Wage-hike plan will hurt businesses

It has come to my attention that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has now proposed adding the $15 minimum wage increase to the 2016 budget, which is scheduled for a vote on April 1. I am writing to encourage my fellow business community to rally against this egregious proposal and its potentially crippling effects.

Gov. Cuomo’s minimum wage proposal will have a huge, negative impact on small businesses, nonprofits and farms across New York and is one of the biggest fights of the 2016 legislative session.

I desperately urge you to fight the increased minimum wage. This would be a government-mandated burden on all business owners upwards of $16 billion annually. Businesses like mine simply cannot survive another hit from the state.

Prices for goods and services will rise an estimated 15-20 percent and consumers cannot bear the burden. They will be forced to abandon local shops in favor of big box stores, which are better prepared to handle costs and can take advantage of the governor’s proposed tax credits and benefits.

These measures will make New York less competitive. Business owners will be forced to leave the state, reduce their workforce or close their doors.

Our state needs to focus on educating our workforce. If companies have a better, more educated workforce, then their product has increased value. They will sell more faster and generate sales tax dollars back into the community.

Join me in telling the governor that with his proposal, New York will not be “open for business” for long!

Michael Polasek

President

Valley Hospitality Group

Poughkeepsie

Sanders is a common-sense choice

I am a registered Democrat who will be voting in the New York state primary election on April 19, and I am excited to be casting my vote for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

If you are a Democrat, please consider voting for Bernie Sanders as well.

Bernie Sanders is originally from Brooklyn, and, like another famous New Yorker, former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he has bold plans to improve the economy, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, promote environmental conservation and redistribute resources so that the American people — young and old — will live higher quality lives.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will tell you that she will do the same, but I don’t buy it for a minute. Bernie Sanders raises money through millions of small donations from people like you and me. Hillary Clinton, like other “business-as-usual” politicians, gets the vast majority of her funds from rich donors and big businesses who do not have regular people’s interests at heart.

How can she work for us when she’s being paid by Goldman Sachs and Citigroup? How can she fight for our environment when she’s taking money from the fossil fuel and fracking industries? This is common sense. If they’re paying her, she’s doing something for them in return, and it’s not something that will benefit the American people or the environment.

If you want a president who will work for the common people of America, please join me in voting for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary on April 19.

Veronica Stork

Tivoli

Poem should have accompanied cartoon

For those who didn’t remember the Statue of Liberty poem, I wish the Poughkeepsie Journal had printed it with the recent political cartoon of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wearing her crown and holding aloft a battered bat (Donald Trump cartoon, March 19).

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Marcia Dunn

Poughkeepsie