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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
    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. 
  2. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Here we go again.
    The ink on the new state budget is barely dry and the Albany Democrats are already eyeing their next tax hike opportunities
    That’s right. New York’s out-of-control Democrat supermajorities just enacted a $212-billion state budget that blew through a one-time $13-billion windfall of federal aid, increased state government spending by $18 billion, and raised taxes by nearly five billion dollars.
    Already, it’s not enough for them.
    Already, it’s being made clear that we’re in for an unending search for more tax dollars to afford more spending and every taxpayer will pay the price.
    Their latest target includes a newly proposed 55-cents-per-gallon hike in the state tax on gasoline to help generate revenue to implement a radical, unsustainable, impractical climate change agenda. Specifically, the legislation (S4264/A6967), known as the “Climate and Community Investment Act,” calls for accelerated state-level actions to achieve broad and far-reaching climate change policies. It includes the 55-cents-per-gallon increase in the gas tax as well as increased taxes on heating oil, propane, and natural gas, which is estimated to increase home heating fuel costs by 26%.
    In short, the legislation would implement regressive taxes that would leave lower- and middle-income families and workers, motorists, truckers, farmers, manufacturers and other industries, and seniors among the hardest hit. Especially across Upstate New York.  
    According to the Tax Foundation, New York currently has the 7th highest gas tax in the country, at 43.12 centers per gallon withCalifornia currently the highest at 62.47 cents per gallon. This legislation would raise New York’s tax to 98.12 cents per gallon, an increase of more than 127 percent, and would make New York’s gas tax more than 57 percent higher than any other state.  
    New York’s business tax climate has long been noted by the Tax Foundation as one of the nation’s worst. 
    Greg Biryla, Senior State Director of the National Federation of Independent Business of New York (NFIB of NY), recently said, “COVID-19 continues to present unimaginable and unprecedented challenges for New York’s local businesses and job creators…Albany should be concentrating all its efforts on identifying policies and solutions to support and sustain those small businesses still hanging on rather than imposing new burdens or exploring new ways to increase costs. Significantly higher taxes on gasoline, transportation, and heating fuel is the wrong idea at the worst possible time.”
    The just-released Census numbers made it clear, once again, that the exodus from New York remains well underway and because of it, we will, among other negative consequences, lose one Congressional seat next year.
    Different pundits can hem and haw about why -- and they are -- but clearly the most significant fact it’s underway is because of New York State government policies.
    Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature’s Democratic supermajorities may well have state government under lock and key at the moment. They can boast all they want about how the voters have spoken and willingly, according to them, chosen to live under one-party, largely downstate Democratic control.
    Many New Yorkers, however, continue to vote with their feet. They are leaving New York because of our high cost of living, high taxes, out-of-control spending, oppressive business tax climate, and, especially now, because they see a scandal-scarred state government in full pursuit of an out-of-touch, pie-in-the-sky, unsustainable, dangerous, and disastrous so-called progressive agenda.
    Earlier this year, the well-respected Upstate advocacy organization, Upstate United (previously known as Unshackle Upstate), once again sounded the alarm on the tax burden.
    Upstate United Executive Director Justin Wilcox said, “As special interests keep calling on Albany to raise taxes, our organization is committed to fighting for much-needed tax relief. Overburdened taxpayers continue to flee New York due, in part, to the state’s extraordinary tax burden. Returning to the days of massive tax hikes and bloated budgets isn’t progressive, it’s problematic.”
    It’s an alarm sounding louder than ever.
     
  3. Senator Tom O'Mara
    In case you haven’t noticed over the past 18 months, there’s a lot to keep an eye on in state government.
    If we have learned anything, in fact, we better have learned that the need for aggressive and vocal legislative oversight in New York State government has never been more critical.
    The perfect storm of a government under one-party control, which automatically diminishes legislative checks and balances, and the fact that the Legislature’s current Democrat leaders have willingly, almost embarrassingly allowed Governor Andrew Cuomo to run this government purely by executive order, has raised so many red flags.
    We’ve been reading and hearing about the obvious areas of concern, but let’s not let anything else go unchecked under the radar – and that includes the future of our family farms. 
    That’s right, 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. 
    This signature action of the 2019 legislative session was controversial legislation (S6578/A8419, Chapter 105 of the Laws of 2019) known as the “Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act,” conjured up by two Democrat legislators from the farming heartland of Queens, New York City and pushed hard by Cuomo.
    Throughout the year prior to this law’s enactment, 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.
    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, later this fall, as we feared. 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 keeping close watch 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. 
    If this Wage Board drives more farmers out of business, ex-Governor Cuomo and the Democrat legislative majorities will be responsible.
    Let’s not forget the reaction of New York’s farm community on the day in the summer of 2019 when Cuomo officially signed the new law. Remember that he didn’t hold the signing ceremony at an upstate New York family farm. Instead, he went to Manhattan to the offices of the New York Daily News, a liberal big city daily newspaper that had long advocated for the law.
    It might have been good at the time for Cuomo’s big city politics, but New York’s farm community spoke for itself that day.
    “Common ground should have considered what farms can afford and the opportunities our employees will lose as a result of this law. In the end, our reasonable requests were cast aside… What was also dismissed by many of New York's leaders is the dignity and respect our farm families have long provided to the men and women we need and work alongside every day…(the law) will still lead to significant financial challenges for farmers and the continued erosion of our rural communities,” said Farm Bureau President and dairy farmer David Fisher.
    In a statement, Grow NY Farms, a statewide coalition, wrote, “For months, hundreds of farmers and farmworkers spent countless hours seeking to find a balance with elected officials on measures that will change working conditions on farms across New York State. However, the measure that ultimately passed the Legislature and was signed by the Governor did not address the challenges and needs of farmers and farmworkers. (The law) does not create a path that will assure and economically viable New York agricultural industry.”
    No attempt to find common ground. No common sense. That’s where we still stand.
    At the very least, the must be continued, aggressive legislative oversight of this law’s implementation, including an ongoing assessment of its impact on the rural, upstate farm economy before there’s any move by an unelected, unaccountable Farm Wage Board to change the law and make it even more onerous on farmers and farmworkers.
    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.
    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.
  4. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Coming off the approval of a new state budget that blows through a one-time windfall of $13 billion in federal aid, increases spending by an unprecedented $18 billion, and raises taxes by more than $4 billion, I’m not expecting this state government under one-party control to take a breath.
    The relentless pursuit of a so-called progressive agenda will continue while the Legislature’s Democrat supermajorities continue to exert their political leverage over a scandal-plagued Governor Andrew Cuomo.
    I fully expect, for example, that many legislators will be eager to get back to a pro-criminal agenda that over the past two years has made New York State less safe, put far too many law enforcement officers in harm’s way, and emboldened society’s criminal element. 
    Despite strong warnings from many state legislators, including me, local district attorneys, county sheriffs, and many others, in early 2020 a new law eliminating cash bail and pretrial detention for 90% of all crimes took effect. The law, championed by Governor Cuomo and this far-left Legislature, radically redefined criminal justice in New York. Despite some minor rollbacks, it has created a system that releases violent criminals back into the community. It has been like a statewide jail break.
    It has been irresponsible public policy but it’s exactly the kind of legislating becoming the norm under one-party control – particularly when New York’s brand of one-party control is resulting in a “progressive,” Democrat Socialist agenda anchoring itself within the highest levels of state government decision making. We have commenced this decade – and the recently enacted state budget is the strongest proof yet – with a stronger Socialist, far-left faction pulling the levers in the State Legislature.
    A carefree approach to what has clearly been a misguided bail reform law is taking root in other places. Instead of a strict and sensible system of criminal justice that recognizes public safety above all, which it should, we are getting a system that willingly fails to recognize that some criminals belong behind bars.
    It didn’t stop with a failed No Bail law.
    Last June, this Legislature and Governor Cuomo repealed longstanding confidentiality protections for the personnel records of law enforcement officers. There is no denying that we need to keep standing up and taking actions against intolerable police abuse and brutality anywhere in New York State or anywhere across this nation. Period. I and other opponents argued, however, that we do not achieve this goal by taking actions that risk enflaming public mistrust and making good officers the increasing target of unsubstantiated allegations, lies, false accusations, and other bad intentions designed simply to keep attacking and undermining the overriding integrity and overriding legitimacy of our local police departments. The men and women in blue deserve the same due process of law as anyone else. We do not move forward by tearing down institutions devoted to the protection of public safety.
