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Chronic NY Gubernator'l Candidate Changing Address

The Associated Press

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Forget his Don Quixote quest to become governor of New York. B. Thomas Golisano is switching his legal address to Florida to save nearly $14,000 a day in income taxes.

The 67-year-old billionaire businessman, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1994, 1998 and 2002, has long complained that New York's taxes are too high and its government too warped by special interests.

A Ross Perot-inspired independent who co-founded the state's Independence Party, Golisano spent $75 million, almost all of it his own, on his third failed bid for governor on that party's line in 2002.

But now that lawmakers have decided to increase taxes this year on wealthy New Yorkers, Golisano's decided to change his legal residency to a Naples, Fla., condominium. The New York tax rate for anyone earning more than $500,000 goes from 6.85 percent to 8.97 percent.

The move won't affect Golisano's ownership of the Buffalo Sabres hockey team, nor end his role as a strident critic of state government. "It's to save all that money and put it to better use," he told reporters Thursday after a speech to business executives.

Moving to a state without a personal income tax will save him at least $5 million a year, or $13,800 a day.

That amount could go a long way even in New York. The $131.8 billion budget adopted in April included removing $5 million by reducing the hours of many state parks and historic sites, setting a hiring freeze and consolidating services.

Founder of Paychex Inc., a payroll-processing company that earned him super-rich status, Golisano said he expects to keep a home near Rochester but might sell a summer retreat in the nearby Finger Lakes region.

To qualify as a Florida resident for tax purposes, Golisano has to live there at least 184 days a year — ruling out the prospect of him running for New York governor in 2010.

According to the state constitution, no person shall be eligible to become governor who is not a resident for "five years next preceding the election."

"The question turns on what is a definition of residency, and I would presume if he's purposefully establishing residency in another state, then he is no longer resident in New York," said Gerald Benjamin, a political science professor and former dean at the State University of New York at New Paltz.

"It strikes me in two ways: One, I regret it because he's a vigorous and energetic and engaged citizen," Benjamin said. "Second, it's a statement on the consequence of our tax policies for retaining people of this sort, people who are affluent and engaged."

Calls to Golisano's office were not returned Friday.

In 2004, Golisano stepped down as chief executive of Paychex to devote more time to political and philanthropic endeavors. He has donated more than $100 million to schools, hospitals and centers for the developmentally disabled as well as showering donations on state Legislature candidates seeking to reverse New York's chronic overspending and overtaxing.

If he's living most of the year in Florida, some critics say he would lose his standing to fault Albany. Others lament that his candidacy wasn't more pragmatic.

"An independent candidacy was very much quixotic, but there were other paths he could have taken," Benjamin said.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg won "as a Republican and a very rich man where there was a 5-to-1 Democratic advantage. He could have taken a pragmatic approach to involvement with one of the major parties that might have produced a gubernatorial victory in my opinion. But there's no longer a path."

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Associated Press Writer Michael Gormley contributed to this report.