Your Morning Edition for Thursday, Nov. 17th!
More on unemployment fraud, massive proposed minimum wage hike, Cayuga legislature shrinking, update on cannabis chaos, and Thanksgiving dinner prices!
Our editors have been busy curating the most-important news for today’s Morning Edition newsletter. The Morning Edition is a daily digest of the biggest stories that matter to your life in the Finger Lakes. Today’s newsletter is sponsored by DiSanto Propane. Learn more about them and other FingerLakes1.com partners by scrolling down.
What’s News Today? Get Caught Up Fast!
FRAUD & TECHNOLOGY: State lawmakers are calling for an investigation of the unemployment system and state IT systems that allowed $11 billion in unemployment fraud to take place in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, angry lawmakers want to know how the state got here. That could prove difficult, though, as the IT systems that led DOL down this road were woefully out of date before the pandemic arrived. In fact, DOL reports indicated that they began calling for updates nearly 10 years ahead of the pandemic. Those calls went unanswered. To make matters worse, DOL refused to cooperate with auditors. [READ MORE]
COSTLY THANKSGIVING: The New York Farm Bureau’s 2022 Market Basket Survey shows the price of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner will come with a double-digit price jump. The average total price, which includes a 16-pound turkey and other common items found on a holiday dinner table, is $66.39, or about a 26% increase over last year’s price of $52.59. The Bureau found turkey prices to be about $1.89 per pound in New York State, which is 43 cents per pound over last year’s average price. The New York numbers revealed price increases over last year in nearly every category, except for fresh cranberries which saw a 30-cent decrease. The most notable increases were for stuffing mix, brown-and-serve rolls, and frozen pie crusts. [READ MORE]
SHRINKING LEGISLATURE: The Cayuga County Legislature is shrinking. A proposition to reduce the number of legislators from 15 to 11 in Cayuga County passed by 72 votes out of a total 25,000 ballots cast. Due to the margin being less than a half-percent - it will require a manual recount. It's unclear when the manual recount will take place, or how long it will take to execute. The smaller legislature was proposed as an outcome of the 2020 Census. [READ MORE]
CANNABIS CHAOS: Go ahead and blame a Michigan company. FingerLakes1.com reporter Rebecca Swift caught up with Attorney Ryan McCall who specializes in cases involving cannabis to discuss a recent federal judge's ruling that’s prevented New York from issuing retail licenses. McCall says the judge is using the The Dormant Commerce Clause, which effectively states that you’re not allowed to discriminate against interstate commerce. A Michigan company applied for a recreational retail cannabis license when the state was only accepting them as part of the justice-involved program. The state wanted those negatively affected by the justice system when marijuana was illegal to have the first shot at getting a license. McCall said it's a toss-up. And at this point, it's unclear how the whole thing turns out. [READ MORE]
MINIMUM WAGE HIKE: State lawmakers are pushing for one of the highest minimum wages in the U.S. A new proposal would increase minimum wage across most of the state to $20 an hour by 2026, then to more than $21 by 2027. At that point, minimum wage would be indexed to inflation. While advocates of higher wages say it's a good idea - the National Federal of Independent Business says this will hurt small businesses and make the state less affordable to live in for everyone. [READ MORE]
GORHAM UPDATE: Town Councilor Jake Chard was on FLX Today discussing the range of issues that the board has faced to date. This includes communication challenges, community outrage over a highway building proposal that was defeated by a public referendum, budget confusion, and traffic complaints as development happens along County Road 18. [READ MORE]
