62 The Herald Courier, Friday, December 19, 2014
HC
Legislators vote to repeal speed cams
Continued from Page 1 line just after Labor Day. Democratic legislators in early November called for the county to suspend the program until a full rollout of the cameras could be conducted and each site could be equipped with flashing lights and proper signage. “Thousands and thousands of residents have been unfairly hit with this charge, the flashing lights and signage was never installed,” Legislator Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport), the Legislature’s minority leader, told reporters after Monday’s vote. Weeks later, the Legislature’s Republican majority drafted legislation for an immediate repeal
of the program, which was met with support from the minority caucus. The proposal was first announced on Dec. 8, shortly after Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone held a news conference announcing the county would abandon its school speed zone camera program, which was set to be rolled out in 2015. The school speed-zone cameras will be removed under an installation contract with the Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions. Termination fees for the contract, Gonsalves said last week, would total about $2 million. In a news release Tues-
day, Legislator Judy Jacobs (DWoodbury), who represents the 16th district, lamented the program’s rollout during the summer, when she said many motorists were unaware schools had ongoing programs, and that the county did not amend the program before putting it back online in September. “My final thought on the program is that it was extremely flawed. However, speeding is a serious problem and the statistics proved that,” Jacobs said. “In my estimation, we must all be aware of the need to respect a school zone and to alter our driving as responsible residents.”
Nassau County lawmakers voted to repeal the county’s controversial school speed-zone-camera program on Monday.
How inequality is baked into the justice system Continued from Page 52 by banksters, employers manipulated workers to give back wages and benefits during the downturn in order to “protect their jobs”, but even after the economy (and their profits) rebounded to record heights, have yet to restore wages or let workers share in their productivity. “In 2013, after-tax corporate profits as a share of the economy tied with their highest level on record (in 1965), while labor compensation as a share of the economy hit its lowest point since 1948. Wage growth since 1979 has not kept pace with productivity growth, resulting in falling or flat wages for most workers and big gains for corporate coffers, shareholders, executives and others at the top of the income ladder,” the New York Times editorialized (“Wages and Salaries Still Lag as Corporate Profits Surge,” Aug. 31, 2014). But it is not just refusing to pay a living wage (and battling against raising the minimum wage or pay equity legislation) or having workers share in their own pro-
ductivity and success, employers engage in out-and-out wage theft Data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute show that in 2012, the Department of Labor helped 308,000 workers recover $280 million in back pay for wage-theft violations — nearly double the amount stolen that year in robberies on the street, at banks, gas stations and convenience stores. In an article, “More Workers Are Claiming ‘Wage Theft,” (Sept. 1) Steven Greenhouse writes, “New York’s attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, has recovered $17 million in wage claims over the past three years. ‘I’m amazed at how petty and abusive some of these practices are,’ he said. ‘Cutting corners is increasingly seen as a sign of libertarianism rather than the theft that it really is’.” Then in Dec. 3, article, “Study Finds Violations of Wage Law in New York and California”, Greenhouse reports, “The United States Labor Department says that a new study shows that between 3.5 and
Sewanhaka sees savings in energy plan Continued from Page 18 are probably the biggest savers of energy because they turn things off.” Johnsen said he has been performing 20-25 audits per week on the districts buildings, measuring energy use during different times on the day as well. School Board President David Fowler said the conservation steps involved changing how the district operates. “We’re hopeful that we can change people’s habits,” Fowler said. Fowler said the program, which begin in the fall, is intended to bring money back to the district’s education budget. “In a tax cap world any savings we can get beneficial,” he said. Fowler said that Johnsen’s work in-
volves occupying the district’s buildings in times when it is not heavily staffed. “He’s been very involved since the fall,” Fowler said. “He’s been in late at night and on the weekends.” “The idea is to put the savings back into education,” Fowler added. Fowler said he expects the biggest changes to be seen during extended school breaks such as the upcoming holiday break. “We’ll be able to look at how much energy we save there in January,” he said. Johnsen said in his presentation the district paid PSEG $110,794 for electricity, $1,467 to National Grid for gas and $4,609 to the West Hempstead Water District for water usage in August.
6.5 percent of all the wage and salary workers in California and New York are paid less than the minimum wage. “The study, which examined work force data for the two states, found that more than 300,000 workers in each state suffered minimum-wage violations each month. Labor Department officials said that even if one assumed a violation rate half that nationwide, that would mean more than two million workers across the nation were paid less than the federal or state minimum wage. “The minimum-wage violations in those two states translate into $20 million to $29 million in lost income per week, the study concluded. Those amounts represent 38 percent of the income of the victimized workers in New York and 49 percent of the income of victimized workers in California. “Violations were most common in the restaurant and hotel industries, the study found, followed by educational and health services and retail and wholesale.” At Saturday’s protest against racial injustice, I met one such restaurant worker who lives upstate. She impressed me with the way she articulated the issues, but when I asked whether she had voted (testing my theory that a lot of people complain but don’t vote), she said she is an undocumented immigrant who was brought here at the age of 4, 30 years ago. She did not qualify for DACA so is forced to be part of an underground economy where she can be taken advantage of without protection of the justice system. She is a smart young woman who said she could not afford college (she would not have qualified for any assistance or in-state tuition rate). She makes less than minimum wage and has few options. The shadow economy - the lack of immigration reform that underpins it - is part of the institutionalized inequity. What else is buried in that omnibus budget (now adopted)? “Further budget cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency, always a favorite target of the Republican right wing. Most notoriously, the bill would enshrine a Bush-era rule that
allows the mountaintop mining industry to continue dumping toxic coal waste in the streams of Appalachia,” the New York Times reported. “The budget bill cut EPA funding to its lowest level since 1989, forcing the agency to reduce staff as they are due to take action on climate change, water pollution and more; blocks Clean Water Act protections for millions of streams, ponds and wetlands, allowing Big Ag and others to pollute them as much as they want; repeals new standards to make light bulbs more efficient, costing all of us money and increasing pollution; prevents the Department of the Interior from placing Sage Grouse (who are on the brink of extinction) on the Endangered Species List so that drilling and ranching interests can run roughshod over public lands where they live and breed, said Anthony RogersWright, Environmental Action.org. This is a matter of environmental justice, as well as social justice. Who winds up paying the bill for polluted air and water and all the attendant health problems? Certainly not Rex Tillerson, the CEO of oil and gas leviathan ExxonMobil, who sued to block fracking near his home outside of Dallas. And it is a contributor to the socioeconomic-political inequity that is roiling society. When anyone raises the issue of the growing inequality - the gap between rich and poor is the greatest since the Robber Barons and the Gilded Age, and is the greatest among all industrialized nations, while the US has the poorest “upward mobility rate” - no one is suggesting that everyone make the same income and have the same wealth. In fact, the mythology of the American Dream is so strong, that those who would most benefit from more progressive policies oppose them because they harbor the fantasy of becoming that Billionaire, just as they harbor the fantasy of winning the Superball lottery. What people do want is a system that isn’t rigged to deny worthy individuals of their opportunity to succeed, as Elizabeth Warren has so eloquently described.