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Senator Tom O'Mara

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Blog Entries posted by Senator Tom O'Mara

  1. Senator Tom O'Mara
    On the evening of Friday, March 30, Chemung County Sheriff’s Investigator Mike Theetge, in pursuit of a suspect in a retail theft operation at a Target store in Big Flats, just two miles from my home, was struck and thrown by the getaway vehicle being used in the crime.
    Investigator Theetge, 35 years old, suffered a skull fracture and brain bleeding. As of this writing, he remains hospitalized in critical condition. First and foremost, please keep Mike and his family in your prayers. The outpouring of community support has been incredible. According to the Chemung County Sherriff’s Office, individuals or businesses wishing to make a direct donation to the Theetge family should contact the Sheriff’s office at 607-737-2950 (Road Patrol) or 607-737-2987 (Administration) for assistance in doing so.
    The prevalence of ever-rising retail theft across this state and nation reaches home here in the Southern Tier in a shocking and tragic way. This is not just a big city issue, it’s right here in our own backyard in rural, upstate New York. We are all being impacted by the consequences of no consequences resulting from the Albany Democrats’ soft on crime and punishment policies.

    It’s estimated that retail theft is costing New York State businesses upwards of $4 billion annually. Polls have shown that retail workers are fearful of being attacked at their workplaces. One recent survey conducted by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, for example, revealed more than 80 percent of retail workers say that they are worried about an active shooter coming into their workplace.
    Yet, raise the prospect of increasing criminal penalties to crack down on retail thieves -- for example, legislation to make it a felony offense to assault a retail worker – and the response from leading Albany Democrats demonstrates the mindset destroying law and order in New York State.
    Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie recently said, "I just don't believe raising penalties is ever a deterrent."
    Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins joined her Assembly counterpart in expressing the same sentiment, “Both houses find that merely raising penalties, does not necessarily get at, you know, diminishing the amount of crime." 
    Another leading Senate Democrat, Brooklyn Senator Kevin Parker added, “I don’t see any increase in penalties coming out of the state Legislature.”
    It’s preposterous. If retail thieves, if criminals in general, don’t fear the consequences of their actions – and they don’t in New York State today – there’s no stopping this explosion of crime and violence. You might just as well wave a white flag of surrender.
    “It’s better off to commit a crime than get a job in New York,” says the President of New York’s Bodega and Small Business Association
    “How do you deter crime except by penalty?” asks Nelson Eusebio, who heads the National Supermarket Association and Coalition to Save our Supermarkets. He’s right.
    For her part, Governor Kathy Hochul has acknowledged the growing retail theft crisis and put forth a $45-million plan to establish a new state-level task force to coordinate statewide responses. The governor also wants to:
     set up a New York State Police Smash and Grab Enforcement Unit dedicated to building cases against organized retail theft rings; increase funding for local district attorneys to prosecute property crime cases and to bolster the ability of local law enforcement to combat retail theft; and  establish a Commercial Security Tax Credit to help business owners offset the expense of store security measures. That’s all well and good, but can any of the above be truly effective without being accompanied by tougher penalties for criminals? Yes, the governor has expressed her own support for increased penalties as part of the broader deterrent and enforcement strategy, but she failed to put it in her proposed executive budget, which is where she has the most power with the Legislature’s Democratic supermajorities. Consequently, it’s clearly going nowhere in the Democrat-controlled Legislature and the governor appears in no position to be able to sway their opinion.
    Writing in the New York Post, longtime New York City newspaper columnist Michael Goodwin reacted to Assembly Speaker Heastie’s “penalties are not a deterrent” way of thinking this way: “Because (Heastie) has a life-or-death grip on every piece of legislation that moves or doesn’t move in Albany, his admission illustrates why lawmakers have allowed and even encouraged the waves of crime and public disorder that are destroying New York. The lenient bail laws, the handcuffs on judges, the raising of the age from 16 to 18 for young offenders to be treated as adults — they all play a role in the coddling of criminals and the victimization of the innocent. The murder of (New York City) Police Officer Jonathan Diller by a career criminal who along with his partner had racked up at least 35 combined arrests underscores the devastating impact Heastie and his Democratic collaborators are having.”
    Goodwin hits the bull’s eye here. New York State under one-party control has spent the past several years coddling criminals and victimizing law-abiding, innocent citizens.
    The plague of retail theft goes on ravaging New York and other cities and, as I started this column, the prevalence of lawlessness is seeping into every corner of the state, including the horrific encounter that left Chemung County Sheriff’s Investigator Mike Theetge fighting for his life.
    Senator Tom O'Mara represents New York's 58th District which covers all of Chemung, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga and Yates counties, and a portion of Allegany County.
  2. Senator Tom O'Mara
    One of the most controversial actions of Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed 2024-2025 state budget is her move to cut education aid to more than half of New York State’s school districts outside of New York City.
    If enacted, the governor’s proposed education cuts would fall most heavily on certain regions, including many small, largely rural school districts across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes. Here's a few of the most staggering cuts to schools in the 58th Senate District: Hammondsport would suffer a 30.7%  or $1.6M cut; Penn Yan, 18.5% or $2.2M cut; Watkins Glen, 16.8% or $1.9M cut; and South Seneca, 16% or $1.5M cut.
    The governor’s education proposal can’t stand. The property tax increases required to ameliorate these cuts would be prohibitive. That’s the message my Senate Republican colleagues and I delivered at the Capitol last week.
    As I’ve stressed time and again, New York State has been steadily moving closer to the edge of an economic and fiscal cliff – due in large part to the spending appetites of former Governor Cuomo, Governor Hochul and, since 2018, the Democrat-controlled, biggest-spending Legislature in state history. The bottom line is that the state budget, between 2018 and 2023, has grown by upwards of $60 billion!
    This growth is in the first five years of one-party Democratic control of both houses of the state Legislature, and the offices of Governor, Comptroller, and Attorney General. Just that growth alone is larger than the budgets of more than 30 states.  It is larger than the states of Florida and Texas combined, each of which has a larger population than New York.  It spends 1½ times more per capita than California which has more than twice our population.
    From the outset, many of us have warned about this out-of-control spending, that it would never be sustainable and puts a new generation of state and local taxpayers at risk of shouldering an even heavier burden far into the future (keeping in mind that New York is already recognized as one of the highest-taxed, least affordable to live, and most unfriendly to business states in America).
    In fact, the bill’s already coming due for Democrat overspending. We start the current year facing a state budget gap of $4.3 billion, with ongoing deficits in the next three years projected to be $5 billion, $5.2 billion, and $9.9 billion, respectively.
    Consequently, Governor Hochul – suddenly painting herself as a diligent fiscal disciplinarian and watchdog -- unveiled her 2024-2025 state budget proposal with the following statement, “We can't spend like there's no tomorrow, because tomorrow always comes.”
    That’s true, however the governor needed to stand for it long before now. And it’s equally important to understand the context of the governor’s full game plan this year.
    Her opening gambit offers a $233-billion spending plan, an increase of $4 billion over New York’s current budget that represents a significant increase and, if enacted without any changes at all (and I've yet to see the Legislature come back with a budget that spends less than the Executive's proposal) will be the largest-ever state budget.

