This week in Albany was highlighted by a number of great meetings with local constituent groups. I was proud to welcome members of the Sloatsburg, Monroe, Ramapo and Catskill Library Systems to Albany as well as representatives from the Library Trustees Association. As I’ve said before, these men and women do tremendous work educating and strengthening our community and I thank them for their dedication. On another note, I was pleased to speak to members of the Rockland ARC Chapter and commend the work they do to protect our region’s most vulnerable individuals.

On the legislative side, the Assembly took an important step to help our homeowners and taxpayers by passing a bill, which I was proud to cosponsor, which rolled back changes made to the state’s School Tax Relief Program (STAR) that were poorly implemented and causing major headaches across the state. Property taxes are a major financial burden across the Hudson Valley and we should be focusing on restricting expensive state mandates that are driving them sky high.

The NY SAFE Act is one of the worst bills that has come through the state Legislature. Driven by New York City liberals, it was rammed through the voting process during the middle of the night with little to no public or stakeholder input and puts our families at risk. In conjunction with members of the Senate, the Assembly Minority pushed to repeal parts of this measure upstate and on Long Island. If downstate politicians can carve out special zones for things like ride-sharing and the property-tax cap, there’s no reason upstate should abide by a law pushed by New York City special interests. I will be fighting to include a partial repeal in this year’s budget and working with leaders in both houses to make this a reality.

As we approach one-house budget resolutions, essentially a budget wish list compiled by leaders in the Assembly and Senate, I will be advocating for the hard-working men and women in the Hudson Valley and fighting for our schools, taxpayers and businesses. Please feel free to contact my office with budgetary questions and concerns as we begin to navigate Albany’s grueling and complex budget process.