Libertarians Pan Vallone's Last Winter Snow Job

Contact: Jim Lesczynski, Media Relations Director, 212-852-3931

1/18/01 – New York City Council Speaker Peter J. Vallone’s final State of the City address Wednesday failed to propose real solutions to the city’s most pressing problems, says the Manhattan Libertarian Party. Vallone’s proposals, which included releasing statistics on police treatment of minorities and increased education funding from the state, would do nothing to stop racial profiling or improve failing government schools, the Libertarians charge.

“Vallone’s address was a disappointment to New Yorkers craving answers to serious social ills,” says Jim Lesczynski, the party’s Media Relations Director. “Instead of fresh thinking, he gave us the same old big-government nonsense. More statistics will tell New Yorkers nothing we don’t already know.”

“We already know minorities are subject to racial profiling and other mistreatment, almost always in the name of the war on drugs. The quickest way to put an end to these injustices is not through more statistics and reports, but through an end to the insane drug war,” says Lesczynski.

Scott Jeffrey, the Libertarian who ran for Congress against Rep. Charles Rangel last year on a platform of marijuana legalization, found urban minority youth under siege from the war on drugs by black cops as well as white.

“Our government leaders have declared war on a generation of urban youth, and they feign surprise when there are casualties,” says Jeffrey.

Calling for increased funding for government schools is also nothing new, but it has failed time and again to improve the quality of our children’s education, Lesczynski notes. The answer is not more money for the city’s schools, nor a simplified funding formula from Albany, but school choice, he says.

“I agree with Speaker Vallone that the state of our government schools is an emergency,” says Lesczynski. “Libertarians demand that parents be empowered to remove their children from the emergency
situation as quickly as possible, through bold school-choice reforms. Vallone asks parents for patience and more tax dollars.”

Manhattan Libertarian Party Chair Jak Karako, a financial analyst, blasted Vallone’s spendthrift proposals.

“Vallone has the gall to ask for another $500 million in taxpayers’ money for school aid and an additional $80 million a year for public housing,” says Karako. “Rather than increase the municipal budget, Libertarians would look for ways to cut spending and return that money to the people who earned it.”

Libertarians will challenge the Vallone/Giuliani/Green Big Government policies with forums, petitions, protests and candidates. Libertarians from around New York State will gather April 28th in Manhattan's Holiday Inn Midtown to hear speakers on topics such as gun rights, women's rights, protecting property ownersfrom abuse and protecting free expression by separating state and culture.