    There are proposed cuts and negligible belt-tightening, but not truly for the sake of any long-term fiscal discipline in this state. It’s being done, instead, to accommodate higher (and long-term) spending elsewhere – while, at the same time, knowing full well that the Legislature is left with no choice but to demand restorations in key areas.
     As I noted at the start, education is the prime example of this gamesmanship. Governor Hochul’s proposed budget calls for the elimination of what’s known as the “save harmless” provision of the state education aid distribution formula. “Save harmless” is utilized to ensure fiscal stability for school districts, especially high-need districts, and has long been critically important to small and rural schools. According to our Senate Republican budget analysis, this move would cut nearly $170 million from approximately half of the state’s school districts and result in particularly hard hits in specific regions of the state, including, as I said, small and rural districts across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes.
    The Governor made much fanfare of “consumer protections” in both her State of the State and Executive Budget presentations.  However, her education budget proposal is nothing short of “Bait and Switch” lacking “Truth in Advertising.”
    While local school districts get cut in excess of $400 million in this budget, she includes another $2.4 billion (bringing the two-year total to $4.3 billion) to provide taxpayer-funded assistance and services to the ever-growing surge of asylum-seeking migrants flowing into New York from the nation’s southern border.  In addition, to add insult to injury, the state will pay the federal government $15 Million to rent a former military base, Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, for use as a migrant shelter to house migrants the federal government has allowed to flow illegally across the Rio Grande!
    Her budget also spends $150 Million for floating pools in the rivers of New York City (I kid you not) and $45 Million for planting trees, to name just two. These may be nice things, but not in times of what should be fiscal austerity and in the midst of staggering cuts to rural, suburban, and small city school districts.
    That’s just one example of the shell game going on here.
    In other words, Governor Hochul’s proposed budget is not truly aiming for long-term fiscal discipline and responsibility. It’s a budget that in the name of fiscal discipline attempts to take away from some to keep giving away far more to others.
    That’s a game we can never play, in my opinion, with the quality of education for our small, rural school districts across the Upstate region, or any school district at all for that matter.
    The Senate Republican budget analysis reaches this conclusion, “As proposed, the Executive budget includes few proposals to deal with the high cost of the everyday lives of New Yorkers. There is little in the category of affordability proposals advanced, that work towards mitigating the increased costs in food, home fuel or transportation that everyday New Yorker’s face. There is little in the way of improving New York’s business climate which has been rated one of the worst in the nation. There is little in the way of addressing the State’s outmigration problem which, according to a study in October of 2023 by the Economic Innovation Group, has caused New York to lose $24.8 billion in net adjusted gross income (AGI) during the pandemic.”
    That's a significant loss of tax revenue.
    We desperately need to get New York State’s fiscal house in order. But it’s outrageous for Governor Hochul to target small, rural school districts. That’s not an answer to this state’s deep-rooted fiscal irresponsibility. It’s just redirecting misguided priorities that won’t move us any closer to fiscal stability, taxpayer relief, or long-term affordability and sustainability for most New Yorkers.
    I need you to join in the fight opposing Governor Hochul's budget cuts to our schools and handouts to illegal immigrants.  Please contact the Governor directly by calling 518-474-8390 and by emailing at: governor.ny.gov/contact.
  3. Senator Tom O'Mara
    To kick off the 2023 legislative session – one that we believed represented a pivotal session with New York at a crossroads in so many areas – the Senate Republican Conference put forth a comprehensive set of goals to help rebuild and strengthen local and state economies, focus on the financial challenges facing many middle-class families and small business owners, and make public safety a top priority.
    At that time back in early January, I said, “New Yorkers across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions, and statewide, are worried about making ends meet. They see this state becoming less safe, less affordable, less free, less economically competitive, less responsible, and far less hopeful for the future. Albany Democrats acknowledge that New York State has an affordability crisis causing the exodus of our citizens to more affordable states, however the Democrats are intent on raising taxes to increase handouts to their base. They have no interest in reining in out-of-control spending, eliminating taxes, lowering costs, cutting burdensome regulations and mandates, or restoring public safety. We need to rescue New York by restoring the right priorities to turn things around, rebuild stronger and safer communities, and work toward a more responsible and sustainable future."
    We called it “Rescue New York” and we began rolling it out at the very start of this session — a session that New York’s Democrat legislative leaders will bring to a close later this week — with a focus on fiscal responsibility and affordability for all taxpayers, rebuilding and revitalizing New York’s local economies, and addressing rising crime and public safety.
    Albany Democrats have gone in a completely different direction. It continues to put this state’s future on high alert. Their direction for New York is producing billions upon billions of dollars of short- and long-term spending commitments requiring billions upon billions of dollars in new taxes, fees, and borrowing for future generations of state and local taxpayers.
    The overriding goals of our Rescue New York agenda would have:
    Offered a safer and better quality of life for all New Yorkers by repealing bail reform and supporting law enforcement and crime victims;  Made New York more affordable for every resident by cutting the state’s highest-in-the-nation tax burden and taking other actions to lower the cost of living in New York; Improved the state’s business climate and expanded economic opportunity by cutting burdensome regulations; Moved more responsibly and sensibly toward a cleaner energy future without ignoring affordability, feasibility, and reliability like the strategy currently set in motion under Governor Hochul is doing; and Restored accountability and local decision making to state government in the aftermath of rampant abuses of executive power throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. But that’s not where we have gone this session under continued one-party, all-Democrat rule. The size of the state budget continues to skyrocket. There was no turning back from this explosive tax-and-spend path this year. Far from it, in fact. The new state budget, as I have detailed in previous columns, took yet another huge leap in size and will burden state and local taxpayers for years to come.
    The same goes for law and order. Albany Democrats are turning criminal justice on its head. Most reasonable New Yorkers recognize that rising crime and violence, and weakened public safety and security, are the direct result of the pro-criminal policies being enacted and pushed by this governor and a State Legislature under one-party control. They have emboldened the criminal element throughout this state through failed bail reform, lenient parole policies, an out-of-control Parole Board, cowing to the “defund the police” movement, and an overall careless approach to criminal justice.
    In short, our calls to make New York more affordable, responsible, safer, and sustainable have, once again, gone unheard this session. Nevertheless, the fight goes on to rescue and restore a more reasonable approach to governing this state. 
    It's more urgent than ever.
  4. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Governor Hochul delivered her State of the State message to the Legislature last week. Now we wait and see how she plans to pay for it. Those answers start to arrive later this month when she unveils her proposed 2023-2024 state budget.
    My initial reaction to the governor’s broad outline of her priorities for New York’s future is this: Governor Hochul highlighted the affordability crisis facing all New Yorkers, but every agenda item she spoke of will only make New York a more expensive place to live and do business. She appears intent on spending every last taxpayer dime, and then some. New York State remains one of America’s highest-taxed, least affordable, most debt-ridden and overregulated states, and we’re leading the nation in population loss. It is mind-boggling how Governor Hochul and legislative Democrats can boast about higher and higher state government spending.   
    One highlight of her address I do applaud is her commitment to improving New York's woeful mental health care system. Unfortunately, she only commits to one half of one percent of the state budget to restoring mental health beds statewide. This meager allocation of state resources – one half of one percent -- won't even make up for the bed closures that ex-Governor Cuomo forced over the last decade in our state mental health facilities. Mental health care is a significant need for far too many New Yorker with its consequences of homelessness, addiction, and crime. This effort deserves a far greater commitment. 
    The day before Governor Hochul delivered her message, our Senate Republican conference proposed a plan called “Rescue New York.”  We have offered a broad range of policies focusing on public safety and security, mental health care, economic growth and job creation, tax relief and regulatory reform, and affordability initiatives to try to reverse New York’s distressing outmigration. 
    New Yorkers across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions I represent, and statewide, are worried about making ends meet. They see this state becoming less safe, less affordable, less free, less economically competitive, less responsible, and far less hopeful for the future.   
     Albany Democrats readily acknowledge the affordability crisis causing the exodus of citizens to more affordable states, however the Democrats can’t give up increasing handouts to their base. They have no interest in reining in out-of-control spending, eliminating taxes, lowering costs, cutting burdensome regulations and mandates, or restoring public safety. We need to rescue New York by restoring the right priorities, rebuilding stronger and safer communities, and working toward a more responsible and sustainable future for middle-class communities, families, workers, businesses, industries, and taxpayers.  
     In short, the “Rescue New York” agenda is a comprehensive plan to do just that. Among many initiatives, the plan focuses on:  
    Restoring common sense and sanity to our criminal justice system;   Increasing efforts to address the opioid and fentanyl crisis;   Expanding economic opportunities and strengthening our workforce;   Cutting New York’s highest-in-the-nation tax burden and controlling state government spending;   Improving New York’s worst-in-the-nation business climate;   Enacting energy policies that are affordable, reliable, and sustainable;   Addressing the burgeoning Unemployment Insurance crisis; and   Confronting long-neglected obstacles to local economic growth and tax relief like  unfunded mandates, unreasonable overregulation, and the steady erosion of local decision-making.   I’ll be working with legislative colleagues across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions, together with local leaders and concerned citizens, to keep attention focused on the goals and priorities we share for stronger and safer communities.  
     As noted at the outset, the next key benchmark arrives later this month when Governor Hochul begins rolling out her 2023-2024 proposed state budget. That’s where we truly begin finding out how her broad State of the State promises get implemented and, especially, paid for.   
     I was recently reappointed as the Ranking Republican member on the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the Legislature’s annual budget adoption process. I hope to utilize this post to at least give a voice to the challenges and crises facing our region and all of Upstate New York.  
     Remember that you can find more details on the Rescue New York agenda – as well as information and updates on other state government news and actions throughout the 2023 legislative session – on my Senate website, www.omara.nysenate.gov.   
  5. Senator Tom O'Mara
    It wasn’t long ago in this column -- in early September in fact – that I asked the question, “Will Governor Hochul turn her back on farmers?” 
    I asked it after a New York State Wage Board, established under a 2019 law known as the “Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act,” finalized its recommendation to lower the mandatory overtime pay threshold for farm workers from the current 60 hours to 40 hours.  
    Following the Wage Board’s action, Governor Hochul was given 45 days to send down the final word.  
    It didn’t take long to get our answer. The governor herself didn’t do the dirty work, of course. She turned that over to state Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon, a holdover from the former Cuomo administration, who late on the afternoon of Friday, October 1, sent down the Hochul administration’s decision to lower the threshold to 40. 
    But this is all on Governor Hochul now, be clear on that, it is her decision and the consequences of moving forward with it will always be pinned to her. 
     Remember that it was on September 6 that the three-member Wage Board finalized its recommendation, by a vote of 2-1, to lower the threshold. The lone vote in opposition came from Board member David Fisher, President of the New York Farm Bureau, who said that “the deck was stacked” against the farm community from the outset of this process and that the board’s final report “does not reflect the data, research and scope of the full testimony that was provided” in opposition. 
    In other words, Governor Hochul and Commissioner Reardon can claim all they want that the Wage Board report was factual, and that careful consideration was given to the hundreds of hours of testimony from farmers, farm workers, industry leaders and advocates, and concerned citizens, as well as local, state, and federal representatives, including me, who overwhelmingly sought to deliver one message to Governor Hochul: Stay At 60. 
    We urged her to listen to common sense. 
    We called on her to listen to the warnings. 
     We urged her to at least delay any final decision until the next United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census is released in 2024 when more up-to-date and extensive data will be available to assess the state of the agricultural industry, including the economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
    We provided facts from the front lines. 
    For example, Cornell University experts issued a report last November detailing the potential and very troubling consequences of lowering the threshold to 40 hours, including that: 
    Two-thirds of the dairy farms they interviewed indicated they would move out of milk production;  One of every four fruit or vegetable farm will relocate their operation outside of the state;  Seventy percent of H-2A workers said they would consider going to another state without capped hours if the state moves to a 40-hour overtime threshold.  Around the same time that Cornell released its findings, Farm Credit East estimated dire economic impacts to farms from lowering the threshold to 40 hours. This report showed that lowering the threshold “could have a significant economic impact on New York’s farms, and that taken together with the scheduled increases in minimum wage, is estimated to increase labor expenses $264 million, or 42%, causing a reduction in farm income of 20%.” 
    Many already hard-pressed family farms simply will not survive such a devastating reduction in farm income.  
    In the end, the suspicions that many of us had from the beginning – when former Governor Cuomo went all-in on getting behind what was a top priority for New York’s far-left, city-based, extreme-liberal faction of the Democrat party – that the fix was in, proved to be correct.  
    Keep in mind that the “Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act” was, in fact, conjured up by socialist leaning Democrat legislators from Queens, New York City.To try to provide themselves political cover, ex-Governor Cuomo and the state’s all-Democrat legislative majorities created an unelected, unaccountable Wage Board -- authorized to take unilateral action without the need for legislative approval – and ensured that there would always be two votes on the three-member board in favor of lowering the threshold. 
    Cuomo resigned in disgrace, however Governor Hochul quickly signaled her determination to walk hand in hand with the Wage Board and finish what Cuomo and the New York City socialist legislators from Queens started.  
    In late July, she went as far as to state that if New York moves forward with forcing farmers to pay overtime after 40 hours, state taxpayers will pick up the tab and subsidize the move, indefinitely, to the tune of at least $130 million annually – even though many farmers question whether the tax credit will even begin cover their higher labor costs or offset the anticipated consequences.  
    In other words, New York State's hardworking families and taxpayers will foot the bill to pay seasonal migrant farmworkers more to send home to their families in Central and South America. 
    Governor Hochul and her Cuomo-appointed labor commissioner had the opportunity to choose the future of farming over the so-called “progressive” ideology that is driving this state into the ground.  
    Instead, they rejected farmers, farm workers, farm advocates, agricultural representatives, community leaders, and legislators who spoke in near-unanimous opposition to this move.  
    They rejected the industry’s top advocates, including the New York Farm Bureau, the Northeast Dairy Producers Association, Grow NY Farms, Upstate United, and numerous others.  
    They decided to go ahead and carelessly risk undermining an industry and a way of life that has defined the regions we represent, as well as the face of New York State agriculture as we have known it for generations.  
    They will jeopardize the future of high quality, local food production.  
    They will shamelessly require state and local taxpayers to pay for yet another bad decision out of Albany. 
    They are fine with setting in motion the loss of more family farms and the livelihoods these farms support across the industry and throughout hundreds of local economies.  
    At the worst possible time, Governor Hochul is mandating an even more uncertain future for family farmers, farm workers, farm communities, and New York’s agricultural industry overall.  
    Following the final announcement that New York will reject the concerns and fears of the agricultural community and lower the threshold to 40, Farm Bureau President Fischer stated, “This is a difficult day for all those who care about New York being able to feed itself. Commissioner Reardon’s decision to lower the farm labor overtime threshold will make it even tougher to farm in this state and will be a financial blow to the workers we all support. Moving forward, farms will be forced to make difficult decisions on what they grow, the available hours they can provide to their employees, and their ability to compete in the marketplace. All of this was highlighted in the testimony and data that the wage board report and the commissioner simply ignored.” 
    The Farm Bureau gets right to the heart of it: Governor Hochul has “simply ignored” New York agriculture. 
     
