Assembly Majority Deliver Disappointment And Hypocrisy

Legislative Column from Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush (R,C,I-Black River)

I left Albany on the last day of session utterly disappointed with this year’s legislative session. I pride myself on being a fairly optimistic guy, but wow, I feel like the progress we made over the last few years was lost. We were just beginning to head in the right direction, but Albany and its leaders did an about face, walking away from progress into a mess of inaction and corruption.

From the onset of session, scandals, secret deals and political posturing set the tone for the rest of what I consider one of the worst sessions we’ve seen in New York in a long time. Albany was bursting at the seams with seedy and tawdry tales of arrested legislators, wiretapping, taxpayer-funded hush-money payments, complacency about rampant sexual harassment and corruption. It’s enough to turn one’s stomach.

At the helm are Speaker Silver and his Majority colleagues, who are either too afraid to speak up for what is right or muddled in just as much of a mess as other corrupt politicians, and they’ve failed New York families and job creators time and time again.

At the hands of the Speaker, important policy matters failed, such as meaningful anti-corruption measures that actually punish and root out corrupt politicians, a real and effective economic development plan and relief from costly unfunded mandates. Instead, his stubborn political posturing caused nine critically important women’s equality measures to fail.

This is the man who says he works for the people, yet agrees to cut $90 million from programs that help people with developmental disabilities. Only after vocal protests from me and my Assembly minority colleagues and a lone Assembly majority member, Harvey Weisenberg, who stood with us for what was right, did that funding get restored.

These are the very people talking about poverty and wanting to improve people’s individual lives, but who fail to do anything that would help grow the jobs needed to get the nearly 800,000 unemployed New Yorkers back to work. These are the same people counting on casino gambling to ‘revive’ the upstate economy, yet they push a progressive farmworkers bill that would wreak havoc on our region’s biggest industry – agriculture.

Additionally, they passed the so-called NY SAFE Act, which essentially made criminals out of law- abiding citizens while turning a blind eye to the real problem of gun violence among our inner-city youth. It has never been more apparent that the progressive agenda of a few is more important than the well-being of the majority of the citizens in our state.

With taxpayer money, the Speaker paid off two women who endured horrendous harassment at the hands of disgraced New York City politician Vito Lopez. He silenced these women and allowed a predator to continue to abuse more staff. This is the same man who claims to be an advocate for women, and refused to allow the bills of the Women’s Equality Act to be voted on individually, like they were in the Senate.

Legislators from both sides of the aisle agree on 90 percent of the Act, items like workplace equality, protections for victims of domestic and sexual violence, but the Speaker opted for political posturing. He refused to break apart the bills, forcing a vote on a radical late-term abortion measure that he knew would never pass the Senate. At the end of the day, he let critically important women’s equality measures die over a progressive political statement.

Here’s what the Speaker and his Assembly majority colleagues delivered:

  • Increased taxes, fines and fees of $661 million, and over $11.3 billion over the next five years.
  • Other job-killing taxes and policies.
  • Second Amendment-infringing gun control.
  • Pork barrel spending, which often leads to abuse and misuse.
  • Disappointment and disservice to every New Yorker.

It is obvious that much more needs to be done for the people of our state. I am calling on the Speaker to reconvene the Assembly for a special session to finish the work that New Yorkers are relying on us to complete – women’s equality, a real jobs plan and an anti-corruption measure with real teeth.