Area state lawmakers will join area Farm Bureaus to voice concerns over $15 minimum wage at a news conference and round table discussion on Friday

Corning, N.Y., March 17—State Senator Tom O’Mara (R,C,I-Big Flats), Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R,C,I-Corning) and Assemblyman Chris Friend (R,C,I-Big Flats) will join local New York Farm Bureau representatives from across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions for a news conference followed by a roundtable discussion on Friday, March 18th in Corning.

Area Farm Bureaus have scheduled the news conference for 10:30 a.m. on Friday at Three Rivers Development (19 East Market Street, Second Floor Conference Room) in Corning.  They will be joined by O’Mara, Palmesano and Friend.

In a joint statement, O’Mara, Palmesano and Friend said, “The supporters of raising the state’s minimum wage by nearly 70 percent to $15 an hour have been out in full force all across New York State, and all over the airwaves.  But the voices of New York’s hard-working farm families deserve to be heard also.  It’s the other side of the story on this minimum wage debate, which is potentially a story about disappearing farms and farmland, job losses and other economic impacts across so many rural communities and Main Street New York.  Our farmers and agricultural industry deserve to have a voice in this debate too.”

Following Friday’s news conference, Palmesano, joined by O’Mara and Friend, will convene a meeting of Palmesano’s Agriculture Advisory Committee together with additional representatives of the regional agricultural community and farmers for a roundtable discussion to discuss the issue in more detail.

The roundtable discussion is scheduled to take place at 11:00 a.m., immediately following the Farm Bureau news conference, and also in the Second Floor Conference Room at Three Rivers Development.

[see the attached Farm Bureau Media Advisory above]