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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
    One of the time-honored traditions throughout this holiday season is to gather around the table to share a meal, express thanks, and count blessings in the company of family, friends, neighbors, and even sometimes the community at large.
    It’s a chance, as well, to reflect on the contributions of farmers and the entire agricultural industry here at home in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions, throughout New York State, and across America. A recent state report, “A Profile of Agriculture in New York State,” does just that and stands as a timely reminder.
    “Agriculture is an important part of New York State’s economy, and farmers make significant contributions to the State,” State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli notes in the new report from his office (the full report can be found here: www.osc.ny.gov), “In New York’s rural counties, farming can be a significant driver of the regional economy, spurring a suite of support businesses supplying equipment, repair services, seed and soil conditioners and veterinary services, as well as sustaining employment.”
    The latest figures from the federal Department of Agriculture show that farming is practiced in every county in the state. Nearly 31,000 farms and farmland account for over 21 percent of the state’s area. New York’s agricultural sector contributes $2.7 billion to the state’s gross domestic product and directly supports over 163,000 jobs. In short, the industry is a foundation of the statewide economy and the food supply networks vital to the future.
    Over the past two decades, working through the “Harvest for All” program linking Farm Bureau and Feeding America in every state in the nation, New York’s farmers have been national leaders. In 2023, our farmers donated eight million pounds of food to regional food banks, the second highest donation total in America.

    In short, farming and agriculture remains the anchor of a way of life that has long defined and sustained so many communities and regions. New York has many agricultural products that consistently rank in the top 3 nationwide, including maple syrup, grapes, wine, red table beets, apples, cabbage and milk, yogurt and cheese.
    The comptroller’s report also found that:
    Agritourism and recreation in 2022 saw the largest increase in farm-related income, a 78% jump since 2012. Research from Cornell University found that farming and related supporting businesses directly supported 163,148 jobs in New York in 2019. In 2022, New York’s farms paid a total of $6.2 billion in expenses, an increase of $1.9 billion from 2017. From 2012 to 2022, hired labor expenditures grew by 68%, far surpassing other categories. Despite economic growth, between 2012 and 2022, the state lost close to 14% of its farms and over 9% of farmland. New York is losing farms and land at a faster rate than the U.S. and all neighboring states except Connecticut (farms) and Massachusetts (farmland). The overall decline of farmland is troubling, as conversion to other uses, particularly residential, commercial or industrial, may prevent its use for farming in the future. This includes 1,728 acres located in agricultural districts classified as solar electric generation facilities. “New York’s diverse farms are an essential part of the state’s economy, but there are increasing challenges that are changing the agricultural landscape,” according to the comptroller. “Volatile commodity prices, labor pressures and extreme weather are adding to the unpredictability of farming that is contributing to the consolidation and the loss of farms. Policymakers must consider the ways in which state programs and policies affect this sector.”
    Approaching the start of a new legislative session in January, it will be important for New York’s lawmakers and policymakers to renew a strong commitment to ensuring that our actions will not undermine an industry and a way of life that has defined the regions we represent. We cannot afford to change the face of New York State agriculture as we have known it for generations. We can’t risk the future of high quality, local food production or take steps that could spark the loss of more family farms and the livelihoods these farms support throughout hundreds of local economies. 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.
     
    Senator Tom O'Mara represents New York's 58th District which covers all of Chemung, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga and Yates counties, and a portion of Allegany County.
  2. Senator Tom O'Mara
    We continue facing an era in state government that will forever be defined by a “no consequences” approach to law and order.
    And in a state that remains, at least for the foreseeable future, under one-party, all-Democrat control, there appears to be no let up on that approach. In fact, one of the first post-election actions for New Yorkers is the implementation of a new law known as the “Clean Slate Act” – which took effect on November 16th and directs the state court system to begin the process of automatically expunging millions of criminal records from public view.
    The consequences of these and many other actions have become more than clear to many of us in the Legislature, throughout the law enforcement community, amongst advocates for crime vicitms and their families, and elsewhere: a rapidly declining Empire State. Beginning under former Governor Andrew Cuomo and continuing under current Governor Hochul, working in tandem with the Legislature’s Democrat majorities, New York State’s criminal justice system has been turned upside down – and, in the view of many, for the worse.
    Much worse, in fact. Failed bail and discovery law reforms have been a disaster. A “Raise the Age” law (aka the Gang Recruitment Act) removes criminal responsibility for violent 16- and 17-year-olds, thereby providing incentive for gangs to recruit and utilize younger members.
    The ability of law enforcement to ensure public security has been severely weakened and the criminal element knows it. The same is true throughout our prison system, where the Albany Democrats’ HALT Act restricts the Department of Corrections from maintaining control and, instead, gives violent inmates the upper hand. Correctional facilities have become powder kegs of violence.
    At the beginning of November, the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) called on the governor and the Legislature to recognize and end it, noting that the most recent data indicates “that both inmate-on-staff and inmate-on-inmate assaults have already exceeded 2023 levels with two months still left in the calendar year, underscoring a crisis that shows no signs of improvement.”
    NYSCOPBA President Chris Summers said, “Enough is enough—our members cannot and should not be used as punching bags. NYSCOPBA members, working in the most challenging of conditions, are being assaulted at record rates, yet their health and safety continue to be disregarded by those responsible for protecting the state workforce. The statistics speak volumes: 2024 is set to shatter last year’s assault records.”
    New York now has a parole system that goes out of its way to release violent inmates – including cop killers and child murderers – back into society.
    Instead of it all being a wakeup call to Governor Hochul and Albany Democrats, it just seems to keep fueling their determination to keep going too far in the opposite direction. The latest example is that the “Clean Slate Act” is now another law of the land in New York.
    The governor and supporters of the new law tout it as a “second chance” action, aimed at giving people with criminal records, who have served their time and paid their debt to society, a better opportunity to move forward in their lives to find a job, get an education, and secure housing.
    That’s an admirable and, in fact, widely held goal of the criminal justice system and New York State already had built-in mechanisms to achieve it. Clean Slate, however, takes erasing criminal records from public view to a whole new level – a sweeping, across-the-board, one-size-fits-all approach at the risk of crime victims and law-abiding New Yorkers.
    That’s because the innocent-sounding action now begins a widespread sealing of millions of criminal records, upwards of 2.3 million conviction records to be exact, including for any number of violent crimes including assault, armed robbery, attempted murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, drug trafficking, and others, regardless of how many criminal convictions an individual has, they're all expunged.
    Records will be sealed eight years after sentencing or after release from incarceration, whichever is later, for felony convictions, and after three years for misdemeanors.
    One former, prominent state prosecutor, Albany County District Attorney David Soares, a Democrat, never bought it. Following the law’s approval, he said, “Employers and other people will not be able to see who it is that they're hiring, so you're putting a lot of employers in peril. If you're a parent who's looking for child care, you may be hiring someone who has had a violent past, and you just don't know it."
    Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt has stated, “The victims of crime and their families do not get a ‘Clean Slate.’”
    Clean Slate continues an alarming trend by Governor Hochul and the Legislature’s Democrat majorities to keep enacting pro-criminal policies that risk the safety of all New Yorkers.
     
    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.
  3. Senator Tom O'Mara
    It’s best to start this column with a memory. In the end, that’s what this week is all about: remembering.
    With that in mind, I’ll recall these words from former President Ronald Reagan, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”
    Fought for. Protected. Handed on. Travel through this region’s individual communities and it’s striking to reflect on the common landmarks that stand equally tall as reminders of the guiding principles and the underlying and unifying strengths of our nation: town and village halls, county courthouses, churches, elementary schools, community parks, local public libraries. These fundamental American places still echo the very reasons for our nation’s founding and her endurance as the world’s great democracy.
    Consequently, we can never forget the monuments and memorials that America’s communities have built to honor our veterans. Indeed, there may be no more powerful or poignant landmarks anywhere and on Veterans Day we will gather in many of these places to remember.
    We’ll be observing this year's Veterans Day with American troops still bravely engaged in protecting freedom and democracy here at home and across the globe. It will be observed at a time when the world’s stage remains embroiled in uncertainty and instability.
    We still stand proud in local ceremonies around the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions to honor the sacrifices and the victories of our soldiers — past, present, and future. In so doing, we reaffirm our pride in this nation’s armed forces and, of course, we turn our thoughts and prayers to those young soldiers whom we’ve lost.
    Since the tragic unfolding of Sept. 11, 2001, this generation has realized and continues to realize, all too painfully, that our freedom here at home can be threatened at any moment. We realize, as well, that our troops always stand ready to protect it again and again. The freedoms we cherish have been hard-won by the soldiers of previous generations and by those of this generation who have continued to serve. They are true American heroes, and we are grateful to every one of them.
    Sacrifice is the truth that we remember and honor on Veterans Day, especially today when sacrifice can too often seem an on-the-decline virtue in American life.
    To always honor our veterans is the reason that, in 2005, the New York State Senate established a Veterans Hall of Fame. We inducted our class of 2024 earlier this year and I was proud to pay tribute to the service of Merle John Tobias, a native of Hornell, former resident of Steuben and Allegany counties, and employee of the Bath VA Medical Center. I also had the opportunity to honor John during a local ceremony this summer at the Allegany County Fair. John served in the United States Army during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and throughout the Persian Gulf War.
    One other way that New York government seeks to constantly honor military service has been through the development of new laws and the administration of programs and services that seek to address the many challenges facing today’s veterans in areas such as health care, employment, and education. The state Division of Veterans’ Affairs (www.veterans.ny.gov) was established in 1945 to assist veterans, members of the armed forces and their families. Since then, the division — in concert with its offices in counties locally and statewide — has strongly advocated for New York’s veterans and veterans’ issues at the local, state, and national levels. It is a proud history of service.
    But Veterans Day, more than anything else, draws us to those monuments and memorials in our midst that still, and we hope will always, rise up to honor and remember those who have served and sacrificed.
    To all those who have served or are serving at this moment, Thank You.
    May God Bless America.
     
