2010 Conservative Party  Legislative Priorities

A.     The Conservative Party is committed to helping the taxpayers residing in New York State and firmly believes that tax reform and relief is needed immediately and must include the following measures:

a.       Hold total state spending growth at/or (preferably) below the inflation rate;

b.      Reduce the personal income tax on all New Yorkers, allowing working people to keep more of their hard-earned wages and salaries;

c.       Reduce the corporate income tax on all businesses in New York, to stimulate more investment and job creation;

d.      Rejection of a “congestion pricing plan”;

e.       Cap the growth in school property taxes;

f.       Cap the growth in real property taxes;

g.       No reinstatement of the “Commuter Tax”;

h.      Elimination of state income tax on dividend earnings;

i.        End the hidden tax hike of “bracket creep”;

j.        No increase in fees or “hidden” taxes;

k.      Eliminate the New York State estate tax;

l.        Private business pensions should have the same tax exemption as state pensions;

m.    Local government entities, such as Fire Districts, Libraries, School Districts, should have voter approval of budgets, prior to contracts becoming effective;

n.      Opposition to unfunded mandates.

o.    Local governments should be required to consolidate services and where possible, to eliminate

p.    duplication of services or dissolve local government when approved by voter referendum.

q.    Opposition to the unconstitutional levy of state and local sales taxes on out-of-state internet purchases.

r.     Support collection of cigarette taxes sold to non-Indians by Indian Reservations.

s.       Serious consideration of a “flat tax” where every household in New York State pays the same percentage of their income thereby making it possible to eliminate nuisance taxes. 

B.     Reform of the Medicaid System must include limiting Medicaid to necessary coverage reflective of private health insurance coverage, thus providing relief to local governments.

C.     We are opposed to the issuance of New York State drivers’ licenses and any form of government identification, and/or any other New York State licenses to illegal aliens.

D.     We are opposed to taxpayer financing of political campaigns.

E.      We staunchly reject any effort to reinforce current abortion laws.  We support parental notification and/or consent prior to the performance of an abortion on an unmarried minor and we support New York passing a ban on the procedure known as Partial Birth Abortion, the elimination of Medicaid funding of abortions and support Informed Consent.

F.      We support the encouragement of educational choice programs through establishment of a system of educational tax credits or deductions and/or vouchers in payment to parents or school districts for expenses incurred in elementary or secondary education, and we support lifting the cap on Charter Schools in New York State.  We support the proposal that school districts should only invest in programs that have been proven to work prior to any new funding.

G.     We support first passage of a Constitutional Amendment establishing Initiative and Referendum and Recall as well as term limits for the Governor, Lt. Governor, Comptroller, Attorney General and Members of the Senate and Assembly.

H.     We support Tort Reform that restores common sense to our system of civil litigation while assuring the protection and consideration of the personal rights of the injured individual and their families.

I.        We support legislation that upholds the Second Amendment rights granted to citizens in good standing.

J.       We support the restoration of the death penalty.

K.     We oppose any effort to increase welfare benefits.

L.      The Conservative Party staunchly believes that all human cloning must be banned and that stem-cell research specifically prohibits the use of progenitor cells and/or pluripotent cells and is limited to adult stem cells and fetal cord blood research.

M.    We support legislation that allows families recovery for the wrongful death of their unborn child due to negligence, malpractice, or other wrongful acts.  We support enactment of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which would punish an assault on an unborn child.

N.     We support a constitutional amendment that will define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.  We also believe that any attempt to amend the Human Rights Law to include "transgender" language as a special class of citizens should be rejected.

O.     We support legislation to end parole for all convicted felons, legislation that requires every criminal who commits a crime to give a DNA sample and legislation that requires the civil commitment of sexual predators.

P.      We support the repeal of the statute of limitations for rape, sexual assault, and other serious violent felony offenses for all offenders.

Q.     We support amending the law so those who commit a third independent misdemeanor offense are subject to a felony conviction.

R.     We support legislation that provides that an inmate's income must be used for payment, restitution, and reparation support of his dependents and for reimbursement to the state for the costs of food, shelter and clothing during incarceration.

S.      We support a constitutional amendment that would specifically define “eminent domain” to prohibit takings for economic development purposes and limit takings to true public purposes.

T.      We are opposed to efforts to bar law enforcement agencies from utilizing any effective law enforcement techniques, such as profiling, on grounds of political correctness.

U.     We support privatization of state owned and/or operated enterprises that compete with privately owned businesses with revenues from asset sales earmarked for tax reduction or retirement of State Bonds. 

V.     We reject any legislation that uses public monies for the development of private enterprises, i.e.; DestiNY, sports stadiums or convention centers. 

W.   We oppose the unreasonable and massive take over by state and local governments, or Indian Nations, of private property and open space, which will prevent private enterprise from being in the position of economically developing such lands to generate revenue. 

X.     We support legislation to adopt English, as 28 other states have done already, as New York’s official language.

Y.     We are opposed to any legislation that mandates health insurance coverage. 

Z.       We continue to oppose Casino Gambling as a means to enhance revenues.

AA.   We support repeal of the “Wicks Law” mandates on public building construction and repeal of Agency Shop.