By Tony Farina
Kevin O’Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful, a name given to him by one of the other tv show sharks, is one of the stars of the long-running ABC business reality television series Shark Tank, and he told CNN not long ago that due to high taxes and unsustainable policies, certain states like New York are “uninvestable” and that state and local Niagara Falls politicians are killing jobs and driving away investors with a punitive business environment.
And O’Leary says he has seen it time and time again. His words are there for all to see locally as businesses seem to be closing every day and new developers look elsewhere. Just look at barren and empty Niagara Falls still trying to attract anyone but with little success. The environment is anything but welcoming.
O’Leary, with his long success in business and investing, is one of the Sharks on the ABC television show, all tough, self-made multimillionaire and billionaire tycoons, who give people a chance to chase the American dream and potentially secure business deals that could make them millionaires. O’Leary is estimated to have a net worth of $400 million.
O’Leary, is a Canadian businessman who, among other things, co-founded SoftKey Software Products, a technology company that sold software geared toward family education and entertainment. His many business successes have led to where he is today, a no-nonsense investor who is not reluctant to call it as he sees it, and in his words, New York is among several states that investors want no part of because, in part, high real estate and other taxes and overwhelming regulation that drives investors elsewhere, not wanting to deal with all the regulation and tax challenges New York presents that make, as O’Leary puts it, “uninvestable.”
Here is some of what he had to say on CNN.
“I don’t put companies here in New York anymore, or in Massachusetts, or in New Jersey, or in California. Those states are uninvestable. The policy here is insane, the taxes too high. You are punishing people who are successful. You overtax them, you hit them with a super tax. New Jersey what a mess and New York uninvestable.”
Asked by the interviewer what he meant beyond the tactics why New York was
uninvestable. Here is his answer:
“The regulatory environment is punitive. I had a project in upstate New York behind a grid in Niagara Falls for electricity, a global data center we were building, eventually it got so bad with the politicians in the local region and the state policy we moved to Norway and all the jobs. Norway has it now, thousands of jobs.”
That’s the reality, he added. Just uninvestable with all the obstacles, “people don’t want to put the nexus of their business in a place, I’m going to litigate you, I’m going to sue you, I’m going to make sure you can’t create a job.” O’Leary recalled how his friend at Amazon was glad to get out of New York because they just didn’t want the business there, saying he was glad to get out of here, because “they didn’t want us.”
This is all from one of the savviest sharks on the Shark Tank, one of the smartest businessmen in the entire area including Canada, who is saying that New York is a no-go state when it comes to investment. A select state among the few he mentioned where businesses want no part of. Plain and simple, policies in Albany need to change from punitive to more welcoming if New York is to attract business investment again not drive it away because of policies that say don’t come here. You are not welcome.