    Most recently, Governor Cuomo signed a misguided new law limiting the use of solitary confinement in New York’s correctional facilities despite noting in his own approval message that the law will need to be amended in order to protect correctional officers and prison staff from violent inmates.
    If it poses a threat to correctional officers and prison employees (and, by the way, other inmates), as the officers have long noted in their opposition to this move, how does this governor in good conscience sign it into law? The answer seems clear to me: because he’s concerned with saving his own political skin above all else.  
    Soon this Legislature will turn again to the state Parole Board, a board that has rightly come under fire over the past two years by many of us for its leniency in releasing convicted cop killers and other violent criminals.
    NYPD Police Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch has said of the Parole Board, “Under Governor Cuomo and the Albany Democrats, New York has become a state that puts criminals first and crime victims last…For far too long, these radical parole commissioners have hidden behind bureaucracy while they pursued their radical, pro-criminal agenda.”
    Many in this Legislature would like to keep going in this pro-criminal direction. One piece of legislation that could gain traction starting this week when the Legislature resumes its post-budget session would make it easier for inmates, 55 years old and older, to gain parole once they have served 15 years of their sentences. A second measure seeks to weaken the standards for Parole Board decisions by, among other steps, diminishing the Board’s consideration of the seriousness or violence of an inmate’s original crime and the length of time served.
    I’ve said it many times throughout these past few years of one-party control and it bears repeating now: What in the name of justice is going on?
  5. 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. 
  6. 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. 
  7. 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.
  8. Senator Tom O'Mara
    During a rare question-and-answer session with reporters at an event at Yankee Stadium last week to announce a new vaccination program, Governor Cuomo continued to defend his administration’s actions on the spread of COVID-19 in New York’s nursing homes, where the pandemic has already taken the lives of nearly 16,000 seniors.
    Some viewed the governor’s latest eye-popping comments as a victory lap – that the governor was pounding his chest and declaring himself absolved of any and all wrongdoing.
    Not so fast.
    In particular, the governor seemed to point to a recent decision by the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) to not undertake one specific investigation into the nursing homes crisis in New York and several other states as somehow proof that inquiries and investigations over the past year were all simply an “outrageous allegation,” “politically motivated,” “political hyperbole,” and “toxic politics” that “violated the basic concept of justice in this nation.”
    Cuomo also let loose with this doozy, “I am telling you as I sit here – I have told you the facts on COVID from day one. Whether they were easy, whether they were hard, I told you the truth.”
    As they say, sometimes you just can’t make it up.      
    We also can’t just sit back and watch and listen to this governor try to keep selling his own version of history by fabricating his own facts, like he did with his now infamous book on New York’s “leadership” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Despite the governor’s suggestion that the recent DOJ decision somehow exonerates him on the nursing homes tragedy, that’s simply not true. The DOJ has refused to investigate possible violations of what’s known as the “Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act” – a narrow scope of inquiry that would have only covered approximately 30 government-run nursing homes out of New York’s more than 600 facilities statewide.
    Let’s not forget that the governor and his inner circle remain under criminal investigation by the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn for an apparent cover-up of the COVID-19 death toll in nursing homes and its link to the governor’s $5.1-million book deal, a book in which he sought to portray New York’s handling of the crisis in a more favorable light than what we now know the reality to be. 
    In other words, the 11th hour decision by the DOJ was limited in scope and did nothing to dissolve the clear and convincing evidence, in my opinion and in the view of many others, that the Cuomo administration engaged in an illegal cover-up of COVID-19 deaths in New York State’s nursing homes. Many of us will continue to fight for justice on this front. There are other, ongoing investigations at the state and federal levels that should and I believe will fully examine and expose this cover-up by Governor Cuomo and his inner circle, as well as other misconduct. 
    Last week, Governor Cuomo said that when all is said and done on all of the ongoing investigations, that New Yorkers will be “shocked” by the facts that will come out.  
    New Yorkers have already been shocked by the facts that have been exposed over the past year on the Cuomo administration’s mishandling, dishonesty, misinformation, lying, whitewashing, and abuses of power. 
    No amount of desperate doublespeak by this governor or his top aides can ever do anything to change those facts now.
  9. 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.
  10. 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. 
  11. Senator Tom O'Mara
    In the weeks leading up to the adoption of the new, 2021-2022 state budget, I kept repeating that we had an opportunity and a responsibility to utilize a massive, one-time flood of federal stimulus aid, nearly $13 billion, in a fiscally responsible way. 
    We faced an unprecedented chance to commit New York State to a short- and long-term strategy for the post-COVID rebuilding, restoring, and resetting of local communities, economies, environments, and governments for the long term.
    Equally important, we were presented with the possibility to recognize the fiscal challenges New York will face for the foreseeable future, steer clear of any massive new taxing and spending, and bolster the state’s emergency reserve funds. 
    Those were the opportunities we faced, and we missed every one of them.
    Instead, the Albany Democratic supermajorities in the Legislature took full advantage of having scandal-plagued Governor Cuomo over a barrel and have set us up for an economic and fiscal disaster.
    It is incredible how far New York State has fallen since Governor Cuomo delivered his inaugural State of the State address in 2011.
    “The State of New York spends too much money,” Governor Cuomo said at the start of his administration. “It is that blunt and simple.”
    A decade later, with a Cuomo administration embroiled in controversy and weakened, this year’s state budget hikes state government spending by a whopping $18 billion and in a way that could bring New York State and our schools to the edge of the fiscal cliff in the not-too-distant future. Remember the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) from 2010? The one that resulted in our school districts losing out on more than $8 billion the last time the Democrats had full control of the Legislature?
    Here’s one other thing Governor Cuomo proclaimed in 2011: “We have to hold the line on taxes for now and reduce taxes in the future. New York has no future as the tax capital of the nation. Our young people will not stay. Our business will not come. This has to change.”
    Fast forward to 2021 and what’s changed is that Governor Cuomo has enacted a new state budget increasing taxes by more than $4 billion, planting New Yorkers firmly in the highest-taxed state in America.
    Simply put, in my view, New York’s new $212-billion fiscal plan increases state spending by over eight percent and sets in motion a whole host of future, long-term commitments to massive new spending and taxing. It’s irresponsible. 
    Clearly there are pieces of the budget that we all can point to as good things that we’ve wanted -- in some cases even commendable. How could that not be the case with $18 billion in increased spending? At its core, however, this budget demonstrates the threat that lies ahead with a state government under one-party, so-called progressive control. The undercurrent of far-left progressivism has always existed in this Legislature but it was long kept in check by a Republican-controlled Senate and, for a time, a governor who was at least willing to talk the importance of restraint.
    No more.
    With Governor Cuomo desperately trying to save his political skin, he now willingly joins the legislative Democrat supermajorities to enact an outrageous tax-and-spend plan. It will force future generations of taxpayers to foot an enormous bill because the Socialist-leaning, far-left, extremely liberal, largely New York City-based wing of the Democratic party is in control of the agenda and scoring victory after victory on a Socialist wish list heading toward a fiscal and economic train wreck. 
    This budget sets New York loose on an irresponsible, radical, out-of-control course. It blows through a one-time federal windfall and then hopes to pay for a future of unsustainable spending with higher and higher taxes. They will claim that they are only soaking the rich to pay for it but make no mistake: Sooner or later, every taxpayer, across the board, will pay the price and foot the bill.
    This new Albany Democrat vision for New York sets a troubling standard of recklessness. Take, for example, a $2.1-billion, taxpayer-financed fund to deliver lump-sum payments to undocumented immigrants who were excluded from receiving federal stimulus checks or unemployment benefits since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new fund, being called the “Excluded Workers Fund,” could deliver one-time, lump-sum state payments of up to $15,600 to some recipients. It’s the latest example of just how out of touch it’s becoming. You read that right, New York Democrats have raised taxes on New Yorkers by $4 billion and are giving $2.1 billion of that to illegal immigrants. And we thought giving them drivers’ licenses was too much.
    It also points to where we’re headed.
