Molinaro’s Message

Republican Marc Molinaro gets it: High taxes are killing NewYork. He’s vowing to trim them — by 28 percent, on property taxes alone — if elected governor.

That won’t be easy, of course. For one thing, if Democrats take the state Senate and progressives dominate, they’ll be looking to jack up taxes, not lower them.

New York’s big-government, big-spending lobbies and special-interest groups (i.e., unions), forever opposed to giving New Yorkers a break, will egg them on.

But at least Molinaro understands the problem and could push New York in the right direction. Fact is, massive relief is precisely what taxpayers need.

Molinaro would end the millionaire’s tax (which Cuomo ran against in 2010 but has repeatedly reimposed). He’d ease income taxes and require twothirds approval in the Legislature, rather than a simple majority, for any tax hike.

Most impressive: his 28 percent cut of property taxes over five years. About two-thirds of those savings would come from making the state cap on property-tax hikes permanent and expanding it to the city.

But unlike Cuomo, Molinaro would also offer local governments relief from pricey state mandates. For starters, he’d have Albany pick up the costs for Medicaid and other locally funded programs, easing the need for more local revenue.

Property-tax relief can’t come soon enough for New York counties: Indeed, nine of the 10 counties with the highest average property-tax bills in Amer-

ica last year were in New York. And don’t think taxes just hit homeowners’ pocketbooks; they also discourage business owners, strangling job growth. That has folks fleeing, particularly from upstate: Between 2010 and 2017, 45 of the state’s 62 counties saw a net loss in population; eight lost more than 4 percent.

“We are witnessing entire communities hollow out,” Molinaro says.

On Tuesday, Gov. Cuomo pooh-poohed New York’s population declines, claiming residents today leave the state for a better “climate” or “personal reasons.”

A mass exodus of upstaters, he argued, “is not new,” but things have changed. Today, “there are more jobs than ever. Our taxes are lower than ever.”

Talk about out of touch: Countless watchdogs — the Tax Foundation, WalletHub, etc. — rank New York as worst in the nation, both on taxes

and business climate. Last year, a report by two Federal Reserve analysts documented that upstate job growth, anemic for years, had come to a virtual stop by 2016. To deny that upstaters are fleeing because of its high taxes and poor job opportunities is to deny reality.

Cuomo himself has contributed enormously to the state’s economic woes — raising taxes, hiking the minimum wage, pushing through onerous measures like paid family leave.

Molinaro’s approach could help reverse course. Don’t expect that from Cuomo.