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October 15, 2010

Quinn Steps Up for NYC

By  New York Post Staff / New York Post


New York's businesses dodged a bul let yesterday: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn iced a horribly timed paid-sick-leave bill -- for good, we hope.

Congrats to Quinn.

And New York.

For some time now, The Post has been warning of the bill's pernicious potential -- starting with the fact that it's sure to kill local jobs.

The measure would force businesses with more than 20 workers to provide nine days of paid sick leave every year -- and smaller ones, five days.

Sure, that sounds great.

But, as we've said, it comes with a hefty price tag: some $789 million a year in extra payroll costs, according to the New York City Partnership -- or an extra 48 cents an hour on average per worker.

In a year, that could add up to as much as $1,000 per worker -- driving down businesses' bottom lines and sparking layoffs, or worse.

New York can't afford that.

"At a time like this, those thousands of dollars could be the breaking point for a small-business owner already stretched too thin," Quinn said.

And some of those costs would get passed along to customers -- in the form of higher-priced goods and services -- making the measure a backdoor tax.

Quinn, to her credit, realized the dangers and courageously put the city's interests first.

Remember, the bill** -- which is being pushed hard by the union-front Working Families Party and assorted other leftists -- had the support of a veto-proof majority of councilmembers.

Quinn stands to take some heat.

Clearly, she'll need to continue to stand tough: The anti-business crowd isn't likely to quit any time soon. Indeed, she herself promised to reconsider the bill periodically, suggesting it might be affordable when the economy picks up.

Bad idea. The speaker is right that now is no time to sock the local economy with a job-killing stealth tax. But if it's wrong now, it's wrong always.

No one -- Quinn, in particular -- should forget that

**Spearheaded by Make the Road New York (MRNY).


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Victory for Immigrant Families: Preventing Unjust Deportations in NYC

On March 18, 2013, Mayor Bloomberg signed new legislation to stop federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from using NYC’s criminal justice system to deport thousands of New Yorkers.

Building on legislation we helped to win just over a year ago, Local Laws 21 and 22 prohibit not only the Department of Correction but now also the NYPD from spending millions of city taxpayer dollars to hold individuals on behalf of ICE agents for detention and deportation. Each year, thousands of New York families will stay together who would otherwise have been torn apart by overly aggressive, indiscriminate immigration enforcement.

At a moment when the country is debating immigration reform, with these laws, New York City sends a clear message to Washington that tearing apart thousands of immigrant families is bad policy.

With your support, we look forward to winning national reform that keeps families together. We thank our partners at the Center for Popular Democracy, the Cardozo Immigration Justice Clinic and the bills’ sponsors, NYC Council Speaker Quinn and Council Member Mark-Viverito, for their courageous leadership.


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