The Suffolk County Legislature held committee meetings this week. A general meeting of the legislature will be held on Tuesday in Hauppauge. Here is a recap of a few items coming out of the committees. For marked agendas on the committee meetings, click here.
Prepaid Cell Phone Registration Bill Gets Out of Committee
A bill sponsored by Legislator Kate Browning, WF-Shirley, which would require individuals to present photo identification when purchasing prepaid cell phones, is expected to be voted on Tuesday after making it out of the Public Safety Committee.
The legislature heard close to an hour of public comments on the bill at the last Suffolk County Legislature meeting on May 10. Supporters of the bill cited that prepaid cell phones are easily usable for individuals conducting illegal activities, while opponents stated that another group of individuals who often use the phones - immigrants - may be too afraid to offer up photo identification.
Lag Payroll Bills Stay in Committee
Three lag-payroll proposals for county employees, all introduced by Legislator Jon Cooper, D-Lloyd Harbor, failed to get out of committee at Monday's Budget and Finance Committee meeting. Two proposals, including one lag-payroll proposal for elected officials, were tabled until the committee's next meeting. Legislators Ed Romaine, R-Center Moriches, and Tom Muratore, R-Ronkonkoma, voted against tabling both measures. The lag payrolls were introduced by Cooper as to help close a projected $180 budget shortfall in the coming fiscal year.
Sex Offender Trailers Staying Open and in Southampton
Two efforts by South Fork Legislator Jay Schneiderman, I-Montauk, to close two homeless sex-offender trailers in Southampton within 15 days of the bills' signings were both tabled in the health and human services committee.
Nearly three months ago the legislature overrode County Executive Steve Levy's veto to sustain a measure which would call for a private contractor to operate a new plan for the roughly 25 to 30 homeless sex offenders in the county. However the trailers remain open, prompting Schneiderman's attempts to demand closing them.
County Offering Grants to Draw Film Industry
The county's economic development, higher education and energy committee has suggested using part of the proceeds of an increased hotel/motel tax – approved roughly two years ago, and protested by many East Enders in the hospitality business at the time – to attempt lure filmmakers to Suffolk County.
Nearly $20,000 was unanimously approved by the committee to be spent on three separate grants of $6,000 a piece on films, of which 50 percent must be shot in Suffolk County.
The Suffolk County Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve a zone change for Huntington Station's AvalonBay plan, a project that would create nearly 400 residential units on a 26-acre parcel. The plan has created quite a stir in Huntington. Read Huntington Patch for more information.
1) Those of us regular legal citizens who don't want to pay $100 a month for a cellphone that is hardly ever used! I carry mine around turned off 95% of the time. Only use it for emergencies generally. 2) Senior citizens use them! Again, because they are cheap and only for emergencies.
Big brother keeping an eye on everyone there.
"A recent national survey sponsored by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law reveals that millions of American citizens do not have readily available documentary proof of citizenship. Many more – primarily women – do not have proof of citizenship with their current name. The survey also showed that millions of American citizens do not have government-issued photo identification, such as a driver’s license or passport. Finally, the survey demonstrated that certain groups – primarily poor, elderly, and minority citizens – are less likely to possess these forms of documentation than the general population." They did this research to fight the photo-id requirement for voting, but it applies here as well.
You've revealed the real reason for support of this absurd law: disdain for immigrants & a very old vengence against them reaching its height in the American Patriot Party, aka the Know Nothings, formed in 1848. They have been the largest 3rd Party in American history, taking over the legislatures in several states including PA & MA, electing many to Congress. They opposed immigration, because it was well known that Papists could never become real Americans. Their loyalty was to the Vatican, not the US Constitution. Not only were Catholics constitutionally unable to understand democracy, they refused to assimilate into American culture. The prime example were the hordes of Irish who came here to take American jobs and lower the wages of workers, because they were savages who would work for next to nothing as they lived in overcrowed slums, drank all day, danced all night and fornicated incessently like animals, having babies they didnt take care of. They were an amoral criminal people the English had amply proved were incapable of being civilized, prone to violence. refusing to learn from patient English aristocrats how a Christian lives in society. Italians, like Latinos, wern't even white! If you think I am exaggerating, please go back and read their litterature and sympathetic newspaper accounts of these true Americans. Between 1850 to 1855, 28 Irish Catholics were lynched in San Francisco by mobs wanting only to protect their property, wives & children from rape.
your facts are wrong too. I do not have a photo ID like hundreds of thousands, if not millions of NYers without drivers’ licenses. But you’re a real American who tells me I have the freedom to go live in the woods, thanks. I do, but you want to ban me having a cell phone without 2 photo IDs. “An illegal alien. . . is a criminal” is not factual. Driving over 55 mph on the LIE is against the law, & you as a responsible person living in society would never do that of course. If you lost all sense & were stopped by police for speeding, you would be issued a ticket to appear in court or send in a fixed fine. At no point in the process, from scoff law speeding to disposition, does that make you a criminal & no person is an illegal being. Being out of status with immigration is a misdemeanor, a scoff law, not a criminal act. That is why conservatives in Congress attempted to make being here out of status a felony, several yrs running, , but were defeated by a large majority each time. I believe you are a typical conservative who is in favor of our Constitution only when it conveniently corresponds with yr opinion, or can chuck it at whim, like declaring children born here of undocumented parents not to be citizens. Conservatives who rail against too much government & big brother are hypocrites when they mostly want to grow them, unless the gov wants people to pay their taxes or regulate banks & Wall St. or enforce worker safety or a slew of right wing shibboleths .
