Readers Write: State leaders trample state Constitution

The Island Now

In the News Times Newspapers, Friday, March 18 was the article “States ‘back door’ borrowing” by George J. Marlin.

I am commenting on this article because of things that happen in New York State government that the people have no control over.

Because of the rash burdening of the people with debt, the New York Constitution was revised in 1846 so that Article 17, Section 11 would read: “no debt shall be hereafter contracted by or on behalf of the state, unless such debt shall be authorized by law, for some single work or purpose, to be distinctly specified therein. 

No such law shall take effect until it shall, at a general election, have been submitted to the people, and have received a majority of all votes cast for or against it….”

I here reprinted the foregoing from Mr. Marlin’s article for reference regarding the comments I wish to make.

If I am not mistaken, the intent of a law is the law and that no errors or poor wording may be used as a loophole to circumvent the purpose of a law.

The final sentence of the revision is dubious.

For a law to take effect, it would have to read: of all votes cast, a majority would have to be for it. If the reverse is the case, it would fail.

According to Mr. Marlin’s article, all of the New York governors beginning with Nelson Rockefeller in the late 1950s to the present have circumvented the voters: Shadow government, authorities, agencies, back door borrowing, creative financing, etc.

All of these means for attempting to evade the law are illegal as it has been actually contracted by or on behalf of the state which is forbidden.

If it is done resulting in personal gain it is illegal.

In short: If the people of New York did not pass as described above any of these items for “some single work or purpose,” the people are not required to pay for them.

For those who did it, it is ‘Their Baby.’

For anyone who purchased bonds, it is like any other kind of investing and if it loses, they end up holding the bag.

To repeat: The people of New York don’t have to pay it.

Another fact: Money approved by the people for “some single work or purpose” may not be diverted to something else and leave undone what was approved.

An example of this though not approved by the people was federal money meant for Sandy victims used for the governor’s self aggrandizement.

The dilemma is: How can the people lawfully see to the law being timely enforced.

Charles Samek

Mineola

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