Senator Young Honored, Humbled To Serve As Senate Majority Finance Chair

ALBANY - Senator Catharine Young (R,C,I- 57th District) has been appointed to a top leadership post as Senate Majority Finance Committee Chair. 

 

“I am honored and humbled to become the first woman to serve as Senate Majority Finance Chair in state history. It is exciting because of what this appointment means for the people in my Senate district and all of Western New York. It gives our entire region tremendous clout and a strong voice in state budget matters and policy decisions. My goal is to deliver more attention and resources to our part of the state to address the unique needs of our economy, schools, and infrastructure. We must ensure that all of Western New York shares in economic prosperity and that we have good-paying jobs and opportunities. All of our children need and deserve to have the best education possible and we need to secure our fair share of funding for our schools. Our crumbling roads and bridges need repairs and our aging water and sewer systems desperately need upgrades. Our hardworking, overburdened taxpayers need more tax relief. There's a lot of work to get done and I'm ready and raring to get started,” she said.

 

As Chair, Senator Young will lead hearings to conduct a thorough review of Governor Cuomo’s Executive Budget Proposal. Other responsibilities include reviewing the governor's nominations for various positions.

 

“Senate Republicans will be leading the charge to ensure state budget fairness and equity across the entire state. Our people were shortchanged when Senate Democrats were in power in 2009-10. They did a lot of damage then that we have been working to fix since we took back the majority. We've made a great deal of progress, but there's much further to go,” Senator Young said.

 

“Education funding always is one of the highest priorities. Senate Republicans led the fight to restore state school aid and eliminate the destructive gap elimination adjustment budget gimmick that has robbed resources from our children and classrooms. We successfully boosted education last year, and we will work once again this budget cycle to properly fund our schools,” she said.

 

“Making sure that New York’s job development resources go to every corner of the state also is at the top of my priority list. Rural communities especially continue to struggle. We need the economic attention and focus that other regions have received,” Senator Young said.

 

“Tax policy is another primary concern. Senate Republicans will be advocating for more property tax relief for our overburdened homeowners, and finding ways to assist small business owners and manufacturers so they can provide jobs and opportunities,” she said.

 

“We have passed on-time budgets for several years. Our citizens deserve to have a transparent, responsible, ethical and accountable state government. As Finance Chair, I will work to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to succeed,” Senator Young said.