Albany – On October 12, the Environmental Advocates of New York released their annual Voters’ Guide summarizing the recently concluded portion of the legislative session. The session was a critical period for the environmental community throughout New York, and in 2011, Assemblyman George Latimer (D-Rye) was rated with a perfect score of 105 points, joining a small handful of New York State legislators cited as most energetic in protecting the environment.
Assemblyman Latimer said, “Residing in and representing a community that borders the Long Island Sound continues to remind me, every day, how important it is to protect our natural environment. The Sound Shore communities I represent in the 91st Assembly District, and much of Westchester was damaged by flooding in 2007 and recently again by Hurricane Irene. Our lives are deeply affected by the environment.” A number of Latimer’s colleagues in the Westchester Delegation, both Majority and Minority, also scored above 100 in this report.
The Environmental Advocates report, which was issued on October 12th, 2011 is the only scorecard that grades New York State Lawmakers according to votes on various legislative priorities. Legislators earn between one and three points respectively for votes in support of bills that received one, two or three trees. Tree-rated bills are those deemed beneficial to the environment. Likewise, legislators earn between one and three points for voting against bills that were given a rating of one, two or three smokestacks. Smokestack-rated bills are those deemed detrimental to the environment. Votes on priority “super-bills” are given extra weight in the ratings. The full report is available online.
“I’m extremely thankful that the environmental community has advocates in Albany who have been holding lawmakers accountable for their actions for over 40 years,” Latimer stated. “As a member of the Environmental Conservation Committee, I worked very closely with the Environmental Advocates to pass 80% of “super-bills” in the Assembly – bills that protected open space, clean water, proper disposal of wastes, avoiding risky measures that could pollute our state. I was pleased as well as to have co-sponsored 4 of them and I voted “yes” on these common priorities. We still have some significant environmental issues to address in Albany and certainly we will do so in conjunction with the grassroots residents of Westchester and groups like Environmental Advocates of New York”, concluded Assemblyman Latimer.