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Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay

Criminal Justice Reforms Contained in Budget Flawed and Dangerous

While not directly related to NYS fiscal issues, some of the biggest policies included in this year’s state budget were changes to our state’s criminal justice system. The biggest of those changes was the elimination of cash bail for most crimes other than certain qualifying offenses.

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Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay

STAR Changes Create Hassle, Hardship for the Public

New York’s property taxes are the highest in the nation. Tragically, this year’s state budget, instead of trying to provide some tax relief to our already overburden property owners, makes ill-conceived changes to the one state program that is actually designed to provide property tax relief, that is, the STAR (School Tax Relief) Program.

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Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay

Road and Bridge Funding Needed in Upstate

The New York State Comptroller estimates there will be $89 billion in unmet local infrastructure needs over the next 20 years with as much as $27.4 billion needed for bridges alone. The responsibility to take care of these major infrastructure costs, however, lies on the backs of local taxpayers with 87% of the state’s roads and half of the state’s bridges up to localities to maintain.

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