Now that Governor Andrew Cuomo has laid out his vision for the 2018 legislative session in Albany, lawmakers around the state are weighing in. New York Assemblyman D. Billy Jones represents the 115th district in northern New York, which includes Clinton and Franklin counties and four towns in St. Lawrence County. The first-term Democrat says he is still mulling over the speech and wants to see how the proposals mesh with the governor’s upcoming budget proposal, which is due in two weeks.
“We heard an aggressive agenda, a large agenda, from the governor and we’ll go through and digest what he has put out there. He’ll be coming in with the budget as well in a couple of weeks. We’ll know a lot from that as well because a lot of his agenda items need budgetary support. I like some of the components of his address. I always like to hear that we are going to address education, fund it more, because we need that for our schools here in the North Country. That is something that is affecting our area in a big way. We need to put more resources and funding behind that. Infrastructure. I’m very disappointed that he didn’t mention more about broadband. Rural broadband continues to be an issue.”
The New York state Legislature is on recess until Monday. Assemblyman Jones is planning to introduce a number of bills this session including an opioid recovery plan and an anti-domestic violence bill.