Come Home, Mr. Rangel

Editorial of The New York Sun
November 13, 2006

If one wants to get a glimpse of why it's just impossible to stay cross with Rep. Charles Rangel, feature the furor that erupted over the weekend over his comments in respect of Mississippi. The day after the election, the next chairman of the Powerful Tax-Writing House Ways and Means Committee was heard to say,"Mississippi gets more than their fair share back in federal money, but who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?" Mississippians were livid, and took to the pages of local newspapers to mark their displeasure. In the matter of enthusiasm for where we live, we're with Mr. Rangel all the way. We've always had a soft spot for New York.

Mr. Rangel's defense has been that, as a New Yorker, he couldn't imagine wanting to live anywhere else. Yet many of his fellow New Yorkers can. Between 2000 and 2005, the overall American population increased 5.3%. While neither Mississippi nor New York matched that figure, Mississippi topped the Empire State, experiencing population growth of 2.7%, compared to 1.5% for New York. Of course, that growth is due mainly to international immigration in each state, but the data on internal migration — people moving from one state to another — aren't any more encouraging.

Mississippi experienced an outflow of 0.7 people per 1,000 residents between April 2000 and July 2005 (pre-Hurricane Katrina). Yet New York lost 10 residents for every 1,000 living here during the same time. In other words, the rate at which we're losing population exceeds the Magnolia State by a factor of more than 10. Where did they all go? If history is any guide, those ex-New Yorkers went east to New England or down south. And it wouldn't surprise us if the double-blind studies reckon that upstate New York is in worse shape economically than the woods of Mississippi.

That's something for the PTWWMC to think about. A larger absolute number of people may opt to live here, but Mississippi is growing faster. No doubt that has at least something to do with the business climate, a ranking of which was recently released by the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council and found that New York ranked 45th in the nation, a one-position drop from its finish last year. Mississippi finished seventh in each year.

Mississippi paces New York on a variety of measures, from the top personal income tax rate (5% in Mississippi versus 6.85% here), to personal and corporate alternative minimum taxes (New York has both, Mississippi has neither), to gas taxes that are higher in New York than in Mississippi by a quarter a gallon to, well, the list goes on. As we say, we're with Mr. Rangel all the way when it comes to New York culture. But the congressman was asking the wrong question. The real question is, what the hell are New York's politicians going to do to get people to bet their futures on staying in the Empire State instead of heading south?

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