  6. Senator Tom O'Mara
    To no one’s surprise last week, a New York State Wage Board established under a 2019 law known as the “Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act” finalized its recommendation to lower the mandatory overtime pay threshold for farm workers from the current 60 hours to 40 hours. 
    If left to stand by Governor Kathy Hochul, it will change the face of New York State agriculture as we have known it for generations. 
    Listen to the warnings, governor. Stay at 60. 
    Grow NY Farms, a coalition of leading farm industry advocates, states that the Wage Board’s recommendation “will put the future of farming in New York at risk. In fact, this report and its recommendations are not reflective of the significant data and research conducted by academics and industry experts, or the majority of public testimony provided throughout the public hearing process.” 
    Northeast Dairy Producers Association Vice President Keith Kimball said, “The entire Farm Laborer Wage Board process has lacked transparency and integrity from the start, and the final report is no exception. The Wage Board report fails to represent the outpouring of testimony from New York’s agriculture industry, which resulted in over 70% of testimony asking to keep overtime at 60 hours.” 
    Upstate United Executive Director Justin Wilcox said that the recommendation “is a death sentence for many family farms across the state. The future of farming now rests in the hands of Governor Hochul.” 
    The three-member Wage Board moved forward by a vote of 2-1. Board member David Fisher, President of the New York Farm Bureau, was the lone vote against it, stating that “the deck was stacked” against the farm community from the outset and that the board’s final report “does not reflect the data, research and scope of the full testimony that was provided” in opposition.  
    For example, Cornell University issued a report last November detailing the potential and very troubling consequences, including that: 
    Two-thirds of the dairy farms interviewed by Cornell researchers indicated they would move out of milk production; 
    One of every four fruit or vegetable farm will relocate their operation outside of the state; 
    Seventy percent of H-2A workers said they would consider going to another state  
    without capped hours if the state moves to a 40-hour overtime threshold. 
    The decision now goes to Governor Kathy Hochul and state Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon, a holdover from the prior Cuomo administration, who will have 45 days to review the Farm Wage Board’s final report before acting.  
    At the very least, Governor Hochul should delay any final decision until the next United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census is released in 2024 when more up to date and extensive data will be available to assess the state of the agricultural industry, including the economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
    Governor Hochul can listen to the thousands of farmers, farm workers, farm advocates, agricultural representatives, community leaders, and legislators, including me, in near-unanimous opposition.  
    She can heed the warnings from the industry’s top advocates, including the New York Farm Bureau, the Northeast Dairy Producers Association, Grow NY Farms, and numerous others.  
    She can choose not to risk the future of high quality, local food production.  
    She can recognize that now is no time to risk regulating and mandating an even more uncertain future for family farmers, farm workers, farm communities, and New York’s agricultural industry overall. 
    Or she can look the other way and reaffirm that this was a charade on her part all along. 
    Governor Hochul has signaled her determination to walk hand in hand with the Wage Board and finish what ex-Governor Cuomo started. In late July, Governor Hochul said that if the state moves forward with forcing farmers to pay overtime after 40 hours, state taxpayers will pick up the extra costs and subsidize the move, indefinitely, to the tune of at least $130 million annually – even though many farmers question whether the tax credit would even cover their higher labor costs.  
    Even more to the point, however, is why should New York’s taxpayers foot the bill to put in place yet another questionable plank of the “progressive” agenda now ruling Albany?  
    It’s shaping up to be yet another economic disaster for New York’s farmers and farm workers – and another fiscal burden for taxpayers. 
    Nevertheless, there’s still time to change course. 
    Keep sending the message to “Stay At 60” to Governor Hochul by calling 518-474-8390. 
  7. Senator Tom O'Mara
    It didn’t take long and it’s not good news for future taxpayers. 
    In April, when Governor Kathy Hochul and the Democrat legislative majorities in the Senate and Assembly finished stocking up what would become New York’s largest-ever state budget, many of us warned about its irrational spending. 
    Remember that the final 2022-2023 budget rang in at over $220 billion, hiking New York government spending by at least $8 billion over last year while simply ignoring the overriding need for mandate relief, regulatory reform, or permanent, broad-based tax relief. 
    In fact, the Democrats’ latest spending plan, a one-party vision for spending billions of taxpayer dollars, set us on a course toward higher taxes. 
    Now, according to a report earlier this month from one of Albany’s leading fiscal watchdogs, the Empire Center for Public Policy, the new state budget is already projecting multi-billion-dollar budget gaps in the coming years. The latest deficit projections were quietly put out by the governor’s own Division of the Budget. 
    In other words, the massive new state spending authorized over the past two years, which has sent New York into the stratosphere of state budgets in America, is already proving unsustainable. 
    The Empire Center states, “Historically large budgetary surpluses inherited by Governor Hochul are now just a memory, with the state now facing projected budget gaps totaling $13.7 Billion over the next five years…The new sea of red ink is due to an anticipated plunge in tax receipts resulting from the recent economic and financial market decline.” 
    The center goes on to conclude, “Where the economy and financial markets go from here is unknown. But in retrospect, it seems clear at least that the Governor and the Legislature should have showed more fiscal restraint in April.” 
    No kidding. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as fiscal restraint coming out of Albany at the moment. 
    Back in April, when this year’s final budget was enacted, I said, “This Albany Democrat giveaway goes far beyond any reasonable sense of fairness, responsibility, or long-term sustainability for hard-working, taxpaying citizens. It’s the largest spending plan ever enacted but it fails to include the scope of tax, regulatory and mandate relief needed to truly begin turning this state around. It largely ignores the need to rebuild and revitalize the manufacturing sector. It’s a one-party vision for spending billions of dollars that’s teeing up a next generation of hard-hit taxpayers and unaffordable living in New York State. We are going to be footing the bill and carrying the burden for these all-Democrat budgets for years to come.” 
    In the end, this year’s budget can only be defined as a spending spree. Governor Hochul followed in the footsteps of former Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature’s Democrat majorities who two years ago began setting New York government loose on an irresponsible, extremely liberal, far-left frenzy of spending that blew through a one-time federal windfall and clearly risks a future of higher state taxing and borrowing.  
    Cuomo blew through his self-imposed two-percent spending cap five-fold with a nearly 10% spending increase in a then-record $212-billion state budget grasping for support from a Legislature out for his head. Hochul followed suit this year in a gross pandering for votes in her contentious primary election – both blowing billions of your tax dollars in their own selfish pursuits and setting New York State up for significant future deficits.  
    It has spread around a lot of taxpayer dollars and made plenty of people happy in the short term. The bottom line, however, is that it will not change New York’s reputation as one of America’s highest-taxed, highest-spending, highest-regulated states. 
    Throughout this year’s budget adoption cycle, the Senate Republican Conference highlighted key priorities through a comprehensive “Take Back NY” agenda. The GOP agenda has focused on lower taxes, less regulation, greater accountability, economic growth, job creation, and more common sense on state fiscal practices, including spending restraint. 
    New York remains one of the highest-taxed states in America. We are one of the most overregulated states in the nation. Our local governments and local property taxpayers continue to foot the bill for one of the country’s heaviest burdens of unfunded state mandates. 
    It’s no coincidence that New York led the nation last year in overall tax burden and population loss. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are heading for the exits. 
    This state was at a crossroads this year and we needed to enact an across-the-board agenda to permanently cut taxes, dramatically address affordability, and significantly rebuild stronger and safer communities. 
    Instead, we went in the completely opposite direction.        
  8. Senator Tom O'Mara
    In early September, a New York State Wage Board, established under a 2019 law known as the “Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act,” will finalize its recommendation on one of the key provisions of that three-year-old law – and its decision could forever impact New York agriculture as we have known it. 
    Specifically, the Farm Wage Board will issue a final report on September 6 and recommend lowering the mandatory overtime pay threshold for farmworkers from the current 60 hours to 40 hours, a move strongly opposed by farmers and many legislators, including me. 
    The final decision then falls to Governor Kathy Hochul and state Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon, a holdover from the prior Cuomo administration, who will have 45 days to review the Farm Wage Board’s final report before acting.  
    In other words, the future of farming in New York State hangs in the balance thanks to a law enacted in 2019 that was pushed by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo as a cornerstone of his so-called “progressive” remake of New York government. 
    Throughout the year prior to the enactment of the Act, I joined many opponents, including the New York Farm Bureau, to warn about its consequences. We feared that mandatory overtime pay and other provisions of the law, especially the creation of a three-member Wage Board granted the authority to unilaterally change the law’s provisions, without legislative approval, could worsen the impact of farm labor costs on farm income at a time when the farm economy is already struggling. 
    It has been reported that farm labor costs in New York State increased 40 percent over the past decade and that the 2019 measure could result in another crippling 44-percent increase in wage expenses. Total farm labor costs are at least 63 percent of net cash farm income in New York, compared to 36 percent nationally. 
    I debated and voted against this move when the Senate approved it in June 2019. 
    The bottom line is that this misguided action by a state government triumvirate of leaders under one-party, downstate-based control -- guided on many current issues by a far-left, extreme-liberal governing philosophy -- has profound implications throughout local farm economies across rural, upstate New York, including driving more family farms out of business. 
    And that was the case even before COVID-19, which we now know has taken its own toll on our farmers and the entire agricultural industry. 
    Sadly, we are seeing the worst consequences of this law playing out as we feared. Earlier this year, in the face of an outcry of public testimony and opposition from agricultural leaders and others, the Wage Board recommended paving the way for lowering the current 60-hour threshold requiring farmers to pay their employees overtime. 
    It’s clear that this was a preordained decision. Last January, hours of testimony from farmers, farm workers, farm advocates, agricultural representatives, community leaders, and many state legislators, including me, were still echoing across this state in near-unanimous opposition to lowering the overtime threshold, and the Wage Board took no time at all before coming out with a disastrous recommendation to lower the overtime threshold to 40 hours. 
     It was a charade all along. I and many others warned that this is where the Wage Board was headed from day one. It was put in place only to keep paving the way for the far-left so-called progressive political agenda that dominates Albany Democrat decision-making. It had no meaningful or sincere concern for the future of family farms and agriculture in New York State. 
    The Board heard from countless individual farmers and the leaders of local farm communities. It heard from the industry’s top advocates, including the New York Farm Bureau, the Northeast Dairy Producers Association, Grow NY Farms, and numerous others. It heard from local, federal, and state representatives, like me, who fear the undermining and ongoing collapse of an industry and, equally important, a way of life that has defined the regions we represent for generations. 
    The Board ignored us all. They ignored common sense and caution in favor of continuing this relentless pursuit of an extreme political agenda and philosophy that will drive this state over the edge of a fiscal and economic cliff. 
    In fact, Governor Hochul herself has signaled all along that she would be walking hand in hand with the Wage Board decision. The state budget approved back in April included a tax credit for overtime costs. In late July, the governor said that if the state moves forward with forcing farmers to pay overtime to workers after 40 hours, the state will pick up the extra costs. 
    “If this happens over a long rollout time, the state of New York will pick up the additional overtime costs,” Hochul said.  
    In other words, state taxpayers will subsidize the move, indefinitely, to the tune of at least $130 million annually. Setting aside the fact that many farmers question whether the tax credit will even cover all their higher labor costs, we also know by now that promised government subsidies aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be.  
    Even more to the point, why should New York’s taxpayers foot yet another multi-million-dollar bill, for who knows how long, for yet another, so-called “progressive” action?  
    Governor Hochul has clearly been determined, from the start, to finish what former Governor Cuomo set in motion. 
    If left to stand, it will change the face of New York State agriculture as we have known it for generations. 
    Cornell University issued a report last November detailing the potential and very troubling consequences, including that: 
    Two-thirds of the dairy farms interviewed by Cornell researchers indicated they would move out of milk production;  One out of every 4 fruit or vegetable farm will relocate their operation outside of the state;  Seventy percent of H-2A workers said they would consider going to another state without capped hours if the state moves to a 40-hour overtime threshold.  It will produce a nightmare of a ripple effect across local communities and economies in every region of this state – but especially upstate in regions like I represent throughout the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes.  
    It will diminish the future of high quality, local food production, as well as spark the loss of family farms and the loss of the livelihoods these farms support across the industry and throughout hundreds of local economies. 
    And, now, taxpayers will be forced to foot yet another bill from a state that is already one of the highest-taxed in America. Requiring New York families to pay more to subsidize immigrant farm workers’ wages so they can send more money to their families in Central America will not move New York State forward. If conditions are so bad here, why is our southern border swarmed with hundreds of thousands of immigrants walking 1,000+ miles to be here? 
    It’s shaping up to be yet another economic disaster for New York’s farmers and farmworkers – and another fiscal burden for taxpayers. 
    This is the worst possible time to risk mandating and regulating more farms out of business, and that is exactly where Governor Hochul is headed. 
  9. Senator Tom O'Mara
    The extreme Albany Democrat mindset refuses to see what’s happening all around us and that it can happen anywhere. 
    Every day. 
    On the night of Thursday, July 21, in the city of Rochester, two police officers were ambushed and shot, an attack which took the life of Officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz, a 29-year veteran of the police force.  
    Rochester Police Chief David Smith would later say, “I was asked by the media, ‘How dangerous is it out there for the officers of the Rochester Police Department?’ My response was that every day, the men and women of this department leave home, not knowing if they are going to return home at the end of their shift.” 
    Earlier on the very same day that Officer Mazurkiewicz was murdered, at a campaign stop in Fairport, just outside of Rochester, Congressman Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor, was assaulted by an attacker who climbed onto the stage and lunged at the congressman’s neck attempting to stab him with a dangerous weapon. Zeldin and others responded quickly and wrestled the attacker to the ground before anyone was injured, but it could have been tragic. 
    Serious injury was only avoided by inches due to Zeldin’s quick reflex grabbing the attacker’s arm. I note that Zeldin is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Most others without that skill and training would have most certainly met a different fate, indeed serious injury or perhaps death.  
    What was (and is) tragic, is that the attacker was later released without bail – once again highlighting the dangerous and failed bail reform laws enacted by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, then-Lieutenant Governor and now Governor Hochul, and the state Legislature’s Democrat majorities in 2019 that have served as the flashpoint for the rise of lawlessness throughout this state. 
    Just last week, the release of shocking and disturbing video showing a violent attack on a New York Police Department Officer – yes, the attacker, a serial and violent repeat offender, was later released without bail – prompted New York City’s Democrat Mayor Eric Adams to join the call for a special legislative session to finally address failed bail reform, “I hope that just as we had a special call to return to Albany to deal with the [recent United States Supreme Court] ruling on right to carry [handguns], I believe that Albany should consider coming and revisiting some of the violence we’re seeing of repeated offenders. We need to be clear on that. We’re not talking about someone that steals an apple. We’re talking about someone that has repeatedly used violence in our city: robberies, grand larcenies, burglaries, shootings, carrying a gun. This group of people are repeated offenders in our community, and they’re hurting our public safety.” 
    They are not merely hurting public safety – and it’s not just in New York City, it’s throughout this state – they have emboldened this state’s criminal element. 
    Mayor Adams, who also said that New York has become “the laughingstock of the country” because of its ridiculous no bail laws, echoed the recent call by me and all of my colleagues in the Senate and Assembly Republican conferences for just such a special session to finally admit, for starters, that the existing version of bail reform has failed. Worse, it has become a breeding ground for lawlessness, brazen criminality, and anti-police violence.  
    Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt said, “One-Party-Rule was quick to call a special session to restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens. If they actually care about the safety of all New Yorkers, they should be calling a special session to address the violent criminals breaking our laws. Last night, in just one evening, we tragically lost a Rochester police officer in the line of duty and there was a violent attack on Congressman Lee Zeldin. If it wasn’t clear before to the radicals in Albany, it should be as clear as day now: the deadly pro-criminal policies of the Governor and Democratic Majorities have made New Yorkers less safe.” 
    Governor Hochul’s response to these calls for action? There’s no need, she says. 
    Clearly stating that there are “no discussions” underway among New York’s Democrat leaders for a special session, the governor tried to point to minor changes made back in April as having done enough. 
    “What I’d like to point out is that significant changes to the bail laws were made,” she said. 
    If they were significant, governor, they still have not worked. 
    It’s time to be a lot more significant. 
    Ask most New Yorkers. In poll after poll, everyday citizens make it clear that in addition to being worried about making ends meet, they don’t feel safe. In fact, in a recent poll more than 70% of New York City residents fear being a victim of a violent crime on a daily basis. It’s impossible to revive a struggling economy with that mindset. 
    It is an alarming snapshot of the current condition of our state, and yet, Governor Hochul says there is no need to act. 
    When will Albany Democrats finally come to their senses? When will Governor Hochul and the Legislature’s Democrat majorities face the fact that this state is becoming less and less safe, and increasingly violent? When will they finally hear the demands of so many New Yorkers who do not feel safe anymore?  It is long past time for the extreme Albany Democrats to address their failed soft-on-crime, anti-law-and-order approach to criminal justice and recognize a rapidly deteriorating climate of public safety and security that has become the hallmark of their government.  
    This Albany Democrat mindset, which has established a firm foothold at the highest levels of state government, is a big part of the reason New York is being defined, in far too many places, as a crime-ridden state. 
    From the outset of the current legislative session, our Senate Republican Conference has been calling for a far different approach, one that would restore a strong commitment to law and order, rebuild confidence in public safety, and refocus on safer communities. 
    Among numerous provisions, our Take Back New York agenda, released earlier this year, would: 
    Say no to what has become an increasingly pervasive “defund the police” movement and, instead, support and reinvest in law enforcement;  End cashless bail, restore judicial discretion and reject proposals like the wholesale erasure of criminal records;  Repair what are clearly unworkable discovery and “speedy trial” laws that have only served to establish a revolving door system for repeat and violent criminal offenders;  Refocus a parole process to one that prioritizes the protection and rights of crime victims and their families, and will never release the most violent criminals, including cop and child killers, back on the streets; and  Invest in proven mental health and other services to ensure that those struggling with addiction, homelessness and mental illness receive the help they need.  I have said it in the past and it bears repeating: There are and will continue to be legitimate debates about the root causes of crime and lawlessness, and what government’s response can and should be. Coddling criminals is clearly not the right approach. 
    It is not debatable, in my view and the view of many others, that crime and lawlessness are spiraling out of control throughout this state. 
     
