Every city in America can use some kind of help from the federal government — some more than others. Lord knows that Niagara Falls needs it.
But, if every city needs federal help, and the federal government has been, over time, helping every city, then can we come to the conclusion that if the feds are helping everybody, then they are really not helping anybody?
I asked myself that question when I came across an article in the American City and County magazine, a publication that is geared towards providing local level decision-makers with possible solutions to their problems. The article tells of Madison, Ala., City Councilwoman Cynthia McCollum declaring that, like Niagara Falls, with all of our road-wrecking freeze-thaw cycles, their roads and infrastructure are also in dire need of repair.
McCollum has just taken the reins of the national League of Cities, and her goal, as is the organization’s, is to ensure that the federal government ceases its terrible budgeting practices and provide adequate funding to localities for transportation issues and poverty. It is a noble goal, however, McCollum and most of the other members of the NLC are not New Yorkers and they unfairly compete for the income taxes and other revenues that the federal government generates in New York and other high-income rustbelt regions for use for those purposes.
Sen. Patrick Moynihan’s last Moynihan-Harvard report stated that the disparity of federal government money out of New York and its spending in the state netted a loss of $16 billion for the state. That money went someplace. Moynihan’s last report was more than eight years ago. I doubt if the ratios have improved.
Madison is a city of about 34,000 people, compared to Niagara Falls’ estimated 54,000. Its per capita income is $28,000 compared to the rest of Alabama’s at $18,000. Ours is $16,000 compared to the rest of New York’s at $23,000. The average citizen of Madison, with its poor infrastructure, is not only higher than the rest of all of Alabama, it is higher than both Niagara Falls and all of New York. Yet Madison wants, and is likely to get, federal funds to manage its affairs. But, from where will this money come?
All one has to do is to look at the last Moynihan-Harvard report for the answer. New York, currently, with its 19 million citizens averaging $23,000 per year income puts at federal tax risk nearly five times more than Alabama. Perhaps if New York was able to reduce its federal tax risk by either the federal government reducing taxes upon individuals or the state government reducing both state taxes, in all of its variations, then New Yorkers would not need the higher than national average wages upon which federal taxes are precipitated, and the incomes necessary to pay the oppressive myriad of state taxes that we do pay. This would free up more money at the local level, improving local economies, and delivering counties and cities the tools that they need to maintain their own local infrastructures.
How then can the federal government help all of the cities? They can do it most likely by not helping any of the cities. While our wages are only $2,000 more than the average Alabaman and that Alabama, like any other state, pays its fair share of federal taxes, Madison’s per capita income is $12,000 above Niagara Falls’ $16,000.
Then to where can the NLC lead Niagara Falls? We need Madison’s money more than McCollum needs ours; however, in the Madison case, with the condition of their infrastructure, perhaps there is good argument for those who point fingers at their government for not better managing their assets. How then can NLC fairly lead us to manage ours?
Lord knows that we can point fingers at ourselves.
Ken Hamilton is a Niagara Falls resident. His columns run Fridays in the Gazette. He welcomes feedback at Ken Hamilton930@aol.com.
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HAMILTON: Madison, Alabama, wants your money
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