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About this blog

Senator Tom O'Mara's ( R- NY 58th ) weekly column. 

Entries in this blog

Strengthening Public Safety Must Be A Priority

Strengthening Public Safety Must Be A Priority

The state Senate Republican conference recently unveiled a comprehensive package of legislation aimed at protecting crime victims. It follows our efforts throughout the past year to push back against the rise of violent crimes and increasing criminal activity in cities and communities throughout New York resulting, in our view, from an overall pro-criminal, anti-police climate fostered under all-Democrat rule in state government – and actions still being pursued by Governor Andrew Cuomo and
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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Governing From One Cuomo Emergency To The Next

Governing From One Cuomo Emergency To The Next

Governor Andrew Cuomo declared another State of Emergency in New York State last week – just about 14 days after finally calling an end to the COVID-19 emergency declaration -- and immediately began issuing a new round of the “Cuomo executive orders” that have now become the way of governing in this state.  Not surprisingly the governor touted his new “Disaster Emergency on Gun Violence” with what’s become his go-to playbook while he eyes a fourth term in office and fights for political sur
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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State Government Cannot Be Left To Cuomo Legacy Building

Late last week, after New York State reached a 70% vaccination rate statewide, Governor Cuomo ran with that benchmark as a reason to celebrate – fireworks included. He didn’t declare the end of the state of emergency, keep in mind, or the executive emergency powers that he still holds. The governor just saw fit to gather a group of cheering supporters at the World Trade Center in Manhattan to kick off a daylong, campaign-style celebration of...Governor Cuomo and his administration’s charade
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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A Session Of Turning Points In The NYS Legislature

A Session Of Turning Points In The NYS Legislature

The State Legislature’s 2021 regular session, which ended late last week, will have long-lasting ramifications for our region and for all New Yorkers. Without question, it will be remembered as a year of turning points -- the biggest one, of course, being that we have finally started turning the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic with steadily dropping infection rates and rising numbers of vaccinations. I’ll get back to the pandemic emergency later in this column. The new 2021-2022 state
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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Courage And Conviction Honored On Memorial Day

Courage And Conviction Honored On Memorial Day

From Arlington to Gettysburg to Woodlawn and hundreds of other national veterans’ cemeteries and monuments across this land, Americans will gather once again to observe Memorial Day. The nation’s long-standing Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in the nation’s capital is highlighted by a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, on which the following words are inscribed, “Here rests in honored glory an American solider known but to God.” Therein lies
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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Protecting Those That Protect Us

Protecting Those That Protect Us

Over the past three years, the home security consumer awareness and research organization Safewise conducted a “The State of Safety in America” nationwide survey of “more than 15,000 Americans to see how safe they feel.” According to the group’s final report, issued in March, “New York is by far the most concerned state.” New York is the “most worried about safety” state in the nation, the survey found, with 70 percent of New Yorkers reporting that they are “concerned daily” about their saf
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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An Alarm Sounding Louder Than Ever

An Alarm Sounding Louder Than Ever

Here we go again. The ink on the new state budget is barely dry and the Albany Democrats are already eyeing their next tax hike opportunities That’s right. New York’s out-of-control Democrat supermajorities just enacted a $212-billion state budget that blew through a one-time $13-billion windfall of federal aid, increased state government spending by $18 billion, and raised taxes by nearly five billion dollars. Already, it’s not enough for them. Already, it’s being made clear
Local Roads Are Essential

Local Roads Are Essential

Since the adoption of the 2021-2022 state budget, I have been outspoken in my strong criticism of this massive $212-billion, tax-and-spend fiscal plan that sets in motion a whole host of future, long-term commitments to massive new spending and taxing by New YorkState government. There are places in this budget, however, that do address the right priorities and that deserve to be highlighted as positive and vital to the future. As I’ve also noted, that better be the case with $18 billi
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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New Budget Of Missed Opportunities And A Troubling Future

New Budget Of Missed Opportunities And A Troubling Future

In the weeks leading up to the adoption of the new, 2021-2022 state budget, I kept repeating that we had an opportunity and a responsibility to utilize a massive, one-time flood of federal stimulus aid, nearly $13 billion, in a fiscally responsible way.  We faced an unprecedented chance to commit New York State to a short- and long-term strategy for the post-COVID rebuilding, restoring, and resetting of local communities, economies, environments, and governments for the long term. Equa
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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What In The Name Of Justice Is Going On?

What In The Name Of Justice Is Going On?

Coming off the approval of a new state budget that blows through a one-time windfall of $13 billion in federal aid, increases spending by an unprecedented $18 billion, and raises taxes by more than $4 billion, I’m not expecting this state government under one-party control to take a breath. The relentless pursuit of a so-called progressive agenda will continue while the Legislature’s Democrat supermajorities continue to exert their political leverage over a scandal-plagued Governor Andrew C
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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It's Time To Go Back To School

It's Time To Go Back To School

Together with my regional legislative colleagues, state Assembly representatives Marjorie Byrnes, Chris Friend, Joe Giglio and Phil Palmesano, we are sending a message to Governor Andrew Cuomo: It’s time.  We believe it is time to allow every local school district throughout the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions we represent -- and, in our view, districts across New York State – to return to full-time, in-person classroom instruction. School administrators and staff are ready. Tea
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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A Critically Important Budget For Future Generations

