Perks from Klein come at cost of betraying Democratic Party

To the editor:

On Saturday evening, a local development corporation sponsored an outdoor movie in Seton Park. They have scheduled others in Riverdale and Woodlawn. Kudos to the development corporation for sponsoring fun, family-oriented events.

The screen used for these movie events has plastered on its base a picture of Senator Jeff Klein, head of the still Republican-allied “Independent Democratic Conference” (IDC). Because he abandoned the Democratic Conference and empowered the Republican Party, Klein has been rewarded with access to taxpayer dollars to spread throughout his district. If he had not betrayed the Democrats, he would not have been able to spread millions of dollars throughout the district.

I have no real issue with elected officials being able to direct support for local projects with taxpayer money. I think with proper accountability and transparency, it can work really well. The move towards participatory budgeting in the New York City Council, for example, is a great model. Kudos to Councilman Andrew Cohen for adopting this participatory model. Generally speaking, the allocation for a movie screen seems like a good one.

My question is — which do we value more, Senator Klein’s access to much greater amounts of money than any of his colleagues or a state government which better reflects the Democratic values of this district? It is very clear Klein would not have had the funding for this movie screen without his deal with Republicans. I think many of us would have traded the funding for a movie screen for a higher minimum wage, real campaign finance reform, passage of the DREAM Act, stronger tenant protections and greater equality for New York’s women. Since Klein empowered the Republicans in 2012, legislation on all these issues was blocked or hampered.

Senator Klein recently announced his IDC will now abandon the Republicans after this year’s election. He promised before he would not empower a Republican leader. He broke that promise. How can we trust him not to break his promise again?

Jack Marth