Never mind ideology — New York pols are interested in only one thing: themselves.
And it’s got them selling out to the higher-bidding special interest, while making the lives of average New Yorkers miserable.
The latest: A bill to let groceries sell wine, as they can in 40 other states, is now set to fail in Albany this year, as lawmaker end their legislative session next week.
Just as wine stores and distributors wanted.
Plus, this week Airbnb and some of its hosts were forced to sue the city over regulations that threaten to wipe out their entire business in New York.
The hotel industry is chuckling.
In Albany, the state’s powerful the liquor-store lobby managed to stall legislation to overhaul New York’s antiquated alcohol laws — including new rules to legalize the sale of wine in supermarkets.
The stores and distributors, who’ve got lawmakers in their pocket, are out to protect their market share, of course; they don’t want competition.
Simple as that.
Yet that leaves buyers high and dry, facing higher prices and fewer places to buy their wine.
Why aren’t lawmakers racing to help their constituents?
Similarly, in the city, the Hotel Trades and Gaming Council and fat-cats in the hotel industry have been working to snuff out competition from Airbnb for short-term room bookings.
Together, they poured over $500,000 unto City Council races during the 2013, 2017 and 2021 election cycles.
Council members returned the favor by passing rules — such as forcing hosts to register with the city and certify that their homes comply with complex building, zoning and other codes, or face hefty fines — that are so insane, only nine New Yorkers have yet to be approved.
That, Airbnb says, is out of 38,500-plus hosts who’ve rented their homes on the platform at least once since January.
The rules are threatening to end Airbnb’s business in the city completely.
Now the company, and the hosts who use it, are praying the court with halt the process from taking effect in a just a few weeks.
Again, lawmakers had not a care in the world for the overwhelmingly hard-working, middle-class homeowners and tenants trying to make a few extra bucks via Airbnb.
They sought only to please the wealthy hotel pooh-bahs and their HTC union lackeys who fork over cash.
New Yorkers have a right to be furious. And to hold these lawmakers accountable.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
