A large number of New Yorkers are tired of high taxes and poor leadership, which as them looking at moving options.

According to a poll of “1,003 likely voters statewide was commissioned by Unite NY, a statewide group advocating electoral reforms and conducted by John Zogby Strategies on March 3, a national polling firm located in Upstate New York” found that 39% of New Yorkers polled said they had made plans to, or have already considered leaving New York, an increase of five percent from January. 47 percent of respondents said that the Empire State is moving in the wrong direction.

“New Yorkers,” said analyst Jeremy Zogby, are looking “elsewhere as the ‘Empire State’ is increasingly viewed as ‘the Imperial State,’ or even the ‘Vampire State.’”

John Zogby, the namesake of the polling strategies company, said to Secrets: “While taxes have always been cited as a major reason for leaving the state, they are particularly acute these days with the high rate of inflation. Folks are saying that if the cost of living is high, at least there is one thing they can do about it. Prices of gasoline, groceries, and everything else are at a runaway stage, so there are places that cost less.”

“It is fascinating that whether it is NYC, NYC suburbs, or upstate (essentially big city, suburban, small city, and rural) New Yorkers’ sentiment is to head for the hills. Just not New York hills.”

He said, “Essentially, bold and swift government action has taken its toll as the philosophy is pending bankruptcy — financially and morally.”

“The political culture of NY is such that voters only want to cut the high cost of government when it means cutting the other guy’s programs, never their own.”