    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.
  4. Senator Tom O'Mara
    First and foremost, I will take this opportunity to urge everyone – if you haven’t already taken advantage of early voting – to get out and cast your vote on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5th. There is not a single more important or fundamental right and responsibility that we have as citizens of this nation.
    To be reminded of the importance of voting, recall the words of so many former Presidents of the United States:
    “We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” – Thomas Jefferson “Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision.” – Abraham Lincoln "The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter." – Dwight D. Eisenhower “The greatest threat to democracy is indifference. Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves, and the only way they could do this is by not voting.”– Franklin D. Roosevelt “We vote not because we’re liberal or conservative, but because we’re American citizens, and that is our responsibility.” – George W. Bush It was Susan B. Anthony who said, “Someone struggled for your right to vote. Use it.”
    President Ronald Reagan’s former chief speechwriter and top aide Peggy Noonan has written, “Our political leaders will know our priorities only if we tell them, again and again, and if those priorities begin to show up in the polls."
    Noonan’s words speak to the practical bottom line of the importance of elections in a democracy: Once the votes have been counted and Election Day has passed, it becomes time to immediately get back to the hard work of governing, which is always about (or should be about, if a government is being responsive and effective) responding to the will of those who voted. That will certainly be the case here in New York State government. In so many ways, the direction of this state is on the ballot on Tuesday.
    In one of the latest statewide polls from the Siena Research Institute, more than half of New York voters believe that our state is headed in the wrong direction, and over 60% say the country is on the wrong track. Tellingly, 75% of those surveyed believe this is the most important election of their lifetimes. Consequently, when the dust has settled and it’s time to get back to governing in New York State, voters are telling us that it’s time to govern in a way that turns this state (and country) around and gets it heading in a new, better, safer, and stronger direction.
    Toward that end and looking ahead to the start of a new session of the State Legislature in January just sixty days from now, it is worth restating many of the goals and priorities that will continue to drive my colleagues and I in the Senate Republican Conference. We believe we need a redirection of New York's priorities and resources to begin addressing unmet challenges and crises. We need to start charting a course for a more sensible and sustainable state government focused on priorities that include:
    A better quality of life for all New Yorkers by restoring public safety and security as one of the state's highest responsibilities Making New York more affordable by cutting one of the nation's highest tax and debt burdens Putting a strict cap on state government spending that threatens to make the nation's highest population losses even worse Rethinking a process underway to quickly implement energy mandates that ignore affordability, feasibility, and reliability Transforming the state-local partnership by making good on a promise made over a decade ago to address the practice of unfunded state mandates Finally, fully, and honestly reassessing New York's COVID response, including its failures and shortcomings, to be better prepared in the future Continuing to protect and strengthen our Second Amendment and other Constitutional rights and freedoms Restoring local decision-making and addressing abuses of executive power at the state level Please vote on Tuesday. Let your voice be heard.
     
    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.
  5. Senator Tom O'Mara
    It was just over a year ago, shortly after the enactment of a state budget that paid Albany Democrat lip service to the need to end New York’s failed and dangerous bail reform experiment, when Governor Hochul declared, “We are done with bail. We accomplished what we needed to do.”
    Since then, it sure has looked like the governor meant what she said. She and the Legislature’s Democrat majorities have done nothing to fix a continually failing and exceedingly dangerous law that they put in place and that has turned the criminal justice system in this state upside down.
    The latest exhibit of their failure comes out of western New York in Allegany County, where I represent a portion of the eastern half of the county. Recently, following a year-long investigation and surveillance operation of an illegal drug operation in a former factory in the small town of Cuba, local and state law enforcement executed a drug bust valued at over $4 million.
    According to a former member of the Southern Tier Regional Drug Task Force who was involved, it stands as the largest drug bust ever in Allegany County and one of the top three in Southern Tier history.
    Police made two arrests. According to news reports, the two individuals were both charged with felony first-degree possession of cannabis, criminal possession of a weapon, and criminal possession of a controlled substance. One of those arrested was an illegal immigrant and was turned over to federal authorities. The second perpetrator, who in addition to the drug and weapons offenses was also charged with resisting arrest, was arraigned in Allegany County court and “released with tickets.”
    That’s right, under Albany Democrat bail reform, he could not be kept behind bars. Once again we’re reminded that an outrageous and dangerous public policy currently defines criminal justice in New York State.
    Law enforcement in Allegany County did not hide their frustration at the current system and they shouldn’t. Their testimony from the front lines speaks volumes.
    Cuba Police Chief Dustin Burch said, “We worked on this case for 12 months. I don’t like to play politics, but there is a lot of manpower in this here, a lot of overtime and now, there is a lot of frustration. There is a resisting arrest charge here. We have 50 percent or more of people resisting us when we make arrests. We do all this work, we potentially get hurt, and since bail reform happened, they get out. We were here from 3 a.m. until well into the night. We were subjected to the conditions inside these buildings, the resisting (incident) and then (the suspect) gets released.”
    Allegany County District Attorney Ian Jones added, “It’s important to note we have a lot of charges here and high-level charges but not high enough to fall into our new bail laws. It has to be an A1 felony, which operates as a major drug trafficker and it’s very hard to prove. You have to prove the drugs are moving and the money coming in and out for 12 years. I think this highlights yet another failure of our bail reform. Here we have arguably the largest drug bust in the history of this county, yet it’s still not good enough to meet our new bail rules, so unfortunately, no bail rules were set.”
    The Allegany County case is a stark reminder that Albany Democrats remain more than satisfied with the status quo that keeps giving away streets and neighborhoods in every region of New York to the chaos and violence of their “no consequences” approach to law and order.
    Contrary to their belief, we are not “done with bail.” We’re not. We can’t be. It continues to put local law enforcement and local communities at risk.
    Once again, Chief Burch stated what was at stake in the Allegany County operation, “It’s important because (the drugs seized) is what is being funneled into our school systems and a lot of younger kids are getting their hands on it.”
    Albany Democrat bail reform remains a failed public policy that just keeps waiting for the next victim. Failed bail reform remains the law of the land. The criminals in this society know it. The criminals know that Albany Democrats have their back. An overriding policy of no consequences for far too many bad actors remains in place.
    A climate of chaos over security reigns supreme in far too many places.
    “We have accomplished what we needed to do,” Governor Hochul said back in May of 2023.
    No, we have not. Innocent, hard-working, law-abiding, responsible New Yorkers remain at risk.
     
    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.
  6. Senator Tom O'Mara
    While this state – more specifically, while citizens, communities, families, taxpayers, workers, and others, in every corner of New York – remains under one-party, all-Democrat control, we can never allow that to mean there’s no room for other voices, other ideas, or, most importantly, other commitments to a way of legislating and policymaking that can head this state in a better, stronger, more effective and successful direction.
    It's a role and a responsibility that I, together with all my colleagues in the Senate and Assembly Republican conferences, continue to take seriously and stand up for.
    Toward that end, our Senate Republican Conference recently reaffirmed our obligation to this critical place in New York government through the release of a new working agenda called “Commitment to New York.”
    It’s a declaration and a platform for better government. We believe it recognizes that this state is headed in the wrong direction, that we are a state in decline under one-party control, and that New York’s current powers that be are ignoring fundamental priorities.
    The Senate Republican “Commitment to New York” is founded on the following 10 cornerstones:
    Delivering tax relief for families and small businesses. In short, we have pledged to implement tax cuts to make New York more affordable for working and middle-class families, seniors, businesses, and veterans; Repealing cashless bail and pro-crime policies. Prioritizing public safety will be one of our top priorities moving forward. That means repealing dangerous policies and confronting the crime crisis head-on. It also means ensuring a fair voice in the justice system for everyone, including police, corrections officers, judges, and the victims of crime; Implementing a pro-New York jobs plan. Senate Republicans are committed to building a business-friendly economic climate and eliminating the bureaucratic red tape standing in the way of the kind of economic growth and opportunity that all New Yorkers deserve; Protecting and safeguarding women’s rights and safety; Energy affordability and freedom. Our conference has put forth a commonsense, long-term energy strategy focusing on diversification balancing clean, safe, and affordable energy supplies; Standing with law enforcement. We have long been dedicated to being law enforcement’s voice in state government, prioritizing the safety of our officers and enforcing strict laws to better protect them from ever-increasing criminal violence; Ending New York’s migrant crisis, a crisis that is on its way toward bankrupting this state unless it’s brought under control by ending unlimited sanctuary policies and shutting off the limitless taxpayer-funded handouts and incentives attracting illegal migrants to our border; Supporting Israel and combatting antisemitism, including ending state funding for institutions, including colleges and universities, enabling, or ignoring antisemitism; Defending parental rights to make decisions concerning their children’s health and education; and Enacting statewide voter ID and term limits for state legislators. Find out more at: https://www.nysenategopcommitment.com.
    At the beginning of the 2024 legislative session, Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt, outlining our conference’s hope for the future of New York State, said, “New Yorkers are deeply dissatisfied with the direction of our state and our Conference is here to provide an alternative path forward. I have traveled throughout the state and people are tired, frustrated, and angry. They feel forgotten. Over the course of the year, we have seen crimes and costs rise. Antisemitism is infiltrating our schools and communities and has become the norm. The migrant crisis has only gotten worse because New York City politicians continue to push their feel-good policies, but it is these radical policies that are driving New Yorkers out. As the Leader of this conference, I will not take a back seat to the progressive agenda destroying our state. Our Republican Conference will fight to give hope to those New Yorkers who feel they have no alternative but to leave our state. Our commonsense agenda provides solutions to build a greater New York for future generations.”
    Those words continue to ring true at this very moment and they continue to express the underpinning of our conference’s “Commitment to New York” platform.
     
