Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia) issues the following statement regarding Bronx Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s comments that “For us in the Assembly, we always believe in raising revenue.”

“Speaker Heastie is dead wrong – maybe his downstate allies support raising taxes but millions of residents and small businesses across our state do not. In fact, it seems like only the Speaker and his New York City colleagues are the ones intent on making New York less affordable and exiling more of our neighbors to less expensive states.

“Albany’s fiscal woes can be summed up very easily – a lack of revenue isn’t the problem, reckless spending is. I’ve said for years that the state welfare program is out of control and it is unfortunate that Assembly leadership let the program balloon, to the tune of $6 billion over budget, instead of addressing the issue years ago.

“Bottom line, Speaker Heastie, along with Gov. Cuomo and Senate Majority Leader Stewart Cousins, is directly responsible for growing our budget beyond control.

“Taxpayer money is just that – the taxpayer’s money, not a mechanism to right Albany’s runaway fiscal ship and certainly not something the Speaker should be taking lightly. Families are still struggling to pay the bills as expenses continue to rise, and I will fight to prevent any further tax increases on our residents.”