  10. Senator Tom O'Mara
    In the end, when the retrospectives of New York’s COVID-19 response have been completed – and, eventually, they will be – what transpired within the state’s nursing homes and the loss of more than 15,000 lives will finally be granted the total, transparent scrutiny it demands. 
    Sadly, at the moment, this desperately needed assessment and examination appears not to be a priority for Governor Kathy Hochul, despite her reassurances a few months back that her administration would be reexamining “every aspect” of the state’s response.  
    Recent reporting has noted that there has been extraordinarily little movement since.  
    Albany Times Union columnist Chris Churchill recently wrote, “We all want to put the pandemic in the rear-view mirror. No sane person has any desire to relive all that COVID-19 wrought. A problem, though, is that many unanswered questions remain about New York's infamous order that pressured nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients — and about the state's response to the pandemic more broadly. New York can't just sweep all that happened under the rug and pretend everything went well. It didn't.” 
    No, it didn’t. That’s the point many of us in the Legislature have been making since early on in 2020, shortly after the outbreak of the pandemic. As the ranking member on the Senate Investigations and Government Operations Committee, I have had a front row look at the stonewalling and whitewashing that have characterized two successive administrations. 
    We know the damage that was done under former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Unfortunately, truly little has changed on this front under the Hochul administration. 
    In fact, Hochul kept Cuomo's puppet of a Health Commissioner, Howard Zucker, on for months after her ascension to Governor and then chose a new Health Commissioner who testified at her confirmation hearing that she had no interest and no intention of reviewing the state's Covid response -- in particular, Cuomo’s fateful March 25th order that sent thousands of Covid-positive hospital patients into nursing homes.   
    New Yorkers deserve to have answers. Is Cuomo's $5.1-million book deal consummated while Cuomo lied to New Yorkers about nursing home deaths following his March 25th order not enough of a smoking gun? 
    It’s critical, unfinished work. The ongoing, unexplainable lack of urgency on a comprehensive, top-to-bottom, independent examination of New York’s COVID-19 response -- including its costs, what we did right and, equally if not more important, where things went wrong – remains unacceptable, to say the least. 
    Not long ago, testifying before the Senate Aging Committee, Bill Hammond of the Empire Center for Public Policy, stated, “The key to being better prepared is to learn from hard experience. The state needs a careful and comprehensive investigation of its pandemic response -- ideally conducted by a commission of independent experts. Otherwise, there is a danger that the invaluable lessons of this once-in-a-century catastrophe will go to waste.” 
    He's right. 
    Unfortunately, the lessons continue to go to waste and timeliness remains ignored. 
    Governor Hochul obviously has the authority to not only initiate an independent examination (and she says she has) but more to the point, to move this work to the top of the list and demand its utmost attention, focus, and completion. 
    Her taste for getting it done appears lukewarm, at best. Why? 
    Likewise with the Senate and Assembly Democrat majorities that have repeatedly ignored calls by me and our Republican conferences to bring the countless layers of the COVID-19 response out into the light of day. 
    In his July 12 column, Churchill wrote, “Failing to thoroughly investigate would be an unconscionable act of malpractice, in part because COVID-19 will not be our last novel infectious virus. To avoid repeating mistakes, we need the honesty and transparency required to fully understand what went wrong and why — the sooner, the better.” 
    A recent, scathing editorial from the New York Post cuts to the heart of it, “Perhaps other lingering Cuomo loyalists have somehow stalled the care-home probe. Or maybe Hochul fears she’ll be tainted by Cuomo’s wrongdoing, perhaps because she didn’t immediately fire Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, who’s at the heart of the horror. Whatever the reason, whomever she’s protecting, it’s an outrage. New Yorkers who lost loved ones want answers, and the gov promised to get them. She needs to follow through, no matter who looks bad in the end.” 
    We need to know what went right, so that the state can build on that success and strengthen it. We also need to pinpoint what went wrong, and why, so that New York begins taking every necessary action, now, immediately, to identify and address weaknesses, and to fix the shortcomings as well as the outright failures. 
    Furthermore, taxpayers deserve an accurate, transparent, readily accessible accounting of the state’s enormous, emergency expenditures on the COVID-19 response. 
    The COVID-19 response spread across and consumed New York’s entire bureaucracy -- education, health care, labor, housing, social services, criminal justice, you name it - and utilized vast state and federal resources. In numerous ways, it still is. 
    What took place in nursing homes, the loss of more than 15,000 lives, emerges as the tragedy of this pandemic. Cuomo's order sent 9,000 Covid hospital patients into nursing homes while the Javits Center field hospital and U.S.N.S. Comfort hospital ship sat unused. Six thousand of those patients were new admissions to nursing homes, not prior residents returning from a hospital. 
    It was the state’s most egregious failure.  
    We deserve to know why, no matter the political consequences or fallout. 
    The sooner, the better. 
    Senator Tom O'Mara represents New York's 58th Senate District. 
  11. Senator Tom O'Mara
    We were reminded not long ago, as part of the most recent National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, of just how serious and deadly the opioid crisis remains across our region, state, and nation. 
    The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has noted the dramatic impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on opioid addictions. According to the CDC, nearly 84,000 Americans overdosed during the latest 12-month period. 
    It is a stark reminder of an ongoing crisis that continues to demand attention, concern and, most of all, resources. 
    The annual Drug Take Back Days remain an important part of the overall prevention effort. The abuse of prescription drugs is directly tied to and in many ways responsible for the burgeoning opioid epidemic. It is incredibly important to do anything and everything we can to complement and support the efforts of our local law enforcement leaders and drug prevention coalitions to combat prescription drug abuse. These efforts include National Prescription Drug Take Back Day and other initiatives to encourage the collection and disposal of unused prescription drugs. 
    We remain grateful to the collection efforts spearheaded by local law enforcement and drug prevention organizations. For example, the Steuben County Sheriff’s Office and the Steuben County Prevention Coalition Opioid Committee reported the collection of more than 600 pounds of unused prescription medications during the latest Drug Take Back Day. 

    Pills pour out of a prescription medication bottle that lays on its side onto a kitchen counter as a strong morning light filters in through a window. Several other pill bottles stand out of focus in the background. In 2018, I sponsored a new law, the “Drug Take Back Act” (S9100/A9576, Chapter 120 of the Laws of 2018) that established an industry-funded, statewide pharmaceutical drug take-back program. It advanced a “product stewardship” approach to the challenge of disposing of unwanted medications. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are responsible for all the costs of the initiative including public education and awareness, as well as the collection, transport, and proper disposal of unwanted drugs. The Act further requires chain pharmacies and mail-order pharmacies to provide consumers with on-site collection, prepaid mail-back envelopes, or other federally approved methods to encourage safe drug disposal. The Act created a unified, statewide drug take-back program aimed at saving government and taxpayer dollars, reducing medication misuse, and further alleviating the improper disposal of unused medications. 
    As far back as 2014, as member of the Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction, we conducted regional forums, including in Elmira and Penn Yan, on the burgeoning heroin and opioid crisis. In a series of 14 roundtable discussions held throughout the state, we heard directly from law enforcement, drug addiction counselors, treatment providers, social services and mental health professionals, and other experts — as well as recovering addicts and family members who lost a son or a daughter or a grandchild or another loved one — about the complex range of challenges our communities were facing and how best to address them. 
    Without fail, even then, it became clear that there was a lack of education and prevention programs, as well as treatment and recovery services.  
    Consequently, it was important news during the closing days of the 2021 legislative session when the Senate and Assembly unanimously approved a new law establishing what is known as the “Opioid Settlement Fund.” 
    The new law, which I helped co-sponsor and strongly supported, is beginning to be effective. 
    The creation of the Opioid Settlement Fund finally ensured that any funding the state receives from opioid-related lawsuit settlements and other actions against opioid manufacturers and distributors must be dedicated to education, prevention, treatment, and recovery programs and services in communities across the state. 
    Counties throughout New York State, including right here at home in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions, have been on the front lines of battling this epidemic. 
    Upon the law’s approval, the Executive Director of the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC), Stephen Acquario, said that it “marks a major turning point in the battle against the opioid epidemic that has been raging through our state and nation, leaving a trail of death, destruction, and heartache, long before the emergence of COVID-19. This legislation will pave the way to begin the process of healing and recovery by ensuring that any funds received by the state are used to support drug treatment and prevention efforts.” 
    The new Opioid Settlement Fund and a renewed commitment to combating this epidemic that can stem from it promises to enhance our efforts to rebuild shattered lives and prevent countless tragic deaths. 
    Specifically, the new law (S7194/A6395, Chapter 190 of the Laws of 2021) states that “all funds received by the state as the result of a settlement or a judgment in litigation against opioid manufacturers, distributors, dispensers, consultants, or resellers shall be deposited into the opioid settlement fund, and that such funds shall not supplant or replace existing state funding.” 
    The first round of payments is underway from the state’s opioid settlements. In April, the state attorney general announced the following initial funding for area counties: 
    Allegany County, $293,856; 
    Chemung County, $734,827; 
    Schuyler County, $124,216; 
    Seneca County, $230,746; 
    Steuben County, $678,280; 
    Tioga County, $323,499; 
    Tompkins County, $702,406; and
    Yates County, $147,872. 
    Additional distributions of funding to localities will be made later this year, according to the attorney general, who also notes that New York has already collected upwards of $1.5 billion in settlements. 
    The creation of the Opioid Settlement Fund put a stop, in this instance, to a long-standing and questionable practice of New York State taking settlement funds and dumping them into the state’s general fund to be used for any purpose at all. That practice would be especially unacceptable when the opioid crisis has been ravaging families and communities.  

    The opioid epidemic has cost thousands of lives and remains a public health emergency that will continue to demand increased resources for education and prevention, and treatment and recovery. 
  12. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Numbers help tell every story. 
    For example, many studies have helped make the case that children who read during the summer months make greater academic gains in the following school year than children who do not.  
    In fact, statistics on the “summer slide” jump right off the page, including that: 
    Students can lose up to 25 percent of their reading level over the summer; 
    Children who don’t engage in summer reading lose approximately two months of instructional time, or roughly 22% of the school year; and 
    By the end of the sixth grade, children who lose reading skills during the summer are, on average, two years behind their peers. 
    While numbers alone help tell the larger story, words themselves deliver the most impactful testimony of all. 
    Scholastic’s “Kids & Family Reading Report” has become one of the gold standards of advocacy and research on the importance of summer reading.  
    The organization’s Chief Academic Officer, Michael Haggen, has said, “Parents, grandparents, older siblings, teachers, principals—everyone in a child’s life—can be a reading role model. It’s up to us all to provide the opportunity for choice, be readers ourselves, ask and answer questions about what a child is reading, read aloud together (regardless of age!), and more. When a child knows that the people surrounding them value reading, we will have a greater culture of literacy in our homes and in our schools.” 
    The bottom line is that summer reading is a lifeline for children.  
    Consequently, I am grateful this summer to join with the New York State Library and public libraries statewide, including so many throughout the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions, on “Summer Reading at New York Libraries” initiatives. 

    Scholastic itself also offers a summer reading program that you can find out more about at: www.scholastic.com/summer. 
    For my part, I’m proud to share the Senate’s online summer reading program. To participate, students and parents can visit my Senate website, www.omara.nysenate.gov, and click on the “Summer Reading Program” logo on the home page. 
    At its most fundamental level, summarizing the range of research on the importance of summer reading for students is straightforward: it is all about getting books into the hands of kids. 
    According to Scholastic, a few of the keys to successful summer reading are letting young readers choose the books they want to read (91% of children say they are more likely to finish a book if they have picked it out themselves), encouraging kids to read four or more books and, most importantly, providing easy access to books. 
    The underlying importance of access points directly to the critical role our public libraries play to encourage students and their families to read. 
    Libraries are the gateway for making books and other reading materials and programs available throughout our communities. Our region is incredibly fortunate to have an outstanding network of public libraries providing access to books and other reading activities, materials, and opportunities. 
    Of course, our local libraries sponsor a variety of summer reading activities and events. Visit the website of the Southern Tier Library System, www.stls.org, for links to member libraries in Allegany, Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben and Yates counties. The members of the Finger Lakes Library System, including Seneca, Tioga and Tompkins counties, are online at www.fls.org. 
    Over two million young people statewide have participated in its summer reading program annually, according to the New York State Library. More information on “Summer Reading at New York Libraries” is online at www.nysl.nysed.gov. 
    There are plenty of ways to help children get summer off to a great start and then to keep making the season meaningful and memorable. 
    A reading list is one of the best ways of all. 
  13. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Among numerous other designations, the month of June is recognized as National Great Outdoors Month. 
    It is worth some attention here in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes. At a time when we need to stay in pursuit of every possible ray of hope, it is one bright spot in an otherwise cloudy and unsettled economic future. 
    The Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) gets right to the point, “Outdoor recreation is an economic force.” 
    It’s a point well taken and one that governmental leaders, at all levels, and in all places, should take to heart.  
    Prior to the onset of COVID-19 and subsequent shutdowns across our economies and ways of life, it was reported that America’s outdoor recreation industry was generating a $734 billion “gross domestic product output” while producing $887 billion in consumer spending and supporting nearly eight million jobs. 
    Yet even in the face of the pandemic’s unprecedented challenges and upheaval, outdoor recreation remained strong, still accounting for nearly $700 billion in gross domestic output in 2020 – and will likely emerge from this crisis even stronger. 
    “Throughout this pandemic, outdoor recreation has been a cornerstone of American life,” the OIA states. “As we look forward, it’s clear the outdoors will be an important part of America’s economic future.” 
    In other words, there is a lot of biking, hiking, hunting, camping, climbing, fishing, paddling, bird watching, and other outdoor recreation going on locally, statewide, and across the United States. 
    We’re told that nearly one-half of American citizens annually take part in an outdoor recreation activity and that these Americans annually make more than 10 billion outdoor outings. 
    As a former chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee and a lifelong sportsman, I have been grateful for opportunities to support the ongoing resurgence of outdoor recreation. The Legislature annually takes actions on behalf of the outdoors, not solely for the economic and conservation benefits but also because these activities offer a high-quality means of exercise, healthier lifestyles, and family fun and recreation. 

