A national report last week that found New York’s business climate to be the worst in the nation rightly focuses attention on the state’s array of business-discouraging taxes.

While the report doesn’t reflect recent efforts by the Cuomo administration to improve the conditions for fostering corporate investment in the Empire State, it identifies a persistent problem.

To boost the state’s ability to attract and retain businesses — and reverse the perception that New York is business averse — Gov. Andrew Cuomo will need to continue more forcefully down the path of tax relief and regulatory reform.

The need to improve business conditions in the state is not lost on Cuomo, who has made some progress on the issue.

His first six months saw passage of a statewide 2 percent property tax cap and establishment of 10 Regional Economic Development Councils, which last year divvied up some $785 million for local economic development projects.

In December, Cuomo and the Legislature approved a modified tax code.

But such efforts have failed to brighten the state’s overall economic climate, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation. The widely respected think tank ranked New York dead last among the 50 states in terms of cumulative tax burden on businesses — property, sales, income, unemployment insurance and corporate income taxes.

Cuomo officials carped about the foundation’s methodology, but the fact remains: There is much to be done to improve New York’s business and tax climates.

Whether by coincidence or in response to the report, Cuomo’s office last week announced members of a state tax panel would finally be named. The 13-member commission, which was first mentioned by the governor last December, is to suggest reforms to the state’s tax structure.

That’s a start, and tax reform is needed, but so too was mandate relief, and a muchballyhooed Mandate Relief Council’s report resulted in no action.

In fact, mandate relief — the second part of the economic one-two punch led off by the tax cap — should be high on the governor’s economic development list.

From Medicaid reimbursements to changes in union arbitration and prevailingwage laws, this is the area where lawmakers can make the biggest impact on state taxes. They must act.

New York has labored for too long under business-killing taxes. Albany has reversed the perception that it cannot function. Now it must demonstrate that New York can function without high taxes.

— The Rochester (N.Y.)
Democrat and Chronicle