2 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2017 THE NEW YORK CONSTITUTION NYPEOPLESCONVENTION.ORG
Why I’m
Voting YES!
BY BILL SAMUELS
I grew up in public service here in New
York, standing by the side of my father,
Howard Samuels, as he campaigned for
governor on a platform of optimism and
bold, brilliant ideas. But, sadly, since his
last run for offi ce in the 1970s, I watched
as our state government continued to lose
the faith of the people as it eroded into the
cesspool of corruption and dysfunction it
is today.
Over more than a decade I have tried
every possible route to turn around
our broken government: recruiting and
supporting better candidates, driving
landmark legislation (like a statewide retirement
security program for all private
sector workers without a pension), and
naming and shaming the politicians and
special interests who have done us wrong.
While I am proud of this work, I have
found that at the end of the day our problems
run far deeper than ousting any one
politician or changing any one law—our
problem is a system that is set up to derail
reform and keep the powerful in power at
the expense of the rest of us.
That is why I have embraced the
once-in-a-generation opportunity for
us to vote “YES” for a New York State
Constitutional Convention, or, as I call
it, a People’s Convention. Th e writers of
our Constitution wisely created a mechanism
in our state’s bedrock document
that allows the people every 20 years the
option of bypassing the governor and
Legislature, when they are failing to
advance the public interest, and taking
control of our state’s government back
into our own hands.
Th ere could no better time for that 20
year vote to be upon us than this Election
Day, November 7, 2017.
Th e People’s Convention can at once restore
our state to its former glory, while creating
the framework for a ground-breaking
future worthy of the excellence New Yorkers
embody.
Opponents of the Constitutional Convention
are peddling fear in an eff ort to
persuade us to forfeit this historic opportunity
to fundamentally change New York
for the better. Th ey argue that there are
other means of cleaning up Albany, while
neglecting to mention that all of the other
avenues have already been tried and wound
up in dead ends.
Now is not the time to try the same
tired tactics once again and hope against
all reason that they will somehow, fi nally,
magically succeed.
No one defeats adversity by cowering
in fear or opting to do nothing. Positive
change only comes when we stand up and
fi ght for what is right.
Among the important improvements to
our Constitution a People’s Convention
can achieve are:
• Giving New Yorkers the right to clean
drinking water and fresh air;
• Extending equal rights to women,
the LGBT community and the
disabled;
• Dramatically reducing county property
taxes by taking the burden of
Medicaid funding off localities and
centralizing it in Albany;
• Enabling early voting, same day
registration, no-excuse absentee
balloting, and many other measures
to make voting easier;
• Reforming our criminal justice system
so people with addiction problems
and the mentally ill are given
treatment rather than expensive and
counter-productive prison terms;
• Advancing union protections by
obligating the state to participate
in collective bargaining;
• Saving $600 million a year by eliminating
overlap and redundancy in
our court system; and
• Making the state responsible for providing
appropriate levels of education
funding for higher need districts.
Th is Election Day, the person with
the ultimate power to turn around our
state is you. You get to vote for a People’s
Convention, you get to choose which delegates
will represent you there (or if you
want to run yourself!), and, because any
amendments that come out of the Convention
have to be approved by another
statewide referendum, you have the fi nal
say on which ones actually become part
of the Constitution.
You have the power. I ask you to use it.
Join us in this fi ght for a People’s Convention.
On November 7th , vote YES for a Constitutional
convention. Vote YES for your
future and the future of New York.
Bill Samuels is the founder
of NY People’s Convention.
nypeoplesconvention.org
FREE
NEW YORK CONSTITUTION
Your Official Guide to the 2017 NYS Constitutional Convention Vote
The New York Constitution
Vol 1, Issue 1, 2017
Contributors:
Bill Samuels, Rush Perez,
Morgan Pehme, Al Benninghoff ,
Evan A. Davis, Bertha Lewis
Additional content courtesy
of The New York State Bar
Association, The Queens Courier
Special Thanks:
Christina Couto, Christine Ekstrom,
Lise Bang Jensen, Christian Nolan,
Claire Del Mar Chapman,
Robert Pozarycki
Paid for by NY People’s Convention
267 5th Avenue, Suite 800
New York, NY 10016
www.nypeoplesconvention.org
BY THE NUMBERS: The NYS Constitutional Convention
If voters approve a Constitutional
Convention, delegates would be elected in
2018, with the convention held in 2019.
Any proposal to amend the Constitution
will need to be approved by the voters.
New York’s Constitution mandates
that every 20 years the state’s voters
decide whether to hold
a Constitutional Convention.
This year is the 20th, which means
that on November 7, 2017, we will vote
on whether to hold a Convention. 20
3
63
Number of years since the last time
New York held a Constitutional
Convention. This is the longest
stretch in New York’s history
that we have gone without
holding a Convention.
Number of delegates that would be
elected from each of New York State’s
senatorial districts
Number of
senatorial
districts in
New York
15 204
Number of
at-large
delegates that
would be
elected to serve
statewide
Total number of
delegates that
would serve in
the Convention
from across New
50 York State