    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.
  7. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Over the past few months in New York State government, we’ve witnessed constant reminders why this state is headed in the wrong direction under one-party, all-Democrat control, with no turnaround in sight.
    Exhibit A: Energy mandates. Serious doubts have been expressed, from many quarters, on the affordability, feasibility, and reliability of New York’s current clean energy strategy. A July report from the Hochul administration itself admitted that their timeline to achieve 70 percent renewable energy by 2030 and zero emissions by 2040 can't be met under the current plan. Shortly thereafter, a state comptroller’s audit concluded that the implementation of the Democrats' climate agenda has been seriously flawed and its true costs remain unknown.
    Exhibit B: COVID-19. Earlier this summer, a long-awaited (and long-delayed) report commissioned two years ago by Governor Hochul – a report that was supposed to be a comprehensive, honest, transparent reassessment of New York’s COVID-19 response -- was determined to be worthless.
    The Albany-based Empire Center for Public Policy, in a review of the report entitled “Hochul’s Pandemic Study is a $4.3 Million Flop,” concluded: “Hochul had commissioned a $4.3 million after-action review of the crisis, saying she wanted it to cover 'the good, the bad and the ugly' and bolster the state's preparedness for future outbreaks. Yet the 262-page report from the Olson Group, a Virginia-based consulting firm, turns out to be thinly researched, poorly argued, ill-informed, sloppily presented and marred by obvious errors. Although many of its findings ring true, it glosses over or ignores some of the state's most questionable actions -- such as ordering thousands of Covid-positive patients into nursing homes."
    More recently, former Governor Andrew Cuomo publicly testified before a Congressional Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and delivered more of the same song and dance on his administration’s execution of the COVID response. It’s a song and dance that has long been tainted by stonewalling, misinformation, coverups, and outright lies.
    This was the most devastating public health crisis New York State ever faced and yet, because of continued stonewalling from both the Cuomo and Hochul administrations, in concert with an all-Democrat Legislature that has remained unwilling to accept the responsibility, we have not yet taken a full accounting of the response -- its costs, its shortcomings, its outright failures, what worked and what did not, who was responsible and who wasn't, what actions should remain in place going forward and what needs to be scrapped immediately. The longer the reassessment of the response is delayed, the more the effectiveness of New York's future responses is jeopardized and weakened.
    Exhibit 😄 Border crisis. The illegal migrant crisis in New York remains as out of control and costly as ever. Ten billion taxpayer dollars already spent on the Sanctuary City and State Democrats’ self-induced crisis. Now they're paying migrants $4,000 of your tax dollars to move out of shelters.
    In early January, I summed up the condition of New York State at that time with the following, “We face an affordability crisis. We face a border crisis. Law and order are in free fall. The Albany Democrat direction for New York simply fails to produce any hope for a long-term, sustainable future for communities, families, workers, businesses, industries, and taxpayers. New York is a state in decline that continues to become less safe, less free, less affordable, less economically competitive, less responsible, and far less strong for the future. We are at a dangerous crossroads, and we must enact an across-the-board agenda to rebuild stronger and safer communities.”
    The same assessment and sentiment hold true nine months later. We need a redirection of New York’s priorities and resources to begin addressing unmet challenges and crises. We need to start charting a course for a more sensible and sustainable state government focused on priorities that include:
    a better quality of life for all New Yorkers by restoring public safety and security as one of the State’s highest responsibilities; making New York more affordable by cutting one of the nation’s highest tax and debt burdens; putting a strict cap on State government spending that threatens to make the nation’s highest population losses even worse; rethinking a process underway to quickly implement energy mandates that ignore affordability, feasibility, and sustainability; transforming the State-local partnership by making good on a promise made over a decade ago to address the practice of unfunded State mandates; finally, fully, and honestly reassessing New York’s COVID response, including its failures and shortcomings, to be better prepared in the future; continue to protect and strengthen our Second Amendment and other Constitutional rights and freedoms; and restoring local decision-making and addressing abuses of executive power at the state level. What are we waiting for?
    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
    A plaque on display at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial shares the following post-9/11 words from then President George W. Bush: “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings. But they cannot touch the foundation of America.”
    At this week’s 9/11 observances here at home and across our state and nation, the foundation of America will again stand strong.  
    The years keep passing, twenty-three now, yet Americans never forget. More than two decades later, never forgetting remains as critical as it has ever been since that terrible morning of September 11, 2001, and its long aftermath.
    Throughout this 23rd Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, observances will be held across our region and state, at the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial in the nation’s capital, and at the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
    As always at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, built on the footprint of the fallen Twin Towers, there will once more be a reading of the names of all 2,983 victims who perished on September 11, 2001 – as well as the six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center terrorist bombing. To find out and view more (including a livestream of this year’s 9/11 ceremony beginning at 8:46 a.m. on Wednesday), visit the 9/11 Memorial & Museum website, 911memorial.org, where these fitting words have been shared, “Today, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum stands as a beacon of healing and renewal – a physical embodiment of the compassion we showed to one another, the resolve we demonstrated to the world, and how, in the face of unfathomable loss, we rose as one.”
    Twenty-three years later, we will continue to honor the memory of 9/11's victims and keep their families in our prayers.
    Twenty-three years later we will pay tribute to the heroic bravery, courage, and selflessness of the rescue and recovery workers – the firefighters and police officers, every first responder and every citizen who gave their lives, and those who spent week after week after week at Ground Zero in tribute to the ultimate sacrifice of their fellow men and women. It is important to also remember that the total number of victims continues to grow as those responders succumb to illnesses related to their toxic exposure during recovery efforts at Ground Zero. In 2018, the number of post-9/11 illness deaths surpassed those killed on 9/11. The number of NYFD firefighters and NYPD police officers who have died post-9/11 exceeds those killed that day. We must keep the survivors who continue to struggle with post-9/11 illnesses in our thoughts and prayers.
    Twenty-three years later we will reaffirm our pride in this nation’s service members, and we will keep all of them and their families in our thoughts and prayers – including those young men and women whom we have lost from here at home. As events continue to unfold across the world, our veterans and their families must know that as a nation, we value, we respect, and we honor their remarkable service and sacrifice.
    We also recognize, however, that too many American veterans struggle in crisis, and, tragically, too many of these heroes are taking their own lives. We need every veteran to know and to believe that they are never alone. The nation’s Veterans Crisis Line is available around the clock to connect with caring and qualified responders with the Department of Veterans Affairs, many of whom are veterans themselves. The Veterans Crisis Line can be reached by calling 988 (then press 1) or text 838255.
    As always, I also take the opportunity to recall all the many firefighters, law enforcement officers and emergency services volunteers, not-for-profit organizations, school classrooms, business leaders, and individual citizens and communities from across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions who responded in such strong, uplifting ways in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
    I am grateful, each and every year on Patriot Day, for the chance to remember how so many citizens, young and old, from all walks of life and all stations, responded with a powerful, instinctive, enduring determination to help America recover and rebuild – and how, to this very day, this memory can stand as a reminder that even in the darkest of days and troubling of times, Americans face a future of hope, that the fundamental American values of fortitude, generosity, and strength will help us carry on and keep this region, this state, and our nation looking ahead.
    Twenty-three years later, Americans will undertake a responsibility and a duty as citizens to again, in the words of former President Bush, “honor the memory of the 11th day.”
                                              
    ...
  9. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Governor Kathy Hochul this week convenes a two-day “Future Energy Economy Summit” in Syracuse to begin what many of us hope will be a long-overdue, sincere, and transparent rethinking of New York State’s energy future.
    This rethinking is badly needed. Over the past few months doubts have exploded over the Albany Democrats’ current approach -- an approach that has been built on rapidly imposing radical and sweeping clean energy mandates on all New Yorkers following the enactment of the Climate Leadership and Protection Act (CLCPA) in 2019. The state’s Climate Action Council (CAC), established through the CLCPA, issued its action report in December 2022, a year and four months after Governor Hochul was sworn in as New York’s chief executive.
    Many of us, from the outset, warned that the failure of Governor Hochul and legislative Democrats to put forth a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of the costs of implementing their mandates under the prescribed timeline doomed the entire effort to failure. We have questioned the affordability, feasibility, and reliability of the strategy for ratepayers and taxpayers, business organizations, and local economies.
    We have done so with good reason.
    The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), which is responsible for managing the supply and transmission of electricity across New York State, issued a report in 2022, three months prior to the CAC's final report, entitled “2021 – 2040 System & Resource Outlook.” That report warned of future reliability shortfalls due to the CLCPA which will require the state's electric grid to triple its current generating capacity by between 110 gigawatts (GW) and 130 GW by 2042. This includes, because of the intermittent and unreliable nature of wind and solar, between 20 GW and 47 GW of Dispatchable Emissions-Free Resources (DEFRs), a generic name to describe an unknown source not yet developed. It will require 20 GW of new clean electricity generation by 2029. To put that growth in perspective, during the 23 years to September 2022, the state only developed 13 GW of new energy production, and only 2.6 GW over the five years prior. During that same five-year period, New York deactivated 4.8 GW of generation, for a net loss of over 2 GW – enough to power over a million homes. “That means that New York is currently going backwards, not forwards,” according to NYSIO (read more at: https://www.empirecenter.org/publications/nyiso-predicts-troubled-energy-future/).
    In short, the NYISO lives in reality while the Albany Democrats’ CLCPA and CAC hail from Utopia. In its 2022 report the NYISO politely characterized the required growth in electric generation as “unprecedented” and that “future uncertainty is the only thing certain (of the plan).” Bear in mind that the unknown costs of all of this will be borne by New York ratepayers and taxpayers. The recently approved massive rate hikes by NYSEG, RG&E, and National Grid, which when fully phased in will increase monthly bills from $40-$60 for an average home (much larger impacts to industries), are no coincidence and are just the tip of the iceberg of how all of this will exacerbate the overall unaffordability crisis we have in this state.
    Just this July, a report from the Hochul administration itself admitted that their timeline to achieve 70 percent renewable energy by 2030 and zero emissions by 2040 isn't realistic and, in fact, can't be met under the plan with current technologies as it stands.
    Later in July, NYISO reiterated its warnings that under the current timeline the state is "at risk of blackouts without significant new generation coming online before the middle of the next decade."
    Then came a new audit and report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli that the implementation of the Democrats' climate agenda has been seriously flawed and, especially, that its true costs remain unknown. The comptroller's audit further cemented long-held doubts over the current plan’s affordability, feasibility, and reliability.
    Consequently, Governor Hochul convenes a so-called energy summit this week. Will it mark a “back to the drawing board” moment on the CLCPA timeline and other climate mandates? Equally important, will it lead to an honest, open, long-awaited, and desperately needed public discussion on the realities of where we’re headed? That’s what many of us are hoping. We’ll see.
    In that spirit of rethinking, our Senate Republican Conference recently put forth a comprehensive set of proposals to chart a different course. We call for refocusing on affordability, feasibility, and reliability. We offer what we believe are commonsense alternatives to delay the CLCPA mandates while providing relief to taxpayers, ensuring the reliability of the grid, and ensuring a diverse energy portfolio that will keep energy options affordable and accessible for the long term. Our “Creating Lasting Affordable Energy for New York” plan would:
     delay the implementation of the CLCPA mandates by ten years, giving the state time to develop a sustainable plan to build affordable, clean energy infrastructure and give state agencies more flexibility to adjust those timeframes if the cost to New Yorkers is determined to be unaffordable while also considering the impact of the CLCPA’s compliance on reliable and affordable alternatives for heating and other services currently supplied by natural gas, including renewable natural gas and hydrogen;  create the “Ratepayer Relief Act” to determine the actual cost of CLCPA/CAC mandates;  prevent the state from closing any power generation facility before new facilities come online; study the feasibility of bringing the Indian Point nuclear power plan, shuttered by former Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2021, back online and expand investment and research into alternative small scale nuclear energy possibilities. The closure of Indian Point caused an increase in greenhouse gas emissions in excess of 40% in the New York City metro region due to increased use of peaker plants; establish a commission to evaluate the impact of grid electrification on the safety and reliability of heating systems in extreme winter weather incidents that cause power outages; create the “Rural Energy Infrastructure Act of 2025” to provide a tax credit for individuals in underserved or unserved areas of the gas system to assist the buildout of natural gas infrastructure to help bring service to those areas; prohibit the state from mandating the purchase of only electric cars in 2035 and electric school buses in 2027; and establish the New York state hydrogen vehicle task force to examine another source of clean and affordable fuel. Since the CLCPA's approval in 2019, Albany Democrats have been moving at world record speed to pile one unaffordable mandate on top of another unworkable mandate on top of the next unrealistic mandate desperately trying to inflict a zero-emissions economy on this entire state that will have zero impact on the climate. Remember that NYS accounts for just 0.4% of global emissions. These actions will come with a devastating price tag and consequences for ratepayers and taxpayers, businesses and industries, school districts, farmers, and entire local economies.
    Let’s hope this week’s summit begins a straightforward reassessment and reexamination of the realities of the current strategy.
    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.
  10. Senator Tom O'Mara
    The straightforward fact remains that every time New Yorkers go the grocery store, or the gas station, or to buy back-to-school supplies for their children, or to the mailbox to retrieve their next property tax or utility bill, it’s a reminder that New York State is one of the least affordable states in America.
    One recent ranking of the least and most expensive states in the nation, the 2024 Cost of Bills Index compiled by Doxo, an online bill payment service, delivered more bad news. The ranking compares average household costs by state and found New York as the seventh most expensive state in the country.
    “The cost of living is the amount of money it takes to cover basic expenses,” according to one news report summarizing the recent Doxo index. “State and region scores across the country give a snapshot of how expensive it is to live in a place based on earned wages.”
    In other words, it’s a snapshot of what it takes to make ends meet in every state. In that context, it’s simply not a Top 10 list that New York government leaders can be proud of or that New York State citizens should be forced to struggle under.
    According to the latest “affordability” ranking compiled by U.S. News & World Report, New York State ranks 45th in the nation, right near the bottom, in affordability. And earlier this year, a USA Today Homefront report found “the Empire State ranked dead last in the rankings when it comes to overall affordability.”
    According to USA Today, “We analyzed median incomes and five basic expenses: homeownership costs, groceries, health care, income tax and gasoline. We defined affordability by looking at expenses as a percentage of the respective state’s median income.”

