The Governor's proposals were hardly revolutionary, but give us a starting point in the budget process. I was pleased to see overall spending kept in line--less than a 2% increase over last year.

I'm pleased he wants to invest more in Upstate New York, and while it's somewhat odd to pit one region against each other through competitive grants, I'm confident that Central New York will be successful if indeed this program is implemented. I was pleased to hear he'd like to invest in Port of Oswego, and in Fort Drum and the State Fair. Overall, to improve the economy, we need broad-based tax relief, and we need to lower the cost of doing business. I didn't hear of these ideas today.

I support investing some of the settlement monies on infrastructure, such as the Thruway, to keep tolls down, and on our roads and bridges to improve the whole economy, and on broadband. I look forward to looking more closely at the Governor's proposals.

I’m in favor of property tax relief, but the proposal Cuomo set forth today needs to be looked at more closely. I'm uncertain it will deliver on the promises he made today to provide a real tax savings because it is a tax subsidy, not a tax break. Same goes for education. I have to look more closely at his proposals. Generally, I think we have great teachers in Central New York. We must be careful with placing state mandates, particularly on localities where they're not necessarily needed or affordable.