    Surveys by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service have shown striking facts about the nationwide economic impact — to the tune of $122 billion in revenue and millions of jobs — of the 87.5 million Americans who fish, hunt, or engage in other wildlife-related recreation. Hunting, fishing, and trapping are deeply rooted in New York’s (and our region’s) culture, experience, and tradition. 
    The same goes for our unmatched network of New York State parks, trails, and historic sites.  
    The advocacy group Parks & Trails New York (PTNY) routinely highlights the economic impact of New York’s more than 200 state parks, dozens of historic sites, more than a thousand miles of hiking trails, and over 8,000 campsites (to say nothing of numerous boat launches, beaches, swimming pools, and nature centers). PTNY estimates that the state parks and trails system supports approximately 54,000 jobs and generates upwards of $5 billion in park and visitor spending – which means each dollar of state investment is supporting a return of an estimated nine dollars in consumer spending. 
    As we continue working to turn around the Upstate New York economy through small business growth, a revitalization and strengthening of manufacturing, high tech research and development, an ongoing foundation of agriculture and tourism, and in many other ways, we will be smart to keep an eye on the outdoors. 
    New York’s unique outdoor experiences and pastimes are sure to entice increased spending on goods and services provided by local businesses. These expenditures support jobs, generate sales and income taxes, and spark tourism. 
    “This includes day trips as well as overnight trips,” the PTNY has noted, “with visitors spending money on park entrance and use fees, sporting equipment, food and drink, transportation, lodging, and other expenses. Visitor spending creates jobs and revenue not only for the park system, but also has a multiplier effect, as jobs and revenues are created in supporting industries throughout the local economy.” 
    In this period of great uncertainty, one thing is clear: More and more New Yorkers are eager to get outside for a breath of fresh air and a better view – and it keeps adding up to a stronger bottom line. 
  14. Senator Tom O'Mara
    To kick off the 2022 session of the State Legislature – one that we believed represented one of the truly pivotal sessions in modern history, with New York at a crossroads in so many areas – the Senate Republican Conference put forth a comprehensive set of goals to help rebuild and strengthen local and state economies, focus on the financial challenges facing many middle-class families and small business owners, and make public safety a top priority.

    It was called “Take Back New York” and we began rolling it out at the very start of this session — a session that New York’s Democrat legislative leaders brought to a close late last week — with a focus on rising crime and public safety.

    But the overall agenda has covered many challenges and crises.

    From combating crime to job creation to tax relief, one-party control of New York State government has been a disaster for Upstate New York communities, economies, and taxpayers.  The Albany Democrat direction for New York is producing billions upon billions of dollars of short- and long-term spending commitments requiring billions upon billions of dollars in new taxes, fees, and borrowing for future generations of state and local taxpayers.

    This relentless pursuit of a far-left, extreme-liberal agenda was once again, as it has been for the past three years, the priority over a long-term, sustainable future for Upstate, middle-class communities, families, workers, businesses, industries, and taxpayers.

    If enacted, the overriding goals of Take Back New York would have:

    ● Offered a safer and better quality of life for all New Yorkers by repealing bail reform and supporting law enforcement and crime victims, as well as expanding and ensuring access to quality education;
    ● Made New York more affordable for every resident by cutting the state’s highest-in-the-nation tax burden and enacting a series of measures that lower the cost of living in New York;
    ● Developed a strong workforce for a strong economy through substantive training and development programs, a major commitment to family farms, and fostering quality and affordable child care for working parents;
    ● Improved the state’s business climate and expanded economic opportunity by cutting burdensome regulations, investing in physical infrastructure and broadband statewide, and moving more sensibly toward a cleaner energy future;
    ● Ensured security for our vulnerable populations by securing funding for veterans, providing needed resources to seniors and their caregivers, combating the opioid crisis, and enhancing mental health programs and services; and
    ● Restored accountability to state government in the aftermath of disgraced ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s rampant abuses of executive power.

    But that’s not what happened this session under continued one-party, all-Democrat rule.

    Last year’s enacted state budget, for example, increased spending by nearly $20 billion – the annual state budget, for the first time in history, surpassed $200 billion – and raised taxes by more than $4 billion. 

    There was no turning back from this explosive tax-and-spend path this year under Governor Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders. Far from it, in fact. The new state budget, as I have detailed in previous columns, took yet another huge leap in size and will burden state and local taxpayers for years to come.

    A Farm Wage Board established by former Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature’s Democrat majorities in 2019 recommended lowering the current farmworker overtime threshold from 60 hours to 40 hours. It’s a move that risks changing the face and the future of New York State agriculture as we have known it for generations – and it could undermine the strength and vitality of many upstate communities, cultures, and economies for generations. Agricultural advocates including the New York Farm Bureau, Northeast Dairy Producers Association and many individual farmers and other farm leaders continue to warn Governor Hochul, who will make the final decision, against lowering the threshold. I have joined many Upstate legislative colleagues to express our own opposition and to repeatedly reinforce what is at stake for our family farms.

    Most reasonable New Yorkers also recognize that rising crime and violence, and weakened public safety and security, are the result of the pro-criminal policies being enacted and pushed by this governor and a State Legislature under one-party control. They have emboldened the criminal element throughout this state through failed bail reform, lenient parole policies, an out-of-control Parole Board, cowing to the “defund the police” movement, and an overall careless approach to criminal justice.

    It has been alarming to district attorneys, law enforcement officers, and criminal justice experts alike, and it showed no signs of letting up this session.

    The Senate and Assembly Republican conferences have repeatedly stood with law enforcement to speak out and keep fighting against the pro-criminal mentality and anti-police policies that keep going too far in New York State and making our state, our communities, and our neighborhoods less safe. We have kept calling for the enactment of legislation that puts crime victims, law enforcement, and safe communities first and begins restoring responsibility, sanity, and common sense to criminal justice and public safety in New York State.

    Our alarms and our calls for opposition went unheard.

    Nevertheless, the fight will go on. 

    It’s time to take back Upstate’s rightful place and restore a more responsible and reasonable approach to governing.

    You can read more about “Take Back New York” on my Senate website, omara.nysenate.gov.

    It’s more urgent than ever. 
  15. Senator Tom O'Mara
    From Arlington and Gettysburg to Woodlawn and Bath 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 the essence of Memorial Day: To pause in our daily lives and remember the American soldiers who now rest “in honored glory” in devotion and service to all Americans — to our families, our friends and neighbors, our communities, state, and nation. 
    Many words have been shared on Memorial Day through the generations and what remains striking is how often these words are repeated: conviction and courage. It is conviction and courage, after all, that has led and will always lead our soldiers into battle. Therefore, it must be through our own personal conviction and courage, in our own ways and walks of life, through which we can best honor the sacrifices of our military men and women.     
    Toward that end, we continue to raise the American Flag. 
    We proudly recognize New York State as the “Birthplace of Memorial Day,” in Waterloo, Seneca County, which our nation has observed since the time of the Civil War. 
    Of course, we always turn enduring thoughts and prayers to the young soldiers, the heroes, who have been recently lost. We honor wounded warriors, and we support the men and women serving in harm’s way at this very moment — shining examples of bravery and eternal honor and, yes, courage and conviction.  

    We salute all New York State veterans and the millions more across the nation. I have been privileged to pay tribute to the service of outstanding local veterans through the New York State Senate Veterans’ Hall of Fame, into which more than 400 veterans have been inducted since 2005. This includes the following area veterans that I have had the privilege to induct since 2011: Philip C. Smith of Schuyler County; J. Arthur “Archie” Kieffer, Chemung County; former Painted Post Mayor Roswell L. “Roz” Crozier, Jr.; Anthony J. “Tony” Specchio, Sr., Schuyler County; P. Earle Gleason, Yates County;  Warren A. Thompson, Steuben County; Paul C. “Digger” Vendetti, Chemung County; and Richard T. “Dick” Gillespie, Yates County.  Very soon, we will be announcing this year’s inductees. 
    The Senate will conduct its 2022 virtual Veterans’ Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Monday to coincide with Memorial Day. This year, I am proud to induct Dennis L. “Denny” Wolfe, Sr. of Chemung County. Denny is a well-known area Vietnam War veteran, and the founder and director of the Vietnam War Museum in Elmira. We take this opportunity to salute the lives of veterans who have made such a difference for our local communities, our state, and the United States of America. Denny Wolfe courageously served our nation in Vietnam and then returned home where he has devoted his life to tirelessly working to honor and assist his fellow veterans and strengthen our community. 
    The Senate’s virtual Veterans’ Hall of Fame induction ceremony can be viewed on my Senate website, www.omara.nysenate.gov. 
    Several years ago, asked about the importance of Memorial Day, the director of both the Woodlawn and Bath National Cemeteries, Duane Mendenhall, shared this reflection, “Every single freedom and liberty we enjoy can be traced back to a battlefield…How can words suffice to honor our fallen veterans? We honor them by remembering they loved America. Most of all they valued life by bravely readying themselves to die in service of this country.” 
    Because of our veterans, we can look into the eyes of the young people in our lives this Memorial Day, the faces of the future, and have faith that they, too, will be instilled with the spirit to keep America strong, to keep believing that the American way is a good, decent, worthwhile way. 
    In the end, perhaps this is the greatest justice for all of the missions flown, the foxholes dug, the hills taken, and the battles fought on land and sea. 
    America’s Armed Forces have made and will continue to make the ultimate sacrifice to keep America free, so that she can lead the way to a freer world.  
    The sacrifices of our military will keep alive America’s promise, so that people throughout the world will look to her for inspiration.  
    Our servicemen and servicewomen will keep America strong, so that other nations will draw courage from her strength. 
    For as long as we remember and keep them alive in our hearts, we will stand as we do — free in a land of opportunity and promise. 
    The spirit of this salute will endure and remain strong for the future. 
    God Bless America and God Bless our troops. 
  16. Senator Tom O'Mara
    May is officially designated as Lyme Disease Awareness Month because, according to the Lyme Disease Research Foundation, it is the “most commonly reported tick-borne disease in the United States.” 
    Several years ago, when I was serving as a member of the Senate Task Force on Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases, as well as chairing the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, the Southern Tier was identified as a hotbed for Lyme disease, according to data released by the state Department of Health in 2016. 
    There was a time when the alarm over Lyme and other tick-borne diseases was considered mostly a “downstate” concern, confined in and around the Hudson Valley and Long Island especially. 
    No longer. For more than a decade, it has been a rapidly growing public health challenge throughout upstate New York and has drawn increasingly heightened warnings from public health officials. 
    Lyme is a debilitating disease that needs to be taken seriously by everyone who enjoys the outdoors, even if that means doing yard work or gardening. 
    Those afflicted by Lyme disease can endure years of frustration seeking diagnosis and treatment.  

