Cuomo’s latest contemptible pander I faithfully carry out the law NY PML Sec 109 . I tell you when the holy day is because I am the big boss
Claude Solnik
Long Island Business News
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Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
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Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
‘Workers have rights!” Gov. Cuomo thundered during Wednesday’s debate as he all but promised to create a new employee entitlement, this time for bereavement leave.
The gov said he’s still deciding whether to OK the bill, which would give employees 12 weeks of paid leave after a close relative dies — with the cost supposedly covered by a new payroll deduction. His only concern, he said, is whether it “dovetails” with the state’s similar family-leave law.
The bill was sponsored by two lawmakers who’d lost children, and it’s easy to see how such a brutal experience will leave you needing time off. But it’s huge step from that fact to a law mandating nearly three months of paid time off.
It’s not just that some people are sure to take every day they’re entitled to, need it or not. It’s an unequal burden: “Who this really affects are the small employers who are being hit with another burden that’s difficult to manage,” explains Business Council spokesman Zach Hutchins.
Properly, the number of paid days off — for births as well as deaths — is a matter for bosses and employees, not lawmakers, to work out. As matters stand, most US businesses offer an average of four days of bereavement leave, a recent survey found.
Maybe some businesses can’t afford more. Maybe workers would rather not lose any more from their paychecks. With a primary just two weeks away, Cuomo couldn’t care less.
Fact is, New York’s habit of trying to dictate every detail of every business’s operation is a big part of why many companies avoid the state, and why so many young people move away to to find work.
An entitlement to paid time off doesn’t help much if you can’t actually land a job.
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