The Lagging Cuomo Economy

Republished June 23 Op-Ed from The New York Post

Gov. Cuomo’s ads trumpet the claim that “New York is open for business.” They also say New York “is ranked No. 2 in the nation in new, private-sector job creation.”

A closer looks tells a different story. According to the latest state data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, last year New York’s economic growth ranked 46 out of 50 states. At 0.7 percent, it amounted to less than half the national average.

Worse for the governor is that the performance has lagged the nation every year he’s been in office. We have to go back to 2010, the year before Cuomo became governor, to find a time when New York’s economy grew faster than the nation’s.

What does this mean for New Yorkers? E.J. McMahon of the indispensable Empire Center puts it in perspective: If New York had only grown at the average for the rest of the country, we would have increased the size of our economy by nearly $28 billion – nearly $1,500 per capita.

The story on jobs is even more dispiriting. From the end of 2010 to this April, New York increased jobs at about 6.2 percent. Over the same period, the nation averaged 7.2 percent.

Here’s how McMahon puts it: “That single percentage point difference translates into 76,500 jobs.

In other words, while the economy of New York added 440,000 jobs since Cuomo took office, if we’d matched the US since Cuomo took office, we would have added 76,500 more.”

Think about what those jobs would mean for 76,500 families. If performing below the American average is what the governor means by “open for business,” New York’s in bigger trouble than we thought.