The North Country Chamber held its annual legislative forum this morning. The region’s state Senator and two Assembly representatives say the state budget is the main focus of business in Albany right now.
The forum began with a brief summary of the New York results of the Chamber’s annual issues survey. Workforce shortages, affordable housing and ending mandates were among the top concerns.
Comments from the region’s representatives in Albany began with Senator Dan Stec, a Republican representing the 45th district. He expects an interesting budget year in Albany.
“One of the things that’s different in the Senate from the Assembly is that we take up things like nominations. We had a very contentious process for the Governor’s nomination to the Court of Appeals and that was really nasty and if you had any doubt as to what the dynamic was between the Senate and the Governor it was eliminated this week in that process. So we are on a very rough situation right now in that relationship which I think is going to make this budget process even more challenging. I just think that you’ve got a Senate majority that really wants to flex its muscles with the new governor. It’ll be interesting for me to be involved in that and see how that plays out. But it’ll be challenging, I think frustrating for everyone involved in the budget process.”
D. Billy Jones, a Democrat representing the 115th Assembly District, wants state government to end business mandates.
“Enough is enough. There are 300 bills a year that pass in the Assembly and in the Senate. Every one’s a great idea because every legislator has a great idea, right? But they don’t often realize what those bills do on the ground level. They don’t realize it’s a bunch of little pings that we keep doing to our businesses and to our organizations, to our non-profits. And we need to do everything we can to continue to push against that.”
Jones also said he’s not enthusiastic about the governor’s housing proposal, which calls for adding 800,000 new units statewide.
“I don’t think it really addresses the needs that we have here in the North Country.”
Matt Simpson is a Republican from the 114th Assembly District. He says Hochul’s budget addresses many of the region’s priorities, but looks at them from a one-size-fits-all perspective.
“We’re a diverse state and that’s most of our work trying to figure out how we take this legislation and make it unique and be a positive for the North Country. And a lot of that is going to be important with the move to green energy, siting renewable energy projects, having the infrastructure to support these mandates. We should not have mandates. We need to keep businesses moving ahead, not going backwards with the cost of mandates.”
During the question and answer session, Plattsburgh Mayor Chris Rosenquest, a Democrat, said he appreciated the money added to the state budget for water and sewer infrastructure, but is concerned about how it is distributed.
“The city has 140 miles of transmission distribution, 58 miles of sanitary sewer lines, 36 miles of storm sewer lines. We treat both the city and the Town of Plattsburgh’s water system. We take in Casella’s wastewater. We take in Vermont wastewater and sewer and we take sewage pump outs or septic system pump outs throughout the county. We need to stop competing for these monies. We need a CHIPS-style funding mechanism.”
Assemblyman Jones interrupts, “I have a bill!”
“Great,” responds Rosenquest. “Thank you.”
Assemblyman Jones continued:
“CHIPS style funding is the way to go about this. We do it for road mileage. We should do a pot of money for that because it’s not only capital costs that are killing you, it’s the operating costs behind it.”
The legislators were also quizzed about workforce and economic development funding.
The Chamber will host a State of the County, Town and City forum on March 2nd.
The state budget is due April 1st.
