Chronic NY Gubernator'l Candidate Changing Address

BEN DOBBIN

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.