photo
Assemblyman Abinanti debating during an Assembly session.

photo
Assemblymembers Abinanti and Amy Paulin confer in Albany with Westchester residents.

photo
Assemblyman Abinanti at the annual RiverArts membership party with board members Paula Romanow Etzel, Robin Zane and host, Eileen Fisher (center). When he was a county legislator, Abinanti ensured the County funding necessary to keep arts alive in Westchester. Photo credit: Ellen Crane Photography.


2011 LEGISLATIVE SESSION

PRESERVING OUR ENVIRONMENT

TOP SCORE IN GREEN VOTERS’ GUIDE

In the only scorecard that grades New York lawmakers for their votes on bills that could protect or harm our air, land, and water, the EPL/Environmental Advocates’ Annual Voters’ Guide rated Assemblyman Abinanti and six other Assembly members with the highest score (105) for their support of the environmental community’s priorities.

ASSEMBLY OPPOSES INDIAN POINT RELICENSING

The Assembly approved a resolution sponsored by Abinanti opposing the relicensing of Indian Point Power Plants 1 and 2. When he was a county legislator, Assemblyman Abinanti, a longtime opponent of Indian Point, had shepherded through the Westchester Legislature numerous resolutions expressing concern for Indian Point’s impact on the health and safety of Westchester residents.

NEW FISHING LAWS TO PRESERVE ECOSYSTEM

To benefit both public health and a vibrant recreational fishing industry, Assemblyman Abinanti passed legislation to prohibit commercial fishing of striped bass from the Hudson River until 2015. The legislation ensures that striped bass with possible PCB contamination will not be sold commercially and helps maintain striped bass population for recreational fishing in the Hudson River (New York’s main spawning ground for striped bass).

Abinanti also sponsored a new law that extends the Department of Environmental Conservation’s authority to regulate the catching of lobster, a major industry in New York.

KEEPING OUR WATERS CLEAN AND SAFE FROM HYDROFRACKING

The Assembly passed a number of bills to provide greater oversight of the natural gas and oil-drilling industry in response to heightened concern about possible hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in New York— a natural gas extraction process which pumps millions of gallons of water, sand and toxic chemicals underground to force out the gas.

Abinanti voted for a new law that protects state waters by requiring a DEC permit to withdraw significant water quantities.

Abinanti voted with the Assembly majority to extend the state’s fracking moratorium and close a loophole which allows the gas industry to circumvent strict waste management and disposal requirements. However, these bills stalled in the State Senate. An opponent of hydrofracking, Abinanti recently introduced a comprehensive bill to impose some of the strictest regulations anywhere on the use of this process.

photo

NEW LAW MAKES STREETS SAFER

The Complete Streets law encourages transportation planners to consider specific guidelines to make crossways and roadways safer for users of all ages and abilities— including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and public transportation users. This innovative measure promotes smart-growth, sustainable communities, prevents pollution, and reduces our dependence on foreign oil.

Under the law, planners will consider requiring more sidewalks, paved shoulders for bicycle use, bicycle lanes, share-the-road signage, lane striping, crosswalk/pedestrian signals, ramps, bus pullouts, and other traffic-calming measures.

COMPREHENSIVE ENERGY MEASURE KEY TO ECONOMY

Abinanti joined his colleagues in voting for a new law designed to position New York to embrace clean, reliable, and affordable energy while attracting high-tech industries and the good-paying jobs that come with them. The Power New York Act:

The law is structured to encourage a “green economy” to offer long-term solutions to unemployment and long-term economic growth. It fosters installing solar panels, weatherizing houses, and constructing wind turbines which decrease our reliance on fossil fuel (coal, oil and natural gas) and produce local jobs for people of varying educational and training levels.

FLOOD PREVENTION AND MITIGATION

Our communities have been devastated by unprecedented flood damage this year. Assemblyman Abinanti has reached out to state agencies to spur them to aid local governments in targeting the causes and mitigating the effects of local flooding.

One of Assemblyman Abinanti’s final legislative accomplishments before he left the county legislature last year was to pass a county storm-water management law. Recognizing that flooding is a regional problem requiring regional response, the new Westchester law requires the county to partner with local governments to assess the causes of flooding in each of the county’s six drainage basins, craft strategies to alleviate the storm water flows and design capital projects to prevent further flood damage. The culmination of a three-year effort, the law empowers the county to work with local governments to implement critical flood prevention measures.

PROPOSED STATEWIDE VEHICLE IDLING BAN

Assemblyman Abinanti is sponsoring a bill that limits motor vehicle idling to three minutes statewide. Abinanti’s statewide proposal is modeled on the law that he had passed in the Westchester Legislature that bans vehicle idling for more than three minutes throughout Westchester.

PROTECTING OUR HEALTH

BANNING SECOND-HAND SMOKE AND FLAVORED TOBACCO

Assemblyman Abinanti co-sponsored a new law that prohibits smoking in Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) outdoor ticketing, boarding, and platform areas. Each year, in the United States alone, second-hand smoke kills or sickens far too many non-smokers: some 46,000 deaths from heart disease, 3,400 deaths from lung cancer, 150,000-300,000 lung infections in children, and hundreds of thousands of children suffering from asthma and middle ear infections. When he was a county legislator, Abinanti passed a ban on smoking in Westchester indoor and outdoor workplaces.

Assemblyman Abinanti voted for a bill that passed the Assembly to prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products such as cigars, chewing tobacco, snuff, and rolling paper. This measure would follow the lead of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration which recently banned the sale of flavored cigarettes because they largely appeal to children. When he was a county legislator, Abinanti passed a ban on flavored cigarettes in Westchester because of their appeal to children.

PROMOTING GUN SAFETY

photo
Assemblyman Abinanti with the executive officers of Blythedale Hospital and Special Act School District during a recent visit.

A longtime gun safety advocate, Assemblyman Abinanti voted for a new law that prohibits individuals convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors from purchasing firearms.

The Assembly also passed two other measures that prevent dangerous individuals from accessing guns and provide law enforcement with needed tools. The first would require that semiautomatic pistols be capable of microstamping (stamping a cartridge with a unique code indentifying the gun’s serial number, make and model to assist ballistic experts). The second would prohibit the sale of antique firearms (muzzle-loading and black powder rifles, shotguns and handguns) to individuals previously convicted of a felony.

PREVENTING SKIN CANCER IN TEENS

Skin cancer is now the most common form of cancer in the United States, and the number of melanomas diagnosed in the U.S. has doubled since 1973. Abinanti supports the Assembly’s bill prohibiting anyone under 18 from using a tanning bed or any other ultraviolet radiation device, protecting teens from long term radiation health risks.

photo
Assemblyman Abinanti joins other state and local officials celebrating a private donor’s contribution to Open Door Health Care Center. With federal, state and local funding cutbacks, private contributions are now even more important!

A PLAN FOR A GREENER, HEALTHIER NEW YORK

photo
Assemblyman Abinanti at Sleepy Hollow High School with middle school teacher Michael Garguilo and two students leading a local effort to ban plastic bags.

The Assembly passed key environmental bills addressing pollution, global warming, toxic chemicals, recycling, water sources, and wetlands that would:

RECYCLING AND REFUSE

WATER AND WETLANDS

MERCURY AND TOXINS