Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay

The Legislature recently passed the “Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Business Act” and it was signed by the Governor. The goal is to increase participation of service-disabled veteran-owned business and award up to 6% of all state contracts to such businesses. I was pleased to vote in support, and in fact, I co-sponsor a similar measure called NY Jobs for Heroes

New York state has the unfortunate distinction of being a high cost of living state and when it comes to auto insurance, New York lives up to its reputation. Our auto insurance rates are among the highest in the nation. Although there are several reasons for our high rates, fraud plays a large part.

Library use has increased across the state. According to some of New York State Library’s latest statistics, visits to public libraries increased by seven million from 113 million to 120 million from 2007 to 2009. The number of items borrowed – books, ebooks, movies, magazines and more – has increased by more than 11%.

“Ethics reform” has been a buzz phrase heard in Albany and around the state a lot over the last few years and for good reason. Lately, there have been several high profile cases of wrongdoing by state officials. However, as is often the case in state politics, what is meant by “ethics reform” depends who is providing the rhetoric.

The 2014-15 New York state budget passed again on time for the fourth year in a row and we kept state operating spending at under 2% growth. The $137.9 billion spending plan contains some good news for New Yorkers but did fall short on other aspects.

According to the most recent statistics I could find, in 2012, more than 600,000 children in the United States and Puerto Rico were victims of child abuse and more than 1,500 children died as a result of abuse or neglect. Even more tragic, these are only reported cases of abuse and neglect.

State budget negotiations are taking place and the budget deadline of April 1 is nearly upon us. Each year, the Senate and the Assembly pass what they consider to be priorities in “one-house budget” resolutions. The Assembly passed its $138.4 billion one-house resolution earlier this month and the Senate passed its resolution the week before last.

Last week, the state Legislature met in joint session to elect four members to the state Board of Regents.  The Board of Regents is responsible for the general supervision of all educational activities within New York State including the implementation of educational standards such as the much-maligned Common Core standards.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, use of illicit drugs in the United States has been increasing. In their Nationwide Trends report (updated January, 2014), in 2012 an estimated 23.9 million Americans aged 12 or older, approximately 9% of the population, had used an illicit drug or abused a psychotherapeutic medication in the past month.