Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 11, 2020

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday delivered his 10th State of the State address, outlining his vision for New York at the dawn of a new decade.

But Cuomo, as in years past, played the progressive greatest hits, including proposals to protect the environment, legalize recreational marijuana and expand mandatory paid sick leave.

Everyone is pointing fingers, but no one is pointing forward and no one is pointing up, said Cuomo, bemoaning the shadow of division creeping across politics and the nation at large. New York at her best is the progressive capital of the nation, and we must fulfill that again this year.

But the sprawling blueprint does not address head-on two of the most pressing issues to start the year in tweaks to the bail reform overhaul which Cuomo has already said needs changes less than one rough week after it became law and the $6 billion state budget deficit.

In fact, Cuomo floated a reduction in the states corporate franchise tax from 6.5 percent to 4 percent for businesses with fewer than 100 employees, a move that would benefit an estimated 36,000 taxpayers while bucking an expectation of fiscal belt-tightening to fight the deficit.

The states already enacted tax cuts will continue to phase in as planned, with the rate for New Yorkers making between $26,000 and $150,000 dropping to 5.5 percent.

Amid a spate of anti-Semitic attacks, particularly in the five boroughs, Cuomo called for plans to expand Lower Manhattans Museum of Jewish Heritage, with an eye toward it hosting educational trips by schoolchildren from across the state.

On hand to deliver the blessing was Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, whose Monsey, NY, shul was attacked last month by a machete-wielding madman on the seventh night of Hanukkah.

We stand in solidarity and love with you and your community, Cuomo vowed to Rottenberg. What happened to you and your community is intolerable. We will not stand for it and we will defend you.

Cuomo also proposed a plan to expand sick leave.

Businesses with more than five employees would be required to offer at least five days of paid leave, while those with more than 100 workers would have to pony up at least seven paid days.

Additionally, Cuomo vowed comprehensive e-bike legislation after vetoing a bill for their legalization last month though the plan offered no specifics.

Cuomo indicated the state will take another run at the legalization of recreational pot use, after the initiative died on the vine in 2019.

That would include the creation of an Office of Cannabis Management, a regulatory body that would ensure the state retains more than a token measure of authority should weed go legal.

Also not mentioned Wednesday was legal sports betting, an issue some Albany legislators were keen to push across the goal-line last year.

A number of Wednesdays announcements, however, were mere reiterations of initiatives that Cuomo had already hyped in the weeks leading up to the address.

They included a three-year ban from public transit for serial pervs, a massive expansion of Penn Station, and a ban on styrofoam food containers and packing peanuts.

Read more from the original source:

Cuomo touts progressive proposals in 2020 State of the State - New York Post

Category: Jewish Heritage Month
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