NY lawmakers push to legalize pot, sports betting to fill coronavirus budget gaps

[TheComputerGroup]

COVID-19 might not be the only new strain to hit New York.

State lawmakers are making a fresh push to legalize pot and expand sports betting, saying tax income from the vices can help fill a gaping budget hole widened by the coronavirus.

Democratic state Sens. Jessica Ramos, Brad Hoylman and Jamaal Bailey — representing Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx & Mount Vernon respectively — teamed up with the Legal Aid Society on Thursday to urge state lawmakers to legalize recreational marijuana.

The call cited racial and income inequities exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic, but proponents argued that the revenue from sales could help dig New York out of a deficit in this year’s budget more than $13 billion.

“It’s not enough to say the state doesn’t have money. We have to find it,” said Ramos. “I believe legalizing marijuana can help.”

State Sen. Joe Addabbo, a Queens Democrat, dubbed pot legalization “a tricky subject,” but had his own proposal, calling for mobile sports betting.

“Our state is not at the liberty or luxury of declining revenue at this point,” said Addabbo, calling gaming an “easier policy” to push through than legal pot.



https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost...lize-pot-sports-betting-amid-coronavirus/amp/

 

[TheComputerGroup]

So it takes one of the biggest economic disasters to legalize weed & sports betting?

 

[brendanjack]

So it takes one of the biggest economic disasters to legalize weed & sports betting?

What a joke now take your welfare check and sign it right back over to the state talk about credit default swap holy steaming pile of shit

 

[Ricboff]

https://nypost.com/2020/05/20/end-new-york-citys-lockdown-now/


editorial

this part is hard;

'It has been a long time since this country, let alone this city, really had to deal with the prospect of mass starvation. This isn’t about the stock market — it’s about parents putting their kids to bed hungry and hoping tomorrow there will be something for them to eat if they get up at 4:30 a.m. and get in line at the food bank.
We did what we were asked. We flattened the freakin’ curve. There is no longer any reasonable justification for the government to deprive us of our livelihoods. And our rights aren’t the government’s to grant or take away. They belong to us — the free grant of nature and the God of nature. We’re Americans. More than that: New Yorkers, goddammit.'

 

[jaws2357]

These people running NY are Morons.

 

[THawk+]

Have to love politicians. Gambling and pot are bad, we are keeping it illegal so you can't do it

Oh, we totally fvcked up our state economy and need money, ok those things are legal so we can make money.

Idiots at best,