O'Mara on Cuomo budget: Not aggressive enough on creating Southern Tier jobs

Albany, N.Y., January 21—State Senator Tom O’Mara (R-C, Big Flats) today called Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed 2015-2016 state budget “not aggressive enough on creating Southern Tier jobs.”  

O’Mara said, “I’ll keep on saying it: New York government needs to stay focused, more than anything else, on taking action after action after action on Upstate manufacturing job growth and eliminating the crushing burdens of mandates, regulations and taxes.  It begins and ends with addressing these priorities. The governor’s blueprint is not aggressive enough on these priorities, and it’s not aggressive enough on creating Southern Tier jobs.  He puts the words ‘Southern Tier’ in front of a few initiatives, but that’s window dressing.  I don’t see where he’s going aggressively enough after the root causes of Upstate’s decline, which means high taxes, overregulation and unfunded state mandates that have driven up property taxes.  And if the Southern Tier has been feeling like a forgotten region, this budget proposal sure doesn’t send a ‘welcome home’ message.  Closing the Monterey Shock Incarceration facility.  The SAFE Act.  Common Core.  No casino.   Shutting down any development at all of the Marcellus Shale natural gas industry.  Too many key decisions by the Cuomo administration have been anti-Southern Tier and anti-Upstate."

[Watch Senator O'Mara's comments following the Governor's address] 

Cuomo has called for a few Southern Tier-specific actions this year, such as increased state funding targeted for farm preservation initiatives in several Southern Tier counties including Chemung and Steuben.  The governor also proposed a $20 million competitive fund to lure so-called “green jobs” to the Southern Tier.  Cuomo’s main Upstate initiative appears to be a $1.5-billion revitalization fund that would pit seven Upstate regions, including the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes, in a competition for just three $500-million pots of badly needed assistance.

O’Mara again called most of it “window dressing.”

He said that he would keep working with his legislative colleagues across the Southern Tier to keep attention focused on unfunded state mandates, job-killing state regulations and a state tax burden that devastates family budgets and keeps New York’s business climate one of the worst in the nation.

O’Mara said that the next step in this year’s budget adoption process is for state legislators, local leaders and the public to begin analyzing the details of the new Cuomo plan and assessing its impact on specific programs and services.  Details on the governor’s budget proposal can be found on the state Division of the Budget (DOB) website, www.budget.ny.gov, and on O’Mara’s Senate website, www.omara.nysenate.gov.  

Area residents can also respond to a new Web poll on omara.nysenate.gov that asks, “Does Governor Cuomo’s proposed state budget focus on the right priorities and keep New York moving in the right direction in 2015?”

The Legislature’s fiscal committees begin a series of public hearings on the Cuomo plan next week.  The legislative budget hearings continue through the end of February and can be viewed on omara.nysenate.gov.  

The state’s new fiscal year begins on April 1, 2014 and state leaders are aiming, for the fifth year in a row, to have a new state budget in place before that April 1st deadline.

For more detailed information on the Cuomo budget plan, visit the governor's website at http://www.ny.gov/.