“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it”-Ronald Reagan
Governor Cuomo has done it again; he has banned non-essential state-funded travel to Mississippi. (If it is non-essential, why is anyone going, but that discussion we can leave for another day.) Governor Cuomo, who recently traveled to Cuba — where diversity is almost non-existent — had this to say “We believe our diversity is our greatest strength, and we will continue to reject the politics of division and exclusion…” If the politics of division and exclusion is granting religious organizations the ability to practice their First Amendment constitutional rights then Governor Cuomo does not understand our Constitution at all nor does he understand theDeclaration of Independence that began our journey to freedom.
National Review speculates that the US Supreme Court may try to work out a compromise for the Little Sisters.
Congressional Candidate, John Faso, if elected has an excellent proposal to help beleaguered taxpayers get some relief from burdensome county taxes; he will introduce legislation amending federal law (42 USC 1396a) to eliminate a state’s ability to impose a local government share of Medicaid costs. Read more about his proposal here.
E. J. McMahon begins his Op-Ed in today’s New York Post with this, “The budget adopted by New York’s Legislature last week was described by Gov. Cuomo as “the best plan that the state has produced. . . in decades, literally.” If this is truly the “best” New York can do, we’re in even more trouble than we thought.” Read the rest of his Op-Ed here.
Chairman Mike Long thinks Senate GOP members opened themselves up to potential primaries from the right after acquiescing to Gov. Cuomo’s push for a $15 minimum wage and statewide paid family leave program. Read the rest of Ken Lovett’s article here.
Here is one list of winners (unions, big government) and losers small business owners, good government, democracy).
Some think the budget’s tax cut is a worthwhile accomplishment – but it doesn’t kick in until 2018, and even then, will it make a difference if more and more taxpayers leave the state? (Remember, it’s already happening, and “progressive” trendsetter California – an inspiration for Cuomo and the liberals – is leading the way here too.)
What do you think – what’s the worst part of the new state budget? Who gets hurt the most with this new deal? Do you think tax relief is enough to make up for the new “progressive” mandates? Vote now in our new Weekly Poll.
New York is making national political news with our primary just around the corner.
Most news reports are saying there is an agreement on the NYS Budget, but like Obamacare, those who are voting on the Budget will not really know what it contains until after it passes. The news, however, on the minimum wage is distressing, as it appears that Governor Cuomo’s union-backed increase is included, despite the outcry of many who opposed the job-killing increase. Former comptroller candidate, Harry Wilson, spoke to Fred Dicker on Monday, (Mr. Wilson begins at the 23:30 mark) countless editorials and economic studies and our own efforts (see previous posts and press releases) on behalf of the taxpayers. The Bully-in-Chief uses his bully pulpit to enforce what he wants. New York’s decline will escalate dramatically if Republicans lose the NYS Senate in this presidential year, as opposed to the death by a thousand cuts it currently is experiencing with the Governor, Assembly Speaker and Independent Democratic Conference Leader coalescing for their agenda. Taxpayers have one hope — give the Republicans the majority. If not, New York State will become New York City or a modern day ghost town.
Rob Astorino opines on Gov. Cuomo’s disastrous plan to raise the minimum wage.
This just in from Assemblyman Gary Finch... “A $15 an hour minimum wage is an extension of the failed policies that have led us to climb down the ladder of success. It is an extension of the failed policies that have made our state dead last in business climate. Instead, we need to cut taxes and reform regulations so that talented job creators and innovative entrepreneurs invest in our communities. They’re the ones who can build ladders of opportunity for the working poor to climb up into the middle class,” said Finch.
Unions have a big win in the US Supreme Court today, in great part due to the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The 4-4 decision leaves in place the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals favoring the Teacher’s Union. However, the decision does not does not set a national precedent, which many believe would have changed if Justice Scalia had lived to give his decision.
The Obama Administration is funding several non-profit groups to naturalize green card holders to vote against Donald Trump, according to the Daily Caller.
More on why the Governor demands a $15 minimum wage was covered in Friday’s New York Post editorial. Read it here.
Liberty Street Economics shows that upstate job growth, once thought to be expanding, is actually holding steady at a paltry 0.5 percent. One has to ask what raising the minimum wage would do to the anemic growth rate.
Apparently, Governor Cuomo is “cautiously optimistic” that his demands for an increased minimum wage will be reached by Friday. However, with an additional $2.2 billion need for certain state agencies be included, and where is that additional money coming from? You don’t have to answer because we all know it is coming from New York’s beleaguered taxpayers.
If you are still confused about Hillary’s “email/server” problem, the Washington Post has a rather lengthy article explaining how Hillary’s email scandal took root. Here is more about Hillary’s email problem from the
Politico New York writes that legislators are considering a slower ramp-up for the minimum wage. Michael Durant, state director of NFIB, correctly notes that “By floating carve-outs the governor is acknowledging that there will, in fact, be serious consequences for small employers and our family farms,” he said. “That in and of itself should give any member of the Senate Republican conference pause before agreeing to such a terrible proposal.”
How does a commission designed to oversee ethics maintain its integrity when the executive director used to work for the Governor? This is the third consecutive director who has ties with Governor Cuomo, JCOPE conducted a nationwide search for a replacement and received more than 200 resumes and the one chosen has ties to the Governor? Predetermined comes to mind, so does waste of taxpayer’s money. Casey Seiler, writing in the Times Union has more insight on the JCOPE appointment.