    “Welcome to the latest episode of progressives gone wild,” the Wall Street Journal editorialized, “All of this demonstrates the end of Mr. Cuomo’s utility as a check on the progressive left. Now that Mr. Cuomo is politically weak…he is an open door for progressives. New York will pay the price.”
     
  12. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Together with my regional legislative colleagues, state Assembly representatives Marjorie Byrnes, Chris Friend, Joe Giglio and Phil Palmesano, we are sending a message to Governor Andrew Cuomo: It’s time. 
    We believe it is time to allow every local school district throughout the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions we represent -- and, in our view, districts across New York State – to return to full-time, in-person classroom instruction.
    School administrators and staff are ready. Teachers are ready. Most importantly, students and their families are ready.
    All that is left standing in the way is for Governor Cuomo and the state Department of Health to give the go-ahead, reissue the guidance and protocols that most accurately reflect current COVID-19 conditions, and, finally, authorize the necessary local flexibility that will allow district administrators and their school communities to accomplish a complete return to the classroom effectively, efficiently, safely, and successfully.
    Recently, we have joined school superintendents from throughout the region urging the Cuomo administration to do just that. Superintendents rightly note that while some, mostly smaller districts have been able to fully resume daily, in-person learning, most districts, especially larger ones, cannot do the same for their students and families because New York’s current Executive Order requiring a minimum distance of 6 feet between students in classrooms prevents it.
    Until New York State revises this mandate and reduces the distancing requirement from 6 feet to 3 feet – a move now supported by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), many physicians and public health experts, as well as scientific studies and data -- students in too many districts will remain shut out from returning to their classrooms full time.
    On March 17th, 23 regional school superintendents representing the Greater Southern Tier BOCES expressed their collective support for the move from 6 to 3 feet distancing in a letter to Governor Cuomo. They wrote, in part, “It is our sincere hope that you and the Department of Health will consider a more equitable approach in adjusting the density requirements that are prohibiting full in-person daily learning from occurring.  Our students need more connection, instruction, and interaction.  Our school communities need to see that there is light at the end of this pandemic tunnel.”
    On March 19th, the CDC, acknowledging a growing body of public health data surveying the experience of school systems over the past year of the COVID-19 pandemic, revised its guidelines to permit 3-foot distancing in school classrooms. The new CDC guidelines also include reduced distancing guidelines for performing arts education participants, from 12- to 6-feet apart, a move that we as legislators had also called for in a February 19th letter to Governor Cuomo. Adopting this new distancing guideline would allow for more students to participate in the performing arts.
    Consequently, we are calling on Governor Cuomo to immediately move forward to allow the requested change in state regulations. On February 25, during a joint Senate-Assembly public hearing, New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker stated that guidance for reopening schools would be forthcoming as early as the week following the hearing. It’s now more than one month later and there is still no revised guidance or clarity on one of most important post-COVID actions that New York State must engage. 
    This ongoing delay and uncertainty is unacceptable. It is time for the Cuomo administration to move this priority to the top of the list. It is time to fully acknowledge just how central and how critical this action is to the educational development and mental health of our students.
    In short, if New York State provides the necessary flexibility, area superintendents are confident they are in a position to immediately reopen, fully and safely.
    We are proud to highlight the success of the regional COVID-19 response. We praise the work of local officials and the ongoing cooperation of local citizens and communities to follow the safety guidelines recommended for stopping the spread of the coronavirus and demonstrating the feasibility of safe reopening. The  knowledge and experience gained over the past year leave all of us confident about implementing full and safe school reopenings – if, we stress again, the state releases the necessary protocols and gives districts ample flexibility to thoroughly prepare their facilities and staff.
    Our local county leaders, health professionals, educators, teachers and communities have demonstrated enormous dedication, discipline, and responsibility throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.  Our communities’ leaders have demonstrated they can be trusted with a careful and thorough reopening of schools that is focused on safety, first and foremost.  No one cares more about the health and well-being of our students, families and school communities.  What has been accomplished by administrators, teachers and parents to help students throughout this public health crisis has been remarkable. These year-long efforts, we believe, have earned the right to local decision making to now determine the long-term health and well-being of our young people and their families.
    Nothing can replace our children being in school.  It’s central to quality education, our ongoing economic recovery, and the strength of our social fabric. 
    Governor Cuomo needs to release the revised guidelines so that all school administrators have the ability to implement a safe, full-time reopening of our schools. He should no longer leave administrators, staff, teachers and, especially, students and their parents waiting. 
  13. Senator Tom O'Mara
    The headline of the week, the start of COVID-19 vaccinations across America, might at first appear unrelated to the state comptroller’s announcement last week of divesting the New York State Pension Fund of investments in fossil fuel companies.
    Under the surface, however, there’s a connection between the two that’s critical to the future of manufacturing in New York.   
    We have been hoping and praying for a COVID-19 vaccine. The fact that starting this week we’re on the doorstep of widespread vaccinations is remarkable, faster than any time in history. The obvious point is that it will save and protect lives, but the arrival also holds even more that is important to our collective sense of hope, relief, and a true belief that we will find solid ground again and someday get back to normal.
    Consequently, let’s remember and pay tribute to the central role that Corning Incorporated is playing in this vaccine distribution that will dominate our attention and actions in the months ahead. You’ll recall that back in June, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services turned to Corning and awarded the company a contract to ramp up domestic production of Valor Glass vials as the primary vessel for holding these long-awaited vaccines.
    Cornell CEO Wendell P. Weeks said at that time, “Corning is ready to do our part in the fight against the pandemic, as well as to help prepare for future public health emergencies.” 
    In other words, without question it is a center stage production in American history. The pharmaceutical industry is entering uncharted territory and Corning’s Valor Glass vials play a leading role in the safety, protection, quality, and speed of vaccine deliveries. Amazing.
    Corning’s manufacturing facility in Big Flats, Chemung County is literally going full blast to produce the vials that will deliver health and hope for Americans everywhere. An article in the latest edition of The New Yorker magazine notes, “A Corning factory in upstate New York is running around the clock to help meet the urgent demand.”
    It is a fascinating story and an historic effort – one in which all of us here at home can and should take enormous pride and satisfaction.
    Furthermore, it showcases the preeminence of American manufacturing like little else in recent memory.
    Even so, it’s also a reminder how seemingly unrelated actions could have such an impact on the future of manufacturing in America, which leads to the state comptroller’s announcement.
    Because while workers at Corning’s manufacturing facility are all systems go producing vials in Big Flats that will carry COVID-19 vaccines across the nation, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli dropped a significant announcement last week. He unveiled that the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the nation’s third-largest and most solidly funded pension fund, currently valued at approximately $226 billion, will move away from making investments in energy- sector companies in the fossil fuel industry, in what will be an ongoing, targeted reassessment of investing in, among others, natural gas exploration and production.
      In other words, the comptroller’s investment strategies are being driven by politics.
    Pension fund divestment as a political weapon has long been eyed by the far-left, extreme-liberal wing of New York’s Democrat party. I have long believed that divestment guided in any way whatsoever by political pandering poses a troubling threat to the strength of our state retirement fund, as well as to our state and national economy when companies are politically targeted.
    Heading into 2021, however, this wing of the party is clearly entrenched in the highest levels of state government decision making – in the executive branch, in the office of the attorney general, certainly in the Senate and Assembly majorities and, as evidenced by this latest move, in the state comptroller’s management of the pension fund.
    Keep in mind that the office of comptroller, above all, has an independent, Constitutional responsibility and fiduciary duty as the sole trustee of the pension fund for the benefit of retirees and all member beneficiaries. In other words, it is an office that’s supposed to steer clear of politics in administering the fund, with the primary objective of maximizing return on investment.
    A comptroller’s actions always impact the fund’s investment returns and, ultimately, the burden on state and local taxpayers to meet the fund’s current and future obligations. The pension fund has a targeted rate of return, which, if not met, the shortfall is made up by all taxpayers (whether you are in the retirement system or not). The state makes up the shortfall from all state taxpayers and local governments make up their portion with your sales and property taxes. Wrong moves by the comptroller risk serious and costly consequences for pension fund members, retirees, and all taxpayers.
    There’s plenty to unpack here. But at the moment, for me, it serves once again to highlight a central debate surrounding the future of energy in New York State and the nation.
