Not all of the electoral reform bills passed in the state senate recently are bad bills.
But Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, is right to point out a major flaw — no funding to achieve state goals. Senators recently passed a package of legislation that includes a pay raise for election inspectors to $300 and coordinators to $350 in New York; the prohibition of conflicts of interest between employees of electoral commissions; require a mandatory training program for poll workers; establishing minimum staffing levels for local election commissions; require election commissioners to meet certain qualifications; make commissioners full-time employees of the council; and create a way to remove an election commissioner.
The impetus for some of the bills was a botched 2020 House of Representatives election between Representative Claudia Tenney and Anthony Brindisi, which was officially indecisive for about four months. A state judge ruled that Tenney won the race by 109 votes and ordered the results to be certified. The legal battle included a court ruling over 1,100 sworn ballots that were challenged and drew criticism from the judge handling the County Election Commissions case in the House District for a range of issues which caused confusion over whether some disputed ballots were officially rejected. or not.
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Some changes are needed. Election officials involved in the race between Brindisi and Tenney were inconsistent, confused and ill-prepared to handle a tough race during an election process made more difficult by quickly drafted pandemic voting rules. It makes sense to have more training and clearer expectations for local election officials.
But if the state doesn’t support the new training and staffing rules with increased funding for local election commissions, it will be up to county taxpayers to foot the bill for Albany’s new requirements.
— Dunkirk Evening Observer
Despite all the signs of help being sought in commercial windows in Chautauqua County, the county’s labor participation rate for temporary assistance programs is just over half of what it was 10 years ago. year.
There are several reasons for the decline. Some people on Temporary Assistance may have child care issues that prevent them from working. Some may have transport problems. Some may have hit the benefit cap, a phenomenon that occurs when public assistance recipients find that working is not as beneficial to them financially because they lose too much in benefits offered by the State. Some may simply choose not to work until they have no choice. Some may wait for employers to offer higher wages.
Whatever the reason, a 5.7% labor force participation rate in Chautauqua County is troubling. At least Chautauqua County only saw a 4.3% drop in the labor force participation rate.
The state’s paltry 10.8% rate is downright alarming. Ten years ago, the state labor force participation rate was 34.2%. It’s worth bearing in mind that nothing changed at the state level in a legislative session in which Democrats in both houses of the state legislature thought it worthwhile. to pass really head-scratching bills, like one that allows EMS responders to provide basic life-saving assistance to pets in the midst of an EMS shortage. Yet the state’s pitiful labor force participation rate has escaped legislative attention.
Chautauqua County officials are working to reverse the county’s low labor force participation rate. We wish we could say the same about Democrats in the state legislature.
—Jamestown Post-Journal
Call Us the Not-So-Big Apple: Census data shows New York City lost 300,000 residents from April 2020 to June 2021.
NYC bureaucrats say the 2020-21 numbers are driven by the COVID response that has closed schools and sent businesses reeling. Yes, this response was disastrous. People couldn’t shop, work or send their kids to school for months, so it’s a wonder more of them haven’t fled.
And now a mainstay of city life, office work, has changed. Gotham will be fortunate to return to 70% of pre-pandemic office occupancy.
But blaming COVID alone lets the perpetrators of the bigger disaster off the hook, as the pandemic has only accelerated a longer trend. New York’s population has shrunk for years, more so relative to the nation: we had 45 House seats in 1952, 39 in 1982; next year it will be 26.
And now we’re headed to the top of the cliff, as the Empire State has led the nation in population decline at least since 2019, down 1.6% year-over-year from July 2021. Net migration has since 2010 brought us back below. 20 millions.
This collapse is strictly intentional, the result of “progressive” policies that drive up crime, destroy schools, and crush small businesses and the middle classes with high regulations, costs, and taxes.
From the Climate Leadership Community Protection Act, which prevents New Yorkers from paying their electricity bills and blocks future supply shortages (i.e. blackouts), to our disastrous Raise the Age laws and no-bail, which have fueled a wave of crime, to our bank-killing budgets and to the “leadership” of public education that opposes excellence, progressivism says to all who can afford it to leave.
The ongoing absolute population decline marks a crisis point: Wall Street moved back-office jobs from New York for years, and now big corporations are moving all of their operations. The markets themselves can stay here, but with very few people and lots of computer programs doing the trading.
This fall’s election could be the last chance to head off the brink, if enough voters revolt.
