Elmira, New York, August 23, 2021: The Libertarian Party of Chemung County was represented during the Standing Committee meetings of the Chemung County Legislature on Monday evening. Legislator, Joe Brennan facilitated a discussion to determine if there would be support for disallowing the use of county funds to pay for incentives for the COVID-19 vaccine.
During that discussion, Legislator, Christina Sonsire spoke in response to Mr. Brennan’s proposed resolution, which would not be presented until the next full meeting of the Legislature. She stated that she had her own distrust of vaccines, but in 2019, when religious exemptions were repealed, she gave in and allowed her children to be vaccinated in order for them to attend school.
Sonsire went on to further state that she had a real problem with the resolution Mr. Brennan would be presenting due to the fact that our government is built upon incentives. She cited allowing people to work longer to get more social security money and offering grants and incentives to work as a part of social service programs as examples. Sonsire stated, “I have a hard time with this because it’s picking and choosing…my feeling on this is if you don’t want the hundred bucks to Buffalo Wild Wings or whatever to get a vaccine, then don’t take it…I think I come at this with a more Libertarian bent. If you don’t want the gift card, if you don’t want the vaccine, there may be consequences if you don’t take the vaccine, but just don’t take it.” You can watch Sonsire’s comment in its entirety by clicking this link.
Members of the Libertarian Party of Chemung County that were in attendance at the meeting were appalled by Legislator Sonsire’s comments, which seemed to suggest that the Libertarian position would not be opposed to using county taxpayer money to fund incentives for the COVID-19 vaccine as long as people were given the ability to refuse the incentives and/or the vaccine.
Sonsire’s stance is anything but Libertarian, which is something the CCLP wishes to make clear. As always, the CCLP stands for complete and total freedom and liberty for all people, many of whom do not consent to allowing their tax money to be spent on incentivizing people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Legislator Sonsire is not a member of the Libertarian Party, nor do her views and opinions reflect those of Libertarians. Her comments appeared to be an attempt at appeasing those who are in opposition to having their tax dollars used as bribes. That attempt failed,” stated Nicole Colwell, secretary of the Libertarian Party of Chemung County.
The Standing Committee Meeting can be seen in its entirety by clicking this link.
For more information about the Libertarian Party of Chemung County, please visit https://lpny.org/chemung/. You may also visit Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ChemungCountyLibertarians.