    Consider these two observations:
    1.) Comptroller DiNapoli’s divestment strategy will explicitly target (and influence) investment in natural gas exploration, development, and production.
    2.) Corning Inc.’s Valor Glass vials – vials that in the end will help see our nation and the world through this pandemic – are being produced at its factory in Big Flats with furnaces powered by natural gas.
    This scenario helps drive home a point I have raised many times in the past. The move toward renewable, sustainable sources of energy is underway, rightly so, and there’s no turning back, nor should we. And the state should invest in alternative renewable and clean energy for the good of our environment and because it makes sense. Still, for the foreseeable future, there is simply no source of renewable energy on the horizon that could ever replace fossil fuels, in particular readily available and cheap natural gas, to heat our homes and allow for the high-load manufacturing that produces so many of the goods and services that we depend on.
    American manufacturing, including prominent New York State manufacturers, cannot be competitive in a global economy and create good jobs for workers here at home without a supply of relatively inexpensive, plentiful energy that only natural gas currently provides. We have seen a significant increase in American manufacturing in recent years, in large part due to America’s leadership position and innovation in natural gas production providing low-cost energy in a portfolio of energy supply which is cleaner than ever before.
    There may well be a time to divest from fossil fuels, but the market should drive that move AND IT WILL as clean energy technology and availability meets the high-load demands of manufacturing. It can’t be achieved simply as a desire to appease environmental zealots and there’s great risk in proceeding that way to both manufacturing in New York and to taxpayers supporting an underperforming pension fund.
    Corning’s manufacturing of Valor Glass vials would not be possible at this critical moment in time without natural gas powering the factory’s furnaces; nor would a plethora of other manufacturing in New York and America.
    This timely example of the world we live in must remain a part of the larger debate and discussion moving forward.
    There’s amazing hope for today in the Valor Glass vials moving across America this week, and it deserves celebration.
    There’s also a warning for tomorrow.
    These vials, and so much more in the foreseeable future, are not possible in the absence of energy policy that recognizes the need for common sense, caution, and a solid dose of realistic thinking.
     
  14. Senator Tom O'Mara
    If you haven’t been following the daily developments on the Cuomo administration’s nursing homes disaster, following are just a few highlights from the past week:
    Nine Democratic members of the state Assembly, in a letter urging support for stripping Governor Cuomo’s COVID-19 emergency powers, accused the governor with federal obstruction of justice, calling it a “criminal use of power”; Governor Cuomo responded by publicly attacking one of the letter’s signers, Assemblyman Ron Kim of Queens, who in turn revealed that the governor, in a series of phone calls, threatened to “destroy” his career; The Albany Times-Union broke the story that the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn have launched an investigation into the Cuomo administration’s COVID-19 response in nursing homes and long-term care facilities; The governor’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, touts Dr. Michael Osterholm, a nationally renowned health expert, as one of the governor’s “chief advisors” who speaks to the governor on a “regular basis” only to have Dr. Osterholm publicly debunk that claim by stating, “I’ve had one five-minute conversation my entire life with Governor Cuomo”; Assembly Republicans call for an impeachment commission to gather facts and evidence. Most notably, one government watchdog, the Albany-based Empire Center, conducted an exhaustive analysis of the available data on COVID-19-related deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities (data, by the way, which the Cuomo administration has kept limited and incomplete). The new analysis finds that the administration’s March 25,, 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to accept the transfer of COVID-positive hospital patients back into their facilities was “associated with a statistically significant increase in resident deaths.” The analysis reaches a conclusion that “transfers from hospitals to nursing homes were significantly associated with nursing homes deaths upstate” and, overall, likely “made a bad situation worse” statewide.  
    Those are just a few development since February 10 when the New York Post broke the story of a secret meeting of top legislative Democrats and members of Governor Cuomo’s inner circle where the governor’s top aide, Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa, admitted that the administration intentionally withheld a true accounting of the COVID-19 death toll in New York’s nursing homes for months on end in an effort to steer clear of federal prosecutors.
    Timely, accurate information is critical to public health – especially during a pandemic. The governor’s top aide admitted that information was intentionally withheld for fear that it could be used against them and that the public was purposely misled. In fact, we still do not know precisely what information has been forthcoming.
    This remains a fast-moving crisis with plenty of moving parts.
    For me, there’s clear evidence of a cover-up. I’m certainly not alone in this assessment. The governor and members of his inner circle purposely withheld data, during the height of this pandemic, that was important to the protection of public health – in particular to the safety and well-being of the residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
    Still, the Cuomo inner circle continues to stonewall, threaten, whitewash and, most of all, set up the usual scapegoats to avoid any inquiry – that it’s a Republican witch hunt, a Trump conspiracy theory and the like.
    The past week has been a constant drip, drip, drip of scandal that leaves New Yorkers increasingly suspicious of their government. The only way to close the faucet is through a full investigation, at every level – criminal and otherwise.
    Since the January 28th report from state Attorney General Letitia James that revealed significant under-reporting by the Cuomo administration, many have been pushing for subpoenas to compel testimony and obtain all records related to the crisis.
    These efforts intensified last week. Governor Cuomo said in his Friday press conference, while chastising the Legislature for looking into this cover-up, that if legislative leaders wanted the information sooner they should have subpoenaed it. That’s what Republicans have been demanding for over a half year while the Democrat supermajorities dragged their feet kowtowing to the governor.
    At the same Friday press conference, Governor Cuomo doubled down on his story touting that everything he did, he would do again. Does he have no concept of the deadly result of his order sending in excess of 9,000 Covid-positive hospital patients back into nursing homes? And all the while that the Javits Center, USNS Comfort and Samaritan’s Purse field hospital sat empty, more than 15,000 nursing home and adult day care facility residents died.
    Someone’s not telling the truth and most of the indicator lights point to Governor Cuomo and his inner circle.
    In short, there is a crisis in leadership in New York State. During a pandemic, we desperately need leadership we can trust and have faith in.
    Governor Cuomo concludes the introduction to his book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” with the following line: “New York didn’t do everything right, but there are lessons we can learn that will lead to victory.”
    That’s exactly the endgame many of us are seeking: to determine what wasn’t done right, why it wasn’t, and what are the lessons we need to learn to ensure that it does not happen again.
  15. Senator Tom O'Mara
    It turns out my column’s headline last week -- “Attorney General report a beginning, not the end” – was quite an understatement.
    In fact, the AG’s report has sparked nothing short of a firestorm since its release on January 28. It revealed, among many findings, that the Cuomo administration was underreporting COVID-19 nursing home deaths by potentially as much as 50 percent – and the findings were based on a review of just ten percent of the state’s nursing homes.
    After requests for months on end from lawmakers, reporters, good government groups, family advocates and others for detailed information on what has happened and why, the AG’s report clearly targets the stonewalling that Governor Cuomo, state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker and other top Cuomo administration officials have engaged in since early last year.
    Equally important, the report targets Governor Cuomo’s now fateful March 25, 2020 order forcing nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients and, further, preventing homes from testing for COVID as a condition of admittance. The very next day, the American Medical Directors Association, Society for Long Term Care Medicine objected to Cuomo’s order declaring that it was “over-reaching, not consistent with science, unenforceable, and beyond all, not in the least consistent with patient safety principles.”
    As I said last week, the AG’s report raises unanswered questions and marks a clear starting line for further inquiry. A full investigation must move forward, now.
    Keeping in mind that this is a fast-changing story, as of this writing here’s what has transpired over the past week.
    Last Monday, three days after the release of the AG’s report, in my position as the Ranking Member on the Senate Investigations Committee, I moved a motion for a vote by the committee to immediately issue subpoenas to the Cuomo administration. Subpoenas are needed to compel testimony and obtain documents, emails, phone records and all other information related to the administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in nursing homes. The committee’s chair, Senator James Skoufis of the Hudson Valley, who for months has publicly threatened subpoenas, strenuously objected to the move, falsely cited a Senate rule to prevent a committee vote, and even allowed my microphone to be muted to cut off a full debate and discussion.
    I have made it clear that we will not stop in this effort or be muted in any way. It is time for the Senate Democrat Majority to stop protecting Governor Cuomo. Their failure to immediately subpoena the Cuomo administration completely abandons legislative responsibility. It makes the Senate Democrats complicit in this tragedy.
