by Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner
A shocking number of New Yorkers, fed up with high taxes and liberal leadership, are leaving or planning to leave.
New polling provided to Secrets shows that voters view the tax-sucking “Empire State” as the “Vampire State” and are desperate to get out from under Albany’s tax collectors by fleeing south and west.
“New Yorkers,” said John Zogby Strategies analyst Jeremy Zogby, are looking “elsewhere as the ‘Empire State’ is increasingly viewed as ‘the Imperial State,’ or even the ‘Vampire State.’”
His father and fellow pollster, John Zogby, added: “While taxes have always been cited as a major reason for leaving the state, they are particularly acute these days with the high rate of inflation. Folks are saying that if the cost of living is high, at least there is one thing they can do about it. Prices of gasoline, groceries, and everything else are at a runaway stage, so there are places that cost less.”
In a larger survey about the state and the upcoming gubernatorial race, Zogby Strategies, based in upstate New York, revealed that nearly 4 in 10 voters are readying to leave.
Their survey analysis added this paragraph about New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s lead in the election:
“Despite her wide lead against Republican candidates, she needs to worry the 39% of New York voters who told the Unite NY/John Zogby Strategies pollsters that they are considering or have made plans to leave New York (up from 34% in January) and the 47% who say that the state is headed in the wrong direction.”
Jeremy Zogby told Secrets, “It is fascinating that whether it is NYC, NYC suburbs, or upstate (essentially big city, suburban, small city, and rural) New Yorkers’ sentiment is to head for the hills. Just not New York hills.”
He added, “Essentially, bold and swift government action has taken its toll as the philosophy is pending bankruptcy — financially and morally.”
John Zogby added that as in most of the nation, partisanship is also at play when people look at the high costs of taxes and programs. “The political culture of NY is such that voters only want to cut the high cost of government when it means cutting the other guy’s programs, never their own.”