Tenney To Cuomo: “Hemorrhaging Of Businesses And Residents Needs To Stop”

Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney is urging Governor Andrew Cuomo to rethink his recently passed gun legislation, claiming it comes at a high cost to the Upstate New York economy.

In a letter written to the Governor, Tenney calls the NY Safe Act an "unprecedented assault on gun manufacturers" and "feel-good legislation" that will hurt local communities.

But, she isn't saying that the entire law should be scrapped.

"Most people would agree, even Justice Scalia who is one of the more conservative members of the Supreme Court, that there can be reasonable restrictions on guns, ownership of guns and the use of guns," Tenney said. "But, I think this bill really wasn't trying to do that. It was trying to outwit somebody in another state and also President Obama who was coming out with his tougher gun laws a couple days later."

She also says the state's poor business climate and strict rules may cause the nearly 200 year-old gun manufacturer, Remington Arms, to leave the state, taking more than 1,300 jobs with it.

"The number one reason that any company would leave New York is because they are getting better working conditions for their employees and a more profitable situation somewhere else," Tenney said. "When you have the highest income tax, next to California, in the country, and you go to a state like Kentucky, Florida or Texas and you bring your employees with you and they don't have to pay income tax, that's a real draw."

Currently, she says at least five states have made public offers to the firearm manufacturer in an attempt to snatch the company away. Among them are Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Arizona and South Carolina.

If changes aren't made, the Assemblywoman says more companies could be making the shift out of New York, joining an estimated 50 percent of businesses who have packed up and left our region in the last two decades.

Since the passage of the NY Safe Act, Tenney and other Mohawk Valley lawmakers have voiced their disapproval with the law, including the process in which it was passed.