Letter: Don't borrow to boost economy

Columnist Peter Goldmark is wrong to urge further borrowing as the only way to improve both state and federal economies ["NY can rebuild itself, and its economy," Opinion, Oct. 16].

New York has the second-highest state and local tax burden, at 11.7 percent of income, just behind New Jersey, with 11.8 percent, according to the Tax Foundation research organization. New York has the eighth-highest debt per resident, according to a 2008 report by MainStreet.com. The governor must not punish New York taxpayers with more tax, debt and interest based on a failed economic ideology.

Government borrowing and spending ultimately take money from those who earned it to pay for temporary jobs until the money runs out. Those jobs may build roads, but the taxpayers still paid for it, so there is no economic gain.

But if a private entity builds a road with its own capital, intending to charge a toll to recoup the costs, the jobs created are at the expense of the entity, not the taxpayer. Those employed by private enterprise spend their earnings, not taxpayer money, and taxpayers get to spend or save what the government would have otherwise taken to build the road.

The private sector drives the economy. Government should relax restrictions and get out of the way.

Arnold Genovesi, Islandia