    At the federal level, New York’s GOP Congressional delegation, including Congressman Tom Reed, have called on the federal Department of Justice to immediately issue subpoenas to Governor Cuomo and members of his inner circle.
    The New York Times reported that at least nine of Governor Cuomo’s top health experts have left the administration, seemingly dissatisfied, in at least some instances, with the politicized nature of the COVID-19 response. In May, just weeks after Cuomo’s deadly March 25 order, the long-time and well-respected director of DOH’s long-term care division departed. It was reported at the time that he was “not involved in crafting that fateful directive.” Then who was?
    Finally (and importantly), the week closed with the Albany-based Empire Center (empirecenter.org) scoring a victory in state Supreme Court requiring the release, this week, of a trove of data and information that will shed important light on the COVID-19 death toll in nursing homes.
    The Empire Center’s Bill Hammond, who has doggedly pursued the truth of this tragedy, said in response to the ruling, “The people of New York—especially those who have lost loved ones in nursing homes—have waited much too long to see this clearly public information about one of the worst disasters in state history.”
    One of the worst disasters in state history.
    An article last week in the National Review perhaps summed it up best: "But we know for certain that the governor was hiding data that showed his culpability... To fail is human. But to lie about it, when tens of thousands of your fellow citizens died from the illness, is a level of moral depravity and social disregard that this country should not stand for."
    At the start of this new week, the bottom line remains the same: The AG’s report was clearly not the final word on this tragedy. Instead, we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
  16. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Over the past three years, the home security consumer awareness and research organization Safewise conducted a “The State of Safety in America” nationwide survey of “more than 15,000 Americans to see how safe they feel.”
    According to the group’s final report, issued in March, “New York is by far the most concerned state.” New York is the “most worried about safety” state in the nation, the survey found, with 70 percent of New Yorkers reporting that they are “concerned daily” about their safety. Additionally, only 40 percent of New Yorkers feel safe in their everyday lives, while 78 percent think crime is increasing. You can view the full report here: www.safewise.com/state-of-safety.
    In the terrible aftermath of the George Floyd tragedy last May, I wrote, “There can be no place anywhere, in any of our institutions, for racial discrimination, injustice, abuse of authority, or violence…and there is not a place for the intolerable anarchy, rioting, looting, destruction, and anti-police rhetoric and violence.”
    Unfortunately, we have seen a troubling and extremely dangerous escalation of anti-police rhetoric and violence throughout this state, upstate and downstate -- from the hotbed of New York City to Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, and many places in between. In short, this heightened anti-police activity and the continued impact of disastrous pro-criminal public policies like the “No Bail” reform law that took effect earlier this year, ongoing parole reform, and other actions have exacerbated unrest.   
    It threatens the men and women in blue everywhere. Many of them tell us that there has never been a more difficult or dangerous time to serve.
    Last summer, county sheriffs from throughout the Southern Tier and statewide sounded the alarm over this heightened violence and ongoing, unworkable public policies that go against law enforcement.
    I agree with their deep concern. In response, I stood together with many Senate colleagues and law enforcement officers to endorse a package of legislation known as the “Protect Those Who Protect Us Act.” It is aimed at deterring violence against law enforcement by strengthening penalties for existing crimes and establishing new crimes to prevent attacks on police officers.
    Our Senate Republican Conference attempted to move the legislation to a vote on the floor of the Senate last year, but our effort was rejected by the Senate Democrat Majority.
    Last week, we renewed this call for action. Among other provisions, we seek the approval of legislation to:
    Strengthen criminal penalties for assaulting a police officer and make them crimes for which a judge could require the posting of bail; Withhold state funding from any municipality that abolishes, disbands, or significantly reduces its police department; Create new crimes for harassing police and peace officers by striking them with any substance or objects including bottles, rocks, bodily fluids, flammable liquids or other hazardous or dangerous substances; Make any crime committed against a police officer because of his or her status as a police officer a hate crime; Establish a crime for doxxing (publishing private or identifying information on the Internet, i.e. addresses, phone numbers, etc.) of a police officer or peace officer because of the officer’s status as an officer; Establish a crime for falsely accusing a police or peace officer of wrongdoing in the performance of his or her duties; and Eake Police Memorial Day on May 15 a state holiday in honor of the more than 1,500 police officers who have died in the line of duty in New York. We cannot sit back and simply accept and tolerate the ongoing attacks on the men and women in law enforcement serving to protect our communities and neighborhoods. They risk their lives around the clock, every day and every night, in an increasingly hostile environment, to keep us safe from violent criminals who have no respect whatsoever for the law or for other lives.  
    Anyone who would simply shrug and say it’s not happening here, or that it can’t happen there, isn’t paying attention. It can happen anywhere else in this state or nation. Furthermore, violence against a police officer anywhere is an attack on police officers everywhere.
    We have to take steps to let our police officers, peace officers, corrections officers, all officers of the law, across the board, know that we stand with them and that we have their backs, as well as to ensure that we are doing everything possible to prevent a complete breakdown of our society.
    The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington D.C. was dedicated in 1991, during the presidency of then-President George H.W. Bush. The spirit of America’s monument to law enforcement officers who have fallen in the line of duty is captured by the words of then-President Bush, words that still ring true at this very moment, “Carved on these walls is the story of America, of a continuing quest to preserve both democracy and decency, and to protect a national treasure that we call the American dream.”
  17. Senator Tom O'Mara
    The State Legislature’s 2021 regular session, which ended late last week, will have long-lasting ramifications for our region and for all New Yorkers.
    Without question, it will be remembered as a year of turning points -- the biggest one, of course, being that we have finally started turning the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic with steadily dropping infection rates and rising numbers of vaccinations. I’ll get back to the pandemic emergency later in this column.
    The new 2021-2022 state budget, as I have pointed out numerous times in this column, increased state taxes by nearly $5 billion and hiked state government spending by a whopping $18 billion (to an eye-popping total of $212 billion – a budget more than the budgets of the more populous and growing states of Florida and Texas combined).
    In fact, the Albany Democrat giveaway in this new budget went far beyond any reasonable sense of fairness, responsibility, or sustainability for hard-working, taxpaying citizens. Governor Cuomo and the legislative Democrat supermajorities enacted a tax-and-spend plan that will force future generations of taxpayers to foot an enormous bill for the pursuit of a so-called progressive, far-left, extremely liberal, largely New York City-based agenda. It’s an outrageous wish list. In a state long known as one of the highest-taxed, highest-spending states in America, this Albany Democrat vision for New York’s future sets a new standard of foolhardiness, including a new taxpayer-financed, $2.1-billion fund to provide lump-sum payments of up to $15,600 to illegal immigrants who were excluded from receiving federal stimulus checks or unemployment benefits since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    We had an opportunity and a responsibility to utilize a one-time windfall of roughly $13 billion in federal stimulus aid under a fiscally responsible, short- and long-term strategy for the post-COVID rebuilding, restoring, and resetting of local communities, economies, environments, and governments for the long term. Equally important, we needed to recognize the fiscal cliffs New York could face for the foreseeable future, steer clear of any massive new taxing and spending, and bolster the state’s emergency reserve funds. That’s not what this budget did. It sets up an economic and fiscal disaster.
    This year’s budget is another turning point, in my view, one that moves New York toward an even more unsustainable future for generations of taxpayers. Recall the "Gap Elimination Adjustment" draconian cuts to education Albany Democrats imposed in 2010, the last time they held majorities in both houses of the State Legislature.  They've set us up for similar cuts two years from now after the Democrats blow through the federal COVID-19 relief windfall and this year's record increase in state spending.
    The same goes for this state government’s direction on issues of criminal justice and corrections, and law and order. Bail and discovery reform, parole reform, prison inmate violence, a building “defund the police” movement within the highest levels of state government, over the past two years under one-party control of state government, we have seen a pro-criminal mentality take hold, one that has gone too far and keeps going too far in New York.
    It also marks a dangerous and disturbing turning point for public safety and security. We need to keep standing up, speaking out, and working against it.
    Back to the pandemic. One of the year’s most egregious turning points, for me, is that the Albany Democrats left town last week without declaring an end to the COVID-19 state of emergency declaration in New York State and without bringing an end to Governor Cuomo’s one-man rule.
