After a hurried start to the 2013 Legislative Session, one thing has become quite clear to me. This year will not be like 2011 or 2012. Those years were marked by consistent cooperation between the Legislature and the governor, who worked together as a team to tackle some big problems that led to a two percent property tax cap, the lowest middle-class income tax rate in nearly 60 years, and increased investment in the upstate New York economy and our agricultural programs.

I have a feeling this will be a completely different kind of year.

There are many things that come to mind regarding what we need to accomplish, but during Gov. Cuomo’s recent State of the State address, he was silent on those matters. Much of what we need in upstate New York wasn’t even mentioned by our governor.

Up here in northern New York and the Mohawk Valley, we worry about families staying in their homes and communities because property taxes remain so high. Every costly edict passed on by state government to our municipalities is just a bill passed on to property owners. We capped property taxes, now it’s time to lower them for good by providing real unfunded mandate relief for our schools and local governments.

In the North Country and Mohawk Valley, we support our local family farmers and small businesses, the real job creators in our communities, but they can’t keep up with the state’s costly regulations, taxes and fees. New York has over 49,000 pages of regulations, and along with those come numerous fees and fines. It’s no wonder that we are ranked among the least business-friendly states. Every senseless regulation represents time and money that a business could be investing in creating jobs.

I am troubled by the deafening silence from the governor and downstate legislators on the issues that matter most to upstate families. These are the matters we can work on easily as a team, but if they are unwilling to talk about them, how can we really help our citizens?

In their haste, the governor and downstate legislators pushed through a gun control bill, which was carelessly written and had egregious mistakes throughout, which threaten the ability of law enforcement to keep us safe. Their recklessness comes with large consequences, a silenced public, a weakened constitutional amendment and a failed government.

It is my hope that this never happens again. It is my duty to prevent such events from occurring. I implore the governor and all legislators to look back to the days – not so long ago – when we worked together for the good of all New Yorkers. That is the team effort we need to resurrect in order to accomplish great things for the people of our state.

As the representative of the newly-formed 117th Assembly District, I look forward to continuing to work with residents in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties, and I’m eager to get to know those in the towns of Annsville, Ava, Camden, Florence, Forestport, Kirkland, Remsen, Verona, Vienna and Westmoreland in Oneida County. Please e-mail me any time at blankenbushk@assembly.state.ny.us or call my office at (315) 493-3909.