    I have heard it constantly and continually from families, taxpayers, working men and women, small business owners, and many others throughout the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions: They are worried about making ends meet and they have been for a long time now. They have watched this state become less affordable. They have felt it become less free. They believe it to be less economically competitive, less responsible, and far less hopeful for the future.
    There may very well be many Albany Democrats who acknowledge that our state faces an affordability crisis, one that has caused the exodus of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to more affordable states (keep in mind that we lead nation in population loss. According to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, over the three years from 2020 to last year, New York led the nation in population loss with more than 533,000 people leaving, a nearly three percent decline.), yet they have remained true to out-of-control spending, high taxes, exorbitant costs and fees for everything under the sun, and burdensome regulations and unfunded state mandates.
    New York State’s current path is not sustainable. Albany isn’t responsible and can’t control the ups and downs of every excessive cost facing citizens, however state government can and should be taking many more actions than it has been to try to ease the burden.
    It’s a concern, of course, that many of my legislative colleagues and I have steadily worked to highlight as a top priority over the past several years. Throughout this time, New Yorkers have consistently let it be known that the prohibitive cost of living in this state is driving them away.
    The warning signs and the alarm bells keep going off. Fiscal watchdogs already project significant state budget deficits in the immediate years ahead, deficits caused, in large measure, by the inability of Governor Hochul and an all-Democrat Legislature to stop overspending. State budget deficits always equal higher costs for all New Yorkers. Footing the bill of budget deficits inevitability falls on taxpayers.
    We need to turn New York around, plain and simple. That begins, in my view, by restoring the right priorities in state government, priorities that work toward a more responsible and sustainable future for middle-class communities, families, workers, businesses, industries, and taxpayers. It means focusing on policies being ignored in Albany that prioritize economic growth and job creation, tax relief and regulatory reform, and many other affordability initiatives. It cries out for a comprehensive strategy to ease the financial burden on middle-class families and restore the quality of life in communities statewide through actions like:
    enacting a state spending cap rejecting and eliminating tax increases and unfunded state mandates on local governments and school districts providing across-the-board tax relief rejecting extreme, mandated climate proposals increasing affordable housing options making child care more accessible and affordable improving the state’s business climate by protecting small businesses and farms by reducing regulations, and lowering taxes and unfair costs. New York is a state in decline. We are at a critical crossroads and we must enact an across-the-board agenda to cut taxes, address affordability, and rebuild stronger and safer communities.
    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.
     
  11. Senator Tom O'Mara
    These are the times and the crises when communities across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions always have – and always will – show what we’re made of.
    Throughout the years that I grew up here and for the decades that I have spent representing the area in the State Legislature, we have never been strangers to devastating storms and flooding. And it happened again recently with the remnants of Hurricane Debby slamming the region with heavy rains and devastating flash flooding, especially in Steuben, Allegany, Schuyler, Tioga, and Yates counties within my legislative district.
    In the aftermath of these events, it’s time for federal, state, and local representatives to join forces to begin assessing the damage, coordinating and determining the recovery effort that’s needed, and summoning the resources to ultimately ensure that the families, businesses, farms, and entire communities can recover and rebuild.
    In addition to government, the response from so many agencies, organizations, and individuals from far and wide is incredible, inspiring, and uplifting – and there is not enough gratitude to go around to express the appropriate thanks to everyone, from every sector and all walks of life, who has responded.
    That is exactly what’s needed here and so I was grateful to recently join Governor Hochul, Congressman Langworthy, Assemblymen Giglio and Palmesano, former Congressman Sempolinkski, and many other county and town leaders to tour area communities and visit with local residents trying to pick up the pieces. We hoped to try to do our best to let them know that help is and will be on the way.
    Governor Hochul’s words were particularly encouraging and necessary when she stated, “Our state teams will be on the ground answering questions, helping people fill out forms so they can get their insurance money sooner. It’s really important for homeowners and businesses to keep track of all their expenses and what they lost. Make an inventory of your belongings. And if you can’t resolve a dispute with the insurance company, then we want you to file a complaint with our department.”
    The governor added, “But I also said we have to give people more help just to get back on their feet while they’re waiting for that insurance, while we’re trying to get our lives back in order. I’ve declared the Housing and Community Renewal agency will launch an emergency repair program for homeowners in Allegany, Delaware, Franklin, Steuben, and St. Lawrence counties (the counties of Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Essex, Jefferson, Lewis, Ontario, Oswego, Schoharie, Schuyler, Tioga, and Yates were since included) that were impacted by the storm. All these homeowners who have been impacted will be eligible for grants of up to $50,000 to help pay for reimbursement of expenses related to the storm that aren’t covered by insurance or other disaster relief.’“
    We welcome and appreciate the governor’s commitment, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with her to deliver the necessary assistance as rapidly as possible. 

    The initial hiccup of the Governor’s program -- a significant income limitation, $58,500, to qualify for state assistance -- was met by much public and media outcry. Advocacy by myself and my colleagues in government subsequently resulted in a significant increase in the qualifying income to $157,800. While much improved (and frankly, I doubt Governor Hochul was even aware of that significant income disqualifier when she initially announced it in Canisteo last Sunday), I continue to scratch my head as to why any income qualifier is included here at all since prior state disaster assistance programs I’ve looked back on have had none. In fact, state relief following Lake Ontario flooding and shoreline damage in 2017 and 2019 had no income limitation for primary homes. The state even provided aid for second homes, i.e., lake cottages, with owners’ incomes up to $275,000. Flooding in the Mohawk Valley in 2013 was followed with a state assistance program with no income limitation.
    I am also mindful of the fact that many of these same impacted families, farmers, and small businesses received no federal or state aid following Tropical Storm Fred just three years ago. We deserve better, particularly while the state spends BILLIONS on programs and services supporting illegal immigrants in New York City.
    I will continue to join my regional legislative colleagues to advocate for a better, more encompassing aid program from the state. Unless individual assistance from the federal government becomes available, this type of state financial assistance is entirely at the discretion of Governor Hochul and must be a top priority. We will keep fighting for these changes on behalf of those we represent.
    Additionally, we are advocating for farm and small business aid and more state assistance to our local governments for streambank hardening. Some of the large riprap implemented following Tropical Storm Fred several years ago was dislodged and washed downstream this time. We need stronger implementations. Impacted communities also need more permitted access to our streams by property owners and municipalities to clear the stream bed and banks. The state Department of Environmental Conservation has been a major hindrance in allowing this work to be done. While DEC now says there will be easier approval following this disaster, we’ve heard this before and it always quickly returns to the customary DEC stonewalling on the permitting process.
    We have consistently advocated for greater leeway for localities and property owners. Virtually everyone who spoke with Governor Hochul during her recent visit, including me, let her know that this is of utmost importance, and we will continue to stress its urgency.
    As I stated during this recent visit to storm-ravaged communities and residents, this is a devastating event with Tropical  Storm Debby rolling through, like Tropical Storm Fred rolled through a few years ago. The resilience of these communities has been amazing. The outpouring of support from neighbors, the Amish community, and quite honestly from complete strangers, reaching out across the region to help people get back on their feet, has been amazing. Collectively, we are a strong community, and we will prove it once again.
    Governor Hochul being there meant a great deal to everyone, but particularly those impacted by this devastation. It’s important for everyone to hear directly from her that the state intends to be there to provide for individuals and small businesses and entire communities moving forward to help get them back on their feet and sustain their lives here in one of the most beautiful places on earth to live and raise a family, to work and to farm.
    It is a great community and we’re all in it together. That always has been and always will be true.
    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.
  12. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Several weeks ago, I highlighted in this column that a long-awaited report on New York State’s COVID-19 pandemic response, first commissioned by Governor Hochul more than two years ago, was finally released.
    It’s a report that cost state taxpayers more than four million dollars and it hasn’t exactly drawn rave reviews. Far from it, in fact.
    Remember that the governor released the report at the beginning of July with very little fanfare, to say the least. No press conference. No reassurances that the report points the way to more effective state responses in the future. Instead, it was quietly put out on a Friday afternoon -- common timing for news you want buried -- and just three days AFTER former Governor Cuomo testified to Congress on the very subject matter of that report.
    That’s because the report sheds virtually no accountable, honest, or transparent light on New York State’s response to what was certainly the most devastating public heath crisis in modern history. And after all this time – and after all that so many New Yorkers suffered and lost throughout the pandemic, the lost lives and livelihoods – that is a failure of the first order at the highest levels of state government.
    Shortly after the report’s release, the Empire Center for Public Policy stated, “Hochul had commissioned a $4.3 million after-action review of the crisis, saying she wanted it to cover ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’ and bolster the state’s preparedness for future outbreaks. Yet the 262-page report from the Olson Group, a Virginia-based consulting firm, turns out to be thinly researched, poorly argued, ill-informed, sloppily presented and marred by obvious errors. Although many of its findings ring true, it glosses over or ignores some of the state’s most questionable actions – such as ordering thousands of Covid-positive patients into nursing homes.” 
    Thinly researched. Poorly argued. Ill-informed. Sloppily presented. Marred by obvious errors. All at a cost of at least $4.3 million. Furthermore, the report itself admits that “a number of key officials were unwilling to participate (emphasis mine)” because they were worried “about possible litigation and other legal actions.”
    In other words, key figures involved in the day-to-day decision making and implementation of the state’s response didn’t even participate in what was supposed to be a comprehensive after-action review. It leaves the matter where it started: nowhere.
    Most recently, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who has long been one of New York’s most prominent and respected Democrats, wrote in an op-ed for the Albany Times Union, “The Olson report is a missed opportunity to provide answers or restore confidence in New York’s emergency planning. It is replete with large and small errors and omissions – most egregiously the undercounting of those who died in nursing homes. Without a thorough and accurate assessment of New York’s pandemic response, based on reliable research and thoughtful analysis, we will not learn from our mistakes and successes. Instead, the report leaves us without answers, and it particularly failed those who lost people in nursing homes who at the least want the deaths of their loved ones to have been counted.”
    The comptroller concluded, “It's time for full consideration of proposed state legislation to establish an independent commission, with subpoena power, to provide the comprehensive accounting New Yorkers deserve.”
    The creation of such an independent commission, with subpoena power to compel testimony from every key decision maker, has long been called for by myself and our Senate and Assembly Republican conferences, as well as a handful of other leading Democrats, for years now. Sadly, key state leaders continue to ignore the urgency for an independent, transparent, no-holds-barred, top-to-bottom examination of all the decisions that were made and all the actions that were taken during the COVID-19 response and recovery.
    Having had a front row seat as the ranking member on the Senate Investigations Committee throughout the pandemic, for me the Olson Report simply stands as a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars and, most egregiously, fails to move this state forward in meeting the fundamental responsibilities of accountability, justice, and preparedness in the aftermath of this crisis.
     
