Green Party Attacks Cuomo's Policies
June 21, 2012
Around Town by Neal Tepel
The Green Party is claiming Governor Andrew Cuomo's secretive relationship with the Committee to Save New York highlights the failure of the Democratic Party over the last six years to reduce the power of money and special interests in Albany since taking back control of the Governor's mansion. According to the Green Party, gambling interests gave the Committee $2 million dollars at a time when Cuomo decided to promote casinos.
The party claims that Cuomo has aligned with the Senate Republicans to defeat a host of issues such as the minimum wage, progressive taxes, public campaign finance reform and non-partisan redistricting, The Greens noted that the Koch brothers gave $92,000 to Cuomo in 2010 compared to $46,000 to Wisconsin Governor Walker. Both Cuomo and Koch have publicly attacked government workers.
"It is no surprise to the Green Party that Governor Cuomo has once again failed to enact legislation to eliminate selling state lawmakers to the highest bidder. Like Obama and McCall, Cuomo talks about the need to change campaign financing while bending the rules at every opportunity to maximize his intake from the 1%, from Wall Street to hedge funds to gambling interests. Cuomo has shown himself to be just another politician for sale, The bigger your check book, the more he is willing to do your bidding. Unfortunately, minimum wage workers can't compete in the money game, which is why Cuomo has repeatedly tried to declare the wage hike dead," noted Howie Hawkins, the Green Party Co-Chair who finished 3rd in the recent gubernatorial election.
