“While headlines following this budget’s passage will likely sing the praises of the governor’s purported bail reform ‘fix’, the sad truth of the matter is that these changes won’t restore law and order on our streets,” said Tague. “That’s something of a theme in this budget, while there are helpful proposals within it, we could’ve seized this moment to do so much more for the residents, farmers, and small business owners of this state. People are struggling to make ends meet, and no longer feel safe in the neighborhoods where they live. New Yorkers were counting on us to take decisive action, but instead, the governor and her Majority colleagues were only able to offer them half-measures.

“Regarding agriculture in particular, I was incredibly dismayed to see the inclusion of a farm laborer overtime tax credit that seems to indicate the governor and labor commissioner are preparing to move forward with the reduction of the farm laborer overtime threshold. While I voted for this tax credit as I want farmers to have all the support they can get if that does happen, I want to reiterate that it would be much simpler to avoid putting farmers in this position in the first place by leaving the overtime threshold where it is at 60 hours.”