Comment. The parent can be on ambien, anti-psychotics, pain killers, muscle relaxers, alcohol, drunk, but can’t smoke weed. You’ve got to be kidding. Who is paying for these supervised visits? Answer: Taxpayers.

http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/offensive-technology/the-stingray-phone-tracker.html

And governors around the country, smelling blood in the water, have stepped up their courtship of California companies. Officials in states like Florida, Texas, Arizona and Utah are telling California firms how business-friendly they are in comparison.

Companies are “disinvesting” in California at a rate five times greater than just two years ago, said Joseph Vranich, a business relocation expert based in Irvine. This includes leaving altogether, establishing divisions elsewhere or opting not to set up shop in California.

“There is a feeling that the state is not stable,” Vranich said. “Sacramento can’t get its act together…and that includes the governor, legislators and regulatory agencies that are running wild.”

The state has been ranked by Chief Executive magazine as the worst place to do business for seven years.

“California, once a business friendly state, continues to conduct a war on its own economy,” the magazine wrote.

That is about to change, at least if Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom has anything to say about it. Newsom is developing a plan to address the state’s economic Achilles heels, and build on its strengths. It will be unveiled at the end of July.

“California has got to get its act together when it comes to economic development and job creation,” he said.

While not all companies investing elsewhere are doing so for economic reasons, some are shopping around for lower costs, lighter regulations, stable leadership and government assistance and incentives.

The most popular places to go? Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Virginia and North Carolina, said Vranich. All rank in the Top 13 places to do business, according to Chief Executive.

No budget, no pay for California lawmakers
After 15 years in Monterey Country, Calif., Feel Golf relocated its headquarters to Florida earlier this year after it acquired Pro Line Sports, which was based in the Sunshine State.

“The whole state is a bureaucratic Santa Claus,” said Lee Miller, chief executive of the golf equipment company, of his former home. “There’s a very high cost of doing business.”

In Florida, he found a better work pool, lower operating costs and no personal income taxes.

“Overall, it’s just a better environment,” he said.

PayPal opened a new customer services and operations center in Chandler, Ariz., in February, bringing 2,000 jobs to the area. The San Jose, Calif.-based tech firm, along with its parent eBay, also added 1,000 jobs in Austin, Texas, and expanded operations in Utah.

“They have business-friendly environments,” said Kathy Chui, a spokeswoman for eBay.

Other states, which are revving up their job creation efforts in the weak economy, are making sure California firms know the advantages to doing businesses with them.

Utah, for instance, touts its stable government, balanced budget and AAA debt rating, said Todd Brightwell, vice president at the state’s Economic Development Corp.

“We promote predictability,” said Brightwell, whose agency features an online comparison between the states in terms of taxes, real estate costs, utility expenses, cost of living and other metrics.

Over the past 18 months, the state become much more proactive in courting California firms. It now visits there regularly to reach out to target companies. The strategy has been successful. Adobe has expanded operations in Utah, as has Electronic Arts.

California companies are also reaching out to other states. Sandra Watson, chief operating officer of the Arizona Commerce Authority, said she’s seeing a growing number of California firms looking to expand outside the state.

The economic downturn has forced companies to find ways to reduce their costs, she said. Arizona is trying to capitalize on that by promoting its lower workers compensation and unemployment insurance taxes, as well as its aggressive incentive packages.

“There’s a lot of competition out there and companies are re-evaluating their strategies,” she said.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/28/news/economy/California_companies/index.htm

According to the Tax Foundation, New York has the worst State Business Tax Climate. In fact, over the past four years New York has dropped each year from 45th place in 2008, to 47th in 2009, 49th in 2010 and finally, to dead last in 2011.

How can we – New Yorkers – expect our economy to flourish when our politicians keep raising the tax rates? When they raise tax rates,
they stifle economic activity – taxpayers, both businesses and individuals, leave the state – and tax revenues decline. And how do our New York politicians respond? They raise tax rates ever higher, causing even more taxpayers to flee the state.

As the Tax Foundation points out, “The modern market is characterized by mobile capital and labor. Therefore, companies will locate
where they have the greatest competitive advantage. States with the best tax systems will be the most competitive in attracting new businesses and most effective at generating economic and employment growth.” It should not come as a surprise then that no state is losing population faster than New York – our tax burden is chasing people and businesses out of the state, and they are relocating to more tax friendly jurisdictions.

It is time to FIX NYC. It is time we cleaned political house. 50th place – should our elected officials take a bow,
or should they take a hike? Let’s send them packing!

