“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it”-Ronald Reagan
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 29, 2020
Contact: Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys
PRESIDENT TRUMP, VICE PRESIDENT PENCE UNANIMOUSLY ENDORSED BY NYS CONSERVATIVE PARTY’S EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
New York-Jan. 29…The executive committee of the New York State Conservative Party has unanimously endorsed President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for re-election, it announced today. The endorsement follows a vote this week of the Party’s Executive Committee which met at the 53rd Annual Conservative Party conference, held this year in Latham, NY.
“President Trump and Vice President Pence are keeping the promises they made to the American People, and our party is proud to endorse each of them for re-election,” said State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar. “Candidate Trump promised that America would start winning again, and indeed it is, with one of the greatest economic expansions in history, a successful and overdo trade show-down with China, and with the virtual eradication of ISIS, the most pernicious threat in the world when Mr. Trump was elected. We are also delighted with his steadfast support of Israel, our chief democratic ally in a region of considerable strategic importance. President Trump has shown that ‘America First’ was not just a campaign pledge, it is a governing philosophy that the Conservative Party has long championed.”
President Trump personally called Chairman Kassar earlier this month to ask about the Conservative Party endorsement, demonstrating just how hands-on this President can be. Chairman Kassar ensured the President that no call was necessary. The Party stands firmly behind him.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bill O’Reilly, 212-396-9117
Bill@NovemberTeam.comSenator Daphne Jordan, Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay Join Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar at Budget Reform News Conference
CALL FOR SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES TO A STATE BUDGET PROCESS GONE OFF-KILTER DURING ANDREW CUOMO YEARS
Latham, NY – Jan. 27…Assembly Republican Leader Will Barclay (R,C,I,Ref-Pulaski), State Senator Daphne Jordan (R,C,I,Ref-Halfmoon), and New York State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar today called for substantial reforms to the New York State budget process which has been significantly perverted under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s three terms in the Executive Chamber.
The Senator, Assembly Leader, and Chairman called for immediate consideration of two powerful legislative reform measures that would: a. protect taxpayers against ever-escalating tax increases; b. safeguard the traditional budget process, and c. guarantee the proper parsing of legislative items that don’t belong in budget bills. Governor Cuomo has made folding legislative initiatives into budget bills to avoid debate and maximize leverage over state legislators, who must vote up or down on massive budget bills, his signature governing tactic, however inappropriate.
“Once again, Governor Cuomo is misusing the budget process to push through radical legislation that might never see the light of day through regular legislative processes,” Senator Jordan said. “The Executive Chambers’s ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ position smacks of an authoritarianism that has no place in a constitutional democracy. These bills would restore spending and budgetary sanity to a state in desperate need of both.”
“New York’s budget process has been hijacked to serve as a vehicle for policy initiatives
that rightfully should be debated during regular legislative sessions,” Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R, C – Pulaski) said. “These initiatives can have a significant impact on the lives of New Yorkers and they must be vetted by the State Legislature, as they were intended to be, one bill at a time.”
“There are three branches of State government — not two — but you wouldn’t know it the way Governor Cuomo has been running roughshod over the State Legislature,” Chairman Kassar said. “His practice of ramming through radical initiatives by attaching them to budget bills is dangerous and Constitutionally inappropriate. New Yorkers have a right to be heard on matters of great importance; it’s why they elect the senators and assembly members who must, now, reassert their authority.”
The bills advocated are:
(A.6018-Barclay): An Act to set parameters for the content of budget bills, ensuring that budget negotiations are focused on financial, not policy issues, and
(A. 3538-Palmesano): Creating a constitutional amendment requiring 2/3 vote for any bill that raises taxes or creates a new tax.
Senator Jordan announced at the news conference that she will be sponsoring companion bills to these measures in the State Senate in the coming weeks. Senator Jordan has already introduced a bill (S.3373) that would amend the State Constitution to restrict the ability of the executive to make laws via the budget.
