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Green Party of NY Slams Lawmakers and [Dem] Governor for Midnight Sellout of New Yorkers

By Kimberly Wilder on March 17, 2012 3:58 PM

GPNYS press release, as posted at onthewilderside.com:

Green Party Slams Cuomo, Lawmakers for Midnight Sellout of New Yorkers

The Green Party of New York blasted Governor Cuomo and state lawmakers for their middle of the night votes to continue gerrymandering of state legislative districts in exchange for passing Cuomo’s assault on the pension benefits of government workers.

The Greens also opposed the deal on casino gambling and the DNA database.

“Cuomo’s push on on Tier VI is just the latest chapter in his game of class warfare, attacking public employees while refusing to close corporate tax loopholes or make his wealthy campaign contributors pay their fair share of taxes. The real bottom line in the pension fight was to slash retirement benefits for the one segment of our society that still is protected by pensions. If he wants to help local governments and taxpayers, he should tax Wall Street to clean up the mess they created,”said Howie Hawkins, Green Party co-chair.

“The legislature passed yet another gerrymandering plan in the middle of the night to protect incumbents and thwart democracy in NY. Cuomo tries to hide his reneging on a campaign promise for independent redistricting by shamefully peddling a flawed constitutional amendment that ten years from now will still leave the two major parties drawing the district lines. The Green Party has a proposal: let’s elect half the legislature based on a statewide proportional representation democratic vote for parties, and the other half based on districts drawn up by an independent committee like Iowa’s that is not beholden to either the Democrats or Republicans, and not to the Executive or Legislative branches either,” said Peter LaVenia, the other Green party co-chair.

“Casino gambling does nothing to add any value to the economy. It’s a kickback scheme for casino operators and a regressive tax on workers. Why isn’t the Legislature voting on providing funds for a Green Jobs program that could have lasting benefits for New York State’s economy? Instead of casinos in the Catskills, how about wind farms and solar power plants? Public works to retrofit millions of homes and make them energy efficient? Stop rebating the $16 billion from the stock transfer tax to Wall Street speculators and invest in rebuilding New York. Casino gambling addresses none of these issues,” added LaVenia.

“The DNA database Cuomo is pushing for would include all people convicted of crimes, not just felons. This is a scary encroachment on our right to privacy as Americans, which has been eroded during the last ten years of the Bush & Obama regimes. Cuomo and the legislature are poised to hand a largely unaccountable bureaucracy even more power to harass citizens and profile them,” stated Michael O’Neill , Secretary of the State Green Party.

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2 Comments

  1. Larry Carter Center March 19, 2012

    Wall Street in NYC is not paying their fair share of taxes, why is Cuomo favoring theft from the public treasury by cutting state programs that only help the working people? Million dollar bonuses to criminals who stole over a trillion dollars from tax payers means they have lots of cash to bribe corrupt politicians like Cuomo & Nimrata Haley here in South Carolina. It is time to end the Federal Reserve & have National/State Banks fully regulated by local honest citizens with no incentive to profit from wars for oil, polluters or hedge fund manipulations of commodities MONEY IS NOT A COMMODITY ! Hedge funds should only be for suppliers & consumers NOT 3RD PARTY SPECULATORS. Hedge funds should level out prices, protecting suppliers from contrived price drops and ensuring consumers predictable fair prices. Wall Street criminals could be taxed 99.99999 per cent on all income they derive from government sources over a living wage. We need not cut goverment, we need to keep gov’t at work protecting us from banksters, polluters & corporations bribing the entire political process. When we end special interest “deductibility” we can eliminate incentives to rip off tax payers. When all non-profits pay their fair share of taxes, all of us will be on a level playing field. @VoteLarryDis114 http://www.hireLarryFireBobby.com … @Greens926_1750

  2. Larry Carter Center March 19, 2012

    Again Working Families are betrayed by rich elitist Democrats. Ending tax exemptions for special interests would make tax rate cuts possible for all tax payers, INSTEAD WORKING FAMILIES Green initiatives & women must suffer favoritism to the wealthy polluters 843-926-1750 @Greens926_1750 or VoteLarryDis114 here in SC as well as our nation, Rethuglicans are being given what they want with few fighting back, our Governor Nimrata Haley has declared open warfare against Labor Unions… we need the help of Democrats, Greens, Working Families, United Citizens, Labor, Libertarians & Constitutional Parties to check the betrayals of the 99% for the 1%

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