I’ve been running a dry-cleaning business for over 20 years, and every year Albany increases the burdens I and other small-business owners face. In the four months I’ve been a part of the New York State Assembly, I’ve fought for lower taxes and less burdens for entrepreneurs chasing the American Dream as I have. Sadly, small-business success stories are getting rarer and rarer in New York.

Tax-Free NY is the governor admitting we have a taxation problem but solving it only for a chosen few. He is admitting that the economic ideology of the right is the only way to grow and foster business after 15 years of control by the left. But by creating these in-state tax shelters, Gov. Cuomo is affording a leg-up on competition and creating a two-tier business community: those who have to struggle with the most unfair economic climate in the nation, and those who thrive under a lower tax burden.

I ask the governor why not extend these courtesies to the rest of the small-business community? If you seek to address the problem with taxes, why not lower them for everyone? There cannot be one set of rules for those who are hand-picked by the government and another set of rules for those who have struggled and are barely holding on to their American Dream. If we are serious about New York being “Open for Business,” a thriving middle-class of small businesses has to be a focal point of the recovery of upstate New York. Every small business, not just the college communities, deserves the chance to make it.

Gov. Cuomo, the first step in solving your taxation addiction is admitting you have the problem. You have managed to see a portion of the light, and I hope to expand upon that light. Lower taxes won’t just work for your friends, it will work for all of us. Let’s spend these last three weeks of legislative session leveling the playing field by lowering taxes for all New Yorkers, both businesses and families alike. Let us invest in our companies and the communities we love so much. I guarantee you’ll see better results in a fair marketplace over the special interest handout, Tax-Free NY.