“The recurring theme during this legislative session has been the misuse of taxpayer dollars. From sham economic development schemes, to illegal highway signs and now, once again, free college for illegal immigrants. As elected representatives of New York state, it is our duty to protect the taxpayers as was the founding principle of the American Revolution. Yet, the Assembly Majority are hell-bent on using our tax dollars to provide for illegal immigrants while residents struggle to pay for college decades after they’ve graduated. The state’s tax burden is due to the fact that New York has become the land of the handout. I cannot and will not accept this practice and neither should our residents. That is why I voted no on this legislation. I will not support the handing out of $27 million while New York’s young people struggle to get out from under mass amounts of student debt.”