The tax machine is always hungry.
This week, Jen Metzger unveiled a proposal for an income-based surcharge on higher earners in Ulster County — a plan that would target residents making over $200,000, or couples making over $400,000. County officials say the measure could generate between $10 million and $20 million annually. (spectrumlocalnews.com)
And there it is again: the same tired formula politicians across New York use every time government wants more money.
Find a group small enough to demonize.
Call them “the wealthy.”
Tell struggling residents this new tax will only hurt “someone else.”
Then expand government even further.
The problem is that in New York, “someone else” eventually becomes everyone else.
People are already drowning here. Property taxes. School taxes. Sales taxes. Utility bills. Gas prices. Insurance costs. Fees piled on top of fees. Young families can’t afford homes. Seniors are fleeing states they spent their entire lives helping build. Businesses are quietly looking for the exits.
And the answer from government is always the same:
More taxes.
Never restraint.
Never reform.
Never asking whether government itself has become too large, too expensive, and too addicted to taxpayer money.
The Hudson Valley used to be a place where working and middle-class families could build a life. Increasingly, it feels like a region being redesigned for political activists, government expansion, and wealthy transplants who can absorb endless tax increases while lifelong residents get crushed.
And let’s stop pretending these “targeted” taxes stay targeted.
That is the oldest lie in New York politics.
Once government creates a new revenue stream, it never voluntarily gives it up. The thresholds move. The taxes spread. The bureaucracy grows. The middle class absorbs the damage.
Residents should be asking a simple question:
If nearly half a billion dollars in county spending still isn’t enough, when exactly does government believe it has enough of our money?
Because the truth is this proposal says less about “fairness” than it does about the mindset now dominating New York government:
If government has a spending problem, taxpayers must have a funding problem.
And that mentality is driving people out of this state every single day.
The Valley Viewpoint 