For the better part of the past year, gas prices, rising inflation and violent crime have been among the major quality-of-life concerns keeping New Yorkers up at night. Each of these issues has now reached crisis-level. But somehow, Assembly Democrats have managed to develop a massive $226.4 billion spending plan without properly addressing any of them.
Gas prices, energy policy and inflation are on everyone’s minds, people are feeling the pinch. Price hikes have been going on for more than a year and have moved in only one direction – up. The situation we’re in didn’t happen overnight, and in FOUR MONTHS, Democrats have done nothing.
According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, inflation is at 7.9 percent – a 40 year high. This means individuals are paying $268 MORE now for the same items than they did a year ago and a family of four is paying $579 more than they did a year ago.
Gasoline costs more than it has ever cost in this country, food is scarce on shelves and prices are inflated and yet there is no response from the elected Democrats in Albany. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last week that we’re likely going to go through another 12 months when inflation numbers remain “VERY UNCOMFORTABLY HIGH.”
Assembly Republicans have consistently fought for tax cuts, greater investment in education, helping a strained healthcare workforce and delivering effective rental assistance to tenants and landlords. However, continuing to set spending records year after year is simply unsustainable. The previous 2% spending cap at least attempted to give the illusion of fiscal restraint. Not only has that spending cap been ignored, but it’s also been exceeded five times over.
The reality that Democrats refuse to acknowledge is that if tax-and-spend was the right approach, New York wouldn’t lead the country in residents leaving for more affordable options. Our longstanding cost-of-living crisis is being exacerbated in today’s current climate, but no immediate answers are found in Assembly Democrats’ budget plan. Their runaway spending priorities have left no stone unturned, except the ones that matter most.
There are several different ideas on how to ease the pain at the pump – but the underlying motivation is the same. Help people save money. When fracking natural gas was banned, when pipelines were closed, when Democrats have moved to shut down reliable energy resources, they eliminated our options and the ability to achieve energy independence. And we warned that it would have consequences. Well, those consequences have arrived, and they reach far beyond a gas and energy crisis.
It’s time for Albany to act and pass Assembly Republicans Inflation Relief & Consumer Assistance Plan to eliminate state sales and provide real financial relief. Read A8481: visit https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/A8481
Will Barclay has been a member of the Assembly since 2002. In January 2020, he was elected unanimously by his colleagues as the Leader of the Assembly Minority Conference. During his career in the Assembly, Leader Barclay has served as the Ranking Minority Member on the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and held roles including Deputy Minority Leader, Assistant Minority Leader, Chair of the Minority Joint Conference Committee, and Vice Chair of the Minority Program Committee.
In addition, Leader Barclay formerly served as the Chair of the Minority Hunting and Fishing Task Force as a member of the Assembly Minority Task Force on Manufacturing, and the Assembly Minority Task Force on Small Business. An attorney and a businessman, he is a partner in the Syracuse law firm of Barclay Damon, LLP, where he specializes in business law. Because of his experience in business and law, Leader Barclay knows firsthand the challenges the business community faces in New York and he has focused his legislative agenda on policies that will benefit the upstate economy and the working men and women of his district.
Leader Barclay is a graduate of St. Lawrence University and Syracuse University College of Law. After graduating from law school, he served as a law clerk for Roger J. Miner, a judge of the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, in Albany and New York City. Born in Syracuse, Leader Barclay is a lifelong resident of Central New York and represents the eighth generation of his family living in Pulaski, New York. He and his wife, Margaret, have two sons.