Recent examples of Governor Cuomo improperly ramming through policy initiatives using the state budget process include the introduction of Cashless Bail in New York — a measure he now admits is problematic — granting undocumented immigrants taxpayer-paid college funds; sports betting in casinos, and the creation of a commission seeking to finance state elections with public dollars and eliminate Democratic Party political competition. (The Conservative Party has challenged the constitutionality of the latter in New York State Supreme Court, and is currently awaiting the court’s decision.)
This year, the Governor is seeking, among other things, to legalize paid gestational surrogacy — an illegal practice in many European countries that was expressly outlawed by Governor Mario M. Cuomo — and to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. By submitting these and other legislative items in the budget process, the Senator, Assembly Leader, and Conservative Chairman argued, the Governor is attempting an end-around the State Legislature, stifling debate on the measures that common sense demands.
Today’s news conference was held at the 53rd-Annual State Conservative Party “CPPAC” gathering which was held in Latham, NY.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bill O’Reilly, 212-396-9117
Bill@NovemberTeam.com
Statement by New York Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Budget Address
January 21, 2020
“After 10 years as governor, in his 11th budget address, Governor Andrew Cuomo finally admitted that high tax-and-spend government harms New Yorkers.
“Conservatives could have told him that on day one. So could the more than one million former New Yorkers who have fled the state under his stewardship.
“Now the Governor is facing a $10 billion budget deficit — while the national economy soars — and his nebulous solutions and utter lack of detail in this address show the same leadership deficit that created the giant hole in the first place.
“All we got today was more empty talk. It will be up to a Democrat-led legislature to fill in the blanks. Hold onto your wallets.”
Statement by New York Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State Address
“Families are leaving New York in droves because it’s too hard to get ahead here, and everybody knows it. That’s the indisputable state of the State in January 2020 — I dare Governor Cuomo to deny it.
“His perennial window dressing ignores that, for much of New York, there’s nothing left in the store. We’ve been hollowed out by taxes, regulation, bureaucratic mismanagement, and government corruption.
“New York needs to move in a bold new direction, but Governor Cuomo and the Democratic Senate and Assembly are driving us ever deeper into the hole they’ve created. The State faces a $6 billion budget deficit, and the Governor is proposing billions in new spending. That’s not serious leadership.
“We pay the highest taxes in America — we’re watching whole swaths of the population fleeing — and Democrats in the Legislature are again proposing new taxes. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers need safe, affordable housing, and the Democrat-led Legislature is making it near impossible for small landlords and developers to improve existing properties or build additional ones. In whose mind is that rational?
“We see the loss of common sense in criminal justice, too, with vicious criminals and anti-Semites being released onto the streets without bail — as violent crime soars in our cities. We shudder at the moral decay of a governor who, against the will of his own father, wants to commercialize child bearing.
“New York is a rudderless ship taking on water under total Democratic leadership. Mark my words: a mutiny of common sense is coming.”
Brooklyn, NY –“New York has lost all touch with reality: An illegal immigrant, illegally behind the wheel of a car, illegally flees the scene of a crime after killing a 35-year-old Rockland County mother of three on Christmas Eve with a car he shouldn’t have been driving, and, then, after finally being arrested, he is released — without bail!
“How is that remotely possible?
“The person who committed this horrendous crime, is by definition a risk of flight. Laws clearly mean nothing to him. He should be in a federal lockup right now. Isn’t that screamingly obvious?
“New Yorkers should pray for the victim and her children — and start questioning representatives in Albany who allowed this to happen. In fact, New Yorkers should demand that cashless bail be repealed; it is utter madness, that the person who killed an innocent mother of three be released because the democrat controlled legislature passed cashless bail. ”
For immediate release December 18, 2019 Contact: Shaun Marie 518-356-7882 www.cpnys.org @cpnys
STATEMENT BY NEW YORK CONSERVATIVE PARTY CHAIRMAN GERARD KASSAR
“Every single Democratic Member of New York’s Congressional delegation just wasted tens of millions of dollars trying to subvert the will of the American voter, knowing full well that President Trump will be acquitted a few weeks hence. This after Speaker Nancy Pelosi made clear that an impeachment vote without bipartisan support would be needlessly divisive.
