Growing up, I was taught to never leave a job until it’s finished. As fellow upstate New Yorkers, I’m sure you were taught the same. The value of working hard until a job is finished is a value I’d like to instill in Albany.

Some good things were accomplished during this past legislative session. We invested into our agricultural development programs, passed an on-time budget, increased school aid, and devoted resources to repair our crumbling roads and bridges. I am proud to have helped deliver these things to our communities, but I still believe Albany left a lot undone.

The biggest issue left untouched by Albany was mandate relief for our communities and job creators. These costly mandates in our region do more harm than good. Without these mandates, our communities and job creators could use resources on what we actually need, not what Albany bureaucrats say we need. I trust that our communities will know what is best for our region and economy.

We should also be reducing wasteful and time-consuming regulations every opportunity we have. The time and money that would be saved by eliminating paper-wasting programs, such as the Wage Theft Prevention requirements, would make a significant impact on small businesses, freeing resources that could be used on actual job creation, product and service development, and other endeavors that would help build our economy.

Other issues left untouched by the Assembly this year included laws that would have created tougher penalties for sex offenders and criminal politicians. Important laws that would have bolstered rights and protections for New York’s women also failed to pass in the legislature.

It’s clear: Albany left a lot of work to be done.

We still have the rest of the year to correct these problems. I am calling on my legislative colleagues to push for a special session so we can pass tax-lowering mandate relief, job-growing regulation relief, crime laws that take action against corruption, and real laws that finally recognize women for their value and worth in the work place, home and our communities.