    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.
  13. Senator Tom O'Mara
    State government spending has continued to spin wildly out of control over the past several years while, at the same time, it has failed to address many key priorities for all New Yorkers.
    One of the top priorities, in my view, is the future of local roads and bridges. A recent state comptroller’s report found that one out of every 10 locally owned bridges in New York State is rated in poor condition.
    “Ensuring safe and reliable public infrastructure is an ongoing concern for local governments across the country,” State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. “Despite increased funding from the federal and state governments, there is a great deal more work that needs to be done in New York. Local governments need this funding to continue so sorely needed repairs and maintenance are completed.”
    It’s a priority that I and area Assemblyman Phil Palmesano, together with many of our legislative colleagues in the Senate and Assembly, have long worked to strengthen. Since 2013, in fact, we have stood together with New York’s county and town highway superintendents and crews, and many other local leaders, to do everything we can to raise awareness and call for legislative support.
    It remains unacceptable that New York State is near the bottom in the nationwide ranking of the condition of locally owned bridges.
    Earlier this year, like we have for more than a decade, we stood together with nearly 70 state senators and members of the Assembly to get behind the call for increased state support. This annual advocacy campaign, known as “Local Roads Are Essential,” is sponsored by the New York State Association of County Highway Superintendents (NYSCHSA) and the New York State Association of Town Superintendents of Highways, Inc. (NYSAOTSOH).
    Unexpectedly, Governor Kathy Hochul placed the future of state investment in local roads, bridges, and culverts in the crosshairs this year by calling for, as part of her proposed 2024-25 state budget, significant cuts to the state’s investment. Most egregiously, the governor called for a $60-million cut for the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS), the state’s primary source of funding for local roads, bridges, and culverts.

    In a February 14, 2024 letter to Governor Hochul and legislative leaders, our Senate and Assembly Republican conferences wrote, in part, “We once again stress that New York State's direct investment in local roads and bridges through CHIPS remains fundamental. It deserves priority consideration in the final allocation of state infrastructure investment in the budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year. CHIPS is the key difference for local communities, economies, governments, motorists, and taxpayers throughout the Empire State…and we cannot ignore this fact, especially this year.” 
    The governor’s plan failed to recognize the enormous impact inflation is having on the costs of construction and, consequently, on the budgets of local highway departments. Nationally, according to experts, highway construction costs since 2022 have increased by nearly 60 percent! These unprecedented cost increases alone make the Governor’s proposal unacceptable. 
    The latest analysis by the New York State Association of Town Superintendents of Highways has found that the local highway system outside of New York City faces an annual funding gap of over $2 billion.
    While we were able to help ensure the restoration of the governor’s proposed cuts and at least maintain the state’s commitment to local roads and bridges in this year’s final budget, the comptroller’s latest update makes it clear that state support needs to be strengthened moving forward.
    The “Local Roads Are Essential” coalition has worked long and hard over the past decade to strengthen New York State’s commitment to local transportation infrastructure. Now is no time for this state to begin turning its back.
    In this year’s state budget, Governor Hochul and a Democrat-led State Legislature committed billions upon billions of dollars to provide programs and services to thousands of illegal migrants streaming into this state with no end in sight. They are pushing forward politically driven energy mandates on all New Yorkers that will cost, at a minimum, hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet to afford these and many other questionable spending priorities, they attempt to balance their budget by cutting fundamental responsibilities in education, transportation, and other key areas.
    It's no way to move forward in this state. We have long stood with New York’s county and town highway superintendents and workers, and local leaders, in support of stronger state investment in our local roads, bridges, and culverts. We continue to believe this commitment is a fundamental responsibility and critical to the strength and success of local communities, economies, environments, governments, and taxpayers.
    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.
  14. Senator Tom O'Mara
    The drumbeats of doubt have continued to grow louder throughout the past few weeks as reality sets in over the ongoing, utopian plan by Albany Democrats to impose sweeping clean energy mandates on all New Yorkers.
    Since the enactment several years ago of a far-reaching climate agenda known as the “Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act” (CLCPA), as well as the approval of other mandated actions since then, the governor, her energy czars, and a Democrat-led state Legislature have been moving fast and furious to impose one of the world’s most radical climate agendas on every citizen, every community, and every sector of the state’s economy.  
     As I and many others have stated repeatedly, these actions come with a devastating price tag and consequences. Keep in mind some of the mandates already in the works:
    No natural gas within newly constructed buildings, beginning in 2025; No new gas service to existing buildings, beginning in 2030; An all-electric school bus mandate starting in 2027; No replacement natural gas appliances for home heating, cooking, water heating, clothes drying beginning in 2035; and No gasoline-automobile sales by 2035. Throughout July, however, the drumbeats of doubt have intensified.
    First came a July 1 report from the Hochul administration that the timeline to achieve 70 percent renewable energy by 2030 and zero emissions by 2040 isn’t realistic and, in fact, can’t be met.
    Consequently, it’s going to be back to the drawing board on the CLCPA and other climate mandates, which is good news. It will at least open a long-overdue and desperately needed public discussion on the realities of the current strategy.
    That discussion must start out with what the Albany Democrats failed to do in the first place six years ago: a true cost-benefit analysis of New York State eliminating our 0.4% of global carbon emissions and what impact that will have on the climate change issues we have been dealing with. While I fully support efforts to lower emissions, it must be done in a responsible manner that will actually make a difference on climate. If that answer is nil, which I believe it will be, we should focus our resources toward resiliency on the effects of climate change.
    The need for this reassessment was given further urgency in recent weeks.
    First, in a preliminary analysis, NYSIO, the state’s independent grid operator, warned that under the current timeline the state, according to Politico, is “at risk of blackouts without significant new generation coming online before the middle of the next decade.”
     Most recently came an eye-raising new audit and report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli that the implementation of the Democrats’ climate agenda has been seriously flawed and, especially, that its true costs remain unknown. In other words, the comptroller’s audit confirmed the alarms over affordability, feasibility, and reliability that many of us have been raising from the outset. Among other findings, the comptroller’s audit found that:
     “The Public Service Commission (PSC), tasked under the Climate Act with establishing and reviewing the state's renewable energy program, sometimes used outdated data and wrong calculations to determine if the state could reach 70% renewably sourced electricity by 2030. The PSC did not update their calculations based on new laws and directives, which may drive clean energy demand and supply up, like electric vehicles, new green buildings, or electric cooling and heating. PSC also did not fully account for other potential risks, and did not consider certain challenges that could delay meeting the state’s clean energy targets;” and, maybe most troubling of all, "The PSC did not reasonably estimate or verify other entities’ estimates of the cost of the transition to          renewable energy. Undertaking a project without knowing the costs increases the risk that the project will not succeed. The absence of cost estimates also makes it difficult, if not impossible, to assess its impact on New Yorkers, including those who are currently struggling to pay their utility bills and who have faced rising costs over the past two decades. PSC officials stated that they expect the cost for renewable energy to decrease as time goes on but did not produce an analysis that demonstrated how quickly they expect these costs to decline.” Responding to the comptroller’s report, Upstate United Executive Director Justin Wilcox stated, “Following the release of the New York State Comptroller’s most recent audit, we reiterate our calls to pause the implementation of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) until critical issues are addressed. Moreover, the report shared today highlights what we have been saying publicly for years – utility bills are rising dramatically, and New Yorkers continue to be left in the dark when it comes to the true costs associated with the CLCPA.”
    Well said and I could not agree more. I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating: The current strategy is not realistic or achievable. It is not responsible or rational. It lacks critical foresight, and it unreasonably risks energy grid reliability and affordability.
    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.
  15. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Not that we needed another poll to tell us that New York State is getting increasingly more unaffordable, but recent statewide polling from the Siena Research Institute offers a telling look at the state of affordability in New York.
    It’s a concern, of course, that many of my legislative colleagues and I have steadfastly pinpointed throughout the past few years as New Yorkers have consistently let it be known that the prohibitive cost of living in this state is driving them away.
    The truth remains that citizens across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions I represent, and statewide, are worried about making ends meet. They see this state becoming less affordable, less free, less economically competitive, less responsible, and far less hopeful for the future. While many Albany Democrats may acknowledge that New York State has an affordability crisis causing the exodus of so many of our citizens to more affordable states – remember that we lead America in population loss – they nevertheless remain committed to out-of-control spending, high taxes, exorbitant costs for everything under the sun, and burdensome regulations and unfunded state mandates.
    New York State’s current direction is not sustainable. While excessive costs cannot be brought under control solely through actions out of Albany, state government can and should be taking every step possible to ease the burden.
    Keep in mind that fiscal watchdogs have already projected significant state budget deficits throughout the foreseeable future and, inevitability, footing the bill of budget deficits always falls on taxpayers.
    We need to rescue New York and that can begin by restoring the right priorities to turn things around, rebuild stronger and safer communities, and work toward a more responsible and sustainable future for middle-class communities, families, workers, businesses, industries, and taxpayers.
    From the latest Siena poll:
    Seventy-five percent of state residents report that the amount of money they spend on groceries is having either a very serious or somewhat serious impact on their finances.  Seven in ten New Yorkers say that housing costs are having a very serious or somewhat serious impact on their financial condition. Upwards of sixty percent of state residents say that their utility costs are having at least a somewhat serious impact on their finances. And that other monthly expenses including the cost of cell phones and entertainment services including internet and cable are having a very or somewhat serious impact on their financial condition. It simply reaffirms the need for a legislative agenda pushed by our Senate Republican Conference throughout 2024, “New Hope for the Empire State,” to focus on policies being ignored in Albany that prioritize economic growth and job creation, tax relief and regulatory reform, and many other affordability initiatives.
    The “New Hope for New York” agenda is a comprehensive plan to ease the financial burden on middle-class families and small business owners, lower costs and improve affordability, and restore the quality of life in communities statewide. The plan calls for numerous actions including:
    enacting a state spending cap; rejecting and eliminating tax increases and unfunded state mandates on local governments and school districts; providing across-the-board tax relief; rejecting extreme, mandated climate proposals; increasing affordable housing options; making child care more accessible and affordable; improving the state’s business climate by protecting small businesses and farms by reducing regulations, and lowering taxes and unfair costs. We face an affordability crisis. We face a border crisis. Law and order remains in free fall. New York, on its current path, fails to produce hope for a long-term, sustainable future for communities and families, businesses and industries, or taxpayers and workers.
     
