Assemblyman Karl Brabenec (R,TCN-Deerpark) was a featured speaker at the annual Orange County Chamber of Commerce Breakfast today in Middletown. Brabenec, who was overwhelmingly re-elected in November on a platform of reducing property taxes, controlling outrageous downstate spending and helping New York’s struggling small-business community, discussed ways to make New York more attractive to new businesses and reduce the tax burden that has created an exodus of more than 800,000 people from the state over the last six years.

“When I talk to business owners in my district, the most common concern I hear is that property and business taxes are out of control,” Brabenec said. “It is a poor reflection on our state’s leadership that nearly 200,000 residents have left for other states in the past year and a half, and it is more than 25 percent cheaper to run a business right over the border in Pennsylvania than here in New York State. Free handouts and expensive mandates take food off the tables of hardworking taxpayers in the long run. I thank the Chamber for once again inviting me to speak and I look forward to conveying their concerns in Albany.”