WELLSVILLE – More than 40 people attended Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski’s second town hall meeting Thursday at the Wellsville American Legion, Morrison Hayes Post 702.

“I’m very grateful to everyone who came to the town hall and made time to meet with me on a beautiful spring day,” Assemblyman Sempolinski said. “We talked about everything from the late state budget to New York’s unworkable energy policies, particularly electric truck and school bus mandates, healthcare access and healthcare transportation and local economic development.”

 Under New York’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act signed into law by former Gov. Cuomo, school districts are barred from purchasing diesel school buses after 2027 and must transition their fleets to electric school buses. The EV buses are more expensive than diesel buses, heavier and lack the range of traditional school buses. Their performance also degrades in cold weather.

“The math and the physics just don’t work,” Assemblyman Sempolinski said. “This is a $20 billion unfunded mandate to local school districts. Albany has pledged around $1 billion to help schools transition to EV buses. It’s a drop in the bucket. People’s school taxes are going to skyrocket.”

Residents also asked about healthcare access and the need for transportation so people can attend medical appointments.

“Transportation is a huge issue in a rural district like ours. It takes two hours to drive from one corner of the 148^th Assembly District to the other. So, one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter policies from Albany won’t work. What works in lower Manhattan doesn’t work in Angelica or Wellsville,” Assemblyman Sempolinski said.

Assemblyman Sempolinski told everyone at the town hall that he’ll take their comments and recommendations to Albany to help him make the case for responsible change.

“That’s why meeting face-to-face with everyone is so important to me. It’s their government and I want to be as transparent and accessible as possible to the people I represent,” Assemblyman Sempolinski said. “Representing the nearly 135,000 people of the 148^th Assembly District is the honor of a lifetime. As their voice in Albany, I need to know I’m on the right track and representing their interests the way they want me to.”