The Empire Center, a true watchdog of government waste, released its latest critique on the costly extension of one of the Taylor Law’s provisions. They also issued a press release on the salaries at the Port Authority leading to this editorial in today’s New York Post.
The Daily Signal give us insight into Europe’s breeding ground for terror. Benny Avni skewers President Obama’s reaction, or should we say, lack of reaction. Almost like the gentleman in the photo used in the NY Post piece…a man nonchalantly walking past a critically injured man lying on the floor. Obama did take time away from “The Ballgame” to speak to ESPN reporters to explain we can’t let terrorist “disrupt people’s ordinary lives.”
The continuing battle between the FBI and Apple may be nearing resolve as the FBI stated in a court filing that an “outside party” they may have found another way to access the device.
Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito was in Albany yesterday with a laundry list of wants, passage of the Dream Act, raising the minimum wage and paid family leave, reinstating the Commuter Tax and imposing tolls to enter the more congested and transit accessible parts of Manhattan all fiscally irresponsible ideas. Additionally, the Council Speaker is asking for legislation to completely overhaul the pre-trial detention system to eliminate the concept of money bail and leave only the option of remanding without bail, releasing, or releasing with conditions. Speaker Mark-Viverito is term-limited (her term ends in 2017) and she is determined to accomplish her left of Mayor de Blasio’s progressive views before she leaves office.
Healthcare providers issued a dire warning Monday on the impact of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed $15 minimum wage, saying services will be cut and organizations will close without new state funding to pay for the raises. The state — New York taxpayers — can hardly afford the numbers they are talking about, “hospitals put the extra cost of a $15 minimum wage at $570 million, with the overall cost rising to $2.9 billion when nursing homes and home care agencies are included.”
President Obama and his family are on another sightseeing tour, only this time, it is in direct disregard for the families of Frank Connor, Werner Foerster and the untold stories of thousands of families who the Castro brothers have thrown into jail for the suppression of internal dissent. Here is more on the four dangerous criminals Cuba is protecting. While the President and his family soak up the adulation of the Cuban President, Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with the FARC guerillas to assess the progress of the peace negotiations between the Colombian government and FARC. Just so you know, The Department of State designated the FARC as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, and many of its leaders have been indicted in the United States on charges of narcotics trafficking. Castro lectured the US “double standards” and demand that we return the “illegally occupied” Guantanamo Bay.
According to this NY Daily News article, there is no agreement to raise the minimum wage, yet. If you subscribe to our emails, you know that we are firmly opposed to raising the minimum wage. Read our press releases on the opposition memos we have distributed to the members of the state Legislature. You can amplify our voice by signing our Petition to Stop the Madness and return it to us (Conservative Party of NYS, 486 78th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11209) for presentation to Majority Leader John J. Flanagan.
It is disturbing that the NYPD Commissioner is rather nonchalant over the spikes in knife slashings and stabbings. Commissioner, it matters where, how and why they happen. Every person needs protection.
Brooklyn, New York – The Conservative Party of New York State issued an additional memo to the Members of the NYS Legislature stressing the fact that raising the minimum wage will harm the economy of New York by reducing job growth. The memo follows:
Governor Cuomo has repeatedly stated that he wants New York to serve as a nationwide model for progressive policies all the while denying facts that prove progressive policies fail to produce the utopia progressives demand. We did not achieve Empire State status by being an experimental laboratory for liberal tinkering. We lost our Empire State status when New York chipped away at the free-market standards that established New York as a financial magnet only to become a struggling state at the precipice, ranked second-to-last for the worst business climate in the nation.
In a Wall Street Journal article published December 15, 2015, the WSJ acknowledges the various articles by economists over the past 100 years that both sides tend to rely on. It concludes that “the vast majority of these studies point to job losses for the least-skilled. They are based on fundamental economic reasoning—that when you raise the price of something, in this case labor, less of it will be demanded, or in this case hired.”
The WSJ goes on to say that “among the many studies supporting this conclusion is one completed earlier this year by Texas A&M’s Jonathan Meer and MIT’s Jeremy West, which reaffirmed that ‘the minimum wage reduces job growth over a period of several years’ and that ‘industries that tend to have a higher concentration of low-wage jobs show more deleterious effects on job growth from higher minimum wages.’
Clearly an indication of New York’s economic decline as its minimum wage increased through the years.
The leading progressive voice in the current presidential race, Sen. Bernie Sanders, calls for Americans to embrace the Scandinavian economic model. We question if he realizes that Sweden, Denmark and Finland do not have a minimum wage and that countries that do not have a minimum wage have on average unemployment rate four percent lower than those with a minimum wage. Denmark has long been held as the model for progressives – they have the world’s lowest level of income inequality – remember no mandated minimum wage – due to the powerful collective bargaining system gaining a $20 wage for fast food workers. However, fast food restaurants, and related industries, are less profitable. Furthermore, the economic future of Denmark is rapidly declining.
Forbes’ notes, “You can’t suspend the laws of economics. You can’t expand a welfare safety net to cover an entire society.”
The Conservative Party unequivocally states that you cannot increase the minimum wage in New York State without facing the consequence of losing jobs.
When did putting people out of work become the role of legislators? Tell Governor Cuomo NO to a $15 minimum wage. Your role, as a New York Legislator, is to help New Yorkers, not put them out of work.
