After reading this, you may actually feel sorry for New Yorkers

By Rick Moran

We've all heard of the draconian tax increases that Governor David Paterson has imposed on the "rich" in New York. But what you haven't heard is what the ultra-liberal legislature is about to do.

And unless Republicans can get their act together and start challenging Democrats at every level of government, programs like this will be coming to a statehouse near you.

Jacob Gershman in the New York Post lists some of the incredible, radical changes that the liberals in New York plan on sneaking through the last few days of the session:

A bill that would force businesses with three or more employees to pay equal wages for "equivalent" work. (That's not the same as equal work, for which equal pay has been mandated by federal law since 1963.) The jobs could be as different as a truck driver and a secretary, but the pay would have to be the same if they had a similar "composite of skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions." This vague language -- and the fact that it would be the government, not the marketplace, defining if jobs are "equivalent" -- would invite employees to sue and give businesses another reason to flee the state.

[snip]

The bill would mandate that every employee working at a building developed with IDA tax-exempt bonds, for example, be paid at least a "living wage," which is defined as the median hourly wage for all occupations in the metropolitan area. The result is that developers -- and most other business -- would lose money by accepting the benefits. "It's tying a hand behind our back in the competition with other states," says a senior economic-development official.

[snip]

At the same time, Senate Democrats are advancing a batch of bills that together would result in one of the largest expansions of welfare since the 1990s reforms

That first bill has been the dream of radical feminists for 30 years. It's a "comparable worth" bill that will be so confusing, add so much paperwork, and tie up courts in useless, frivolous suits that businesses will flee the state - if they haven't already left as a result of being forced to pay a "living wage."

How much is a "living" wage? In Chicago, the radical plan backed by ACORN and other liberal urban groups mandated that at least $13 an hour in wages and benefits be paid to each worker. (Mayor Daley was able to veto the measure and avoid the certain flight of many of the "big box" retailers like Wal-Mart and K-Mart.)

The welfare "reform" is going to bankrupt the state - if spending in other areas won't do the trick already. A few of the more outrageous items in these reform measures:

* One bill would prevent the city from requiring that single, childless adults who receive food stamps work at least five hours a week

* Another bill would force welfare offices to steer recipients -- even ones who've never worked a day in their lives -- toward "sustainable wage" jobs. For a single mother with two kids, that comes to about $17 hour.

* A welfare recipient's doctor treating someone claiming disability could override the decision of independent physicians working for the state.

* How about counting school and homework as "work" so that the work requirement could be fulfilled?

The list goes on. And there aren't enough Republicans to stop it.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky