Brooklyn, NY – As New York nears the completion of a budget that sets a new record in spending, the Conservative Party is troubled by the few sketchy details that have emerged. The usual lack of transparency aside, we do know that this spending document
makes many policy changes such as virtually eliminates cash bail – a dangerous idea in our view one that deserves to be debated as a stand-alone bill; and changing the maximum jail sentence for some Class A misdemeanors from 365 days to 364 days. This is a significant change because under federal immigration law, certain minor convictions punishable by at least a year in jail could lead to
-deportation. This policy change puts it in direct conflict with federal law.

Other areas of concern include
• The 5 cent per bag fee on what will literally become millions of paper bags is another unfair hit on New Yorker’s pocketbooks;
• Congestion pricing is just another new tax on motorists and businesses in the downstate region that has the potential to drive up the cost of doing business;
• Consideration of a new commission to address public campaign financing which has the potential of costing hundreds of millions over a four-year election cycle, automatic voter registration which has the strong potential of voter fraud and fusion voting which could deny citizens the right to vote on party lines that they believe stand for their values;
• The Hunger Games giveaways will continue with little oversight since requiring a detailed public accounting of all state money spent on job creation efforts, an idea put forward by the legislators, appears to have given way to giving discretion to the governor to create a database.
• We are happy to see a permanent property tax cap, but believe NYC should be included.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of a process that spends more of your money, and places more financial burdens on the average New Yorker who is already overtaxed.