Write a commentIn Assemblyman Will Barclay’s July 27 Legislative Column he wrote that he is worried New York’s highest wage earners are leaving the State.
He claims that taxing the rich is like shooting ourselves in the foot and that the real solution is to demand that Albany does more with less.
Since Barclay is concluding his 24-year career in the State Assembly, I thought he might take the opportunity to write about the struggles of the majority of his constituents who are not high-wage earners and who are having significant problems making ends meet. How does someone serve for 24 years and think that during an affordability crisis he should protect the rich?
I would direct Mr. Barclay to the comprehensive study by the Fiscal Policy Institute which found that except for the 2 years during the Covid pandemic, high-wage earners in NYS consistently moved out of state at one-quarter the rate of working and middle-class New Yorkers.
Barclay does not seem to know that NYS leads the nation in both income and wealth inequality. In fact, NYS has the highest concentration of extreme wealth in the nation. New York is not struggling to retain the most affluent wage earners, that is a complete lie and a trickle-down economics scare tactic.
Could it be that Barclay is concerned about his own status as a millionaire and the generations of wealth his family has accumulated? Why doesn’t the Assemblyman apply the same standard of “to do more with less” to the massive corruption we see perpetuated by the Trump Administration?
Did Barclay speak out when the federal budget bill cut SNAP and affordable health insurance and other vital services for his constituents? These federal cuts have left State and local governments holding the bag. What solution has Barclay proposed to deal with the crippling deficits, other than “do more with less” and don’t tax the rich.
Where does Barclay stand on the billions of taxpayer dollars that are funding an illegal war, the billions now going to ICE and Homeland Security to incarcerate children and immigrants and the endless corruption lining the pockets of Trump and his family to the tune of 4 billion dollars. No call to tighten the belt at the Department of War or ICE.
Barclay blames State government for overspending as it sends billions of dollars in State funds to Oswego County for projects such as the SOCRIS regional sewer project and the MICRON shovel ready project. Maybe Governor Hochul and Senator Chris Ryan who have enabled these projects should stop overspending.
Oswego County Republicans who tout MICRON development projects as their own in every photo opportunity, seem to have forgotten who delivered the MICRON project. MICRON was made possible by the federal CHIPS and Science Act, championed by Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and signed by former President Joe Biden. Most Republicans, including our Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, voted against the legislation. I hope voters will remember in the upcoming election, who is really delivering the goods.
