Kevin Peterman makes clear how he is voting on Proposition 1, the call for a state Constitutional Convention, on Tuesday, November 7.

Despite what you have heard, for us this is not an off-year election! You’ve heard us talk about the importance of Election Day this year.

Yes, we must vote NO on Proposition 1—the call for a NYS Constitutional Convention. As mentioned last month:

The state constitution establishes the fundamental rights you enjoy as a citizen of New York State, as a public employee and as a retired public employee, including:

• Guaranteeing the right to a free public education (Article 11 §1)
• Prohibiting reductions in public pension benefits (Article 5 §7)
• Rights to workers’ compensation (Article 1 §18)
• Rights to be a member of a union and bargain collectively (Article 1 §17)
• Requiring the state to provide for social welfare (Article 27 §1).

The other reason to vote like your future depends on it is because our Suffolk County legislators are on the ballot as well. Again, NOT an off-year election for us.

Why? Because for SCCC and the FA, the eighteen county legislators operate like our local school board. Every year the legislature approves our college budget and capital projects and gives final approval to our contract (our collective bargaining agreement, or CBA). Read our endorsement article to see which county legislators have been endorsed by our Executive Council this year.

Without the capital investment by the county executive and the county legislature, SCCC would not have been able to build the Lindsay Science Building on the Ammerman Campus, the new LRC on the Grant Campus or the soon to be completed Health and Wellness Building on the Eastern Campus.

In addition, over the last several years, the college was able to procure $10 million in capital improvements to fix aging infrastructures college wide.

On November 7, voter turnout is expected to be about 20%. Obviously, this is unsettling to us because to have true democracy all registered voters should participate.

We hope that you all go to the polls on Tuesday, November 7, and vote.

Vote like your future depends on it—because it does!