expecting at least some improvement in many areas only about three of every 10 New Yorkers ”“ more in New York City and fewer in the suburbs or especially upstate ”“ predict the quality of life for most people they know will improve when we reach the winter of 2021. Twenty percent of all New Yorkers say that things have, over the last 10 years, worsened and they continue to expect more decline. Only eight percent put a happy face on the last decade and expect the next 10 years to be even better,” said Don Levy, director of the Siena Research Institute.
OK, so quality of life is down, but what about consumer confidence? Also down ”“ way down ”“ as in a staggering 9 percentage points. The nation”™s confidence, however, rose 3.3 percentage points. Imagine how high it would have risen if they discounted New York.
The state”™s confidence level is 67.7 compared with the nation”™s 77.5.
Doug Lonnstrom, professor of statistics and finance at Siena College and SRI founding director, chalked it up to the chaos in the Mideast and the U.S. budget battles and, oh yes, that pain we feel when we refuel our vehicles.
“With gas headed toward four dollars and food prices now likely to increase, the willingness to spend seems likely to lessen for many state residents,” Lonnstrom said.
There is a lesson in this for our state lawmakers: Spend less when it comes to the state budget. We hear your snickering as you read this. There have been plenty of lessons before that the Legislature has failed to heed when it came to holding the line in the budget-making process.
And speaking of the budget, we are waiting for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to end his barnstorming across the state and offer some concrete numbers to accompany his “drum” budget, as in he makes a lot of noise with it, but it”™s filled with air.
Count on there being a lot of job losses among state workers and public school teachers. How many? Who knows.
Until we get the hard numbers, the state remains in an unfortunate state of limbo.
We watch ”“ much as the bloody spectacles played out in Roman coliseums ”“as teacher turns on teacher over who should get to keep their job; the most tenured or the most qualified.
A 2 percent cut in Medicaid funding to hospitals could result in needy patients getting turned away from medical treatment.
The governor”™s cold defense to the major cuts cannot just be answered by saying: “New York taxpayers have said loudly and clearly that they want us to stem the tide of runaway spending. I look forward to working in partnership with the Legislature to enact true reforms that rededicate our government to the needs of the taxpayers, not the special interests.”
Taxpayers want cuts, but not at the expense of the basics: education, health care and economic opportunities.
It”™s not all black and white. There are a lot of gray areas.
