When Scott Flath walked into the L.I. Hardware store in the early 1980s as a 16-year-old employee, the minimum wage was over $3 an hour.
He’s now manager of the Suffolk County small business, and is grappling with a mandate from New York State that increases the minimum wage to $16 an hour in New York City, Westchester, and Long Island, starting January 1st, 2024.
The store will have to let two workers go.
“It doesn’t help. We’re hurting. The retail climate in New York is not good. We had record sales during COVID. Now we don’t get foot traffic or sales like before,” said Flath.
Businesses and families are hurting from Bohemia to Buffalo, Riverhead to Rochester. An increasing minimum wage is just the tip of the iceberg:
Next year’s $231 billion NYS budget creates a $9.5 billion deficit.
The Big Apple might cut cops and teachers because of budget busting costs related to the migrant crisis. It’s estimated taxpayers will pay $12 billion more to house 100,000 migrants through 2025.
New York just experienced its biggest population loss in history: almost 300,000 more people moved out than moved in.
The Tax Foundation stated New York has one of the worst business tax climates in America.
You would think state lawmakers would be hyper-focused on reducing the deficit and helping struggling businesses.
Not a chance. Their priority: passing legislation forcing Chick-Fil-A to open on Sundays at some of the 27 rest stop locations across the New York State Thruway.
A proposed bill co-sponsored by Assemblywoman Mary Jane Shimsky (Westchester County) and Jessica González-Rojas (Queens), would require future rest stop restaurants to open seven days a week.
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Chick-Fil-A closes on Sundays since the mid 1940s so workers can rest and worship.
“New York is burning and politicians are fiddling,” said Assemblyman David DiPietro, himself a small business owner who owned a dry cleaning business prior to entering the Assembly in 2012.
“High taxes, big government spending, overregulation, and unfunded mandates destroy businesses. There’s an almost $10 billion deficit but politicians want to pass bills about Chick-Fil-A? Unreal,” added DiPietro.
As for Flath, manager of L.I. Hardware, he believes New York should honor its contract with Chick-Fil-A, the same way he has to honor their unfunded mandates like raising the minimum wage or charging a 95-cent recycling disposal fee on every gallon of paint sold.
“We don’t have a choice. We do what the state tells us. Chick-Fil-A paid a price to be there. If they want to close one day a week, so be it,” concluded Flath.
So while the deficit soars and businesses struggle, lawmakers' big concern is a Christian company that sells chicken sandwiches at thruway rest stops.
Sounds about wrong for every state in the union, with the exception of the People's Republic of New York.