The progressive takeover of New York, with Democrats leading both chambers for the first time in nearly a decade, is responsible for a barrage of ill conceived regulation and legislation.  Nothing is safe from this assemblage of fatuous and reckless individuals, steered by their fearless leader, Governor Andrew Cuomo.  Climate change, gun control, labor, transit, and housing are all fodder, and every issue gets dissected with senseless, heedless determination.  New Yorkers are leaving in droves, but that doesn't result in any reflection or deliberation on why that is.  Cuomo likes to blame the cold northeast weather.

The latest report highlights the hardships of small farmers under new labor legislation. Through the infinite wisdom of NY lawmakers, policy was enacted in which farmers must pay farm workers higher wages, overtime, and offer a 24-hour weekly rest time. This state-mandated benevolence is severely altering the plans and strategies of small farmers, who will have to scale back crop sizes and plant less varieties. Not only will fresh produce cost more as a result, but also there will be less of it and fewer jobs to boot. 

Bail reform has been playing out since the beginning of the year.  Almost immediately, that piece of judicial brilliance produced an increase of horrific offenses by criminals who should never have seen the outside of a jail cell.

Even small issues, like shopping, are not safe.  My town, an ever-growing receptacle for progressive do-gooders, has enacted the banning of plastic bags — the ones we've reused forever to line garbage cans, carry lunches in, and scoop cat litter into.  This will soon become law in the whole state.  Not only is it inconvenient to remember to bring your environmentally compliant eco-friendly bag to the store, but this latest inane gambit has resulted in the disappearance of the ever-convenient small item shopping basket.  Evidently, in defiance of having to pay five cents for a flimsy paper bag, people were just carrying the little red baskets out of the store with the contents of their groceries still inside.  The stores do not want to continue doling out funds to buy any more of them, so it's either pony up the quarter to release a full-size wheelie cart or practice your food-juggling skills.

There are many more examples of the state's slide into rack and ruin and, no doubt, many more shoddy, burdensome dictates ready to be dropped atop the populace with little regard for poor or even disastrous outcomes.  Just when you think the lousy laws from on high have gotten way out of hand, another one comes along to land atop the whole heaping garbage pile of decrees. 

Blue-state authority runs at an accelerated pace.  Just ask the residents of California and other states run by the left.  What do those leaders blame for the scores of people packing their bags and hightailing it across the state border?  I have news for them: it ain't the weather.