    New York State is now home to the second-highest number of confirmed Lyme disease cases in America. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there are 500,000 new cases across the United States each year, which makes Lyme the nation’s third-most common bacterial infectious disease. 
    In 2013, in response to the growing statewide alarm, the Senate Republican Majority conference at that time established a special task force on Lyme and tick-borne diseases. For the next several years, we set about reviewing research, consulting with experts, and holding public hearings as part of our work to develop legislation and other recommendations with the overriding goal of putting in place a statewide action plan to serve as a comprehensive roadmap for strengthening research and development, awareness and education, and diagnosis and treatment. 
    The task force was successful between 2013-2018 in helping enhance New York’s response through increased state funding and the enactment of numerous new laws, including laws I co-sponsored as a task force member in 2016 to: 
    Require DOH to design, develop, and disseminate an aggressive, comprehensive, and statewide public awareness, education, and prevention campaign to reduce the public’s exposure to Lyme and other tick-borne infectious diseases (Chapter 167); and   Complement the statewide DOH campaign by requiring the development of age-appropriate instructional materials and tools made available to schools and libraries to help reach school-age children with the awareness and prevention message (Chapter 109).  Unfortunately, the past few years in state government under all-Democrat control have brought a weakening of the state’s commitment to funding research, education, and prevention initiatives. Despite record-setting state budgets, former Governor Andrew Cuomo and current Governor Kathy Hochul, together with the Legislature’s Democrat supermajorities, have all but stalled the momentum that we had created surrounding New York’s response. 
    This year, for example, despite repeated calls from our Senate GOP conference, Governor Hochul and the Democrat supermajorities in the Senate and Assembly failed to include any new funding, zero, in their respective state budget proposals. It signaled a glaring – and unacceptable — lack of commitment.  
    Nevertheless, I continue to join legislative colleagues in the Senate and Assembly to continue doing whatever we can to put a spotlight on the need for ongoing investments in research, education, and prevention initiatives. 
    Numerous advocates from around the state have joined us.  
    Now is no time to ignore critical public health responses. Thousands upon thousands of New Yorkers suffer from Lyme Disease annually, yet in the context of the newly enacted state budget – the largest spending plan in New York’s history — state leaders essentially failed to offer even a penny more of funding to help combat the spread of these diseases.  
    In the absence of executive leadership, it is always the Legislature’s responsibility to ensure the state’s overall response to the spread of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. They continue to fail.  
    This important work needs to carry on, through a much more steady and sustainable commitment, particularly in the areas of reporting, testing and treatment, and education and awareness. 
    For additional information on existing and ongoing state efforts, visit the DOH Lyme disease webpage at: https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/lyme/. 
  17. Senator Tom O'Mara
    The month of March could end up marking a critical turning point in the future direction of New YorkState. 
    The Senate and Assembly Democrat supermajorities controlling the state Legislature will soon unveil “one-house budget bills” likely seeking to expand the already $216-billion Executive Budget proposal put forth by Governor Kathy Hochul in January. 
    I’ve previously noted in this column that, if enacted, the governor’s proposal by itself -- already nearly $5 billion higher than the current state budget – would jumpstartNew Yorkinto the stratosphere of state budgets now and well into the future. It’s poised to go even higher after negotiations with a big-spending Legislature driven to remakeNew YorkasAmerica’s most “progressive” state and with a glaring lack of commitment to fundamental priorities. Our state budget already rivals the size of theFloridaandTexasstate budgetscombined– even though each of those states has a greater population and is growing whileNew YorkStatehas a continuing exodus due to the lack of affordability. 
    That’s a direction that will wind up shocking New York’s state and local taxpayers well into the future – particularly in a state already ranked the least affordable in the nation, with one of America’s heaviest tax and regulatory burdens, and with a national and global economic outlook that’s uncertain, at best. 
    Beyond the new state budget that will be negotiated throughout March, the hits could keep coming in other places. 
    Remember thata Farm Wage Board established by former Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature’s Democrat majorities in 2019 has already recommended lowering the current farm worker overtime threshold from 60 hours to 40 hours. It’s a move that risks undermining the strength and vitality of many upstate communities, cultures, and economies for generations to come. Agriculture advocates like the New York Farm Bureau and Northeast Dairy Producers Association, together with many individual farmers, farm workers, farm leaders, and legislators including myself, remain strongly opposed. 
    It’s in Governor Hochul’s hands now and, to date, she shows no sign of turning back this progressive push to lower the overtime threshold. 
    The same goes for this governor and these legislative majorities moving at warp speed to remake the future of energy for businesses, communities, and residents through a “Climate Leadership and Climate Protection Act” (CLCPA) that lacks any serious or transparent cost-benefit analyses of its impact on feasibility, affordability, and reliability. Despite ongoing warnings that the public has no idea what’s coming, New Yorkers will be stunned at what’s in store for all of us in the very near future. 
    I’ll simply reiterate here what I’ve been saying throughout the past few years:New YorkStateis already an absolute leader in this arena, as we should be, accounting for just 0.4% of global carbon emissions. The Climate Act only applies toNew York-- not to neighboring states, or toChina,IndiaorRussia, which account for 40% of global emissions. In other words, even ifNew YorkStatedoes reach zero emissions, it will have zero impact on the global climate. It will come at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and untold economic consequences, and it will surely further crush the affordability of living for families, drive up the expense of doing business, and limit economic opportunities even more. 
    Of course, let’s never forget that mostreasonable New Yorkersrecognize that rising crime and violence, and weakened public safety and security, are the result of the pro-criminal policies being enacted and pushed by this state government under one-party Democrat control. A recentSienaCollegepoll showed 65 percent of the state’s voters want bail law amended and, furthermore, 91 percent believe that crime is a serious concern. 
    Nevertheless, Governor Hochul and Albany’s legislative Democrats appear unrelenting in their ongoing embrace of failed bail reform, lenient parole policies, an out-of-control Parole Board, cowing to the “defund the police” movement, and an overall careless approach to criminal justice that simply continues to embolden the criminal element statewide. 
    It has been alarming to district attorneys, law enforcement officers, and criminal justice experts alike, and it shows no signs of letting up. 
    To mark the beginning of the 2022 legislative session -- one that I believe represents one of the truly pivotal sessions in modern history, with New York facing so many critical crossroads – our Senate Republican Conference put fortha comprehensive set of goals to help grow local and state economies, focus on the financial challenges facing many middle-class families and small business owners, and make public safety an urgent priority. 
    It’s called “Take Back New York.”  
    From combating crime to job creation to tax relief, one-party control ofNew YorkStategovernment has been a disaster for Upstate New York communities, economies, and taxpayers.  This relentless pursuit of a far-left, extreme-liberal agenda appears to be the priority over a long-term, sustainable future for Upstate, middle-class communities, families, workers, businesses, industries, and taxpayers. 
    The overriding goals of Take Back New York 2022 would: 
    ● Offer a safer and better quality of life for all New Yorkers by repealing bail reform and supporting law enforcement and crime victims, as well as expanding and ensuring access to quality education; 
    ● MakeNew Yorkmore affordable for every resident by cutting the state’s highest-in-the-nation tax burden and enacting a series of measures that lower the cost of living inNew York; 
    ● Develop a strong workforce for a strong economy through substantive training and development programs, a major commitment to family farms, and fostering quality and affordable child care for working parents; 
    ● Improve the state’s business climate and expand economic opportunity by cutting burdensome regulations, investing in physical infrastructure and broadband statewide, and moving toward a cleaner energy future; 
    ● Ensure security for our vulnerable populations by securing funding for veterans, providing needed resources to seniors and their caregivers, combating the opioid crisis, and enhancing mental health programs and services; and 
    ● Restore accountability to the state government in the aftermath of disgraced ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s rampant abuses of executive power. 
    It’s time to take back Upstate’s rightful place and restore a more responsible and reasonable approach to governing. 
    You can read more about “Take Back New York” on my Senate website, omara.nysenate.gov.
  18. Senator Tom O'Mara
    To kick off the 2022 session of the State Legislature – one that I believe represents one of the truly pivotal sessions in modern history, with New York at a crossroads in so many areas – my colleagues and I in the Senate Republican Conference have put forth a comprehensive set of goals to help grow local and state economies, focus on the financial challenges facing many middle-class families and small business owners, and make public safety an urgent priority. 
     It’s called “Take Back New York” and we began rolling it out in earnest last week with a focus on rising crime and public safety.   
     But the overall agenda covers many challenges and crises. 
     From combating crime to job creation to tax relief, one-party control of New York State government has been a disaster for Upstate New York communities, economies, and taxpayers.  The Albany Democrat direction for New York is producing billions upon billions of dollars of short- and long-term spending commitments requiring billions upon billions of dollars in new taxes, fees, and borrowing for future generations of state and local taxpayers.  
     This relentless pursuit of a far-left, extreme-liberal agenda appears to be the priority over a long-term, sustainable future for Upstate, middle-class communities, families, workers, businesses, industries, and taxpayers. 
     Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt summarizes our fight this way, “From escalating taxes to blatant pro-criminal policies and extreme government overreach, it’s become harder than ever to live in our communities — something reflected in the growing exodus of our fellow New Yorkers. It’s more vital than ever, for them, that we take back our state from out-of-touch politicians and restore some sanity and common sense to our government. Take Back New York 2022 is the first step in accomplishing that and restoring our reputation as the Empire State.” 
     The overriding goals of Take Back New York 2022 would: 
     ● Offer a safer and better quality of life for all New Yorkers by repealing bail reform and supporting law enforcement and crime victims, as well as expanding and ensuring access to quality education; 
     ● Make New York more affordable for every resident by cutting the state’s highest-in-the-nation tax burden and enacting a series of measures that lower the cost of living in New York; 
     ● Develop a strong workforce for a strong economy through substantive training and development programs, a major commitment to family farms, and fostering quality and affordable child care for working parents; 
     ● Improve the state’s business climate and expand economic opportunity by cutting burdensome regulations, investing in physical infrastructure and broadband statewide, and moving toward a cleaner energy future; 
     ● Ensure security for our vulnerable populations by securing funding for veterans, providing needed resources to seniors and their caregivers, combating the opioid crisis, and enhancing mental health programs and services; and 
     ● Restore accountability to the state government in the aftermath of disgraced ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s rampant abuses of executive power. 
     As I noted earlier, 2022 represents a pivotal session in so many areas.  Last year’s enacted state budget, for example, increased spending by nearly $20 billion – the annual state budget, for the first time in history, now surpasses $200 billion – and raised taxes by more than $4 billion.  Governor Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders could be eyeing yet another huge leap in the size of New York’s budget and the scope of what state and local taxpayers must foot the bill for -- including an expanded, potentially $3-billion “Excluded Workers Fund” to provide one-time, taxpayer-financed payments of more than $15,000 to hundreds of thousands of individual illegal immigrants who were excluded from federal COVID-19 assistance because they are in the country illegally. 
     Later this week, a Farm Wage Board established by former Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature’s Democrat majorities in 2019 will hold final public hearings on whether to lower the current farmworker overtime threshold from 60 hours to 40 hours. It’s a move that risks changing the face and the future of New York State agriculture as we have known it for generations – and it could undermine the strength and vitality of many upstate communities, cultures, and economies for generations to come.  Agriculture advocates including the New York Farm Bureau, Northeast Dairy Producers Association and many individual farmers and other farm leaders have undertaken a yearlong campaign against lowering the threshold.  I’ve joined many of my Upstate legislative colleagues to express our own opposition and I will be testifying at the Board’s January 20 hearing to once again reinforce what’s at stake for our family farms. 
    Most reasonable New Yorkers also recognize that rising crime and violence, and weakened public safety and security, are the result of the pro-criminal policies being enacted and pushed by this governor and a State Legislature under one-party Democrat control.  They have emboldened the criminal element throughout this state through failed bail reform, lenient parole policies, an out-of-control Parole Board, cowing to the ‘defund the police’ movement, and an overall careless approach to criminal justice. 
     It has been alarming to district attorneys, law enforcement officers, and criminal justice experts alike, and it shows no signs of letting up.  Consequently, last week the Senate and Assembly Republican conferences once again stood with law enforcement to speak out and keep fighting against the pro-criminal mentality and anti-police policies that keep going too far in New York State and making our state, our communities, and our neighborhoods less safe.  We are calling for the enactment of legislation that puts crime victims, law enforcement, and safe communities first and begins restoring responsibility, sanity, and common sense to criminal justice and public safety in New York State. 
    It’s time to take back Upstate’s rightful place and restore a more responsible and reasonable approach to governing – an approach that puts law-abiding citizens and crime victims above criminals and one that looks out for citizens over illegal immigrants. 
     You can read more about “Take Back New York” on my Senate website, omara.nysenate.gov. 
  19. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Following the November 2018 elections, when New York State government fell under total, one-party, Democrat control, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo exclaimed that he felt “liberated” without a state Senate Republican Majority left standing in his way.  
    The former governor’s feeling was no doubt shared by the longstanding Assembly Democrat majority and, of course, the newly crowned Senate Democrat leadership.

    And, indeed, liberated they have been, especially when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars.  
    Following the enactment of that first all-Democrat state budget in 2019-2020, the state comptroller reported that state spending increased by nearly three times the inflation rate.  According to an analysis from the Empire Center for Public Policy (empirecenter.org) – an analysis, by the way, which relied on the comptroller’s update on the state’s short- and long-term financial picture – the 2019-20 budget hiked spending by nearly 6 percent, projected a $14 billion debt increase over five years, and was “balanced by an accounting gimmick.” 
    Fast forward to the 2021-2022 state budget enacted in April, negotiated at a time when the Democrat supermajorities in the Legislature had Cuomo over a barrel due to his evolving sex harassment and nursing home cover-up investigations.  Cuomo tried to curry favor from the Democrats with your tax dollars with giveaways that increased spending by a whopping $18 billion, over 8%, and on top of the spending, hiked state taxes by nearly $5 billion. 
    As the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, I said at the time this year’s budget was approved that, yes, this budget addresses a number of important priorities and programs.  How could it not with $18 billion in new spending?  However, overall, this Albany Democrat giveaway went far beyond any reasonable sense of fairness, responsibility, or sustainability for hard-working, taxpaying citizens. 
    In 2018, the year before the Democrats took total control of state government, the state budget stood at $164 billion.  The 2021-22 state budget cashes in at an unprecedented $212 billion. 
    That’s the alarm many of us keep hearing as we approach a new legislative session in 2022:  What’s next?   
    In short, the hard-left direction of New York State politics and government does not look pretty, at the moment, for future generations of state and local taxpayers. 
    Just as the Legislature had former Governor Cuomo over a barrel in 2021, this coming year they will have a situation in which new Governor Kathy Hochul is submitting her first budget as she tries to curry favor with the Democrats for her upcoming Democrat primary election in June to continue as governor.  Your tax dollars could yet again be used for political gain.

    Consider just a small sampling of what the Albany Democrats’ newfound power to spend taxpayer dollars has produced since 2019: 
     
    The “DREAM Act” to provide taxpayer-funded college tuition assistance to illegal immigrant families;  Significantly increased spending on Medicaid.  New York spends more on Medicaid than the more populous states of Florida and Texas combined.  According to a new Empire Center analysis, “Medicaid’s Metamorphosis,” one in three New Yorkers is now covered by Medicaid, which was originally “designed as a ‘safety net’ health plan for the poor and disabled.”  Furthermore, according to the report, “people living above the federal poverty line accounted for all of the program’s growth” during the decade between 2010 and 2019;   Using taxpayers dollars to finance political campaigns, commonly known as public campaign financing, at a cost projected to be in excess of $200 million of taxpayer dollars each election cycle; and  Remember that the 2021-22 state budget also included a $2-billion-plus “Excluded Workers Fund” to provide direct, one-time payments of up to $15,600 to illegal immigrants in New York State who were excluded from federal COVID stimulus and unemployment payments.  Yes, the Albany Democrats raised taxes to give handouts to illegal immigrants.  That initial fund of billions of dollars was already depleted by October and many Democrat lawmakers are now clamoring for more of your money to give them.   
    Even with all this new spending, the newfound unilateral Democrat control of state government has not reduced or eliminated unfunded state mandates on local governments and schools, which would provide much needed property tax relief. 
    So you better believe it’s always going to be the key question as this state tries to move forward under one-party control: What’s next?  A state-level, universal health care system that many believe will simply break the bank?  A new 55-cents-per-gallon gas tax that would leave New Yorkers paying the highest gas tax in America?  A 26% increase on home heating fuels? 
    Each of the above – and more – is already under consideration. 

