What Do New Yorkers Get for Their High Taxes?

 And how does Florida compare?

Millions in taxpayer money have disappeared in Minnesota...but it’s not just Minnesota.  There are other blue states where billions in taxpayer funds seem to be unaccountable.  What happened to the missing money?  Obviously, it went into someone’s account, at times with the knowledge of state officials who may have received contributions or votes to remain silent, but into whose account?

The contrast between New York and Florida in this regard, as in so much else, is revealing.  The marginal income tax rate in New York state is 10.9% (nearly 15% in New York City), along with sales taxes of nearly 9% in some counties and additional local fees and a statewide inheritance tax.  Altogether, state taxes in New York can reach 35% (counting inheritance tax) — and this on top of federal taxes.  There is no state income tax in Florida, there is no inheritance tax, and food and pharmacy items are exempt from sales tax.  Yet the quality of life, measured by most objective standards, is higher in Florida.

New York collects far more in taxes from its residents, but they seem to get little in return.  Certainly not better policing — the crime rate in New York state is 46 per thousand annually, among the highest in the U.S.  In Florida, the crime rate is 25 per thousand, with a rate of 3.8 per thousand for violent crimes, making it below the national average.

What about education?  According to U.S. News & World Report, Florida ranks first in the nation in combined K–12 and higher education metrics, and has done so for the past two years.  New York ranks  17th, just above Kansas.  Yet for 2024–25, New York was projected to have spent $33,437 per student on education, double the national average.  According to the same survey, Florida spent $12,415.  How can the schools be so much better in Florida, which spends slightly more than one third on education as New York?  It must be corruption, inefficiency, or just “higher cost,” or some combination of the three.

How about roads?  Florida’s road system ranks 14th in the nation in performance and cost-effectiveness.  New York’s road system ranks 45th overall and 47th in traffic congestion despite higher spending.

New York doesn’t do so well on policing, roads, or education, but it spends $4,003 per capita on welfare, whereas Florida spends $1,709.  According to StatsAmerica, New York spends the fourth highest amount on welfare in the U.S., Florida the fourth lowest.  But that welfare spending doesn’t make residents safer or more employable.  Maybe it just buys votes, or perhaps it disappears in the same way that Medicaid payments are alleged to have done in Minnesota. Whatever the reason, despite its higher spending, 14.2% of New Yorkers and 25% of New York City residents live below the federal poverty level.  In Florida, the rate is 12.6%.

If New York residents, especially those in New York City, get so little in return, where does all that money go?  Not to better roads, not to education, not to the quality of life, not to assist those who are truly needy.  Somehow it simply vanishes — but into whose pockets?

What we are finding out about Minnesota — that a vast scheme of fraudulent services “on an industrial scale” paid for with taxpayer money has existed for decades — may exist in New York and in other states as well.  This may explain part of the difference in tax rates in New York and Florida.  Or it may be that there are simply less fraud and corruption in Florida and other red states.  Or, ruling out criminal intent, it may be that Florida is simply better managed, and it is better managed because an enlightened public demands that it be so.

One way that tax dollars disappear is into so-called non-profit organizations that provide little in actual services or that provide services that are not actually needed.  (An NPO that provided golfing lessons to inner-city youth comes to mind.)  DOJ investigators allege that daycare centers in Minnesota were charging for services that did not exist.  Has something similar been taking place in New York?  There must be a reason for the differences in spending in New York and Florida — and worse outcomes in New York — and corruption is one possible explanation.

In FY 2024 New York City alone spent $16 billion on non-profits, amounting to 15% of the city’s budget.  Some of these NPOs are probably legitimate, but $16 billion is $2,000 for every man, woman, and child in New York.  Is every family of four, on average, feeling $8,000 better?

Some wasteful government programs are easy to identify: Job Corps, which has been operating since 1964, has received failing marks from the GAO for decades, but it continues to be funded.  The cost per student in Job Corps is reportedly up to $764,000, with graduation rates as low as 32% and post-program wages of something like $17,000 per annum — and this to learn basic job skills that, in my opinion, could be learned more effectively in the military or, for that matter, at any fast food restaurant.

Although Job Corps is not specific to New York or other blue states, it is representative of the high costs, inefficiency, and poor management of other non-profits, which are funded at higher levels in places like New York — and like Job Corps, at federal and state expense.  The solution is to cut federal and state spending for failing programs and, for that matter, overall, something that the Trump administration has begun to do in the case of Job Corps.

State taxes are higher for everyone in New York, and can be six times as high as in Florida for wealthy residents.  New York collects far more in taxes, but the quality of life is better in Florida.  What happens to all of that taxpayer money?  It seems to disappear, just as it does in Minnesota.

Only a highly skilled prosecutor with a large staff could untangle the dark web of where all that money goes, but it’s obvious that it must be going somewhere.  Many affluent residents have simply given up and left New York.  It’s time for those who remain to begin asking for answers before state officials raise their taxes even more.

Jeffrey Folks is the author of many books and articles on American culture including Heartland of the Imagination (2011).

Update from Andrea: A reader wise to the ways of the New York tax system adds this helpful information:

Neither NYS nor NYC has an inheritance tax. There is, however, a statewide large estate tax triggered at approximately $7 million. Beneficiaries therefore pay neither tax, while the estate pays the estate tax if triggered. 

That's good to know for estate planning, but the bottom line is that the New York government gets its cut.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/01/what_do_new_yorkers_get_for_their_high_taxes.html