Albany, NY – On Constitutional Grounds Gov. Cuomo Vetoes Kiryas Joel Annexation Bills

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    An unidentified man looks up the annexation map before the hearing on June 10, 2015 Albany, NY – A pair of bills that would have hampered and possibly derailed the proposed Kiryas Joel annexation has been vetoed by Governor Cuomo.

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    The veto of assembly bill, A7629, sponsored by Assemblyman James Skoufis, and a matching Senate bill, S5603, sponsored by Senator Bill Larkin, potentially sets the stage for the proposed Kiryas Joel expansion, if it is approved by a majority of both the Kiryas Joel and Town of Monroe boards.

    A veto bill signed by the governor said that the proposed bills breached state law, by giving counties control over annexations that would not affect their own boundaries, in violation of Article IX of the New York State constitution.

    “Governor Cuomo came through for the rule of law,” Ari Felberman, government relations coordinator for the Village of Kiryas Joel, told VIN News. “For over 200 years, the same rules have applied to everybody in the United States and suddenly, when land owners want to do something with their own land, people tried to change laws that have been good for hundreds of years with a law that was tailored to block Kiryas Joel.”

    “This hopefully sends a message to those who want to keep a particular group out,” added Assemblyman Dov Hikind. “This is America and you just can’t do that.”

    Skoufis expressed his disappointment on his Facebook page, accusing Cuomo of “playing politics.”

    “This bipartisan legislation would have provided significantly increased scrutiny of the current Kiryas Joel-initiated bids as well as future controversial annexation proposals throughout the state,” wrote Skoufis. “While ignoring the voices of thousands of residents from every municipality in Orange County, the governor rejected broadly supported legislation and chose not to correct serious and legitimate inadequacies in the current annexation law.”

    United Monroe, which strongly opposed the annexation, blasted the governor for caving into pressure from Kiryas Joel on its Facebook page.

    “We just received news that Governor Andrew Cuomo vetoed both annexation bills. Despite both the Assembly and Senate votes overwhelmingly in favor of these two environmental oversight bills, our State Governor bowed to a special interest and, at the final hour, vetoed these bills. We will continue to make our voices heard and remember, the Town Board of Monroe deserves our pressure, our presence and our vocal opposition to these illegal land grabs. The vote rests with our Town Board. The fact that Cuomo waited until amost 11pm to make this decision is insulting and offensive. Shame on you, Andy Cuomo.”


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    31 Comments
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    ALTERG
    ALTERG
    8 years ago

    הודו לשם כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו, ורוח הקודש אומרת כן ירבה וכן יפרוץ, i told you guys here last week that we will make it, the rabba z”l works in heaven for his kids & his shtetel. Tnx governor chomo.

    8 years ago

    ברוך ה’ חסדי ה’ בזכות של אותו זקן

    8 years ago

    Thank you Governer , what a righteous person, just like your father

    DOVE1
    DOVE1
    8 years ago

    Thank You Cumo .the hearts of kings and governors are in Hashems Hands. Thank you Hashem .,,,,

    Deveee
    Deveee
    8 years ago

    Thank you Governor.
    God watches over all Jews, even if they’re Satmar.

    MeirSchwartz
    MeirSchwartz
    8 years ago

    As a KJ reaident i think its noting to be excited with. I dont see what annexation will help the avarage KJ resident. There are so many houses around the village that KJ people are moving in, why shouldnt we live just like that, just like Monsey! The only way “and to the banefit of the KJ people” will be by living and moving out OUTSIDE the village. And the ONLY way is NO annexation. Its the only way that people will think we gatta buy outside and Spreading out just like monsey and private houses!

    8 years ago

    I don’t know too much about it all, but this sure ain’t going to help relationships in the area. Still, it’s nice to see the Governor came through for the community, although I suspect there is a grain of truth to the protesters’ claim of pandering.

    As for posters 1-4 : can you please use spellcheck? I understand your secular education is minimal at best, but it’s time for you to stop looking like uneducated peasants and use your tablets etc to write coherently & correctly. Coherently means in a clear, understandable manner. Punctuation & spelling included.

    honesty
    honesty
    8 years ago

    Kudos to Governor Cuomo for these two vetoes. I am thrilled to give credit where credit is due, you did the right thing.

