Yes it is!
Posted on 04/05/2002 10:56:17 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
AUBURN - Retired Wells College Professor Arthur Bellinzoni has asked state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Comptroller H. Carl McCall to investigate the Cayuga County Legislature and the town of Throop for withdrawing millions of tax dollars from the local branch of HSBC.
"I question the propriety and, indeed, the legality of elected officials taking punitive fiscal action against an international corporation," Bellinzoni wrote in his letter to Spitzer. "Removing the public funds was clearly not a fiscal decision but was rather an intentional discriminatory political action."
In a dispute that has drawn national media attention, HSBC will terminate its lease with the Cayuga County Council of the Boy Scouts of America on June 30 because of its corporate anti-discrimination policy. Bank officials disagree with the Scouts' policy of forbidding gays from serving as Scout leaders despite a 1999 Supreme Court ruling allowing the Scouts to discriminate.
Bellinzoni, an outspoken activist for gay and lesbian rights, sent the letter Thursday to Spitzer's office in Albany, and to Assistant Attorney General Winthrop Thurlow of Syracuse.
No action yet
A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, Paul Larrabee, confirmed that the letter had been received, and said it would be sent to the appropriate bureau for investigation. "But at this point we won't comment any further on it," Larrabee said. "Every piece of correspondence is read and reviewed, logged and charted," said Larrabee. "We receive hundreds of pieces of mail, e-mails and faxes a day. In our consumer-fraud bureau alone, we have more than 10,000 cases a year that we handle."
The county Legislature voted 14-1 March 27, with virtually no debate to pull $1.3 million from the bank. Legislator Michael Lepak, D-Auburn, was the lone dissenter.
County Treasurer David Farrell had withdrawn nearly $2 million from the bank during the week prior to the vote, in anticipation of the county's decision.
The town of Throop yanked $700,000 from HSBC on March 17, and a few area churches have also withdrawn their money. On March 28, the city of Auburn voted 4-1 to keep its money at the bank.
First-term Republican Bill Jacobs cast the only no vote. The Auburn school district, and 90 percent of the other towns and villages in the county, do not keep money at HSBC.
No public comment
Bellinzoni criticized the county Legislature for rushing the issue to a vote.
"There was practically no indication that there was going to be a hearing (or) that they were welcoming discussion of the issue. The whole thing came so fast," Bellinzoni said in an interview Thursday. "I don't think there was proper public notice. They were really not inviting comments from the public."
Concerned that the controversy could hurt Cayuga County in attracting new businesses, Bellinzoni is also disturbed with how local Democrats and Republicans have voted as a bloc on the issue.
"It sends out a message to large corporations with an anti-discrimination policy -- stay away from Cayuga County," Bellinzoni said. "And I think it's sad that human-rights issues seems to divide so much along party lines. I think that's very disappointing, that the Republican Party is developing such a bad record on human rights, and in particular, gay and lesbian rights. It seems to have to do with their strange idea of what constitutes family values. It's time to wake up."
No, it underscores the right to freedom of association. It tells organizations that people can choose not to do business with companies that have policies with which they disagree. Smith & Wesson received similar treatment when they signed the anti-gun HUD agreements. Consumers have a right to choose what business to patronize.
Honk Kong Shanghai Bank Corporation. One of the largest banks in the world with branches all over New York since they purchased Republic a few years ago.
"And I think it's sad that human-rights issues seems to divide so much along party lines. I think that's very disappointing, that the Republican Party is developing such a bad record on human rights, and in particular, gay and lesbian rights.
I've always marveled at how leftists can keep contradictory beliefs within their heads and utter contradictory statements within virtually the same breath without skipping a beat or having their heads explode from the conflict.
I wonder if Arthur Bellinzoni sees the contradiction in his complaint? One the one hand, gay activits love to boycott and not do business with organizations and businesses they disagree with, and now they are complaining that the legislature did the same thing.
I have no illusion about him actually seeing his hypocricy.
Everyone would do themselves and their investors a favor by pulling out of this enormous bank which is breaking American Law and God's law.
Yes it is!
Sounds like political discrimination to me.
Where's Bellinzoni's letter of outrage?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
uhhh... maybe the idea of Gay families is a little strange? LOL
Right on both points.
A state requirement that the Boy Scouts retain Dale would significantly burden the organization’s right to oppose or disfavor homosexual conduct. The state interests embodied in New Jersey’s public accommodations law do not justify such a severe intrusion on the freedom of expressive association. In so ruling, the Court is not guided by its view of whether the Boy Scouts’ teachings with respect to homosexual conduct are right or wrong; public or judicial disapproval of an organization’s expression does not justify the State’s effort to compel the organization to accept members in derogation of the organization’s expressive message.
Thanks you.
We are in a constitutional war, as much as a cultural war.
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