    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.

  16. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Now that Governor Hochul and Albany’s band of Green New Dealers appear ready to finally begin rethinking their strategy to impose far-reaching energy mandates on all New Yorkers, it will be important for the rest of us to keep highlighting exactly what needs to go back to the drawing board.
    At the top of any list, in my view, is a concern we spotlighted earlier this year that could very well be the most costly unfunded state mandate ever imposed on New York’s local school districts and school property taxpayers – which is truly alarming in a state already recognized as one of the most heavily mandated in the nation.
    Specifically, in 2022, Albany Democrats enacted a new law mandating that, starting in 2027, all school buses purchased in this state will have to be electric. Last February at the
    State Capitol, our Senate and Assembly Republican conferences joined school district representatives to begin warning what the consequences of that action would be and, in a word, the fallout would be dire.
    It’s worth repeating and renewing our call to reject the current timeline for implementing this specific mandate on schools.
    First, it will be enormously expensive. Electric buses cost up to three times as much as conventional diesel buses. Additionally, schools will be required to undertake significant electrical infrastructure and distribution line upgrades, as well as address major workforce transitions. The cost of the conversion has been conservatively estimated at between $8 billion and $15.25 billion more than the cost of replacing them with new diesel buses. For already overburdened local property taxpayers, it’s emerging as yet another hard hit, to say the least.
    Furthermore, it would be unworkable right now. The existing electric grid can’t support it. Electric vehicles are showing an inability to operate or charge in frigid temperatures, and it does get cold in New York. Designed to operate best in 70-degree temperatures, electric vehicles lose up to 40 percent of their traveling range in extreme cold and the time required to charge them is much longer. A pilot program in Vermont found traveling range decreased by 80 percent in some instances.
    In short, it seems reasonable and fair to reassess and reexamine the current timeline and its potential impact on school districts, students and families, and local communities.
    I have already joined Assemblyman Phil Palmesano to introduce and sponsor legislation (S8220/A8447) that, among other provisions, would delay the mandate’s implementation until at least 2045 and require additional cost-benefit and safety analyses before it can take effect.
    Our Western New York colleague, Senator George Borrello, has also introduced similar legislation (S8467) to rescind the mandate and replace it with a state-funded pilot program that would allow schools to test how these buses perform in a range of transportation responsibilities.
    One of the school superintendents who joined us earlier this year in Albany to help sound the alarm, Dr. Thomas J. Douglas, Superintendent of Horseheads Central School District in my legislative district, summed it up very effectively, “The total cost will ultimately be borne by the local tax base since this is really an unfunded mandate. The sad fact is that there is no guarantee that this technology will work predictably in Northeastern winters. All the governor, NYSERDA, and PSC need do is look to the Midwest this past winter to see electric vehicles and chargers not being able to run in frigid temperatures. We cannot risk that with our children. Put simply, the state must pump the brakes on electric busing.”
    The current timeline for implementing New York State’s all-electric school bus mandate raises far too many troubling questions on affordability, as well as on reliability and safety for student transportation.
    Pump the brakes. Slow it down. Bring it in for a complete overhaul. Take your pick. Anything will be better than allowing this electric school bus mandate to keep moving forward as it stands right now.
    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.
  17. Senator Tom O'Mara
    You’ve heard it and read it time and again over the past several years since the enactment of New York’s far-reaching climate agenda known as the “Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act” (CLCPA): Governor Hochul and her energy czars are moving too far, too fast to impose sweeping clean energy mandates on every state citizen.
    Since the CLCPA’s approval in 2019, we’ve watched Albany Democrats move at world record speed to pile one unaffordable mandate on top of another unworkable mandate on top of the next unrealistic mandate desperately trying to inflict a zero-emissions economy on this entire state – and altogether these actions will come with a devastating price tag and consequences for ratepayers and taxpayers, businesses and industries, school districts, farmers, local economies, and more.
    Keep in mind some of the mandates already in the state’s mandate pipeline and on the way to hit all New Yorkers extremely hard in the very near future, including:
    No natural gas within newly constructed buildings, beginning in 2025; No new gas service to existing buildings, beginning in 2030; An all-electric school bus mandate starting in 2027; No replacement natural gas appliances for home heating, cooking, water heating, clothes drying beginning in 2035; and No gasoline-automobile sales by 2035. The important reality that has been consistently overlooked (or ignored) by supporters is that Albany Democrats have been desperately trying to achieve 70 percent renewable energy by 2030 and zero emissions by 2040 -- despite our state emissions accounting for just 0.4% of total global emissions and recognizing that, even if we could somehow get to zero through the imposition of these drastic, draconian measures imposing untold hardships on New York’s communities, residents, industries, and local economies, it will have virtually zero impact on the statewide, national, or global climate.
    One recent report, in fact, warned that the costs to New Yorkers could well prove to be over $1 trillion by 2050 – and that’s in a state already recognized as one of the nation’s least affordable places to live, one of America’s highest taxed and regulated states, and the state that is losing population faster than any other in the country.
    Let’s always keep in mind that New York State already consumes less total energy per capita than all but two other states. New York State’s per capita energy consumption for the transportation sector is the lowest in the nation. In 2020, New York State’s per capita energy-related carbon dioxide emissions were lower than those of any other state; but then the Albany Democrats closed the Indian Point nuclear energy plant and CO2 emissions have increased over 40% in the New York City area since the closure.
    In short, we’re already a national leader in this arena of public policy, as we should continue to be. Nevertheless, from the outset of the CLCPA’s implementation, I and many others have repeatedly warned that this climate agenda would only produce a perfect storm of unaffordability, unfeasibility, and unreliability. That has become clearer and clearer by the day.
    Now, the governor and her energy czars finally appear ready to start seeing the light too. A report released last week from the Hochul administration admits that New York will miss its goal of 70 percent renewable energy by 2030 and is considering pushing the date to 2033.
    While even a new goalpost of 2033 remains far too ambitious, in my view, the apparent reassessment and reexamination at least opens a long-overdue and desperately needed public discussion on the realities of the current strategy. It’s a strategy that, as it stands, is not realistic or achievable. It is not responsible or rational. It lacks critical foresight, and it unreasonably risks energy grid reliability and affordability.
    The chair of the state’s Public Service Commission acknowledged last week to Politico, “It will be a challenge to achieve the 2030 goal as things currently lay.”
    According to Politico’s reporting, “The review released Monday (July 1) of the state’s progress, required under the climate law, paints a stark picture of the challenges facing policymakers in achieving the legislative mandate. It includes recommendations by the Department of Public Service and NYSERDA, which will be considered by the Public Service Commission. It will be available for public comment for 60 days before it is finalized and the Public Service Commission considers actions.”
    The forthcoming rethinking is critical to this state’s future and will demand careful scrutiny by all of us.
  18. Senator Tom O'Mara
    In case you missed it – which would be no surprise since its release was largely kept quiet by Governor Hochul -- a long-awaited report on New York State’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has finally gone public.
    It arrives two years and more than four million taxpayer dollars later after the governor first announced its undertaking.
    Here’s the verdict from the Empire Center for Public Policy: “Hochul had commissioned a $4.3 million after-action review of the crisis, saying she wanted it to cover ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’ and bolster the state’s preparedness for future outbreaks. Yet the 262-page report from the Olson Group, a Virginia-based consulting firm, turns out to be thinly researched, poorly argued, ill-informed, sloppily presented and marred by obvious errors. Although many of its findings ring true, it glosses over or ignores some of the state’s most questionable actions – such as ordering thousands of Covid-positive patients into nursing homes.” 
    You can find a copy of the Hochul-commissioned report and read the Empire Center’s review of it, “Hochul’s Pandemic Study Is A $4.3 Million Flop,” here:  https://www.empirecenter.org/publications/hochuls-pandemic-study-is-a-4-3-million-flop/
    The report was recently delivered with very little fanfare – in fact, virtually none at all as far as I can tell – by the Hochul administration. No press conference. You won’t find it on the state Department of Health website. No pronouncements from the governor herself that the report can point the way to more effective state responses in the future. Most importantly, no measure of accountability.
    Perhaps the most telling aspects of the release are that it was slipped out on a Friday afternoon -- common timing for news you want buried -- and just three days AFTER former Governor Cuomo testified to Congress on the very subject matter of that report.