A Critically Important Budget For Future Generations

Last March, right around this time, we were at the beginning stages of a COVID-19 response that would turn the world and our individual lives upside down in ways most of us never envisioned at the start.  It was also at this time last year that Governor Cuomo and legislative leaders in the Senate and Assembly were negotiating a new state budget. Once the details of the state’s 2020-21 fiscal plan began to leak out, I issued the following warning on March 23, 2020, “We are facing an unpreced
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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New York Didn't Do Everything Right

New York Didn't Do Everything Right

If you haven’t been following the daily developments on the Cuomo administration’s nursing homes disaster, following are just a few highlights from the past week: Nine Democratic members of the state Assembly, in a letter urging support for stripping Governor Cuomo’s COVID-19 emergency powers, accused the governor with federal obstruction of justice, calling it a “criminal use of power”; Governor Cuomo responded by publicly attacking one of the letter’s signers, Assemblyman Ron Kim
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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Governor And Allies Caught Circling The Wagons

Governor And Allies Caught Circling The Wagons

Albany at the moment may best be described by a few lines from All The President’s Men, “It leads everywhere. Get out your notebook. There’s more.” In fact, there was a lot more at the State Capitol last Thursday night when reporters from the New York Post dropped a bombshell scoop detailing a secret virtual meeting of top legislative Democrats and members of Governor Cuomo’s inner circle. The Post obtained an audio recording of the Democrats-only meeting and the story quotes one of th
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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One Of the Worst Disasters In State History

One Of the Worst Disasters In State History

It turns out my column’s headline last week -- “Attorney General report a beginning, not the end” – was quite an understatement. In fact, the AG’s report has sparked nothing short of a firestorm since its release on January 28. It revealed, among many findings, that the Cuomo administration was underreporting COVID-19 nursing home deaths by potentially as much as 50 percent – and the findings were based on a review of just ten percent of the state’s nursing homes. After requests for mo
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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Attorney General Report A Beginning, Not The End

Attorney General Report A Beginning, Not The End

To summarize where we stand in our months-long effort to better understand the tragedy that is New York’s COVID-19 nursing home crisis -- and the Cuomo administration’s response to it – we now have a report from the state attorney general. It arrived last week after months and months of repeated requests -- from legislators (including myself), Democrat and Republican, reporters, watchdog groups, and from family members who have lost loved ones in nursing homes – for the most basic of inform
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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Budget Adoption Process Kicks Into Virtual High Gear This Week

Budget Adoption Process Kicks Into Virtual High Gear This Week

The 2021-2022 state budget adoption process marks my first as the Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee. It’s shaping up as one of the most consequential state budgets New York has ever faced. After a year when the COVID-19 pandemic has turned everything upside down, the choices made and the direction charted in this new budget could be transformational for the future of local communities, economies and taxpayers. In my view, here’s the fundamental question: Will it be transfo
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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Resetting New York State For The Post-Covid Future

Resetting New York State For The Post-Covid Future

In yet another reminder of these COVID-19 times, the 2021 legislative session kicks into high gear on Monday when Governor Andrew Cuomo delivers New York’s first-ever virtual State of the State address to New Yorkers. Nevertheless, what won’t change about this annual speech is that we’ll get a better sense of the direction Governor Cuomo intends to try to take this state in the months and possibly years ahead. We’re expecting to hear a direction not just to continue steering this state thro
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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Relief For Farmers Now, But Long Term Threat Remains

Relief For Farmers Now, But Long Term Threat Remains

It was a relief last week when New York’s newly created Farm Labor Wage Board chose not to immediately lower the state’s current 60-hour overtime threshold for farm workers. The relief is only temporary, however. The three-member Board made it clear that it will revisit the potential change next November with an eye toward moving ahead on a lower, likely 40-hour threshold. A lot can happen between now and next November, but make no mistake this is where we stand: farmers and their advo
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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Approaching The New Year With Hope

Approaching The New Year With Hope

Finally. Heading toward the beginning of a new year, the ongoing distribution of more widespread COVID-19 vaccinations appears to be the long-awaited mile marker on this incredibly long and hard road back to public health and economic renewal. First and foremost, make no mistake that reaching this point of potential renewal is the product of personal responsibility, and enormous perseverance and sacrifice on the part of so many. Every single one of you who have heard the public he
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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Valor Glass Vials Holding Hope For Today, And A Future Warning

Valor Glass Vials Holding Hope For Today, And A Future Warning

The headline of the week, the start of COVID-19 vaccinations across America, might at first appear unrelated to the state comptroller’s announcement last week of divesting the New York State Pension Fund of investments in fossil fuel companies. Under the surface, however, there’s a connection between the two that’s critical to the future of manufacturing in New York.    We have been hoping and praying for a COVID-19 vaccine. The fact that starting this week we’re on the doorstep of wid
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

0
On The Brink of Making It Worse For Farmers

On The Brink of Making It Worse For Farmers

We need to keep close watch on the future of our family farms.   A key action of the 2019 legislative session was the approval of controversial legislation (S6578/A8419, Chapter 105 of the Laws of 2019) known as the “Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act,” sponsored by two New York City legislators and pushed hard as a “progressive” hallmark by Governor Andrew Cuomo. Throughout the year prior to this law’s enactment, I joined many opponents, including the New York Farm Bureau, to warn a
Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

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