    The so-called repeal action by the Legislature’s Democrat supermajorities back in March was nothing more than a smokescreen to allow the continuation of government by Cuomo edict. In fact, that action removed the April 30, 2021 date when the governor’s powers were supposed to automatically expire and, instead, extended Cuomo’s unilateral powers indefinitely until he declares it.  Don’t hold your breath.
    In short, at a time when our local communities and economies should be facing an optimistic turning point in the COVID-19 pandemic and fully making their own reopening decisions, they are faced with continuing to be at the arbitrary, non-scientific, non-sensible whims of this governor who continues to flail under several mounting investigations of his abuse of power. The continued mask mandate for children in schools is just the latest outrageous example. 
    Under current rules, the Legislature can rescind Cuomo’s pandemic emergency powers by approving a Concurrent Resolution. Senate and Assembly Republicans put forth a resolution to do just that, but the Democrat majorities ended the session without acting. In other words, they have left Governor Cuomo completely in control for the foreseeable future – even while this governor is scandal-scarred and facing multiple investigations.
    That’s an unthinkable abandonment of legislative responsibility. There was a need for flexible and swift executive action at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, when so much was unknown. But that time quickly passed.
    Since the onset of the pandemic over fifteen months ago, when the governor was first granted the emergency authorization, he has issued nearly 100 Executive Orders that have allowed him to unilaterally change hundreds of state laws, as well as implement rules and regulations, and make spending decisions, without legislative approval.
    Many of the governor’s actions have now gone well beyond the necessary scope of the COVID-19 response.  
    Over the past 15 months, since May 2020, the Senate GOP has advanced more than 50 motions on the Senate floor to execute a straight-out repeal of the governor’s emergency pandemic powers. Every single one of these Senate Republican motions was rejected by the Senate Democrat majority without one Democrat voting to end Cuomo’s tyrannical control.
    Endless executive orders have failed and keep failing New York’s local communities, families, economies, and workers. It’s unthinkable that the Albany Democrats will continue to let Governor Cuomo sit in Albany, exert total control, and issue directive after directive without any regard for legislative checks and balances, or local input. 
    This Legislature’s majorities ignored the most critical turning point of all, which would have been to go all-in on ending Cuomo’s unilateral powers, restore local decision-making, and get fully on board with a safe, practical, sensible, and badly needed reopening of our local communities and economies. 
  18. 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. 
  19. Senator Tom O'Mara
    It was a relief last week when New York’s newly created Farm Labor Wage Board chose not to immediately lower the state’s current 60-hour overtime threshold for farm workers.
    The relief is only temporary, however. The three-member Board made it clear that it will revisit the potential change next November with an eye toward moving ahead on a lower, likely 40-hour threshold.
    A lot can happen between now and next November, but make no mistake this is where we stand: farmers and their advocates, including me and many other Upstate legislators, must continue making the case that now is no time to risk the future of any of our farmers.
    Equally important, in my opinion, will be the need to keep working against the power given to this unelected, unaccountable Farm Wage Board to unilaterally decide, without legislative approval, a move that could change the face of New York Stateagriculture as we have always known it.
    In short, among the most important work ahead of us this new year will be the need to keep close watch on the future of our family farms.  
    The case against the Farm Wage Board has not and will not change between now and November.
    The controversial legislation (S6578/A8419, Chapter 105 of the Laws of 2019) that established the Board is known as the “Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act.” It was pushed hard as a “progressive” benchmark by Governor Andrew Cuomo and its New York City legislative sponsors.
    Repeatedly throughout the past year, I joined many opponents — including, among numerous others, the New York Farm Bureau, Unshackle Upstate, and the Northeast Dairy Producers Association — to warn about its potential consequences, especially its impact on farm labor costs and the ramifications for farm labor, the food supply chain, and local economies that absolutely depend on a strong agricultural sector.
    Keep in mind that statistics show 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.
    This burden has already led to many farm losses, particularly within the critical dairy industry.
    I debated and voted against this move when the Senate approved it in June 2019. The bottom line, for me, is that this Board’s existence will continue to have profound implications throughout local farm economies across rural, upstate New York, including the risk of driving more family farms out of business.
    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.
    For starters, then, one priority in this new legislative session will be to enact legislation to delay any action by the Board to lower the overtime threshold for at least several years, which is the timeframe that the Farm Bureau and others have argued is necessary to fully and fairly assess the economic impact.
    I fully agree. For example, I currently co-sponsor legislation that would prevent the Board from acting until 2025, thereby allowing the time necessary 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 the COVID-19 impact on the agricultural industry.
    In a November letter to Governor Cuomo, a large coalition of New York State agriculture and farming leaders, including the Farm Bureau, Northeast Dairy Producers Association, New York Wine Industry Association, Empire State Council of Agricultural Organizations, and many others, delivered a strong, compelling message that read, in part, “Please know that if the overtime threshold for New York farm workers is lowered to a level below 60 hours per week, the face of New York agriculture will be irreparably altered and we will no longer remain economically competitive in the crops and commodities that require a labor force. As farmers testified this year before the wage board, varieties of vegetables that require hand labor will continue to disappear, increasingly relying on imports from places that do not have strong worker protections like inNew York State. Orchards will be pulled in lieu of field crops that only require machines for planting and harvest. Dairy farms will turn to robotic milking machines at a faster rate than today. Our regional and worldwide competitors—who have no such requirements—will only gain advantage from these changes, not New York farmers. We recognize that New Yorkis leader in the nation in many areas, and even though we currently may be leading other states when it comes to farm labor protections, we are on the precipice of policy that will lead farmers out of business. We the undersigned organizations respectfully request that the 60-hour overtime threshold be made permanent. Our industry’s future, particularly the next generation of New York farmers and the communities they support, are dependent upon it.”
    It will be important to keep these words in mind as we move through this legislative session because they will be as true and relevant next November as they are right now.
  20. Senator Tom O'Mara
    In yet another reminder of these COVID-19 times, the 2021 legislative session kicks into high gear on Monday when Governor Andrew Cuomo delivers New York’s first-ever virtual State of the State address to New Yorkers.
    Nevertheless, what won’t change about this annual speech is that we’ll get a better sense of the direction Governor Cuomo intends to try to take this state in the months and possibly years ahead. We’re expecting to hear a direction not just to continue steering this state through the COVID-19 pandemic, but also to begin the rebuilding and recovering of local communities and economies that needs to start now, in my opinion. 
    Toward that end, I joined my colleagues at the Capitol last week to unveil a “Reset New York State” agenda identifying the broad outlines of our conference’s priorities for the new legislative session and beyond. I can promise you that the Senate GOP plans to be a voice for local economies, taxpayers, job creators, workers, and communities. We need to keep working against a New York State tax and regulatory climate that puts our businesses and manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage, imposes red tape that strangles local economies, and prioritizes higher and higher spending, overtaxing, outrageous mandates, and burdensome overregulation.
    So I look forward throughout this new legislative session to our Senate Republican Conference giving voice to the need for rebuilding local economies, focusing on stronger and safer communities, and resisting what threatens to be a devastating expansion of a business-as-usual, tax-and-spend direction in state government.
    This “Reset New York State” strategy serves to highlight our commitment to more fiscally responsible, commonsense government that works better for taxpayers, builds and protects livelihoods, honors public safety and security, and focuses like never before on the restoration of Upstate’s rightful place in New York government.
    Make no mistake that our conference, together with the Assembly Republican Conference, will be fighting an uphill battle against a New York State government now squarely under one-party, mostly downstate-based, Democratic control. Furthermore, an extremely liberal, far-left wing of the party has clearly made inroads and established itself at the highest levels of leadership and will continue to push what I see as radical policies within the arenas of criminal justice and law enforcement, taxation and economics, environmental protection and energy, and health care, to pinpoint just a few.
    That won’t stand in our way of fighting for what we believe represents the best direction for this state and the regions we represent.
    Our initial blueprint highlights several broad strategies to address mounting economic and fiscal challenges facing communities statewide -- many of which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic -- and to help forge a better path forward for all New Yorkers. We will be introducing and focusing on specific proposals throughout the coming weeks and months that prioritize restarting local economies, rethinking the operation of state government, and renewing a commitment to stronger, safer, and revitalized communities.