     
    In fact, the report admits that “a number of key officials were unwilling to participate (emphasis mine)” because they were worried “about possible litigation and other legal actions.” This, according to the report’s authors, “has undoubtedly resulted in some gaps in the record.”
    That’s quite an understatement. It leaves enormous gaps that, in the end, leaves the whole exercise just a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars. How can we take serious a so-called “after-action review” that failed to compel testimony from the key figures involved in the day-to-day decision making and implementation of the state’s COVID-19 response beginning in 2020 under Cuomo and, after his resignation in disgrace, under Governor Hochul?
    As I said, it shouldn’t come as any surprise. It leaves New York where it started: in need of an independent commission to examine what went on, and why, at the highest levels of state government throughout the pandemic. It leaves taxpayers footing the bill for another wasted effort. It leaves every New Yorker who lost a family member or any loved one to COVID without accountability or justice. It leaves us still not as prepared as we should be and can be for any future crisis of this kind.
    In the end, all this report accomplishes is to continue to make the larger point: Why?
    Let’s never forget that New York government, and all New Yorkers, remained under the iron fist of executive order for nearly three years beginning in March 2020. We know that these executive powers were abused. There were no legislative checks and balances in an all-Democrat-controlled, toe-the-line Legislature. Local decision-making was ignored. It was unilateral action after unilateral action by the governor, executive dictate after executive dictate, state mandate after state mandate. It was a disaster, and incredibly costly, as we keep finding out.
    The trouble is that we’re not finding out the way we should be. It just keeps raising red flags and suspicions. Senate and Assembly Republican conferences have repeatedly called for an independent, transparent, no-holds-barred, top-to-bottom examination of all the decisions that were made and all the actions that were taken during the COVID-19 response and recovery.
    Instead, two years ago this month, Governor Hochul announced the hiring of the Olson Group, yet another consultant (overseen, by the way, by her own state director of homeland security and emergency services) to conduct an “After Action Review” of the state’s pandemic response.
    Now we have it and, in the words of the Empire Center, the final product “falls far short of what Governor Hochul promised” and, further, the governor “should declare the Olson Group’s work unacceptable, demand a refund and launch a real after-action review – by joining with the Legislature to establish an independent pandemic response commission.”
    Having had a front row seat as the ranking member on the Senate Investigations Committee throughout the pandemic, for me this latest development unfortunately just keeps calling to mind the sordid and terrible chapter of the Cuomo administration’s handling of the COVID-19 response in New York’s nursing homes, which was replete with lies, misinformation, stonewalling, whitewashing, and bald-faced personal gain for the former governor with a $5.1-million book deal.
    All that we continue to know for certain is that there remains a glaring lack of urgency within the Hochul administration to willingly reexamine the Covid-19 response, all of it, from the beginning until now — its costs, its shortcomings, its outright failures, what worked and what did not, who was responsible and who wasn’t, what actions should remain in place going forward and what needs to be scrapped immediately.
    This was the most devastating public health crisis New York State ever faced. The longer the reassessment of the response is delayed, the more transparency gets clouded, the more credibility is eroded, and the more the effectiveness of New York’s future responses is jeopardized and weakened.
  19. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Former First Lady Laura Bush once said, “I have found the most valuable thing in my wallet is my library card."
    Or recall the words of former President Harry Truman, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”
    Once again this summer, I am happy to be joining my colleagues in the State Senate, in partnership with the New York State Library – and together with so many local libraries across our region and statewide -- to help promote summer reading.
    This year’s theme, “Adventure Begins at Your Library,” stresses the lifelong value of reading and pays tribute to the key role libraries and library staff play in our communities.

    Many studies have highlighted the fact that children who read during the summer months make greater academic gains in the following school year than children who do not. The statistics on the “summer slide” jump right off the page, including that:
     students can lose up to 25 percent of their reading level over the summer;  children who don’t engage in summer reading lose approximately two months of instructional time, or roughly 22% of the school year; and  by the end of the sixth grade, children who lose reading skills during the summer are, on average, two years behind their peers. While numbers alone help bring the larger story into focus, words themselves often deliver the most impactful testimony of all.
    Scholastic’s “Kids & Family Reading Report” has become one of the gold standards of advocacy and research on the importance of summer reading.
    Scholastic President and CEO Peter Warwick states, “The data is alarming – fewer children today identify as frequent readers, and reading frequency plummets as kids age. And yet, there’s beauty in the data as it shows how access to books and a community of reading role models can bolster excitement for reading in a child’s life, which in turn can ignite a greater interest in the skills of reading so that they can explore more stories.”
    Putting it another way, the great American author Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “There is no friend as loyal as a book.”
    The bottom line is that summer reading is a lifeline for children at a time when increased research is showing that reading can help foster more positive mental health in children and young adults alike.
    Consequently, I am grateful this summer to help highlight the efforts of the New York State Library and public libraries statewide, including so many throughout the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions.
    For my part, I am proud to share the Senate’s online summer reading program. To participate, students and parents will soon be able to visit my Senate website, www.omara.nysenate.gov, and click on the “Summer Reading Program” logo on the home page.
    According to Scholastic, a few of the keys to successful summer reading are letting young readers choose the books they want to read (91% of children say they are more likely to finish a book if they have picked it out themselves), encouraging kids to read four or more books and, most importantly, providing easy access to books.
    Libraries are the gateway for making books and other reading materials and programs available throughout our communities. Our region is incredibly fortunate to have an outstanding network of public libraries providing access to books and other reading activities, materials, and opportunities.
    Southern Tier and Finger Lakes libraries sponsor a variety of reading activities and events. Visit the website of the Southern Tier Library System, www.stls.org, for links to member libraries in Allegany, Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, and Yates counties. The members of the Finger Lakes Library System, including Seneca and Tioga counties, are online at www.flls.org.
    There are plenty of ways to help children get summer off to a great start.
    A reading list is one of the most important and impactful ways of all.
  20. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Among other designations, the month of June is recognized as National Great Outdoors Month.
    That designation is certainly worth some attention here in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions, especially at a time like now when we need to keep growing and strengthening every sector of economic opportunity for local communities.
    According to the latest report released earlier this month from the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR), a leading coalition of outdoor recreation associations, “The outdoor recreation industry does more than bring joy to millions of Americans: it helps drive our economy.” 
    According to statistics from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the industry provides nearly five million jobs nationally (3.2% of all U.S. employees), generates more than $1 trillion in economic output, and accounts for 2.2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).
    Here in New York State, the numbers are equally impressive, with the industry providing 275,000 jobs (2.7 percent of the state’s employees) and generating upwards of $31 billion in economic activity.
    ORR President Jessica Wahl Turner said recently, “Every June, Outdoor Recreation Roundtable is proud to coordinate Great Outdoors Month. This is an opportunity to celebrate outdoor recreation and America’s incredible natural treasures. Outdoor recreation contributes an impressive $1.1 trillion to the economy, while also providing health and wellbeing benefits to communities across the country. Great Outdoors Month is also an opportunity to ensure the outdoors are welcoming and accessible to everyone. This month, let’s come together to celebrate the joys and benefits of outdoor recreation and renew our commitment to making the outdoors accessible for all.”
    Outdoor recreation would turn out to be a ray of hope throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In the face of unprecedented challenges and upheaval, outdoor recreation remained strong, still accounting for nearly $700 billion in gross domestic output in 2020. According to reports, in 2021 outdoor recreation hit a record high with 164 million participants nationwide.
    “Throughout this pandemic, outdoor recreation has been a cornerstone of American life,” the Outdoor Industry Association noted at that time. “As we look forward, it’s clear the outdoors will be an important part of America’s economic future.”
    It has been all of that and more. In other words, there is a lot of biking, boating hiking, hunting, camping, climbing, fishing, paddling, bird watching, and other outdoor recreation going on locally, statewide, and across the United States.
    We’re told that more than one-half of American citizens annually take part in an outdoor recreation activity and that they annually make more than 10 billion outdoor outings.
    As a former chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee and a lifelong sportsman, I have been grateful for opportunities to support the ongoing resurgence of outdoor recreation. The Legislature annually takes actions on behalf of the outdoors, not solely for the economic and conservation benefits but also because these activities offer a high-quality means of exercise, healthier lifestyles, and family fun and recreation.
    Surveys by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service have shown striking facts about the nationwide economic impact — to the tune of $122 billion in revenue and millions of jobs — of the 87.5 million Americans who fish, hunt, or engage in other wildlife-related recreation. Hunting, fishing, and trapping are deeply rooted in New York’s (and our region’s) culture, experience, and tradition.
    The same goes for our unmatched network of New York State parks, trails, and historic sites. The advocacy group Parks & Trails New York (PTNY) routinely highlights the economic impact of New York’s more than 200 state parks, dozens of historic sites, more than a thousand miles of hiking trails, and over 8,000 campsites (to say nothing of numerous boat launches, beaches, swimming pools, and nature centers). PTNY has estimated that the state parks and trails system supports approximately 54,000 jobs and generates upwards of $5 billion in park and visitor spending – which means each dollar of state investment is supporting a return of an estimated nine dollars in consumer spending.
    As we continue working to turn around the Upstate New York economy through small business growth, a revitalization and strengthening of manufacturing, high tech research and development, an ongoing foundation of agriculture and tourism, and in many other ways, we will be smart to keep an eye on the outdoors.
    New York’s unique outdoor experiences and pastimes – and our region is unmatched in this arena -- are sure to entice increased spending on goods and services provided by local businesses. These expenditures support jobs, generate sales and income taxes, and spark tourism.
    In this period of ongoing uncertainty about the economic future of our state and nation, one thing is clear: More New Yorkers than ever before are eager to get outside for a breath of fresh air and a better view – and it keeps adding up to a stronger bottom line.
    It’s at least one bright spot on the horizon.
     