    Additionally, let’s not forget 2019’s so-called “Green New Deal” that, among other actions, seeks to make New York’s electricity 100% carbon neutral over the next two decades. It may well be a new deal but I remain far from convinced that it’s a fair deal for future taxpayers or energy consumers for whom the cost of energy will rise. It is a massive undertaking. It calls for a huge investment in new technologies and infrastructure with no cost/benefit analysis whatsoever. 
    The New York Energy Research and Development Authority, better known as NYSERDA, has recently said that the state will have to spend an additional $12.7 billion through 2024 just to begin the implementation of the Green New Deal.  A recently leaked draft report of the New York Climate Action Council, which is charged with developing the overall plan, indicates that the costs and who pays them should be figured out as the plan is implemented.  No joke! 
    Let me remind you that this is all to lessen New York's 0.4% portion of global greenhouse gas emissions.  New York State has been, and rightly should be, a leader in actions toward a cleaner environment.  I and my Republican colleagues embrace taking reasonable and rational steps to reduce emissions.  But at what cost to taxpayers and businesses across the state?  It’s unknown at this time.  And to what benefit for New Yorkers?  Even if New York were to get its 0.4% of global emissions to zero, it will have no discernable impact on climate change globally nor its impact on New York itself.  These actions must be done globally to make any difference.  Asking these basic questions do not make us climate deniers as the zealots would have you believe.  These are questions that the taxpayers of New York deserve answers to, and I am bound and determined to get them.

    Over the past two years of one-party control, I have consistently raised the specter of state borrowing and debt, particularly the burden being kicked down the road to future generations of decision makers and, especially, taxpayers.

    New York already has America’s highest state and local government debt per capita. Most of it has been accomplished through state borrowing, significantly adding to future state debt and, most egregiously, being heaped onto the backs of future taxpayers who will have to deal with it long after New York’s current decision makers are long gone out of office. 
    I have said it before, it bears repeating: The new, Democrat direction for New York State is producing billions upon billions of dollars of short- and long-term spending commitments requiring billions upon billions of dollars in new taxes, fees, and, especially, borrowing for future generations of state and local taxpayers. 
    This relentless pursuit of a far-left, socialist, extreme-liberal political agenda appears to be the priority over a long-term, sustainable future for upstate, middle-class communities, families, workers, businesses, industries, and taxpayers. 
    In other words, hold on to your wallets heading into the new year in New York State government. 
  20. Senator Tom O'Mara
    One of the most positive state-level actions heading into this holiday season was the recent enactment of a new law I helped co-sponsor and strongly supported to make the “Nourish New York” program a permanent fixture of New York government moving forward. 
    It is the product of legislation (S4892/A5781, Chapter 631 of the Laws of 2021) that received overwhelming bipartisan support in the state Senate and Assembly, where it was unanimously approved earlier this year, and was recently signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul. 
    In a year of dubious actions, this new law emerges as a highlight and important to the future. 
    We all can recall the earliest weeks and months following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The rapid shutdown of life as we had known it imposed unprecedented hardships throughout our communities.  One of the most alarming scenes occurred at regional food banks – right here in the Southern Tier and throughout New York – where residents and families lined up for assistance in numbers most of us had never before witnessed.   
    The Food Bank of the Southern Tier delivered an incredible response to this unprecedented demand, shifting its operations to respond quickly and effectively to meet the community’s needs, while also ensuring the safety of staff, volunteers, and clients. The food bank ended the first year of the pandemic with a record-breaking distribution of 17.6 million pounds of food – a 40% increase over the previous year! 
    Remarkable.  Nevertheless, it wasn’t easy and it took an enormous amount of creativity, collaboration, and perseverance. 
    Nourish New York established what would become an indispensable lifeline of assistance.
    Nourish New York was launched in May 2020 as a pandemic relief initiative to help respond to the rapid, statewide escalation of community residents and families seeking assistance at local and regional food banks, and the hardships farmers were facing due to supply chain disruptions. An initial $25 million in state funding directed the purchase of food and products from Upstate New York farms and food producers for distribution to food banks throughout New York.  An additional $10 million was delivered in late October to sustain the program through the end of 2020.  The 2021-2022 state budget included an additional $50 million for the program’s continuation. 
    The successful farm to food bank strategy has been widely praised by farmers, food banks, and many other community leaders for its partnership approach to meeting dire community needs and challenges.  Through the program, food banks have purchased food and other agricultural products directly from New York farmers and food processors.  It has connected, like never before, New York's surplus agricultural products to those most in need through New York’s vital network of food banks. At the same time, Nourish New York has helped provide badly needed support for farmers and food producers who have had to face lost and shrinking markets because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  
    According to the governor’s office, through the first three rounds of the program, New York's food banks have purchased over 35 million pounds of New York food products. That equals nearly 30 million meals for New York residents and families in need. The state has invested a total of $85 million to Nourish NY which, in turn, has assisted more than 4,000 businesses across the state. 
    In other words, the COVID-19 pandemic forced local communities to work together like never before to meet these unforeseen and unprecedented challenges and needs.  Nourish New York evolved as one of the most successful efforts.  Local food banks and farmers recognized the opportunity to join together to address the twin challenges of food insecurity and struggling farms, and it has made an enormous difference for farmers, food banks, and countless New Yorkers in need.  I have been proud to help sponsor and strongly support making this program a permanent fixture of New York State investment.  
    The legislation directs the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets to provide financial and technical support for the development of a permanent initiative to provide surplus New York agricultural products to communities in need.  As previously noted, the distribution is facilitated through the state’s network of food banks and other emergency food providers.  The new law seeks an expansion of the current program and will also complement related efforts, such as the Farm-to-School program. 
    In a statement, New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher said, “Nourish NY has served as a lifeline for many in and out of the farm community over the past 18 months. It moved fresh food that might have otherwise gone to waste into alternative markets like emergency food pantries and regional food banks. (The signing of this law) makes the program a permanent fixture in New YorkState. Nourish NY will continue to assist farmers with the costs of harvesting, packaging, and transporting fruits, vegetables, dairy products and more while making sure people in need can put food on their tables. We thank the governor for her support, as well as the legislative champions of this important program. It demonstrates that by working together, we can creatively strengthen our vital food system and support New York agriculture.” 
    Ensuring the continuation of Nourish New York represented a great start to this holiday season, as we all begin looking forward to and hoping for a better, more positive, and stronger new year for our communities, families, friends, and neighbors.  
  21. Senator Tom O'Mara
    New York State governors continue to be full of surprises. Governor Kathy Hochul is the latest.  
    Early last week, she abruptly announced that the Southport Correctional Facility in the Southern Tier, the Willard Drug Treatment Campus and the Rochester Correctional Facility in the Finger Lakes, two North Country facilities, and a prison in the mid-Hudson Valley are slated to close on March 10, 2022. 
    Six correctional facilities in total impacting and uprooting more than a thousand state correctional officers and thousands more employees of our state prisons, and their families and communities. 
    Officials at the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) will call it a cost-cutting action, that the state will look to reopen and repurpose the facilities, and that DOCCS “does not anticipate any layoffs due to these closures.” 
    While we intend to hold Governor Hochul to her word on all of the above – if we’re unable, first, to convince her that these closures are misguided, dangerous, and should be rescinded – we also know that we’ve heard this recording before from the previous governor.  We know that previously closed facilities, including the former Monterey Shock Incarceration Facility in Schuyler County, still sit vacant as local eyesores.  
    These new, fast-tracked prison shutdowns are just the latest in a long string of prisons that New York State has shuttered over the past decade of a steadily declining prison population – a declining population, especially over the past several years, as the result of so-called “progressive” policies enacted by Democrat governors and legislative majorities that, in the view of many, are pro-criminal, politically driven moves at the irrational and irresponsible expense of public safety and security, and victims’ rights.  
    In particular in the legislative district I represent, Governor Hochul’s unanticipated and certainly unexpected decision to close the Southport Correctional Facility in Chemung County comes as a great shock to this community and region.   
    It arrived with no advance warning to any of us and, obviously, no meaningful local input or outreach to local officials or the correctional officers union.  It upends hundreds of local correctional officers and prison staff, which means hundreds of local families and a devastating toll on already hard-hit local economies.   
    Additionally, the shutdown of the Willard Drug Treatment Campus will have yet another, destructive impact on lives and communities throughout the Finger Lakes region.  I fully share the concerns of my colleague, Senator Pam Helming, who directly represents the Willard campus, about the wide-ranging consequences this closure will have on employees and the community at large, including on badly needed drug abuse treatment programs and services at such a heightened time of need. 
    Overall, with this action, state-level government leaders continue to show a disregard, to say the least, for Upstate New York’s communities.   
    Furthermore, it turns a blind eye to an increasingly violent crime wave throughout this state, as well as a currently explosive and dangerous prison environment that threatens correctional officers and prison staff.   
    In responding to the announcement of the closures, New York State Correctional Officers Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) President Michael Powers said, “The numbers tell the real story; despite closing over two dozen facilities the past 10 years, violent attacks on our members have doubled and yet nothing is being done to address it. Where is the reinvestment in the facilities to make these prisons safer working environments? My heart goes out to all of the individuals whose lives have been severely impacted by this announcement and know that our organization will hold the department accountable every step of the way. At some point, the State needs to realize that these choices are more than just buildings and tax-saving measures, these are life-altering decisions that upend lives and destroy communities.” 
     In my specific district, Governor Hochul needs to be transparent about her decision to close Southport.  What factors justify closing a “supermax” facility like Southport – a place that confines New York’s most dangerous and violent inmates?  What will it mean for public safety across this state?  What measures are being considered for the future of the facility itself, but most importantly for the employees and their families, and the community at large? There are plenty of unanswered questions.   
    The bottom line is that Governor Hochul should be focused on spreading out the inmate population, decreasing inmate density, and protecting the men and women working in our prisons. 
    Despite the recent trend of lowering prison population, we have not seen a correlating reduction of violence within the prisons.  We read weekly of violent assaults by inmates on staff and other inmates occurring at Elmira Correctional Facility, for example.   
    We need to focus on safer prisons.  The lower prison population should be capitalized on to spread inmates out for greater safety within the system as a whole.  
    As I noted above, the governor characterizes the closures as a cost-cutting action.  The state has recently invested more than $20 million into operations at the Southport facility implementing a step-down program to work with the most violent inmates in the state’s prison system to get them ready for reintegration into the general prison population.  How does it make any sense to suddenly close it?  That’s not cost-cutting, that’s simply wasteful. 
    I have joined numerous lawmakers to highlight the extreme-liberal, radical, dangerous actions of former Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature’s downstate-dominated, one-party-control Democrat supermajorities that we believe have focused on emptying state prisons for political gain. 
    This criticism now continues into the new Hochul administration. 
    Governor Hochul has, so far, wrongly continued the politically motivated actions of the former Cuomo administration and the Legislature’s Democrat supermajorities to empty state prisons at any cost, especially the cost of public safety and security.  We have seen and continue to see action after action, from the disastrous bail reform to a radically lenient Parole Board to weakened prison safety, advancing a pro-criminal mentality over public safety and victims’ rights.   
    They will keep on arguing and trying to make some pie-in-the-sky case that the increasing crime rates we see around this state have nothing to do with their actions. 
    We know better: They have emboldened this society’s criminal element and it’s impacting all of us.     
  22. Senator Tom O'Mara
    This week’s Veterans Day observance could not arrive at a more important time for our nation -- as a reminder and as a reflection.  If there is a single national day of honor on the calendar that can and should serve to unite us, it’s this one. 
    Veterans Day offers a chance to pause to remember the fundamental greatness of the United States of America and those who have made it so, and then to keep pushing forward – pushing forward to find solid ground again during a time that has upended so many lives in so many ways, and to look ahead to a stronger and safer future.  
    In that spirit, then, I will take this opportunity to thank all of the voters across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions who took the time and made the effort to vote in the 2021 elections -- remembering always that our nation’s veterans, above all, exemplify service and sacrifice in the name of protecting and carrying on America’s fundamental freedoms and cherished rights, including the right to vote. 
    In other words, this recollection is important at this moment.  
    According to history.com, “Veterans Day originated as ‘Armistice Day’ on Nov. 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of World War I. Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, and Nov. 11 became a national holiday beginning in 1938…Veterans Day pays tribute to all American veterans—living or dead—but especially gives thanks to living veterans who served their country honorably during war or peacetime.” 
    On that long-ago November 11, 1919, in the aftermath of the First World War, then-President Woodrow Wilson said that it should be a day “filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory.”

    Across the generations ever since, eloquent words have been delivered on the importance of saluting America’s veterans. 
    Americans have heard President Dwight D. Eisenhower say, “In order to insure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary, all veterans, all veterans’ organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose.”

    On November 11, 1961, at Arlington National Cemetery, President John F. Kennedy said that “these quiet grounds, this Cemetery and others like it all around the world, remind us with pride of our obligation and our opportunity.”

    President Ronald Reagan, offering words to commemorate the 40th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 1984, said, “We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.”

    Veterans Day offers the chance every November to reaffirm these sentiments of common purpose, pride, patriotism, responsibility, opportunity, and freedom.  
    In 2005, the New York State Senate established an online Veterans’ Hall of Fame which, including this year, pays tribute to upwards of 500 veterans from every corner of the state.  The Hall of Fame recognizes New York veterans for their service in the United States Armed Forces and their civilian accomplishments at home.   
    Later this week, on Veterans Day, Thursday, November 11, I will proudly have the opportunity to induct Richard T. “Dick” Gillespie of Penn Yan, a veteran of World War II, into the Hall. A link to Thursday’s virtual Hall of Fame ceremony, which will begin at Noon, will be available on my Senate website, www.omara.nysenate.gov, where you will also be able to find out more about Dick Gillespie and his remarkable service, as well as links to past Hall of Fame veterans, including the seven that I have had the privilege to induct. 
    Senators representing every region of New York welcome this opportunity to salute these lives of service and love of country –  it is an important addition to the state’s reflection on Veterans Day.  
    In fact, it is striking to reflect on the landmarks around us every day, standing as reminders of the guiding principles and underlying strengths of our nation: city, town and village halls, county courthouses, churches, schools, police and fire stations, local public libraries, and so many more.  
    These American places still speak to America’s endurance as the world’s leading democracy.