“Freshman New York Reps. Anthony Brindisi, Antonio Delgado, and Max Rose, who represent districts that overwhelmingly supported President Trump’s election, will have a lot of explaining to do between now and next November. Tonight they voted to negate the presidential choice of their own constituencies, and there’s nothing they can do now to erase that black mark.
“New Yorkers send officials to Congress to represent their interests. These Democrats did just the opposite. There will be a dear price to pay.”
For immediate release
December 5, 2019
Contact: Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys
CONSERVATIVE PARTY RATES 2019 LEGISLATIVE SESSION; THREE SENATORS AND TWO ASSEMBLYMEMBERS HAVE A PERFECT SCORE
Brooklyn, NY – The Conservative Party released their ratings for the past legislative session today to keep the voters of New York informed and knowledgeable of how their state legislators voted on 25 key bills passed in the 2019 session.
Keeping with tradition, the Conservative Party tracked legislation throughout the session, issued support and opposition memos, and determined, at an executive committee meeting, which key issues would be used. The Bills considered comprise a variety of issues including, but not limited to economics, crime, health, education, and pro-life issues that affect the lives of New Yorkers. “We believe that it is necessary to keep the public informed of key votes and let the taxpayers be aware of how elected officials spend our hard-earned money. Every Bill is considered, and then we narrow the number to give voters a fair assessment of what transpires in Albany,” said Gerard Kassar, State Chairman. “A review of the Bills used this year will show New Yorkers how out of touch the legislature is with the average citizen; many are costly and others will show how they help New Yorkers.” said Kassar.
Senators Daphne Jordan (43rd SD), Thomas F. O’Mara (58th SD), and Robert G. Ortt (62nd SD) each scored a perfect 100%; in the Assembly, David J. DiPietro (147th AD) and Kieran Michael Lalor (105th AD) also had a perfect score of 100%.
The overall Senate ratings dropped 15% from the 2018 average of 55%, to a new low of 40%. The Senate, now under full democratic control, explains the dramatic drop. In 2018 the democratic average was 41%, this year the democratic average plummeted to 14%. Conservative endorsed legislators in the Senate averaged 86%, up from 69% in 2018. The Assembly’s overall rating was 36%, down from their 2018 rating of 42%. The democrats averaged 17%, down from their 28% rating in 2018. Conservative endorsed Assembly members averaged 79%, up 1% from 2018.
We encourage voters to review the ratings and contact their legislators to remind them that conservative fiscal policy and principles make New York business friendly and encourages entrepreneurs to open businesses and most importantly to provide jobs to those who want to stay in New York State. The current rush for progressive ideology will only increase the exodus of families and further decline the opportunities that made New York the beacon to those who sought hope and prosperity.
(Ratings are online here. If you have a problem downloading, please call 718-921-2158 or 518-356-7882 for a copy. Thank you.)
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02Dec
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bill O’Reilly, 212-396-9117
Bill@NovemberTeam.comStatement from Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar onCuomo Public Finance Commission Report
December 2, 2019
Brooklyn, NY — “If you hate campaign robocalls now, wait till you’re paying for them yourself.
“And you will be, ring, ring — $100 million worth every four years — if Governor Cuomo’s boondoggle of a taxpayer matching fund plan is allowed to stand.
“Handing hard-earned money to politicians for political ads would do nothing to slow corruption. When governments grow as large as New York’s, there are always avenues for larceny. Mr. Cuomo’s backhanded commission proved that yet again.
“Of all the insults heaped upon New York taxpayers, this one may be the cruelest. Governor Cuomo is forcing New Yorkers to pay for other people’s careers, with money they need themselves. And he did it without the required consent of our duly-elected state legislature.
“The Conservative Party continues to question the constitutional authority of this commission to make law, and expects to be back in court on Thursday, December 12. Stay tuned.”
