I’m still deciding on if the NY Con Con is good or bad. Here is some information from a friend I wanted to pass along to help you decide.
This November all NYS voters will have the following on the back of their ballot
(NYS Consitution Article XIX Section 2):
“Shall there be a convention to revise the constitution and amend the same?”
There has been a lot of advertising and social media postings about the question that will be on this fall’s voter ballot – should there be a NYS Constitution Convention (“Con Con”).
Special interest organizations say union contracts could be threatened, employees’ jobs could be at risk, public education could be put at risk, only the political elite could be part of the Con Con, gun rights and firearms could be taken away, and so on. The key word in all this is “COULD”.
These are tactics to get the uninformed voters to vote against Con Con. There are similar tactics for Con Con.
Remember any NYS Senator or Assemblyperson could propose a bill at anytime the legislature is in session to put the above at risk. Again that word is used – “COULD”.
Expensive? Yes, it will be.
Here are just some ideas that could be proposed in a convention if Con Con is approved.
Possibly propose a voter recall vote (a “vote of no confidence” if you will) to give the voters the power to kick a bad or corrupt politician out of ANY elected office.
Possibly propose a maximum salary limit for legislators paid by the state instead of the legislators proposing and voting for their own pay raise in two consecutive sessions. This pay limit be changed only be the next Con Con.
Possibly propose either getting rid of the letter of necessity totally, or rewrite it to make the governor state facts only in the letter of necessity.
Possibly propose putting the Right to keep and bear arms from the NYS Civil Rights Law (Article 2 § 4) into the State’s Constitution and bar the legislature from passing any law againt the Right to keep and bear arms.
Possibly propose setting term limits for NYS Senators, Assemblypersons, and Governor.
Of course there are many more possible proposals that could be proposed.
Any Con Con proposal would have to be passed first by the Convention. It would then be put on the ballot for the voters to vote on. This is what the advertising fails to tell you!
The NYS Constitutional Convention question only comes up once every 20 years. If the Con Con is passed by the voters this year, voters will have a chance to vote for the delegates that will be part of the Convention in 2018 November vote.
The voters of NYS have the final say at the polls to any changes in the State’s Constitution when the the proposed changes are voted on at the eariiest 2019.
Please do your research on a NYS Con Con before voting. Do not let others persuade you.
(for opinions for and against please visit http://www.newyorkconcon.info/?page_id=202)