New York State appears ready to throw as many as 200,000 people out of work by imposing a $15 an hour minimum wage statewide.  Fredric U. Dicker reports in the New York Post: Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan is close to a “Faustian pact’’ with Democratic Gov. Cuomo to raise the state’s minimum wage to a national high of $15 an hour — boosting union power and possibly costing New York hundreds of thousands of jobs, The Post has learned. A source close to Flanagan (R-Suffolk) said the deal would involve Cuomo agreeing to do “little if anything’’ to help Senate Democrats, now just one vote shy of a majority, win the upcoming April 19 special election to replace former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau), who was ousted in December after being convicted on corruption charges. Despite strong opposition from upstate business groups, the Farm Bureau, and not-for-profit organizations — as well as...(Read Full Post)