Libertarian Party of NY -- Campaign News

Wantagh, NY. Christopher Garvey, the Libertarian Party candidate for Governor of New York, calls for rejecting the corporate welfare bailout of the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) and the reversal of the socialist takeover scheme called the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). Mr. Garvey warns that this scheme initiated by former Governor Cuomo and executed by current Governor Pataki threatens all New Yorkers, not just Long Islanders.

Garvey describes the LILCO/LIPA scheme as "The worst state program of the year because it buys the useless Shoreham nuclear plant with unconstitutionally issued state bonds. Because the bonds are not issued with "the full faith and credit of the State of New York" Pataki pretends that they are not state obligations, but every sales pitch you get from brokers touting the securities assures the would-be investor that the state will not and cannot afford to let the bonds default. They have rushed to let out the bond issue to enrich some Wall Streeters and to pay out a pretend refund to ratepayers a few months before the election."

Previously a delegate at the "We The People Congress" organized by taxpayer activist Robert Schulz , Garvey charges "All the taxpayers of the State of New York are put at risk, by a bond issue that evaded New York's constitutional requirement that bond issues receive voter approval at the polls. Thus, the Pataki administration and its Democratic accomplices endanger New York taxpayers, subvert sound constitutional government and disregard sound financial practice all at once! A great achievement!"

Garvey, a Roslyn patent attorney who has written a number of power industry patents, asserts that while he would welcome a referendum on LIPA, it should be statewide and notes "Most of the alternative proposals for Shoreham and LILCO are different flavors of Government takeover. Socialism has failed everywhere. It is time to realize that in New York State.

Libertarians oppose government takeovers and government imposed monopolies. Our solution to LILCO's mess would be to open Long Island (and for that matter the rest of New York) to the many power companies who would love to do a cheaper, profitable job than LILCO. Let LILCO's unfortunate shareholders and arrogant managers pay for their own mistakes."

Not content with opposing the LILCO/LIPA scheme, Garvey advocates the "separation of state and energy." Energy markets should be opened immediately, and all New York open to energy competition. Then the energy markets should be deregulated." Garvey notes that free market scholars (such as Milton Friedman and Walter Primeaux, Jr.) have been studying and demonstrating the value of electricity competition for over 30 years. Utility monopolies, he notes, were not natural but imposed by government. Libertarians like to quote nineteenth-century French journalist Frederic Bastiat that "The State is that great fiction whereby everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." Bastiat contended that the law had been perverted into an instrument of "legalized theft," which is the political as opposed to the economic means to obtain wealth. Garvey views the LILCO/LIPA scheme as legalized theft.

Joining Chris Garvey on this fall's Libertarian Party lineup are William McMillen, a Delmar C.P.A., for U.S. Senate; Daniel Conti, a Hempstead criminal defense lawyer, for Attorney General; Donald Silberger, a New Paltz math professor, for Lieutenant Governor; and Robert Goodman, a Bronx biochemist, for Comptroller. Directing the Garvey and Conti campaigns as Chairman of NY Libertarian Campaign '98 is Richard A. Cooper, a Westbury business executive.

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Press Contact:

To schedule appearances or interviews with Chris Garvey, Don Silberger, or the other 1998 Libertarian candidates, please write to Campaign Manager Richard Cooper at: LPNY98campaign@hotmail.com

Internet URL: http://gehenna.netnation.com/~lpny/

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