50 YEARS AGO

High cost of business in state

The high cost of doing business in New York was the cause of a sharp drop in manufacturing employment, said Joseph R. Shaw, president of Associated Industries of New York State Inc., which represented legislative and economic interests of 2,000 businesses. Speaking to the Times Union editorial board, Shaw deplored the state trend to high taxes and big spending, assailed the state’s deficit spending pattern, the high cost of public pensions and expense burdens borne by taxpayers for the State University and the City University of New York. He said from 1959 to 1971, manufacturing jobs had dropped by 217,500 or 11.5 percent. He also compared changes in the state, nation and seven other major manufacturing states for the same time period. They showed employment rising throughout the nation with all other states compared, except Massachusetts, showing gains.

—Times Union, Feb. 27, 1972