I would like to congratulate New York for finally achieving Third World status. Our Legislature is ineffective at best, suffering from a partial paralysis, and, as this past year has shown over and over, beset by corruption and scandal.
Please don't forget that our legislators also enjoy perks and job security that the rest of society can hope to win only after landing a lottery jackpot.
Our executive is a bully who would rather enforce his will upon the other coequal branches of government rather than debate — in public — the need to pass the laws, regulations and policies he wants for our society. Our tin-pot governor has demonstrated this with his threat to appoint a Moreland Act commission to "fix" the Legislature if they don't pass his campaign reform act and other pieces of social engineering he desires.
Meanwhile, our business and personal tax climate is ranked near the bottom of most all measures in relation to the other territory surrounding us. Our educational institutions have shown that, no matter how much money they get, only 70 percent of the students will actually graduate and 30 percent of those will be so illiterate they can't succeed in college.
Finally, let's not forget to thank the citizens of this great Third World state who will forget all of this on the next Election Day, when more than 50 percent of them don't even bother to show up and vote. I think all of this definitely places our fine territory into Third World state status.
Patrick Kelsey
Latham