| (Note: I sent this to Gov. Spitzer's office via e-mail.)
Gov. Spitzer,
I'm writing to you to express my opposition to any pay raises that would be granted to members of the New York State Legislature.
According to published reports, you may send a pay hike bill to the Legislature for a vote next month. I'm pleading with you not to follow through with this.
As a Democrat, I have supported you for the last year. When many of my fellow New Yorkers claimed that you were advocating driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, I was writing on The Albany Project and in my weekly column for The Journal-Register that such mischaracterizations were wrong. I voted for you in November 2006 and thought that your first year in office, contrary to public opinion, was a strong one.
As a resident of upstate, I was also encouraged when you took the initiative to give the first State of Upstate Address at Buffalo State College. I was in attendance that day, Mr. Spitzer, and I found your Upstate Revitalization Plan to be the key to unlocking the potential here in upstate New York.
But raises for our legislators I cannot support. Maybe it's the rumored size of the pay raises (The Buffalo News reported that it could be in the double-digit range, making up for the cost of living since their last pay raise) or maybe it's the economic condition upstate is in.
As a working class citizen and a college student who will graduate in May with my degree in political science, I also found the words of Senator Eric Adams very offensive. He wondered to his colleagues on the Senate floor, "I don't know how some of you are making it." He also made his case by saying, "Show me the money."
Mr. Spitzer, this isn't the movies. This is not "Jerry Maguire." This is New York. We are having tough times in upstate New York. The county I live in (Orleans County) has a per capita income in the mid-$20,000 range. And Mr. Adams and the rest of his colleagues serving the people of New York in Albany are asking for a raise?
As an avid supporter of yours Mr. Spitzer, I would have to respectfully say to the Legislature that they must sacrifice first. We need to improve the New York economy, lower taxes and improve upstate before it mirrors Appalachia.
Mr. Spitzer, please do not support pay raises for state legislators. Ask them instead to sacrifice. Ask them to think about the sacrifices the people of New York would have to make in order to pay their salaries.
Thank you for reading this correspondence.
Highest Regards,
Robert Harding |
