As we begin a new legislative session, one that will assuredly be incredibly busy and cover a variety of statewide matters, I wanted to share what I’m hoping to accomplish this year.

As Ranking Minority Member of the Assembly Committee on Local Government, I seek to alleviate the burden placed on our counties and towns by Albany. New York has the money to cover the county’s share of Medicaid, and it must begin covering this mandate on behalf of our counties.

I seek to return control of our education system to the teachers in the classroom and the boards of education we elect in our communities. We’ve seen great progress on the education reform front, and I believe we’ll continue to see it this year as well.

Finally, Albany must let businesses thrive and grow without its influence. Economies don’t grow from the top-down, they grow organically. Albany must resist the urge to meddle in the economy and must, instead, focus on providing the Southern Tier, and so many regions like it, the infrastructure investment to ensure we have functioning bridges and roads as we’re working to improve our economy.