    We carry it on by honoring the sacrifices and the victories of our soldiers – past, present, and future. We reaffirm our pride in this nation’s servicemen and servicewomen and, of course, we turn our thoughts and prayers to all of the soldiers whom we have lost from here at home, and their families and loved ones.

    The freedoms we cherish have been hard-won by the soldiers of previous generations and by those of this generation who have continued to serve and make the ultimate sacrifice.  
    They are true American heroes.  
    We are grateful to them and we honor their service.

    Sacrifice is the fundamental truth of Veterans Day. It inspires our deepest faith, gratitude, and respect.

    On Veterans Day, we continue to remember in common purpose.

    We proudly continue to honor our obligation and responsibility to salute the contributions and the sacrifices of our military men and women, living and deceased, past and present and future. 
    We can never tire in honoring these heroes.

    On Veterans Day, we carry on this essential observance of the United States of America.    
  23. Senator Tom O'Mara
    In the near future, a New York State Wage Board, established under a 2019 law known as the “Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act,” will revisit one of the key provisions of that law – and its decision could forever impact New York agriculture as we have known it. 
    Specifically, this Wage Board could decide, without legislative approval, to lower the mandatory overtime pay threshold from the current 60 hours to 40 hours. 
    In other words, the future of farming in New York State still hangs in the balance thanks to a law enacted in 2019 that was pushed by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo as a cornerstone of his so-called “progressive” remake of New York government.   
    Throughout the year prior to the enactment of the “Farmworkers Fair Labor Pratices Act,” I joined many opponents, including the New York Farm Bureau, to warn about its consequences. We feared that mandatory overtime pay and other provisions of the new law, especially the creation of a three-member Farm Wage Board granted the authority to unilaterally change the law’s provisions, without legislative approval, could worsen the impact of farm labor costs on farm income at a time when the farm economy is already struggling.  
    We warned that it could increase already exorbitant farm labor costs by nearly $300 million or close to 20%, resulting in an across-the-board drop in net farm income of 23% -- keeping in mind that over the past five years, New York State has already lost 20 percent of our dairy farms. 
    It has been reported that farm labor costs in New York State increased 40 percent over the past decade and that the 2019 law could result in another crippling 44-percent increase in wage expenses. Total farm labor costs are at least 63 percent of net cash farm income in New York, compared to 36 percent nationally. 
    I debated and voted against this move when the Senate approved it in June 2019.  

    The bottom line is that this misguided action by a state government triumvirate of leaders under one-party, largely downstate-based control -- guided on many current issues by a far-left, extreme-liberal governing philosophy -- has profound implications throughout local farm economies across rural, upstate New York, including driving more family farms out of business. 
    And that was the case even before COVID-19, which we now know has taken its own toll on our farmers and the entire agricultural industry, and heightened the burdens.   
    Unfortunately, we could see the worst consequences of this law play out as we feared later this fall. The three-member Farm Wage Board held a series of virtual public hearings in late 2020 that appeared to be paving the way for lowering the current 60-hour threshold requiring farmers to pay their employees overtime. The Wage Board ultimately delayed any changes to the law but is set to revisit it before the end of this year when it could, again without legislative approval, move to lower the 60-hour threshold. 
    That would be yet another economic disaster for New York’s farmers and farmworkers. It is critical for upstate legislators, for whom the farm economy is a foundation of communities we represent, to continue sounding the alarm on a Wage Board still holding the future of so many farmers and rural economies in its hands. This is the worst possible time to risk mandating and regulating more farms out of business, and that is exactly what will be at stake.   
    According to “Grow NY Farms,” a statewide coalition of farmers and other agricultural leaders working to maintain the 60-hour threshold, states, “Farming is truly unlike any other business. It’s dependent on seasonal weather, skilled workers, time sensitive crops, 24-hour animal care, along with a good amount effort and patience. As a state Wage Board plans to consider lowering the overtime threshold, some of the arguments seem to come from those who have never set foot on a farm. But to truly understand the repercussions of this potential change, you have to know the field — and not just our industry, but what it takes to work the land.New York farmers and farmworkers are protected by a 60-hour overtime threshold, a number that lawmakers, farmers and farmworkers all agreed to when a new farm labor law was passed just two years ago. This law that went into effect in 2020 was a significant compromise because work must get done regardless of the time it takes, especially when caring for animals and during planting and harvest seasons. Farmworkers explicitly say they prefer to work more hours to earn more income, especially when the farming season is so short in New York State. Farmers and farmworkers alike have adjusted to a new normal with the overtime threshold.  However, this compromise is under threat because a ‘wage board’ has been empowered to decide if the overtime threshold should be lowered to 40 hours. This threat promises to impact your source of fresh fruit, vegetables, and dairy products because New York farmers cannot afford to pay overtime above 40 hours per week and expect to compete in the marketplace where products are coming from other states and countries with much cheaper production costs and far fewer labor protections that New York guarantees.” 
    Grow NY Farms is undertaking an online letter writing campaign that offers the opportunity to voice your opposition to lowering the 60-hour overtime threshold. A link to the coalition’s “Maintain the 60-hour Work Week!” campaign can be found on the Grow NY Farms website, www.grownyfarms.com. 
    In my view, before even considering any changes, the Wage Board must allow adequate time to collect and assess data that would provide a more definitive picture of the impact of the 60-hour threshold on the finances and operations of New York farms, as well as consider additional factors including COVID-19’s ongoing impact on the agricultural industry. 
    Now is no time to make this worse. 
  24. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Under disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo, beginning in March 2020, we witnessed an unleashing of state government by executive order unlike ever before. 
    Cuomo utilized at least one hundred Executive Orders that allowed him to unilaterally change hundreds of state laws, as well as implement rules and regulations and make spending decisions, without legislative approval or local input. Any semblance of legislative checks and balances was abandoned. The same was true for local decision making. 
    We took to calling it “government by Cuomo executive order.” While it began at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when we were largely facing the complete unknown, the former governor quickly recognized that the Legislature’s Democrat majorities were happy to let him get away with a massive abuse of executive authority. It would end up causing a great deal of harm to local communities, economies, and taxpayers – damage that we’ll be trying to fix it for years to come.   
    Now that we’ve turned the page to a new governor, it’s become fair to ask: Have we turned the page to a new governor? 
    Consider just a few of the actions taken by new Governor Kathy Hochul recently, including: 
    Expanding the state’s mask mandate to cover day care centers and to apply to children as young as two years old.   A controversial blanket mandate requiring all health and home care workers to be vaccinated, which threatens to exacerbate New York's preexisting healthcare worker shortage. Thousands of these workers are tenuously hanging on under religious exemptions which are pending Court action. 
    Then there’s Governor Hochul’s ongoing implementation, by executive action, of a new law known as the “Less Is More Act” act whereby hundreds of state inmates being held for so-called “technical” parole violations are being released statewide. The new law doesn’t take effect until next March, however Governor Hochul is moving ahead on her own authority to immediately release inmates, including violent criminals. 

     I voted against and strongly opposed the Less Is More legislation (S1144/A5576) when it was first approved by the Senate in early June. It continues a troubling overhaul of the state’s parole system that started under former Governor Cuomo and the Democrat supermajorities in the state Senate and Assembly. 

    It’s the latest in a long string of pro-criminal, anti-police, anti-victim actions that make this state less safe – and it’s being denounced, rightly so, by law enforcement and crime victims advocates. 

    The executive director of the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police reacted to Less Is More this way, “At some point, common sense has to enter into the equation. Elected officials continue to politicize public safety and gamble with people’s lives.” 

     Well said. There’s no common sense coming out of Albany. There’s hasn’t been for some time with state government under one-party control. On this criminal justice front, that’s exactly right, they are putting far-left politics over public safety, and they are gambling with lives. 

    In other words, Governor Hochul is falling in line with the continuation of what has been disastrous, dangerous, radical parole reform driven by pro-criminal, anti-police, so-called progressive Albany Democrats. Actions like encouraging parole leniency combined with other moves to radically redefine criminal justice in New York -- including a 2020 law eliminating cash bail and pretrial detention, ongoing prison closures, and a growing “defund the police” movement throughout New York government – have helped drive a pro-criminal agenda that has been a major contributor to making the state less safe, putting far too many law enforcement officers in harm’s way, ignoring victims, and emboldening society’s criminal element. 

    Violent crimes in numerous cities across New York have jumped over the past few years. The homicide rate in the city of Syracuse, for example, increased by 55% between 2019 and 2020, while aggravated assaults were up 15%.  According to reports, violent crime has surged in the city of Rochester.  And in New York City, according to recent statistics from the NYPD, overall index crime rose by more than 30% since April 2020, including a nearly 20% jump in murders and a 35.6% increase in felony assaults. 

    All in all, it appears that Governor Hochul learned well from former Governor Cuomo. She’s not hesitating to push the boundaries of executive authority and power at the clear risk of New York State spiraling out of control in dangerous directions. 
  25. Senator Tom O'Mara
    New York Governor Kathy Hochul has now put forth one of her administration’s most ambitious public policy proposals to date and, in doing so, gave all of us a good look at her administration’s vision for addressing one of our state’s most urgent short- and long-term challenges: energy. 
    With that in mind, it’s fair to say at this juncture that the Hochul administration is squarely following in the footsteps of the Cuomo administration – which only continues to raise serious and troubling questions for Upstate New York energy consumers (that’s us ratepayers), businesses (particularly manufacturers), and communities who will be asked to bear a heavy burden for the cost of subsidizing New York City, downstate energy demands.  
    Governor Hochul took the reins of a Cuomo-generated renewable energy strategy already in motion and has now advanced specific projects to accomplish its far-reaching aim to extend the state’s energy grid through a significant expansion of wind, solar, and hydropower projects. 
    Overall, the goal remains to meet at least 70% of the state’s energy needs through renewable energy sources by 2030. 
    The statewide goal remains laudable, but utopian.  As a longtime member of the energy committees in both the Senate and Assembly, I have said and continue to fully agree that New YorkState should be leading the way in renewable energy development, and we are.  
    At the same time, I continue to stress that it needs to be done in ways that make sure that our residents and businesses have the energy they need right now to live and thrive in New York – and, I’ll add, that every step is taken to ensure that New York-based companies, entrepreneurs, generators and investors are always first in line when it comes to the jobs, revenues, and other economic development benefits being promised by the state’s leap into the so-called “green economy.” 
    Consequently, Governor Hochul’s announcement last week laid bare some troubling directions and a pipeline full of unanswered questions. 
    In unveiling the cornerstones of her plans, Governor Hochul said, “These transformative projects are a win-win – delivering thousands of new good-paying jobs throughout the state and attracting billions of dollars in private investment.  They also help us turn the page on New York City’s long-standing dependence on fossil fuels.” 
    It potentially could have been a “win-win” to write home about, except that Governor Hochul gave away one of these wins for New York State.  
    Exhibit A is one of the plan’s centerpiece proposals, the Canada-based Champlain Hudson Power Express. It calls for a nearly 340-mile span of buried cable, traversing land and water, to bring Canadian hydropower and wind from Hydro-Quebec to an energy station in Queens, New York City. 
    First and foremost, the plan fails to detail the costs of what can only be described as a massive and complex undertaking or, most importantly, the extent to which ratepayers throughout the state will be on the hook for covering these costs through higher utility bills.  
    Affordability seems to be a factor completely disregarded in Governor Hochul’s choice of these transmission projects. The other approved project, Clear Path, is to be built 174 miles “underground,” a requirement that will conservatively increase the cost by 10 to 20 times. 
    Equally puzzling, why is New York State gifting to Canada a marquee green-energy project that could help create thousands of good jobs and spark badly need economic development in numerous Upstate communities? Why forfeit this win? Trust me, there are plenty of New York State-based, private-sector generators more than eager for an opportunity like this one. 
    In fact, the proposed Champlain Hudson Power Express completely bypasses Upstate New York. There is not even an interconnecting Upstate converter station to allow Upstate power companies to tap into this supply, nor for Upstate electric generators to use this energy highway to get New York State-produced electric to the downstate markets in need of it. The lack of requiring an Upstate juncture perpetuates a bottleneck that has existed for far too long and places far too much reliance on foreign power. Furthermore, it fails to allow an alternative source of needed power in case of a potential drought in Canada eliminating this supply.    
    The Independent Power Producers of New York (IPPNY) reacted to this proposed outsourcing of jobs, exorbitant costs, and the bypassing of in-state generators in a statement. 
    IPPNY President and CEO Gavin J. Donohue said, “In addition to its hefty price tag, the Champlain Hudson line has long brought concerns of outsourcing New York jobs and lackluster emission reductions due to ‘greenwashing.’ While the State’s process will ultimately verify the source of the power on the line, giving this opportunity to a Canadian company rather thanNew York’s generators who have stepped up to the plate time and time again is wrong.”  
    Last week, Governor Hochul reinforced for all of us a vision for the future of energy in New York State that leaves plenty of us wondering about its practicality, cost, and fairness -- particularly for Upstate New York. 
    It’s a vision that we can never afford to have guided by political goals taking precedence over the best path to keeping the lights on for all New Yorkers in the most practical, cost-effective, smart, and fair way. 
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