In an effort to fight waste in New York state government and to bring New York state back into prosperity, I am joining my Assembly Minority colleagues in launching a new web site, www.stopgovernmentwasteny.com, which will aid taxpayers and state employees in reporting any waste of taxpayer dollars.
The site seeks the direct input of taxpayers and state employees who can anonymously report if they are aware of tax dollars or public resources being wastefully spent, misused or abused. The Assembly Minority Conference will then publicize the reports, submit them to the Administration, and seek non-partisan legislative remedies to rectify the problems and ensure greater fiscal accountability and responsibility in state government. The web site’s features include:
- Offering taxpayers and state employees an on-line mechanism to report known instances of state government waste directly on the web site – it also allows individuals reporting such tips an ability to retain their anonymity;
- Listing of several recent examples uncovered by the media of state government waste, fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars; and
- An outline of how government waste leads to higher taxes, a strain on the delivery of essential public services and further erodes public confidence in state government and the men and women serving in it.
No resident of New York state would be surprised to hear that our state is in a fiscal crisis and is struggling to pay its bills. In order to keep ourselves afloat, we need to focus on reining in spending and, more importantly, eliminating waste of valuable tax dollars. This web site is just the beginning of what my conference and I are planning this year in the way of reform. We will be proposing many non-partisan bills in order to combat waste, fraud and abuse of New Yorkers’ hard-earned money. As always, if you have any questions or concerns on this or any other state issue, please don’t hesitate to contact me at either my Johnstown office at (518) 762-6486, or my Herkimer office at (315) 866-1632.