Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C-Batavia) is disappointed that the Assembly Majority Conference blocked a referendum of his this week in the Local Government Committee without any debate or discussion. Numbered A.1978, the referendum would have simply put a question to voters on the next statewide election ballot: “Do you support the division of New York into two separate states?” The measure was shot down, and Hawley knows exactly why.
“Our job as legislators should be to first and foremost ask our constituents questions about what they want to see us do. That is all this referendum would have done,” Hawley said. “I speculate the Majority prevented us from asking this question of all New Yorkers because they already know the answer: yes. The majority of New Yorkers are tired of the way things are, and any change, no matter how big, would be preferable to how things are right now.”
“Immigration crises, favoritism to downstate constituencies, the continued erosion of our farmlands and small businesses: these are the problems we face; infringements on 2nd Amendment rights, rampant pro-criminal policies and skyrocketing taxes and inflation. And these problems are consistently tied to the actions of a Majority spearheaded by a downstate coalition that has little regard for the rest of us. If they’re afraid of being told their actions are having a negative impact on some New Yorkers, they need a serious reality check,” Hawley concluded.
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