    The broad outline of the overall strategy seeks to restart local economies by safely reopening small businesses to help them get back on their feet, get their employees back to work, and offer employment opportunities for local residents; ensuring that schools and colleges stay open; and making renewed investments in infrastructure – including broadband, and local roads and bridges-- to rebuild the state’s competitiveness.
    We’re seeking to rethink the operation of New York State government by addressing New York’s long-standing reputation as a high cost of living state; restoring fiscal responsibility and confronting state government’s culture of overspending; and reasserting the Legislature’s constitutional authority as an equal branch of government.
    Finally, we’re looking to renew New York State’s commitment to local residents by fostering the growth of vibrant local communities; developing a robust economy with diverse opportunities; and creating safer neighborhoods with commonsense public safety measures.
  21. Senator Tom O'Mara
    The 2021-2022 state budget adoption process marks my first as the Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee. It’s shaping up as one of the most consequential state budgets New York has ever faced.
    After a year when the COVID-19 pandemic has turned everything upside down, the choices made and the direction charted in this new budget could be transformational for the future of local communities, economies and taxpayers.
    In my view, here’s the fundamental question: Will it be transformational in some long-overdue, positive sense, or will it end up compounding the crises that have long stood in the way of a true turnaround in this state?
    The Legislature’s fiscal committees -- Senate Finance, and Assembly Ways and Means -- once again take the lead this year in examining Governor Cuomo’s just-released budget plan. Beginning this week and continuing through February 23, committee members will hear testimony from state agency heads, local leaders, public interest groups, and other organizations and advocates to get a stronger sense, in detail, of how the executive’s proposed strategy would impact specific programs, services, communities, employers, not-for-profit service providers, economies, taxpayers and much more. 
    What we hear and what we learn over the course of these 13 public hearings sets the stage for final negotiations on a new state budget.
    Last week, after legislators first received Governor Cuomo’s roughly $193-billion spending plan, my first reaction was a warning – a warning that the governor is charting a course for New York that could leave a future generation of state and local taxpayers holding a hefty bill for a questionable agenda of overspending.
    For starters, to achieve his hoped-for budget this year Governor Cuomo counts on New York receiving $15 billion in federal funding in the next COVID-19 stimulus package. In what can only be called one of the most bizarre moves ever by any New York Stategovernor, Governor Cuomo plans to sue the federal government if he doesn’t get it.
    Nevertheless, if New York does receive a $15-billion federal bailout, this governor intends to just go ahead and spend it. Keep in mind that any federal funding will be a one-time, non-recurring infusion of cash. It will be here and gone back out the door as quick as the governor can sign the spending authorizations. Make no mistake, however, the spending done now on grand new programs or big new projects (mainly downstate-oriented in the governor’s plan, by the way) will incur costs that will remain as the responsibility of taxpayers long after this governor has left the scene.
    We are staring at another year of ignoring the fiscal warning signs and throwing caution to the wind at the worst possible time, instead of re-setting the unsustainable direction New York State keeps heading.
    Under Governor Cuomo’s plan as it stands, future New Yorkers could be left footing an outrageous bill for this governor’s and this Legislature’s overspending and overtaxing.   
    That’s my starting point.
    Details on the governor’s budget proposal are available on the state Division of the Budget (DOB) website, www.budget.ny.gov.
    The Legislature’s fiscal hearings start this week with specific examinations of the governor’s proposed plans for transportation, environmental conservation, elementary education and housing. The schedule of virtual hearings and live streams can be found at: https://www.nysenate.gov/events (video archives of all the hearings will also be located here). The hearings can also be viewed on the Legislative Cable Channel on most local cable systems (view the statewide channel listing here: https://www.nysenate.gov/about-legislative-cable-channel).
    As I stated at the start, this year’s legislative hearings are crucial. The next state budget could have a transformational impact on most of the key issues facing us. 
    In my new role as the top Republican member on the Finance Committee – where we face an uphill fight as a minority party in a state government firmly under one-party control at the moment – I’m hopeful to continue being a voice for lower taxes, less regulation, greater accountability, economic growth, job creation, and more common sense on state fiscal practices.
  22. Senator Tom O'Mara
    We need to keep close watch on the future of our family farms.  
    A key action of the 2019 legislative session was the approval of controversial legislation (S6578/A8419, Chapter 105 of the Laws of 2019) known as the “Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act,” sponsored by two New York City legislators and pushed hard as a “progressive” hallmark by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
    Throughout the year prior to this law’s enactment, I joined many opponents, including the New York Farm Bureau, to warn about its potential 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 was already struggling.
    In fact, in early 2019, prior to the law’s enactment, area Assemblyman Phil Palmesano and I wrote to legislative leaders warning that “the misguided and misrepresented Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act poses an extreme action at a time of already severe economic struggle for New York State farmers.  Worse, the Act’s consequences would produce a nightmare of a ripple effect across local communities in every region of this state and profoundly diminish the future of high quality, local food production.”
    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.
    The consequences of this new law could be about to come home to roost. The three-member Farm Wage Board has held public hearings that the industry fears could be paving the way for quickly lowering the current 60-hour threshold requiring farmers to pay their employees overtime.
    In a letter last week to Governor Cuomo, a large coalition of New York State agriculture and farming leaders, including the Farm Bureau, Northeast Dairy Producers Association, New York Wine Industry Association, Empire State Council of Agricultural Organizations, and many others, delivered a strong, compelling message that reads, in part, “Please know that if the overtime threshold for New York farm workers is lowered to a level below 60 hours per week, the face of New York agriculture will be irreparably altered and we will no longer remain economically competitive in the crops and commodities that require a labor force. As farmers testified this year before the wage board, varieties of vegetables that require hand labor will continue to disappear, increasingly relying on imports from places that do not have strong worker protections like in New York State. Orchards will be pulled in lieu of field crops that only require machines for planting and harvest. Dairy farms will turn to robotic milking machines at a faster rate than today. Our regional and worldwide competitors—who have no such requirements—will only gain advantage from these changes, not New York farmers. We recognize that New York is leader in the nation in many areas, and even though we currently may be leading other states when it comes to farm labor protections, we are on the precipice of policy that will lead farmers out of business. We the undersigned organizations respectfully request that the 60-hour overtime threshold be made permanent. Our industry’s future, particularly the next generation of New York farmers and the communities they support, are dependent upon it.”
    Our farmers are sending a clear, straightforward message that needs to be heeded: This unelected, unaccountable Wage Board now holds the future of so many farmers, farmworkers, 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’s at stake here. It would be an economic disaster for New York State agriculture.
    The perfect storm of a government under one-party control, which automatically diminishes legislative checks and balances, and the fact that the Legislature’s current leaders continue to willingly allow Governor Cuomo to run this government purely by executive order, raises many red flags, especially this one at this time.
    If this Wage Board drives more farmers out of business, Governor Cuomo and the Democrat legislative majorities will be responsible.
    There has been no attempt to find common ground with New York’s agricultural and farming leaders, and there has, so far, been a failure of common sense.  
    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.
    In response, I currently co-sponsor legislation, supported by many farm advocates, to stress that the Farm Wage Board must take adequate time and have the appropriate data to assess the law’s full impact – as well as the impact of COVID-19 -- before recommending changes.
    For starters, the legislation (S8944) would extend the date for the Board to submit its final report from December 31, 2020 to December 31, 2024, thereby allowing the time necessary 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 the COVID-19 impact on the agricultural industry.
    Now is no time to make this worse, but that’s exactly where we stand at the moment: on the brink of making it worse for farmers.
  23. 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.
  24. Senator Tom O'Mara
    The cost of a gallon of gas keeps climbing.  The warnings keep coming over significantly higher home heating costs this winter and who knows how many winters to come.   
    All of this, as well as the fast approaching start of a new legislative session in January, helped make for good timing on last week’s listening session in the Southern Tier on a piece of legislation that, if it’s enacted, could reach into the wallets of everyday New Yorkers and cut into the bottom lines of New York employers even more.  
    Specifically, we hosted a roundtable discussion in Corning on legislation (S4264/A6967), known as the “Climate and Community Investment Act” (CCIA). Introduced earlier this year by the Democrat majorities in both the state Senate and Assembly, the measure proposes accelerated state-level actions to achieve broad and far-reaching climate change policies.  Of course, to help pay for it, it includes a new 55-cents-per-gallon gas tax as well as increased taxes on heating oil, propane, and natural gas, which is estimated to increase home heating fuel costs by 26%. 
