Last Thursday was the culmination of my first Senate session and I would like to thank every resident of the 2nd Senate District for allowing me to represent them in Albany. It is an honor beyond anything I could ever imagine and I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve our community.
Traveling to Albany every week of session, I was proud to bring our community’s voice to the State Legislature and to work with all of my Senate Colleagues to ensure a better future for all of our residents. As the new Senator for our community, it was a great experience to meet and work with colleagues from both sides of the aisle to try to get things done for our mutual constituents.
As a member of the Senate Republican Conference, I thank Senate Republican Conference Leader Robert Ortt and my fellow conference members for continuing to fight to protect our men and women in blue, our taxpayers, our students and our region.
Our efforts led to the successful securing of a record $29 billion in school aid and increased funding for the Joseph P. Dwyer Peer-to-Peer Program, which was started by Congressman Lee Zeldin when he was in the Senate, to a total of $5 million. We also worked to protect our local restaurants and small businesses to save much-needed jobs for those who were also struggling through the crisis.
Additionally, I am proud to have cultivated a good relationship with some of my Democratic colleagues and work with them on several pieces of legislation. Those efforts led to results on efforts to ban puppy mills, to fight wage theft and other important items that are important to all New Yorkers.
While those bipartisan efforts were productive, I will never cease to stand up and fight to defeat proposals that are not in the best interest of our region. This session, I was proud to stand with my colleagues in the Senate Republican Conference to turn back several ill-conceived proposals including ones that would have handcuffed our police officers, released dangerous criminals back onto our streets due to age and increased the tax our residents pay for gas by fifty-five cents.
That is a fight that we will never back off because, while compromise is critical, there are some issues that require consistency.
The key, however, is for all elected officials to work through their disagreements. We all know there will be times when there will be differences but we must continue working to make life better for all New Yorkers. The approach and the philosophy may be different but the goal must be the same.
That is essential to our residents, to our businesses, to our families and every single New Yorker. Only that will allow our state to recover, rebuild and grow. This first year in Albany was truly interesting and the coming years will be critical to our collective future.
I look forward to working with my Senate Republican Colleagues across the aisle and all in our community to make our state’s future greater than our past has ever been.
