Next Steps Show Mar 26, 2025

New York: Where Taxpayers Pay the Price, and Bureaucrats Pass the Buck

There’s a storm brewing beneath the polished press conferences and empty political soundbites. New York ranks 44th in taxpayer return on investment, and that’s not just a bad report card—it’s a gut punch to every working-class family footing the bill for a government that has long since lost the plot.

At nearly $11,000 per capita in state and local taxes, New Yorkers are paying top dollar and getting bargain-bin services. Roads crumble, public health outcomes fall behind, and half the kids in public schools can’t meet basic proficiency in reading or math. The state spends more on education per child than any other in the country—almost $30,000 annually—and still, the results are shameful. This isn’t a funding problem. It’s a failure of stewardship.

The state that once stood as a beacon of opportunity now stands at the bottom of the pile in freedom. Ranked dead last—50th—in overall freedom by the Cato Institute, New York has become a cautionary tale. Overregulation, high taxes, crushing debt, and a bureaucracy more committed to control than competence have turned the Empire State into an empire of excess and inefficiency.

The rule of law, once a bedrock of American stability, now shows cracks. Civil justice access is ranked 107th in the world. Confidence in elections and government accountability continues to erode. And still, officials in Albany posture as if they’re managing a model republic.

Meanwhile, cultural decay spreads. We’re witnessing an anti-parent movement where children are handed over to the state and to ideology before they can form complete sentences. Drugs at the pharmacy are easier to get than answers from the school board.

And conversations about family and responsibility are replaced by euphemisms and indoctrination. When fictional characters like Archie Bunker start sounding more sane than today’s policymakers, it says something about just how far things have gone off the rails.

But while chaos and dysfunction reign at the top, the quiet heroes still show up. Legal assistants—recognized nationally on March 26—stand as a testament to discipline, order, and due process. In places like Rochester, they keep the wheels of justice turning, even as the system buckles under its own weight. They don’t get the headlines, but they do the hard work.

And in the spirit of National Make Up Your Own Holiday Day, maybe it’s time to declare a Return to Sanity Day. Or better yet—Stop Taxing Us Into Oblivion Day. The country doesn’t need another quirky celebration. It needs accountability. It needs leadership. It needs citizens who will no longer stay silent while their state is hollowed out.

This is about more than bad rankings. It’s about a government that has forgotten its role, a system that punishes productivity, and a culture that mocks tradition. But tradition is exactly what’s needed—a return to common sense, constitutional order, and a government that serves the people, not itself.

New York can be saved. But not by those who created the mess. It’ll take citizens who are fed up and fearless, who remember what this state once stood for, and who refuse to let it slip any further.
It’s not about left or right anymore. It’s about right and wrong. And right now, the people of New York are being wronged—plain and simple.

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