    You are the governor and we are all looking up to you to defend us from this “blatant religious hatred”. Don’t let bigotry, intimidation, and blatant religious hatred directed against individuals, institutions and communities ever win. This form of bigotry should be purged from society. Laws that are directed in halting the spread of one community need to be vetoed.

    Thank again, you did the right thing!

    8 years ago

    Aren’t some of you the same posters who curse him for being a liberal? Now all of a sudden he’s a righteous person?

    8 years ago

    Grand Rabbi Yoel z”l who was the founder of this beutifull town. has written a Sefer called “Al Hageulah” in the begining of that holy book he quotes from the “Kley Yakar” based on the Pasuk פנו לכם צפונה .
    read it.

    Avrohom Abba
    Avrohom Abba
    8 years ago

    Governor Cuomo, thank you for having the guts to stand up and fight for your costituents! You have rare gift; you are able to see right through a disguised attempt to manipulate the law.
    On and on Mr. Cuomo!
    Your courage and actions are greatly appreciated!!!

    Raphael_Kaufman
    Raphael_Kaufman
    8 years ago

    Ah, yes. Andrew Cuomo, the best Governor that money (and block votes) can buy.

    sln134
    sln134
    8 years ago

    It’s fascinating to me how a few Rebbe’s and some businessman manipulate tens of thousands of people for pure personal gain.

    No Chicken currently on the market is kosher enough.

    The wheat for the מצות that was used for the past half a century is totally חמץ.

    J-Net has some major software issues and glitches.

    Oh, and the beef.. That’s no good either.

    And we absolutely can’t have people living outside the physical borders of KJ. God forbid we don’t control the housing market.
    And don’t sell me that crap that outside of KJ the Taxes are higher and hence the need for the annexation. Since when do they give a שניט?

    Let’s build a slaughterhouse, bring in wheat from the west coast, and create our own software (change the K-9 logo?).
    And I’m sure Meal mart was happy to invest in a new plant in order to gain 10,000+ new consumers.
    Let’s all eat a low grade steak from Texas so the משלח מנות doesn’t stop coming to the guys on top!
    Next up! A strawberry greenhouse on Hooper street?

    There are probably more examples.

    What I haven’t heard is how the profits of these establishments will go towards the needy.

    If you do it just to help the pious stay pious than why keep the profit!

    During the summer months you can buy a healthy and filling dinner served in spacious air conditioned rooms for a fraction of the retail price. Just because they wanted to do something meaningful to their people (or to keep them out of restaurants) simply by not placing a profit on top of the cost.
    They can do that with the מצות.

    At least the guys from the last generation had the guts to say. I’m opening a butcher shop so I can pay for teachers. Please buy kosher for Passover sugar from
    התאחדות הרבנים as they are a new organization with no active income.

    Nowadays, you have kosher everything!! And people are just buying because if there is a kosher version why not buy that cheap knock off rather than that of a trusted brand?!

    My local grocery (הצלחה מאנסי) doesn’t even carry the aluminum foil pans from Pactiv or Wilkinson. Just “JetFoil ” some knock off a guy from Boro park brings in from China with a הכשר.
    It sells for the same price of course. And it breaks down if you use it for high density food, say potatoes… We only carry products that are of interest to our customers. The customer service person told me.

    The hell with Dell. I herby proclaim that I have attained a reliable religious supervision on all Lenovo products…. But it needs my rectangular sticker, you can’t just by it on amazon…

    A large portion of this somewhat new phenomena stems from good old ignorance and outright stupidity. The rest of the crowd, maybe just wants to go with the flow for the sake of the family (or how it will look אויפן גאס) of course…!

    I’m not too familiar with all these politics so I may not be 100% correct. But it sure seems to me that some sort of pattern is forming here.

    Change the players to Muslims and location somewhere in Saudi Arabia and the story teller to Al Jazeera and you’d ask yourself “how don’t these poor schmucks see through that cheap ploy”

    When is the last time you flew on a private jet??

    charliehall
    charliehall
    8 years ago

    One of the major problems that municipalities have all over the US is that states have taken away their ability to annex. Compare Detroit, St. Louis, and Baltimore — who can’t annex — to Houston, Indianapolis, and San Diego, who have annexed like crazy in order to continue growing. Kiryas Joel is much smaller of course but Gov. Cuomo made the right decision. Will Michigan, Missouri, and Maryland realize their errors?

    Secular
    Secular
    8 years ago

    Quid pro Cuomo.