When the 2007 Legislative Session closed at the end of June, Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,I,C-Batavia) said he was disappointed with the lack of productivity in the final days of session. Today, Hawley and his Assembly Minority colleagues were in Albany in hopes of completing unfinished business. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his colleagues were not in Albany.

“I was born on a farm where work was done 7-days-a-week, 24-hours-a-day,” said Hawley. “The same principles ought to apply to the way Assembly leadership conducts the people’s business. As property taxes, Wicks reform, and upstate development initiatives go by the wayside, Assembly Majority leadership seems preoccupied with vacationing instead of attending to the people's business. Today in Albany, those present and accounted for were Governor Spitzer, the Senate Majority and Minority, and the Assembly Minority. The Assembly Majority was the only group not present in Albany to do work.”