    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.
  21. Senator Tom O'Mara
    To kick off the just concluded 2024 regular session of the State Legislature – 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, “We face an affordability crisis. We face a border crisis. Law and order are in free fall. The Albany Democrat direction for New York simply fails to produce any hope for a long-term, sustainable future for communities, families, workers, businesses, industries, and taxpayers. New York is a state in decline that continues to become less safe, less free, less affordable, less economically competitive, less responsible, and far less strong for the future. We are at a dangerous crossroads and we must enact an across-the-board agenda to cut taxes, address affordability, and rebuild stronger and safer communities.”  
    We called it “A New Hope for the Empire State” and we began rolling it out at the very start of this session — a session that New York’s Democrat legislative leaders brought to a close last 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 decided to keep heading 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 that will keep New York a state of high taxes, endless fees, and forced borrowing for state and local taxpayers far into the future.

    The overriding goals of our New Hope agenda would have:
    Improved public safety for all New Yorkers by prioritizing actions to combat rising crime and lawlessness statewide; 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 his 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. 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 keep 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 – and more hopeful -- have, once again, gone unheard this session. 
    Instead, Albany Democrats continue to make New York State a tax-and-spend addict, a safe haven for lawbreakers, unaffordable for taxpayers, less attractive to job creators, and facing a dire economic future.
    It’s no way to run a responsible government. They are creating a state in decline.
    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.
  22. Senator Tom O'Mara
    State government’s spending habit has become so addictive that, eventually, every move that everyday citizens make in New York will come attached with another tax or a new fee or a higher cost.
    Already we find out, directly from Governor Hochul’s own Division of the Budget (DOB), that the cost of the recently enacted, 2024-25 state budget has already increased by at least $2 billion. When legislators voted on the budget in late April, we were told that the new state spending plan would total $237 billion. The DOB’s new report – which, by the way, was quietly released on a recent Friday afternoon – now essentially says, “Hang on, it’s actually $239 billion.”
    That’s a big difference. It means that state spending has increased by $10 billion over last year. It’s not just pocket change we’re talking about. It will have an enormous impact on the future for all of us.
    In fact, the DOB now projects that current state spending will far outpace revenue in the coming years, to the tune of $2.3 billion in the next fiscal year, $4.3 billion the following year, and $7.3 billion the year after that, or a roughly $14-billion deficit overall.
    Fiscal watchdogs, including the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC), argue that the future is even more alarming and that New York’s structural deficit could exceed $16 billion in the 2028 fiscal year alone.
    From the CBC, “State leaders basically have two choices. They can either try to bring spending growth down to what it was in the teens, or they can continue to kick the can down the road.”
    From the DOB, “The State’s financial position is expected to remain strong over the multi-year plan. However, out-year budget gaps are projected as spending is expected to exceed available resources (emphasis mine) and will need to be addressed in future years.”
    Here’s the trouble with the DOB’s more rose-colored analysis: Since 2018, these Albany Democrats have shown no ability (or willingness) whatsoever to stop their out-of-control spending addiction. They have done nothing but kick the can down the road toward fiscal disaster.
    It keeps coming down to this, year after year, under one-party control: dire fiscal forecasts keep arriving, not only after an ongoing, unprecedented, multi-year spending spree, but also at the same time the Democrats keep initiating enormous, additional state spending commitments for which they don’t even yet know the final price tag. A burgeoning illegal migrant crisis. Increased Medicaid spending. A multi-billion-dollar Unemployment Insurance debt. And let’s not forget the costs of Albany's Green New Deal with its outrageously costly, full electrification mandates, to name just a few.
    This year’s final, now $239-billion spending plan is just the latest chapter. They have simply and carelessly thrown caution (right along with taxpayer dollars) to the wind. Since 2018, they have increased state spending by nearly $70 billion – and far too much of it in a relentless pursuit of a misguided, questionable, unsustainable political agenda. It’s been an increase in excess of 41% in just five years alone of one-party control in Albany.
    So here we go. The ink is barely dry on the latest, largest-ever Democrat budget and the governor’s own DOB already warns that the state is spending more -- far more -- than it makes. The ink is barely dry and New York State is already in the red for many years ahead.
    New York State’s budget in 2018, the last year that Republicans held the majority in the state Senate, totaled $170 billion. Following this year’s nearly $240-billion budget, as noted above, state spending has increased approximately $70 billion.
    Governor Hochul and her Democrat allies in the Legislature have simply cemented what will always be the defining action of this era in state government: out-of-control spending that is nickle-and-diming New Yorkers to the breaking point.
    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.
  23. Senator Tom O'Mara
    Throughout generations of Americans on Memorial Day, many words have been shared to honor the memory – and the service and sacrifice – of our fallen heroes.
    From President Ronald Reagan, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."
    From President John F. Kennedy, “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter the words, but to live by them."
    From President Franklin D. Roosevelt, “In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved."
    And from President Abraham Lincoln, at Gettysburg, “We here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
    From Arlington in our nation’s capital to Woodlawn, Bath, and Romulus here at home -- and at thousands of other veterans’ cemeteries and monuments across this land -- Americans will gather once again to observe Memorial Day.
    The nation’s long-standing Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery is highlighted by a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, on which the following words are inscribed, “Here rests in honored glory an American solider known but to God.”
    Therein lies the essence of Memorial Day: To pause in our daily lives and remember the American soldiers who now rest “in honored glory” in devotion and service to all Americans -- to our families, our friends and neighbors, our communities, our state, and our nation.
    In that spirit, we continue to raise the American Flag. Here at home, we proudly recognize New York State as the “Birthplace of Memorial Day,” in Waterloo, Seneca County, which our nation has observed since the time of the Civil War, as well as stand proud at the newly designated New York State Veterans Cemetery (formerly known as the Sampson Veterans Memorial Cemetery) in nearby Romulus.
    We turn enduring thoughts and prayers to our soldiers, the heroes, who gave their lives, including the young soldiers who have recently been lost.
    We honor wounded warriors, and we support the men and women serving in harm’s way at this very moment -- shining examples of bravery, eternal honor and respect, and courage and conviction. 
    We salute all New York State veterans and the millions more strengthening communities across our nation.
    Because of our veterans, we can look into the eyes of the young people in our lives this Memorial Day, the faces of the future, and have faith that they, too, will be instilled with the spirit to keep America strong, to keep believing that the American way is a good, decent, worthwhile way.
    In the end, perhaps this is the great justice for all of the missions flown, the foxholes dug, the hills taken, and the battles fought on land and sea.
    America’s Armed Forces have made and will continue to make the ultimate sacrifice to keep America free, so that she can lead the way to a freer world.
    The sacrifices of our military will keep alive America’s promise, so that people throughout the world will look to her for inspiration.
    Our servicemen and servicewomen will keep America strong, so that other nations will draw courage from her strength.
    For as long as we remember and keep them alive in our hearts, we will stand as we do -- free in a land of opportunity and promise.
    The spirit of this salute will endure and persevere.
    God Bless America and God Bless our troops.
     
    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.
  24. Senator Tom O'Mara
    We can’t afford to let this one fly under the radar and so it remains worthwhile to warn, once again, as many of us have been warning throughout the past several years, that the Albany Democrat climate agenda currently moving forward across this state is a perfect storm of unaffordability, unfeasibility, and unreliability.
    It cannot be stressed enough: Since the 2019 enactment of what’s known as the “Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act” (CLCPA), we’ve watched Albany Democrats move at world record speed to pile one unaffordable mandate on top of another unworkable mandate on top of the next unrealistic mandate trying to inflict a zero-emissions economy on this entire state – and altogether these actions will come with a devastating price tag and consequences for ratepayers and taxpayers, businesses and industries, school districts, farmers, local economies, and more.
    Earlier this year, for example, I joined legislative colleagues and school district representatives, including Horseheads Central School District Superintendent, Dr. Thomas Douglas, to focus on just one fast-moving state energy mandate requiring, starting in 2027, that all school buses purchased in this state be electric. We stood together to warn that it is projected to be the most expensive unfunded state mandate to ever hit local school districts and property taxpayers. I have introduced legislation (S8220/A8447), sponsored in the state Assembly by area Assemblyman Phil Palmesano, to immediately delay this mandate and do what should have been done long before passing it, which is to undertake a thorough cost-benefit analysis; take other actions to ensure affordability, feasibility, and reliability; and be forthright with taxpayers and ratepayers on what this is going to cost them.
    Keep in mind that the all-electric school bus mandate is just one of numerous energy mandates already in the state’s pipeline and on the way to hit all New Yorkers extremely hard in the very near future, including:
    No natural gas within newly constructed buildings, beginning in 2025; No new gas service to existing buildings, beginning in 2030; No replacement natural gas appliances for home heating, cooking, water heating, clothes drying beginning in 2035; and No gasoline-automobile sales by 2035. The overriding point for those of us who have been warning about these looming mandates is not that we don’t believe New York State should be moving toward cleaner and more renewable energy, because that’s simply not the truth. We do believe it and we have supported actions that already make New York State a national leader.
    New York State consumes less total energy per capita than all but two other states. New York State’s per capita energy consumption for the transportation sector is the lowest in the nation. In 2020, New York State’s per capita energy-related carbon dioxide emissions were lower than those of any other state; but then the Albany Democrats closed the Indian Point nuclear energy plant and CO2 emissions have increased over 40% in the New York City area since the closure.
    The important reality that keeps getting overlooked (or ignored) by the other side is that Albany Democrats want 70 percent renewable energy by 2030 and zero emissions by 2040 -- despite our state emissions accounting for just 0.4% of total global emissions and recognizing that, even if we could somehow get to zero through the imposition of these drastic, draconian measures imposing untold hardships on New York’s communities, residents, industries, and local economies, it will have virtually zero impact on the statewide, national, or global climate.
    The latest Empire Center report warns that the costs to New Yorkers could well prove to be over $1 trillion by 2050 – and that’s in a state already recognized as one of the nation’s least affordable places to live, one of America’s highest taxed and regulated states, and the state that is losing population faster than any other in the country.
    Consequently, as we move into the final weeks of the current legislative session, we cannot let this fly under the radar of public attention and scrutiny.
    The all-Democrat energy strategy as it stands is not realistic or achievable. It is not responsible or rational. It lacks critical foresight, and it unreasonably risks energy grid reliability and affordability.
    At the very least, it demands reassessment and reexamination before it’s too late.
    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.
  25. 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.
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