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Hawley, Assembly GOP introduce budget priorities package aimed at helping all New Yorkers

By Billie Owens

Press release:

Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia), along with his Assembly Minority colleagues, is introducing the “Budget Blueprint for a Better NY,” a tax relief and funding package that will provide aid to students, homeowners, infrastructure needs, direct care workers, local governments and middle-class families.

The enacted state budget is due April 1.

“I believe in a New York that focuses on middle-class taxpayers, students struggling to afford college, repairing our unsafe roads and bridges and giving direct care workers a living wage – not fringe political issues coming out of New York City,” Hawley said.

“We have a serious exodus problem in this state of people and businesses and we should be putting every resource into making our state a place people want live and work, rather than grow up and move from.

"This is a comprehensive list of bipartisan priorities, and I am hopeful legislative leaders and Governor Cuomo will join us in making these part of the enacted budget.”

Assembly GOP ‘Budget Blueprint for a Better NY’

  •          Make the 2 Percent Property Tax Cap Permanent
  •          Provide a Living Wage For Direct Care Workers
  •          Keep the Middle Class Tax Cuts on Track
  •          Increase Funding for CHIPS
  •          Increase Library Aid
  •          Provide Unfunded Mandate Relief
  •          Give Help to Small Businesses
  •          Improve the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) & offer Student Loan Relief
  •          Call for a Hearing on Prison Closure Proposals
  •          Keep AIM Funding Levels & Processes Intact

Assemblyman Hawley represents the 139th District, which consists of Genesee and Orleans counties and parts of Monroe County. For more information, please visit Assemblyman Hawley’s Official Website.

david spaulding

Lately I've been reading and hearing this term "living wage" and I too am curious as to what exactly it is? I can't be the only one ignorant of this term so I ask, Will someone please inform me as to how much of an hourly wage is considered a living wage and who is responsible for making that decision?

Mar 1, 2019, 4:55pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Actually, "living wage" has its basis in Marxism, and Karl Marx's "labor theory of value."

The theory is that a product is worth, in relative value, the amount of labor that went into producing it, based on what a worker deserves to be paid (deserved to be paid, of course, relative to the cost of living). (Remember, Marx believed that plant owners shouldn't profit from owning the plant, that all remuneration from goods produced should go to the workers).

For example, if producing a pair of pants takes two hours at y rate of compensation in order to compensate the worker at a wage that enabled him to purchase other goods, then a pair of shoes that takes four hours to produce is worth y x 2.

This contrasts with basic free market thought that labor's value is subjective and based on supply and demand. A price of a pair of pants is set by market factors, not what a garment worker should be paid to produce that pair of pants, so therefore the workers who make the pants are paid based on market demand for the product.

Of course, the value of the worker is also set by market forces. If workers are in short supply, their value goes up, and so does the value of the pants they make.

But if you believe in the "labor theory of value," then you believe a worker's wages can be set by objective standards (a living wage) regardless of the demand for the labor performed.

In other words; "living wage" equals Marxism.

Mar 2, 2019, 10:47pm Permalink
david spaulding

Thanks Howard, I don't understand how you get a thumbs down for answering a question, anyways from what I now understand there is no concrete actual dollar amount as to what a living wage is. It's mostly a political term using government math in a government formula to get a government answer. Then the government tells me what I am worthy of for my labor.... Am I right ?

Mar 4, 2019, 2:45pm Permalink
david spaulding

Tim, thanks... what comes to my mind after all this research is, the Union, Organized Labor. Personally every time I've worked while being in a Union I feel I've been compensated in a fair manner with wages, benefits and job security. While working in a non-union shop, I have Never ever been compensated in a fair manner, always felt I had to work harder than what I was being paid. .... So maybe the way to " living wages " is Organized Labor, Not the government.

Mar 5, 2019, 4:13pm Permalink

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