‘Moderate’ Democrats just gave New York a host of disastrous new laws
The 2019 legislative session ended Friday, having provided proof positive that “moderate” suburban state senators do little but enable the extremists.
The Senate joined the longtime-progressive Assembly in passing a host of badly thought-out, far-left bills that will hit New York hard for years to come. And Gov. Cuomo, who has long painted himself as a voice of reason, was a willing accomplice.
The malpractice began with a budget in March that (beneath the fiscal gimmicks) brought a nearly 5 percent spike in state-funded spending, the Citizens Budget Commission reported. That’s twice what Cuomo pledged and three times inflation.
Lawmakers also decided that New Yorkers, already bearing the highest state- and local-tax burden in America, must pay more — via fresh hits like the mansion tax and a new Internet sales tax. They also imposed hefty new tolls on Manhattan motorists.
The damage went far beyond budget items: Botched criminal-justice reforms, for instance, will put more bad guys on the streets, handing white-collar criminals “a get-out-of-jail-free card,” as Manhattan DA Cy Vance has warned.
Scrapping the requirement to post bail for all but a few violent crimes, he added, will boost the “racial and socioeconomic disparity in our jail population.”
Plus, new rules for prosecutors to collect and share evidence will mean heavy new costs (with no new funding) and make it far harder to protect witnesses who put their lives on the line to testify.
And that was just the start of the leftward sprint. In the waning weeks of the session, lawmakers:
l Rushed through rent-control “reforms” sure to discourage future development, repairs and upgrades of apartment buildings. They’ll also push up rents of non-regulated units, making it harder for average folks to find a place. The new law also locked in this lunacy by scrapping the “sunset dates” that rent laws have featured for decades.
l Passed the Climate and Community Protection Act, which hands state agencies massive new power over New York’s economy and promises to impose untold billions in costs and fees.
And if devastating the state economy does bring net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the impact on world temperatures would be minuscule.
l OK’d driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, thumbing their noses at the public, which, the Siena poll found, opposes the idea 53 percent to 41 percent. All to “normalize” people who broke the law by entering the country illegally.
l Gave striking union members a gift pushing through a bill making them eligible for unemployment-insurance benefits after just one week, instead of the current eight. That shifts the cost to employers — and makes strikes more likely.
l Failed to raise the cap on city charter schools, meaning no more can open — even though some 50,000 kids are desperate to escape the dysfunction at traditional public schools and get a seat at higher-performing charter.
l Refused to lift a finger to make state contracting and corporate subsidies more transparent, accountable and better scrutinized. Hey, why stop the waste and corruption?
Meanwhile, the legislative process was as chaotic, secretive and disgusting as ever, with deals struck behind closed doors, little debate and bills rushed through at the 11th hour.
For all its flaws, a Republican-run Senate stopped the worst lefty lunacy. Suburban Democrats had the power to do that this year, with their constituents’ support. That they instead caved to the radicals gives the GOP a serious chance for a comeback.
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