As for prepaid phones, leave them alone. It is not the governments job to regulate every nuance of our lives. I like to know I can go by buy a phone that cannot be traced. I do nothing illegal
I do not understand why you would like to hurt yourself, your family & our community by causing our economy to tank so badly, the present downturn would look like we are in clover. Without immigrants on LI we would be in terrible shape. Don't take my word for it, but learn what scholars who have researched & investigated facts as they will give you an inkling of just how much we are so luckly to have immigrants. Without immigrants, the exodus of population from LI, going on for 15 yrs, would have left us in even worse and have had no chance of compensating for that drain of young educated people just starting out in the prime of their productive years & after spending large amounts on their education. In fact, immigrants grew our population by a positive small percentage. My father was an "illegal"immigrant, who lived in fear most all his adult life he would be caught, while he worked hard, 2 jobs, to provide for our family, it took him 25 yrs to finally earn a green card. It is not easy to live under such phychological stress and incessant worry, always looking around to see what's there over the shoulder. Becoming a person who is in status with immigration is not a one shot application. It is an arduous, long process that can be blocked for long periods at a time. Right now the average time is 12 yrs not so long ago. Unlike you I like immigrants, of whom many are friends, people I admire & respect. U.S. history is a history of immigration; it is our heart & soul
There is also La Raza which is a threat to the southwestern states of the United States: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=13863 Legal immigration has always been good for America. Illegal immigration is a threat to America. If you help illegal aliens remain in the United States you are aiding-and-abetting in criminal activity and should also be prosecuted. We are a nation of laws and not of men.
http://www.hagedornfoundation.org/downloads/HispanicImpactJournal_vF3.pdf
Regarding economics, illegals are beneficial to some large corporate interests. A large illegal working population also suppresses wages of citizens and legal immigrants. Illegals also burden our emergencies rooms and school districts. Bottom-line, it is time for Americans too wake up and defend their own country.
My immigrant grand patents did it the right way .. They checked in wirh USA government officials at Ellis Island when they came to the states ..and earned citizenship by takinf a citizen test etc... You DEFEND jumping fences ; running across borders ; hiding in trucks as IF it were ok... I travel a grest deal worldwide and ID is required of me at every border I cross legally . If you were raised the product of "illegal immigrants" then you are preconditioned to sympathize with them as the child of a " lawless" person. My grandparents are legal immigrants ; they did it right as lawful people ... I am the product of a good example . Your pandering illegal activity is part of your being ...it runs in your family . Your talented toungue will always be one of an illegal family who cheated thier way into our great country ; by your own admission . Enforce Immigration laws ; other countries do .. Save America : One job at a time .
If your not running a criminal activity or fearful of being discovered by authorities ...good idea ... Italy is my prime example of Big Brother ... Its here too .. All in guise of national security ... Wait until the internet laws raise thier heads ... Big Brother is on the move .. Love it or leave or stand with your name and fight it ... Are you ready to DEFEND your beliefs with your life? A TRUE PATRIOT IS ! Ask around ... Things are a changing ... Are you ready?
I am so sorry your dad broke the law for so many years in this great country of ours. My Mom and Dad are LEGAL immigrants to this country and would never have dreamed of coming here and breaking the law if they were not allowed in legally. Because your family broke the law and felt a lot of stress, tough. My family came here and aclimated to Americas climate, language, etc... They did not ask for things to be changed to make them more comfortable. As far as long Island being unable to do without illegal immigrants, you are wrong. Once the jobs open up that they are doing, maybe the young people in our community could work. Did you see in yesterdays Newsday, how many high school and college kids can't find work? I know you are going to say, American kids won't do that work, but I think you are wrong. I myself scooped dog poop at a kennel everyday while in high school. Why don't we just put America first right now for Americans. I understand that illegals want a better life for their families, but we have to worry about American families right now.
The story of your family IS the true American story and their ability to overcome the odds is what makes America great. Xenophobic isolationists have no real understanding of the history of our country. Good luck.
YOU obviously want others to do the DIRTY work of YOUR DEFENSE ... DONT worry people LIKE ME are everywhere : READY for CHANGE ... FIRST : Ill stick to ridding politicians who pander votes from "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS" who DESERVE a bus ride to the border they jumped ! COME IN the front door IF they want assimulation INTO our great nation . BACK DOOR burgulars need SWIFT JUSTICE ... ask OUR LOCAL JUSTUCES ; WHY they too ; continue to ALLOW ; "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS" : to flourish among us .... There are laws ; NOT being enforced . Sorry no-namer .... Just saying what alot of people think as a committee of one for I am NOT ASHAMED to get real..... By name ... Opinion... etc .. Come out of your little sheltered closet and start beung real by standing with your name as you call others out .. Can't judt let you Liberals run MY LIFE!
Great idea ... Accountability ... Lawful ... The REAL domestic terrorists are hoping it doesnt pass . The lawless : nameless : subverters ...