Read the entire articles:

http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22658.html

Posted on Wednesday, August 03, 2011 11:58:41 AM by Second Amendment First

Taxed-out New Yorkers are voting with their feet, with a staggering 1.6 million residents fleeing the state over the last decade, a new report found.

That’s as if the entire populations of Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, White Plains and West Babylon combined had packed up and left.

For the second consecutive decade, New York led the nation in the percentage of residents leaving for other states, according to the report by the Empire Center for State Policy.

The population loss is “the ultimate barometer of New York’s attractiveness as a place to work, live and do business,” said the report’s co-author, E.J. McMahon. “It’s the ultimate indication that we’ve been doing things wrong.”

Most analysts blamed New York’s high taxes and skyrocketing cost of living for the mass exodus.

The Tax Foundation ranked New York highest in the nation in the combined state and local tax burden in 2008. And as small-business lobbyist Mike Durant noted, New York has also “consistently ranked worst or in the top three worst in business climate.

“You can’t suck every penny out of people and expect them to remain in New York,” added Durant, New York state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.

Since 1960, New York has lost 7.3 million residents to other states — a net loss of 2.5 million people after adding in an influx of 4.8 million new immigrants, the study found.

Even counting the state’s high influx of immigrants, New York still suffered a bigger net loss than all but three other states during the last decade, according to the analysis of 2010 Census data by the fiscally conservative think tank.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com …

I was trying to imagine why 1.6 million people left New York over the last decade and came up with a few thoughts (“NY Turns Into Flee Market,” Aug. 3).

New York has the highest taxes and an unfriendly business environment.

It’s a mecca of liberalism and political corruption.

It has strict gun control, but only for law-abiding citizens, and no death penalty.

New York is one of three states that didn’t dump their incumbents in last November’s election.

And, finally, there are traffic and tolls everywhere you turn.

Goodbye, New York. Hello to the South.

John Comparetto

Calabash, NC

***

Count my wife and me among the many who are fleeing New York.

As we pondered retirement, we realized that taxes and other expenses (like insurance) would limit what we could do in our golden years.

So we built a home in Pennsylvania.

Our home is 50 percent larger than our Rye home, we have much more land and our taxes are 25 percent of what we pay in New York.

Plus, our pensions will not be taxed by Pennsylvania.

These are just the beginning of a long list of benefits to moving out of state.

I sincerely hope that Gov. Cuomo can help change the spend-and-tax culture that has pervaded this state for many decades.

Gregg Moxhay

Rye

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/letters/state_new_motto_leave_ny_A2w0U3UA8UBJ3UQSzs9epN#ixzz1UX3DGM1T

The biggest taxpayer racket is public-private partnerships

HERE’s HOW NYS  IS REDISTRIBUTING YOUR-TAXPAYER MONEY TO SUPPPORT THEIR “FRIENDS AND FAMILY”

In broad terms, all the UB 2020 bills have focused on changing the rules of state oversight at UB to make it easier for the university to buy and sell state property and to enter into public-private-partnerships exempt from Freedom of Information Law and other state laws. Another major element of the plan is granting the university the freedom to raise tuition as it sees fit, without approval of the Legislature, and to keep this money for itself. Bill supporters argue that in years past, tuition money went into the overall state budget, even as state funding for SUNY was cut. So, in addition, the bill requires the state to continue funding UB at present levels in perpetuity.

This year, SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher has been pursuing negotiations with Cuomo’s office and the Legislature to craft a plan that would call for “rational” and “predictable” tuition increases for New York State resident students for the next five years. The increased income to SUNY, advocates argue, would be an antidote to state funding cuts to the system

The invisible money machine

It would have been impossible for UB 2020 legislation to have gone anywhere without the generous support of various UB foundations that bankrolled lobbying efforts in Albany in support of it over the last few years, outspending all other SUNY schools by far. The UB foundations control nearly half a billion dollars and operate beyond the reach of the press and public. There are at least seven and perhaps a dozen or more of these UB-affiliated entities.

In 2008, the New York State Commission of Public Integrity listed more than 40 university employees as UB 2020 lobbyists—compensated for that role by the foundation, in addition to their state salaries.

The law firm that represents the UB Foundation, Hodgson Russ, provided us a list that is 34 pages long, listing more than 1,400 names of people compensated by the foundation. It’s undated, and many of the job titles are cut off. Names and salaries do appear, and it’s relatively easy to see that more than 260 people are paid $30,000 or more by the foundation alone. Seventeen are paid over $100,000

The 2008 990 tax form filed by UB Foundation Activities shows that it spent more than $28 million on various forms of employee compensation, including millions in salary top-ups to upper-level UB employees, and $18,923,891 on travel, advertising and promotions, conferences, and conventions, and payments to various affiliated corporations. The chart on the next page enumerates some of those salary top-ups.

