Legislation Needed To Prevent Future Coliseumscams, Lawsuit May Help

New York State’s law and Constitution should be amended to prevent future Coliseumscams to benefit future Charles Wangs.   NY State government itself and the various local governments should be prohibited from involvement in the business of professional sports facilities with a blanket ban on ownership by the government or loans or grants to the teams.  We should separate sports and state.

NY’S Constitution prohibits grants or loans to corporations except those of a mental health or educational nature.  Unfortunately, NY State government and the local governments ignore the Constitutional prohibition.  There is a lawsuit called Stop The Pork filed by Buffalo attorney James Ostrowski http://politicalclassdismissed.com to enforce the prohibition.  I am one of the plaintiffs.

New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, will hear the case on October 12th in Albany.  The Stop The Pork rally against corporate welfare will be held the same day.  Maybe I’ll go.

I have written about this case before:

Stop The Pork Lawsuit Wins Round, Goes To Court
of Appeals http://groundreport.com/articles.php?id=2929079

Stop The Pork Lawsuit Appeal To Be Heard
http://groundreport.com/articles.php?id=2922303

Stop The Pork Lawsuit Butchered In Supreme Court
http://groundreport.com/articles.php?id=2890386

http://groundreport.com/articles.php?id=2875068
Stop The Pork Lawsuit Combats Corporate Welfare & Eminent Domain Abuse
“Many Americans were outraged by the dramatic bailouts in the headlines of
late, but fewer seem outraged by the constant flow of corporate welfare at the
federal, state and local levels. Some New Yorkers have filed suit against the
State of New York, Governor David Paterson, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos,
and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.”

Unfortunately, even if the Stop The Pork lawsuit had been favorably decided before the Coliseumscam vote it would have been to no avail due to a case Murphy v. Erie County, which upheld the decision of Erie County to build a stadium for the benefit of a professional team.  I think this case wrongly decided but overturning decisions is an uphill battle.  Of course, the legislature and governor could correct this situation.

Legislation is needed to end corporate sports welfare.  Demand it from from the Governor and your legislator.  Vote Libertarian for those offices. -30-

Richard Cooper, Vice Chair Libertarian Party of New York and Libertarian Party of Nassau County