For Immediate Release
November 25, 2019
Contact: Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys
Statement by Chairman Gerard Kassar
Brooklyn, NY — “The Conservative Party could be the only surviving small party in New York under this proposed, two-percent threshold, but our principles get in the way of any celebrating. We continue to believe that Governor Cuomo’s commission lacks the constitutional authority to make law — only a duly elected legislature can do that — and we remain philosophically opposed to taxpayer funded political campaigns. This is a classic example of government engineering a crisis and then presenting an impossibly bureaucratic solution to it on the backs of taxpayers.” — Gerard Kassar
For Immediate Release
November 20, 2019
Contact: Shaun Marie
518-356-7882 www.cpnys.org @cpnys
GOVERNOR CUOMO SLAMS SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY; IS SILENT ON SUNY BINGHAMTON
Brooklyn, NY — Governor Andrew Cuomo criticized Chancellor Syverud’s handling of recent racist incidents at Syracuse University, a private university. All incidents of racism should be investigated and should be handled within the purview of any crime committed and it appears that Syracuse University is investigating the incident.
We have to question, why has Governor Cuomo been silent regarding the problems at SUNY Binghamton, a state-run university? While, the incidents are not in any way equal, the right to free speech and assembly is guaranteed by the First Amendment. Some students attending SUNY Binghamton obviously do not agree and took matters into their own hands.
Both incidents are wrong, yet Governor Cuomo criticized one and was silent on the other. Why, Governor?
For Immediate Release
November 16, 2016
Contact: Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys
Upstate Economy Is Dying; The Best Way to Change This is by Lifting the Ban on Hydrofracking. But Governor Cuomo Continues to Refuse to Provide a Life Line
Binghamton, NY – The Empire Center for Public Policy recently reported that “newly released federal data on personal income growth last year point to the continued economic weakness of upstate New York.” While there are many reasons for this lack of economic growth, one of the most predominate reasons for the lack of new jobs is due to the statewide ban on hydrofracking. The Conservative Party of New York State calls for an immediate lifting of the statewide ban on hydrofracking.
In December, 2017 Strata.Org issued a report on A Tale of Two States: The Economic impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing in New York and Pennsylvania. Under the Economic Impacts in New York, the report states “The Hastings paper found that ‘New York’s fracking moratorium is associated with a statistically significant increase in unemployment.’ ” They conclude that their findings are consistent with claims that fracking increases employment opportunities. New York residents are missing out on these opportunities because of the state’s ban on hydraulic fracturing.”
The report also notes “New York’s ban on fracking has done little to curb its appetite for natural gas, however. “Nearly two-thirds of all-natural gas imported to New York in 2016 came from Pennsylvania.” Despite the fact that the Southern Tier also sits on the Marcellus Shale. End the hydrofracking ban, now!
The report concludes with this “Much of that natural gas could have been produced within the state while providing jobs for New Yorkers. It also could have provided tax revenue for rural communities and the state government and spurred investment in those areas as well. Instead, those benefits have been outsourced to neighboring states.”
Long Island has a severe shortage of natural gas and Governor Cuomo recently told National Grid to provide gas or lose your license. Governor Cuomo’s instance on the hydrofracking ban is partially to blame for the severe shortage. And it is his ban on hydrofracking that is partially to blame for the dying economy in upstate New York.
Carolyn Price, Town Supervisor of Windsor and an activist for fracking and pipelines, had this to say, ““As the Town Supervisor of a town that’s across the border from Susquehanna County, I’ve seen the benefits that hydrofracking has brought to that County. The two pipelines that are in the Town of Windsor have brought great benefit to the town. the Town of Windsor currently ranks #8 out of 977 towns and cities in New York State for tax base growth, largely due to the natural gas infrastructure in the Town.”
