(Syracuse) Howie Hawkins said today that if he was Governor he would use his power under Art. 4, Sec. 3 of the State Constitution to call the legislature into extraordinary session to ensure that they complete work on key issues before taking their six month paid vacation.

Hawkins, the Green Party nominee, said it was ridiculous that the Governor and legislative leaders have declared the major issues dead because Cuomo "promised" the WFP that as part of his re-election effort he would campaign for Democrats in the Senate. In the other 49 states, it would be news only IF the Governor had said he would not campaign for members of his own party.

"It is expected that elections for state level offices are partisan. It is also expected that in a democracy, once the partisan elections are over, that lawmakers work with members of the other parties to negotiate over how to resolve the key issues facing the state. If lawmakers are unwilling to work on the state's problems, they should return their paychecks to the taxpayers," said Hawkins.

Hawkins said that the Governor should bring lawmakers back each week into extraordinary session to resolve one key outstanding issue: Dream Act; Women's Equality; minimum wage; marijuana reform; wage theft; farm worker bill of rights; climate change; and public campaign finance and ethics reform.

"If lawmakers just want to sit there each week and read the newspapers and emails rather than work with their colleagues, that would be their choice. Given the high rate of convictions among state lawmakers for political corruption, it would probably be safer for taxpayers to keep them in detention at the capitol anyway," added Hawkins.