Business Friendliness

The ever-wonderful Niagara Falls Reporter presents an interesting example of Spitzer looking out for average New Yorkers. Many are skittish of Spitzer because he's been a very aggressive and effective Attorney General. Some in the business community, and many republicans (a lot of whom don't care much for Pataki), are wary of Spitzer because they seem him as hostile to business. Is he really? Spitzer is pro-consumer. He's pro-worker. He's pro-New York. Among an Attorney General's greatest tasks is the duty to protect average people from predatory corporations, and to protect people from unfair and deceptive business practices. Protecting consumers isn't a republican or democrat issue; remember - Republican Teddy Roosevelt was the original trust-buster. Click on the story above. A company was breaking rules, contracts, and laws in the way that it shut down operations in Niagara Falls. The company was keeping workers' 401(k)s frozen, refusing to pay earned vacation pay, and wanted workers to sign a "resignation" that would deprive them of severance or unemployment in exchange for an un-freezing of the 401(k). Spitzer came in and got the people what they were entitled to. That's good leadership. And it's pro-business, too. If a business is operating by the rules, it has nothing to fear from Spitzer.