LETTER: With so many people leaving CNY, change is needed in the Assembly

To the editor:

All my friends seem to be leaving the area. I graduated from Cicero-North Syracuse high school in 2011, and I can’t tell you how many of my closest friends I graduated high school with have left to find jobs.

My best friend since pre-school just took a job in Massachusetts. A girl I met in Mrs. Knapp’s first grade class moved to Texas a couple months ago for work. My own brother just graduated college and, in his exact words, “never once thought about coming back to Syracuse.”

I’ve done some digging and the number of people leaving New York each year is astounding! How can our state lose over 100,000 residents every year and do nothing about it? Sure, there have been efforts to keep people, like minimum wage hikes and mandatory benefits, but it hasn’t worked. New York is consistently one of the most difficult states to live in. The taxes are high, job prospects are low, and the feeling in our area is “get out while you still can.”

It seems like businesses can’t afford competitive salaries to hire local employees and keep them around for very long. I’m tired of seeing my friends leave, and I am thrilled to have at least one friend who is willing to do something about it. Nick Paro is committed to making business ownership feasible in Central New York. Let’s get Nick elected to the Assembly, because he will fight to make Central New York a destination rather than a place our young professionals run from.