As we begin another legislative year, I wanted to make our community aware of my priorities as I head back to Albany. We have many issues to conquer for the betterment of Western New York and the state as a whole, including the habitual corruption that mars Albany year-in and year-out. We have to continue to combat the Common Core curriculum at every turn. We must make New York affordable and create new pathways toward realizing the American Dream. We must respect and honor the U.S. and New York State constitutions that we are bound to in our oath of office.

We cannot continue to rely on U. S. Attorney Preet Bharara to clean up the decades of corruption surrounding our State Capitol. We must pass meaningful ethics reform which eliminates the problem at its source. We must enforce term limits for those holding leadership positions in the legislature. We must ensure that New York taxpayers no longer finance the pensions of those convicted of abuses related to their office. Those in power seek to quell these reforms as they’ve done in the past. Our support for clean government should overrule them.

2015 was an excellent year for the grassroots movement to end the Common Core curriculum and replace it with local control. We’ve seen advocates for the curriculum finally admit to the flaws that come with the high-stakes testing model. We’ve held rallies and informational sessions all around the state. The people’s voices are finally being heard, and we have the opportunity this year to remove New York from Common Core, re-empower our teachers and boards of education, and return New York’s education system to a position of envy for the other 49 states. Our children deserve no less, and I will fight every day to ensure that this is the last year families have to endure Common Core.

As a small-business owner, I know just how hard Albany makes it to achieve the American Dream. As Ranking Minority Member of the Assembly Committee on Small Business, I bring a level of expertise necessary to usher in the next great era of small business entrepreneurship. Main Street needs Albany out of the way, and needs burdensome regulations and taxation off its shoulders so entrepreneurs are free to express their ingenuity. Every small business deserves a chance to succeed and prosper. I will continue to bring a free market-oriented ideology to the Committee on Small Business.

I will continue to uphold my oath of office with the highest integrity and regard for our Constitution, and that includes my steadfast resolve to repeal every single word of the SAFE Act. Our community has not forgotten and neither will I. I made a promise to fight for repeal, and I will continue to do so.

To discuss this or any other state issue, please call my hometown office at 716-655-0951 or drop by 411 Main Street here in East Aurora.