Meanwhile, the foundation spent $3,348,300 on scholarships to UB students

David Dunn  2010 SUNY Compensation = $383,804, UB Foundation Compensation = $381.625.  Total 2010 Compensation = $765,429 (more than the U.S. President)

John B. Simpson  2010 SUNY Compensation = $265,000, UB Foundation & Other Compensation = $474,118.  Total 2010 Compensation = $739,118 (more than the U.S. President)

Michael E. Cain 2010 SUNY Compensation = $225,000, UB Foundation & Other Compensation = $256,625.  Total 2010 Compensation = $595,425 (more than the U.S. President)

Scott D. Nostaja 2010 SUNY Compensation = $175,000, UB Foundation & Other Compensation = $332,307.  Total 2010 Compensation = $507,307 (more than the U.S. President)

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Let’s take a look at how public-private partnerships work today at UB, even before the passage of any “UB 2020 Flexibility and Economic Growth Act.”

The membership of the UB Council, the UB Foundation, and the various affiliate corporations reads like a Who’s Who of Western New York government, law firms, and corporations, many of them with substantial UB business. Their dealings with UB and the State of New York are overseen by themselves, their family members, and their friends and associates

For example, Frank L. Ciminelli is an owner of Ciminelli Development and senior vice president of LP Ciminelli Inc., the largest construction group in Western New York. He is also an emeritus trustee of the UB Foundation and an active member of its Properties Committee. Frank and his three sons (Louis, Paul, and John) have had a long and profitable relationship with UB. In 2004, Louis and Paul formed non-union GPS Construction Services LLC. Louis named his cousin, Robert Savarino, as its president and CEO. UB named GPS the general contractor for the Alfiero Center at UB’s School of Management, on the North Campus. At the building’s dedication, UB’s Simpson said, “In important ways, the Alfiero Center is the visible manifestation of the dynamic partnerships that have contributed to its construction.”

Foit-Albert Associates was the building’s architect. Beverly Foit-Albert is also a director of the UB Foundation and a member of its Properties Committee. Her firm also drew up the plans for relocating over 150 families from McCarley Gardens, the moderate-income housing development that occupies a piece of land coveted for development in the downtown medical corridor. In 2010, the UB Foundation offered $15 million to buy the property, relocating the residents over several city blocks in new builds.

UB also picked GPS as the contractor for two off-campus UB housing projects. Frank’s son John became president and COO of GPS in 2008. The following year, LP Ciminelli Inc. reabsorbed GPS, and John planned to “come over to LPCiminelli as senior vice president in charge of the housing business,” according to an April 4, 2009 story in the Buffalo News.

Frank’s son Louis is a director of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership—which has once again made passage of UB 2020 its number one legislative priority this year—and chairman and CEO of LP Ciminelli, Inc., where his son Frank L. Ciminelli II is senior vice president. Frank’s brother Paul is president and CEO of Ciminelli Development Company, Inc., a director of the Empire State Development Corporation, a director of the UB Foundation, and a member of its Properties Committee

The bond for the residence hall, dated May 20, 2010, is valued at $82,865,000, and lists LPCiminelli Inc. as the construction manager.

The UB entity that drew up and authorized the bond is the UB Faculty-Student Housing Corporation. Tax forms show that at least as far back as 2007, Frank Ciminelli and his son Paul have both been directors of this corporation, along with the UBF Corporation, FNUB, Inc., and the UBF Incubator, Inc. According to the UB website, they still hold these positions today. They were there when the construction contracts were okayed and remain on right through construction.

So when UB, through the UB Faculty-Student Housing Corporation, contracted for this enormous and lucrative project, there were Ciminellis on both sides of the table. The only person missing was a disinterested steward of the money’s true owner: the people of New York State

This sort of thing goes on all the time in the corporate world, but the money-handlers are not usually helping themselves to public money quietly transferred to a private corporation. We call it “nepotism” when an ordinary person gives a job to a family member. What do we call it when a UB corporation director gives his company, or a family member, or himself a multi-million-dollar contract? Was there even a show of competitive bidding? Because the UB Faculty-Student Housing Corporation—along with the other myriad related organizations—claim to be private entities, the public and press can’t find out. If someone recused himself, then he may have been standing outside the door, but we can’t know this until we get access to meeting minutes. Already UB’s foundations argue that they are immune to Freedom of Information Law. If the UB2020 legislation ever passes, that immunity will be codified.

Read more: http://artvoice.com/issues/v10n13/the_great_UB_heist#ixzz1QIeHBqAZ