Julie Lewis, the vice president of the Joint Landowner’s Coalition, noted that “The Cuomo administration has egregiously cost New York’s Southern Tier millions if not billions of dollars in lost opportunities by banning fracking, while our neighbors to the South have reaped multiple benefits. NY passed the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act with the goal of banning fossil fuels like natural gas in an effort to force its citizens to pay for more expensive renewable energy.”
Chairman Kassar concluded with these facts:
PA Landowners have been able to improve their properties and set aside money for the future;
Local PA governments have received millions of dollars in impact fees collected from drilling activity allowing them to improve infrastructure and other large projects;
Drilling companies in PA have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to local charities;
Businesses, particularly oil and gas and supportive industries, have been relocating or expanding in PA;
PA in contrast to NY, has authorized a PIPE Grant program that encourages natural gas expansion for the benefit of communities that have never had natural gas service.
It is incomprehensible that upstate New York’s economy is forced to slowly die because the progressive, left-wing movement has convinced Governor Cuomo that banning hydrofracking is in the best interest of New Yorkers. The best interest of all New Yorkers is to end the hydrofracking ban, Governor, and let upstate prosper.
STUNNING: STATE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BOSS CLAIMS TO BE ARBITER OF WHICH NEW YORK POLITICAL PARTIES ARE ‘CREDIBLE’ Conservative Party Champions Will of Voters, Political Freedom; Reiterates that State Commission is “a Sham”
New York-Nov. 15…New York State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jac0bs, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s handpicked leader of the constitutionally dubious New York State Public Finance Commission, declared on Thursday that his commission will determine which New York State political parties are “credible” and which are not. New York State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar called Mr. Jacobs’s statement, “stunning, self-serving, and wildly anti-democratic.”
“We have to make sure that people who run for offices on these party lines are running from party lines that are actual credible parties that have some demonstrated level of support,” Mr. Jacobs told The Capitol Pressroom.
New York State political parties are formed by achieving a 50,000-vote threshold in quadrennial New York gubernatorial elections, an established benchmark that goes back almost a century. Governor Cuomo’s commission, ostensibly created to establish a taxpayer-funded state campaign system, is now arbitrarily proposing that parties be required to attain as many as 250,000 votes in a gubernatorial year in order to exist. It has been suggested by good-government political observers and others that the Democratic-Party-boss-led commission has set its initial sights on The New York Working Families Party for revenge, a competing party on the political left that famously irritated Governor Cuomo by backing a competitor over Cuomo in the 2018 Democratic Party primary. With such arbitrary powers, the commission, or a subsequent commission, could then come after The Conservative Party, the third strongest party in New York, by establishing even higher thresholds, Chairman Kassar warned.
“Governor Cuomo and the New York Democratic Party boss are trying to kill off political competition in New York right before our eyes, and that’s a frightening scenario for everyone,” Chairman Kassar said. “They are using the guise of campaign finance to rationalize their ploy, but no one is buying it — a power grab is a power grab is a power grab. How can they possibly think that a state political party chairman should decide the fate of competing parties? It’s a preposterous attempt.”
The Public Finance Commission has proposed a wildly expensive matching fund program for state candidates — taxpayers matching political donations at a ratio of 20-1 under one suggestion — and then claimed that such a program would be too expensive with New York’s multiple party lines system. It’s convenient recommendation? Effectively abolish competing political parties, the Conservative Party noted.
“From day one, this Commission has been blatantly unconstitutional,” Chairman Kassar continued. “It has no authority to make law — only a duly-elected legislature can do that — and it has no right to end fusion voting in New York, a constitutionally protected practice going back more than 100 years. The work of the Commission is furthermore null and void because its members inexplicably failed to swear a required oath of office.”
A spokesman for Governor Cuomo angrily claimed two weeks ago that no oath of office for commission members was necessary. Those members quietly took oaths this week. Under clearly established State law, the Conservative Party maintains, all previous commission work must be nullified.
“This circus needs to end,” Chairman Kassar continued. “If Governor Cuomo wants to change the law to benefit himself, he should propose bill language to his allies in the State Legislature. This surreptitious end-around has blown up in his face.”
