New York State of Revolt

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Mitt Romney has long extolled the need to lower the tax burden on American families. The old maxim that whatever you tax you get less off has been proven true time and again.

The GOP needs to pay attention to the taxpayer revolt that is starting to sweep the country and realize that the voters have had to up to their earlobes with politicians who have never seen a spending bill that they didn't like.

It's stories like this latest one coming out of New York State that make me feel that Mitt Romney is going to be America's choice for Mr. Fix It as we look at the financial carnage that Obama and an out-of-control Democratic super majority has wrought.

~~John Cronin~~


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107104574571982940616144.html

Enough with the taxes, say voters in Westchester and Long Island.

Republicans won a squeaker in Long Island, New York's Nassau County this week. And according to the loser, Democratic County Executive Tom
Suozzi, it should serve as a warning to politicians nationwide, especially those
in high-tax states.

"People are angry about property taxes, and they
held the county executive accountable," said Mr. Suozzi after conceding to Ed Mangano, a little-known local Republican legislator. "You'd
better be careful, because you're all at risk."

Mr. Suozzi is not your
typical tax-and-spend liberal. He's been a sensible Democrat who has repeatedly
called for tax reform and picked up the pieces of Nassau County after the GOP
imploded. In 2001, when Mr. Suozzi became Nassau's first Democratic county
executive in three decades, the county's bond rating was barely above junk.

But Nassau residents today pay the second-highest property tax bills in
the nation (after New Jerseyans) and Mr. Suozzi got caught up in the revolt
against rising levies. He wasn't the only one. Last month in Westchester
County, the high-tax suburb just north of New York City where Democrats
outnumber Republicans by 2 to 1, popular Democratic County Executive Andy Spano
lost by 16 points to low-tax Republican Rob Astorino, whom he beat by the same
margin four years earlier.

The GOP now gets another
chance to regain its footing in Long Island, and we can hope it's learned
something from the days of the Al D'Amato patronage machine that nearly
bankrupted Nassau County. The broader lesson for other elected officials is that
taxpayers have a breaking point, and this may not be the best time to test their
limits.