The Empire State. Accurately named for its strong emphasis on redistributing hard-earned wages as it sees fit.

We pay taxes on the things we buy with that money.

We pay taxes on our properties annually to our town or city, school and county.

If you are fortunate enough to live in a village, you’ll pay taxes one additional time just to keep ownership of the property you purchased. And generally, you’ll pay taxes when you buy property in New York State.

We pay additional taxes on gasoline and even home heating fuels. If you live in a city, village, or hamlet with a district you pay fees for water and sewer as well.

We pay additional taxes to register our cars, our boats and ATVS. We pay fees to license our pets. We pay additional fees to drive, hunt and fish. We pay more fees to drive on certain highways.

Soon, we can add ammunition to the list of additional fees for background checks. Make no mistake – a fee paid to the state is a tax by another name.

There’s long been talk of adding taxes to soft drinks and other unhealthy items. There have been proposals to actually make it happen. There have even been suggestions that we tax cow farts, and it’s not just hot air, it’s a real possibility.

Our state representatives redistribute the money taken from us in various ways, though representatives from our area fall into the minority party and have little say about how that money is spent.

I don’t claim to be all knowing, and I know I’m oversimplifying here, but I must say I feel like the redistribution often falls short of benefiting those who it’s been collected from.

Major tax breaks are doled out to corporations, sports teams, energy initiatives and businesses in the name of job creation and economic development. Tax refunds are afforded to those with lower incomes as are other social welfare programs with income cut-offs usually based on your pre-taxed wages to ensure that too many people aren’t benefiting.

I’m not out to say that we don’t need to invest in economic development or that we shouldn’t have social welfare programs.

I think both of these are needed, but I question the distribution of funds collected from us and whether the rulers of the Empire State understand how much harder living in the middle has become in recent years.

Do they truly have our interests in mind when they are putting together the budget with money collected from us?

While programs like the Downtown Revitalization Initiative are great for communities that collect the $10 million prize – such as Potsdam and Massena – a lot of communities will get nothing.

Navigating the world of politics is a level of craziness I think many people remain oblivious too. The fact that a letter next to a state representative’s name – R or D – has a direct impact on the amount of funding that’s distributed to a given area is a bad way to do business.

It’s hard for people living in the North Country to watch nearly $1 billion spent on a sports team, even one we like, while the Empire State closes down area prisons resulting in lost jobs and dilapidated buildings.

Many of these properties are on prime locations, but remain undeveloped, unsold and ironically, untaxed.

Recently, Ogdensburg received some welcome news that some of the dilapidated buildings at the former St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center would be torn down.

This is a good thing, but is it enough?

Fortunately, in a rare moment of unity, Ogdensburg City Council graciously offered appreciation to the state and agreed to allow the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York to take the lead on the project.

However, they also asked that the state take a real look at identifying other state properties that could be salvaged, sold or demolished and asked that action be taken on them.

They doubled down on decades-old requests to return unused state land back to the city. They also asked that the state salvage any pieces of historical significance they can as they move forward with demolition projects.

I don’t think that’s too much to ask. I’d like to see DASNY, Gov. Kathy Hochul and other decision-makers take a good look at that request and ask that they give something back to a community that needs and deserves it.

It’s time for the state to clean up the messes it’s left behind. In the grand scheme of the state budget, it’s a drop in the bucket.

Jimmy Lawton is news editor of North Country This Week and NorthCountryNow.com.