Manufacturers and Technology Companies Will Leave New York State
Randy Wolken, President & CEO
We are at a delicate time in the recovery of our state economy. With record unemployment, we need job growth in those sectors that support career-producing and high-wage jobs. These are the high-tech manufacturing and technology industries with the highest average salaries with benefits in Upstate New York. The current proposals in the state budget will force manufacturers and tech companies to leave New York State for other more attractive locations. We cannot afford this outcome.
Massive tax increases are included in the New York State budget proposals—at a time when other states and countries are actively recruiting manufacturing and tech companies. When new significant increases in taxes occur during an economic recovery, jobs are often eliminated. Holding the line on taxes is the best policy to encourage existing companies to stay and grow their workforces. When we lose companies, we lose jobs – when we can least afford to do so.
Millions of New Yorkers, especially those from low and moderate incomes, will lose the opportunity to work at excellent manufacturing and tech companies. Just when we start to see an uptick in hiring, new taxes are being proposed. Most manufacturing and tech companies compete in a global market. In the past, when New York has raised taxes and made it harder to compete, we have lost tens of thousands of great jobs. We are in jeopardy of doing this again. The pandemic has taught us many lessons. One of them is that our economy can be fragile. It has shown the need for stable, good-paying manufacturing jobs that make products here in the United States. We were poised to see real growth in these jobs. With the proposed tax increases, we will see the opposite.
At MACNY – The Manufacturers Association, we are witnessing one of the most promising times of growth in manufacturing jobs ever. We had seen a modest loss in employment during the pandemic. Now we see thousands of open jobs without the talent to fill them. However, this will all change if we indicated that we would only make them less competitive in the future. MACNY has begun to ramp up efforts to grow our upskilling approaches and pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs. Many groups within our communities who have not had a chance to work in great jobs would be given a chance. It seems we will lose that opportunity and leaders of companies will be forced to make the agonizing choice of growing their companies in another state or country.
We can ill afford to lose our excellent manufacturing and tech jobs to other states and countries. We need to hold the line on taxes and give our economy and our local communities a chance to recover and grow again. Join me in talking to our state representatives about the need to provide unemployed individuals an opportunity to work in great jobs for a New York manufacturing or tech company. The added revenue of these proposed tax increases will not make up for the lost jobs and tax revenues of a growing New York State economy.