Always happy to hear from our good friend from Deer Park, Assemblyman Karl Brabenec - even if he is complaining about a state budget delivered 35 days after the April 1 deadline. Some past budgets have been late by 125, 126 and 133 days, so 35 is not so bad. Or is our Assemblyman pining for the days when Gov. Cuomo brought budgets in before the deadline?
A red flag does need to be raised over the Orange County Industrial Development Agency (IDA). Indicted “passionate” IDA operatives, including a former County Executive, were working “tirelessly” moving money from IDA to their own accounts. The best the O.C. District Attorney could do was force the return of the stolen money. With this felonious history, our IDA strongly requires oversight by a state monitor.
In the struggle between the fossil fuel lobby and the advocates for cleaner air and asthma-free childhoods, the Assemblyman comes down on the wrong side as he defends his constituents who will leave New York State if they cannot have a gas stove in their new house after 2026. Please suggest some better alternatives for stopping greenhouse gases from cooking our planet.
I may have this wrong, but is the assemblyman telling New York State to send us the migrant support money but not the migrants?
And lastly, it is so disappointing to see the assemblyman promoting hostility between New York State citizens of Orange County and our fellow New Yorkers living in Manhattan and Brooklyn. A good leader promotes unity and looks for ways we can all work together towards common goals.
A personal observation: If the minority party in the New York State legislature supports a corrupt IDA, the pollution of the fossil fuel industry, hostility towards asylum seekers and upstate versus downstate resentment, I can understand why the majority party did not invite them to participate in the budget process.
Daniel Burke
Monroe