New York’s minimum wage is just $7.25 an hour. For full time work, that adds up to just $15,000 a year. It's the bare federal minimum. The same as the minimum wage in Idaho and Kansas. It's hard to imagine anyone surviving on $15,000 for full time work, whether you're in in Brookhaven or Buffalo. New York City has the highest cost of living in America. But hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers do it every day. And with rising prices, that $15,000 buys less and less every year. Nobody who works full time should be forced to live in poverty. As corporate profits and CEO pay soar, workers should get paid a decent wage too. President Obama used his State of the Union address to call on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour and tie it to inflation. New Yorkers can't afford to wait for John Boehner and the House Republicans to get out of the way to raise the minimum wage. Thankfully, we don't have to. New York can raise the minimum wage on it's own, to at least $9 an hour and tie the new rate to inflation, so workers won't continue to fall behind as prices go up. Governor Cuomo should lead, and push Albany to raise the minimum wage.

In a high cost of living state like Massachusetts, no one can make ends meet, never mind support a family, on just $8 an hour. It's a poverty wage, and it's a shame. President Obama called for raising the minimum wage in his State of the Union address. But it'll never pass through Congress because of Republican opposition. In Massachusetts, we don't have that problem. We have large Democratic majorities in the legislature, and if we can't pass an increase in the minimum wage, we should be ashamed. Putting money into the pockets of the workers who need it most would lift working families out of poverty and boost the economy too. Gov. Patrick, with your leadership we can raise the minimum wage.

The current minimum wage can’t support families. The federal minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, amounts to only $15,080 a year. That’s over $7,000 below the federal poverty line for a family of four. A minimum wage worker working 40 hours a week cannot afford a two bedroom apartment in any state in America. People who work for a living should be able to support their families and live off their wages.

Taxes are becoming unbearable in Vermont for average workers and particularly retirees.

Governor Inslee and the House Democrats recently released a plan to help fund our kids' classrooms by closing unjust tax loopholes. Their plan would end tax breaks for Big Oil, out-of-state-shoppers, and big drug companies. This is a commonsense reform that's long overdue. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans cut funding for homeless kids, working families, and our most vulnerable seniors. But their budget was even more noteworthy for what it didn't do: they didn't close a single tax loophole. We know kids that are hungry, sick, or homeless can't learn. But special interest lobbyists are already gearing up to protect their special treatment by forcing legislators to choose between education and health care. We need our Senators to join the House and Governor Inslee standing up to special interests and putting our kids first!

Please put Georgians to work. Stop being partisan and realize that you govern all people

IUOE local 150 Operating engineer out of work while what we do is neglected.

IUOE local 150 Operating engineer out of work while what we do is neglected.

We should not pay for fuel efficiency. The polluters should pay

When a person falls behind in child support, their drivers license is suspended, which can result in job opportunities being lost. In our current economy, with so many out of work and unable to pay child support, the pool of workers keeps dropping due to those otherwise qualified individuals not having drivers licenses. Additionally, each time they have to reinstate their drivers license, the state imposes an ever larger "fee" to do so. Eventually, they are never going to get a drivers license simply because it is too expensive.

The Congress is at best inept, or has been willfully negligent in keeping the minimum wage up with inflation. We are DECADES behind in this and MANY in our country are poverty stricken and as a result. Immediate action is required in this poor economy, yet none is being taken. Only the usual phoney "we should do something about this" propaganda we always get from politicians.

Governor Pence proposes a 10% state income tax reduction to dole out our state tax surplus. This would only have a small impact on the state economy and the pockets of the average Hoosier (in most cases, $50-250). Those funds would be much better spent on education, which suffered serious loss of revenue as a result of property tax caps enacted under Governor Daniels. Our roads are also in poor condition. I applaud the Indiana House Republicans to have the courage to want to support education and our infrastructure instead of political pandering.