Questions the Business Council Doesn't Ask

The Business Council of the State of New York, a vocal and ideological (anti-tax, anti-regulation) voice for the state's business interests, recently released a survey of state employers. The New York Post ran a brief story summarizing the findings, which predictably mirrored the Business Council's political agenda:

• More than 90 percent of respondents strongly agreed (71 percent) or agreed somewhat (20.8 percent) that New York's combined state and local taxes hurt their companies' ability to compete. New York's state and local tax burden is the nation's heaviest.
  
  
• Nearly 90 percent of respondents also strongly agreed (64.2 percent) or agreed somewhat (25.4 percent) that business taxes hurt competitiveness.
  
  
• More than 85 percent of respondents strongly agreed (62.4 percent) or agreed somewhat (24 percent) that other state taxes, including personal income taxes and the state's estate taxes, undermine their competitiveness.
  
  

But here are some questions the Business Council didn't ask.

• Does a state public education system that the court have ruled is constitutionally inadequate affect your ability to recruit a competitive workforce?

• Does a failing physical infrastructure of roads and bridges and an over-priced, under-serviced mass transit system affect your ability to move people, goods and services?
  

• Does a dysfunctional health care system that permits hugely profitable large corporations to shift their health care costs to responsible employers threaten the competitiveness of local employers, especially small businesses?

Maybe next survey, the Business Council could take a broader look at some of these questions.