“I challenge the Governor and my colleagues in the Assembly and the Senate to once and for all join together in a bi-partisan effort to fix the broken economy that is plaguing New York State. Together, we must accomplish not only what is our constitutional obligation of balancing the state budget, but to work together to improve our education and healthcare systems and to create programs that will revitalize the economy and job markets in Upstate New York, as to alleviate some of this state’s economic reliance on Wall Street.
According to the Governor, an estimated 225,000 New Yorkers could lose their jobs in this recession. In a broken economy like this, the last thing that we need to be doing is raising taxes on middle-class families and small businesses, as proposed in the Governor’s budget. As a former small-business man, I understand the effects that job-killing taxes have on our communities. We must balance our budget as well as improve the economy, and the only way to do that is by investing in upstate New York and eliminating, not adding, to the tax burden that local businesses and residents are already forced to shoulder.
Also, I want to commend the Governor for choosing to support a property tax cap and call on him to make an amendment to his budget adding the allocation for this cap. It is time that we stop talking about what needs to be done and actually take the steps to accomplish the tasks that lie before us. I am committed to the task at hand and look forward to bringing back jobs and opportunities to our state.”