    The CCIA is projected to raise $15 billion annually in new and increased fees and taxes levied on New Yorkers individually, hospitals, schools, colleges, and businesses.  Keep in mind that New York State accounts for just approximately 0.5% of global carbon emissions and the CCIA will only apply to New York -- not to neighboring states. Nor does it apply to China, India or Russia, which account for 40% of global emissions.   Further, a true, full cost-benefit analysis to show the public in a transparent way what this will cost them, and what we’ll gain, has not been required of the precursor of the CCIA, the previously enacted Climate Leadership and Climate Protection Act (CLCPA) and the Climate Action Council (CAC), which has not completed their recommendations.  We have sponsored legislation (S7321/A7524) to required this full cost-benefit analysis for the public.  It is imperative that it be required and completed. 
    The CCIA is a bad move, to say the least, in our view.  New Yorkers are already being hit by so many higher costs across the board and now is no time for state government to make it worse, all in the name of progressive politics. And especially not when the Albany powers that be already raised taxes in this year’s state budget by more than $4 billion to help pay for a whopping $18 billion in increased spending – with $2 billion of that increase going to illegal immigrants for COVID unemployment benefits for the loss of jobs they weren’t legally allowed to have in the first place (and, all the while, New York still owes the feds $9 billion for unemployment funds borrowed during COVID and no effort has been made to pay it down.  This inaction has resulted in significantly increased unemployment insurance rates to all businesses, despite state tax and revenue receipts exceeding budgeted expectations by $8 billion this year.)   
    It has set in motion an unending search for more tax dollars to afford higher and higher spending -- and every taxpayer will pay the price at the pump, to heat homes, and in a lot of other places and ways.   
    Our recent roundtable – and similar listening sessions that the Senate and Assembly Republican conferences have held around the state – makes it clear that any move in this direction would be disastrous. Participants at last week’s forum in Corning all pointed to the ever-increasing burden of escalating costs and the risk to the reliability of our electricity delivery. 
    They’re not alone. 
    The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), which represents more than 10,000 small businesses in New York Stateand hundreds of thousands more across the nation, has also stated its strong opposition to the CCIA in testimony at our roundtables. 
    The NFIB writes, “(Our opposition) is not a reflection of small business’ indifference to climate change or its commitment to addressing it, but rather that the economic impacts to those actually investing and hiring in New York’s economy must be understood and valued in coordination with environmental goals…Increases in the costs to do business anywhere in the economy will ultimately be felt across the economy by every employer, and felt most by members of NFIIB…New York State needs to take a step back and seriously consider the effects this proposal will have on small businesses and consumers.” 
    They highlight one of the key points: Even without the CCIA, New York State has already established aggressive renewable energy goals.  Working groups are underway on how best achieve the current targets to tackle New York’s 0.5% impact on global climate change.   
    The CCIA even expects job losses and negative impacts to school and local government property tax bases.  It establishes a “Just Fund” which will provide compensation for displaced workers up to three years of wages, and payments to school districts and local governments for lost tax revenues resulting from industries being shuttered. 
    It’s our belief that, every step of the way, there must be a constant recognition of the need for balance and common sense in pursuit of the overriding goals for New York’s energy future.  There absolutely must be a meaningful analysis of the costs versus the benefits of these actions and the impacts they will have on our energy system’s reliability as well as affordability. 
    The CCIA, CLCPA and CAC fail in this regard. 
    New Yorkers already pay the ninth-highest gas tax in America at 46.19-cents-per-gallon, according to the Tax Foundation.  If the proposed gas tax of 55 cents were added, New York would have the highest overall gas tax in America.  
    To add to the alarm, home heating costs, even without this additional action, are already projected to increase by upwards of 25% to 40% this winter. 
    If the environmental extremists have their way, homeowners will not be able to burn wood or pellets to heat their homes and will have to convert their natural gas, propane or heating fuel oil furnaces to electric at estimated costs in excess of $30,000 per household. 
    New York’s tax climate has long been noted by the Tax Foundation as one of the nation’s worst.  
    Instead of raising another tax or fee, Governor Kathy Hochul should immediately suspend the state’s gas tax, as our Senate and Assembly Republican conferences have recently called for. 
    Ignoring the realities, New York’s downstate-controlled Democrat supermajorities enacted a state budget this year raising taxes by nearly $5 billion.  It looks like they will just go on looking for more tax dollars to afford more and more of their out of control and out of touch, so-called “progressive” agenda.  Along the way, every New Yorker will pay the price at the pump, to heat homes, and in a lot of other ways and places with across-the-board price increases on everything from food to toilet paper.   
    The ongoing implementation of these regressive taxes will leave lower- and middle-income families and workers, motorists, truckers, farmers, small businesses, manufacturers and many other industries, and seniors among the hardest hit. 
     
    t’s the pursuit of a future looking more and more like New York being left stranded by the side of the economic road while having no discernible impact on the global climate. 
  25. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Late last week, after New York State reached a 70% vaccination rate statewide, Governor Cuomo ran with that benchmark as a reason to celebrate – fireworks included.
    He didn’t declare the end of the state of emergency, keep in mind, or the executive emergency powers that he still holds. The governor just saw fit to gather a group of cheering supporters at the World Trade Center in Manhattan to kick off a daylong, campaign-style celebration of...Governor Cuomo and his administration’s charade of leading us through the dark days of COVID-19.     
    There’s reason to cheer (because it’s been a long year) the apparent end of most COVID-related restrictions across New York State. Most restrictions have been lifted, for now, but not all. Under one still-in-place Cuomo edict, for example, children in school are still required to wear masks, a mandate that many of us believe no longer makes any rational, reasonable or scientific sense for the health and well-being of our children. Other restrictions remain in effect and the governor warned about keeping watch on future flare-ups of variants and the like.
    In other words, the governor was eager to celebrate and tout a worthy milestone, however he made it clear that his COVID-19 emergency powers – through which over the past 15 months he has issued nearly 100 Executive Orders that have allowed him to unilaterally change hundreds of state laws, as well as implement rules and regulations, and make spending decisions, without legislative approval -- are alive and well, and he will therefore continue to exercise control as he sees fit.
    What about that?
    First, let’s focus on what we all have been waiting, working, and sacrificing toward. It has been clear throughout the past fifteen months, and it bears repeating, that communities here in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions, and across New York State, could not have kept moving forward since the onset of the pandemic emergency last March without the compassion, perseverance, sacrifice, and undeniable strength of frontline workers, essential employees and volunteers in health care, agriculture, businesses large and small, law enforcement and public safety, education, community and social services, and so many other fields.
    Our gratitude to our frontline heroes cannot be measured and, in my view, their example will continue to show the way to a better and stronger future. We have demonstrated that by working together, pulling for each other, and staying informed, our communities will always be resilient and, in the face of whatever comes our way, never lose hope in recovering.
    That will be the case here. The work of rebuilding and getting our communities back on solid ground again should begin in earnest now. Most importantly, it needs to be delivered through local decision-making. 
    Governor Cuomo wouldn’t say it last week – and he’s not about to relinquish it on his own -- but we have reached the point of being able to fully declare an end to the state of emergency that has ruled our lives since last March. We have reached the point of fully rescinding Governor Cuomo’s unilateral emergency powers.
    It is time to restore legislative checks and balances, and local input. Many of the governor’s actions have now gone well beyond the necessary scope of the COVID-19 emergency response to the unwarranted infringement of individual liberties and the detriment of the fundamental fabric of local communities and economies.
    Governor Cuomo’s pandemic emergency powers remaining in place at this moment benefit the governor and the governor alone. That’s not what state government needs to be about during the critical days and months ahead of reassessing, rebuilding, resetting, and restoring.  
    Moving forward in New York State cannot be left to the risk of Governor Cuomo continuing to abuse the powers of his office and state resources for his ongoing political survival and legacy building. 
    The multiple investigations and scandals surrounding the Cuomo administration -- and the tragic shortcomings of one-man rule throughout this pandemic -- have already done more than enough to darken the skies over New York State in many ways.
    No amount of fireworks can ever change that reality for far too many New Yorkers.
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