Mike; I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. This weekend post is to highlight the continued dysfunction of the NY state senate, which is acting more dysfunctional than usual. When I say dysfunctional, I’m not being over the top, since it’s been documented that NYs legislators are truly the most dysfunctional:
New York’s State Legislature is the most dysfunctional in the nation. This is not hyperbole. This is fact.
In an exhaustive 56 page study, The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law illustrated in depressing detail how truly F-ed up our State’s Senate and Assembly have become.
via the albany project:: New York’s State Legislature is the Most Dysfunctional in the Nation .
The following article shows how their petty bickering is likely to keep them from passing an unemployment package that lifts payments and extends eligibility. These hapless legislative clowns are so tied up in their power grabs that they can’t even help the 800,000 NYers who are currently unemployed. The funds that are to be used in this unemployment benefits package are courtesy of the federal government’s stimulus program, yet this pathetic legislative body more concerned about its own trivial matters to see their way to pass this important legislation. In this case, the inmates are truly running – and ruining – the asylum. For any New Yorker’s that care to send along a note to their legislative bozos, here is the link to use: http://www.nysenate.gov/senators.
Unfortunately, I can’t merely blame this lame bunch of senators for their continued ineptitude, since the voters reelect the same faces over 90% of the time.
Despite having the support of the governor, labor leaders and advocates for the unemployed, a bill to raise weekly jobless benefits on July 1 and close the gap in the state’s unemployment trust fund was not addressed by state lawmakers before their regular session ended this week.
The maximum benefit, which had been $405 a week for about 10 years until the federal economic stimulus program temporarily added $25 a week, is significantly smaller than those available to residents of New Jersey and Connecticut. New Jersey’s maximum is $584 a week; Connecticut’s is $576.
via Amid Senate Chaos, Hope Fades for Bill to Increase New York’s Jobless Benefits – NYTimes.com.
– After seasonal adjustment, New York State’s unemployment rate increased from 7.7 percent in April to 8.2 percent in May (its highest level since February 1993), and New York City’s rate increased from 8.0 percent in April 2009 to 9.0 percent in May 2009 (highest since October 1997). Outside of New York City, the unemployment rate was 7.7 percent in May 2009. The number of unemployed state residents jumped over the month by 51,000 to 802,400 in May, its highest level since July 1976.
via New York State Department of Labor – State’s Unemployment Rate Reaches 16-Year High in May.
NY’s senators make at least $79,500 plus bennies for part-time work. Many of these legislators get full-time salaries from law practices and other endeavors, yet they continue to collect per diem and salary while freezing legislative actions that are vital to the unemployed. They are in session 69 days only for the entire calendar year (http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?sh=cal)! Sure, they put in some time back home, but these are lucrative part-time careers with substantial retirement packages once they leave office.
When it comes to legislative pay and per-member spending, state lawmakers in New York rank near the nation’s top, according to the National Conference for State Legislatures.
via Legislative Salaries Per State.
State Senators get a daily allowance of $160 dollars for food and lodging for every day they spend in Albany. That’s on top of a base salary of $79,500, for a job that is technically part-time.
via wgrz.com | Buffalo, NY | You Paid For It: Cost for Senate Inaction.
Mike: So in closing, I urge NYers to write your state senator and tell him what you think of his/her inaction http://www.nysenate.gov/senators. Thanks……..
John de Rosier http://blog.timesunion.com/derosier/category/legislature/
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Microsoft/Google/IBM and other Rumors/News
General Economic News
Government Layoff News
US and some Canada Layoff News
International Layoff News
Hiring News and News You Can Use
– Microsoft/Google/IBM and other Rumors & News –
– WICCOPEE – Behind the headlines and the dry statistics of lost work in the latest layoffs, there are lives to be lived.
There are 622 of them, not counting families, who are employees of NXP Semiconductors and who are losing their jobs this week and next, or as the year rolls on.
They may not have jobs, but they will still have plenty of work.
via Laid-off NXP staff face uncertainties | PoughkeepsieJournal.com | Poughkeepsie Journal.
Jeff Stahler
– UPLAND – “Here we go, here we go, here we go,” blurted out the auctioneer as a flock of 40 modern-day treasure hunters followed him to a storage unit at Upland Self Storage on Wednesday.
The door was rolled up and bidders had a chance to take a quick peek inside. Some brought flashlights and stretched their necks trying to see past the towering mattress blocking the view to the back of the unit.
via Unemployment rate leads to storage unit auctions – ContraCostaTimes.com .
– Members of the Michigan State Police Troopers Association have rejected an internal ballot proposal which would require them to take unpaid furlough time, an act which could have prevented 100 state troopers from being laid off. The layoff is scheduled to take effect Sunday.
– SACRAMENTO, CA – The president of the association representing Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies blasted Sheriff John McGinness Friday after McGinness announced a $15 million miscalculation of the department’s budget will result in the layoff of nearly 80 more deputies than originally expected.
– Forty-nine Scottsdale employees lost their jobs on Thursday in the latest round of layoffs to hit the city.
Chris Britt
– US and some Canada Layoff News –
– The area job market absorbed a one-two punch Thursday with the announcement that one plant is closing and another is laying off more than 30 percent of its work force.
Benjamin Moore & Co. plans to close the Coronado Paint Co. in Edgewater by the end of the year, ending that company’s 52-year run. Most of Coronado’s 108 workers will be left without jobs, although most corporate managers will be retained.
And the North Star division of U.S. Foodservice is laying off 79 of 242 workers on Halloween at its distribution center in Port Orange.
via Front page news – newsjournalonline.com.
– KALAMAZOO, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – More workers lost their jobs at Checker Motors Thursday as the Kalamazoo auto parts supplier is on the verge of closing.
via Checker Motors on the verge of closing | checker, verge, motors – Top Stories – WWMT NEWSCHANNEL 3.
-Rochester Wire & Cable has joined a growing list of Culpeper-area businesses forced to lay off employees due to the economy.
Mike Ratcliff, spokesman for parent company Tyco Electronics, confirmed that an unspecified number of employees at the Culpeper facility were let go June 11.
via Rochester confirms layoffs at local facility | Culpeper Star-Exponent.
– NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — The director of the University of Oklahoma Press has said eight employees will be laid off because of the recession.
via 8 employees laid off at OU Press in Norman; economic slowdown cited as reason – KFSM.
– MULBERRY | W.S. Badcock Corp. announced Friday that it has laid off 40 workers because of declining sales in the retail furniture industry.
– The reshuffle will see 60 managers’ roles axed from the chief executive’s office alone – saving £2.9m a year.
via JournalLive – News – Today’s News – Highly-paid Newcastle Council staff to leave in reshuffle.
– It had been feared that as many as 16 jobs could have been lost – six of them among the teaching staff.
– Hiring News and News You Can Use–
– Q: My regular 26 weeks of unemployment benefits ends in July? Do I qualify another 20 weeks or 33 weeks of benefits? — John, Fort Lauderdale
via Ask the Career Expert: Get all your career questions answered — South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com.
– SharesPost is one of a few private stock exchanges that are emerging to fight what venture capitalists call a liquidity crisis. These exchanges give stakeholders an alternative way to trade their shares in hot startups like Facebook for cold, hard cash _ without having to wait years for an IPO.
Tags: cut jobs, economic, employment, factory closing, firing, hiring, job loss, jobs cut, laid off, layoffs, plant closing, positions eliminated, redundancies, staff cuts, unemployment, workforce reduction
