Assembly Will Barclay

The New York City sponsors of this legislation have billed it as the DREAM Act.  However, because it will place an increased burden on our State’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), this could become a financial nightmare for the state and for those lower-and middle-class families who are already struggling to afford the ever increasing cost of higher education.

As the cliche goes, when it rains it pours. This certainly holds true as a description of the numerous scandals that have arisen as of late in both Albany and Washington. This week in Albany, most attention was rightfully focused on the release of a report by the Joint Committee on Public Ethics that summarized its investigation of sexual harassment claims against Vito Lopez – the now former Assemblyman.

On the same day farmers were bracing for a cold streak, the Assembly passed a bill that imposes factory-like mandates on family farms, and failed to recognize the unique industry heavily dependent on weather and harvest schedules. The Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act passed the Assembly 83-53. I voted against it. The bill imposes new labor mandates, regulations and financial burdens for farmers, without considering the environment or circumstances it takes to run a successful farm.

There have been quite a few newsworthy items coming out of Albany in recent weeks. I want to share a few of them with you in this column pertaining to health services funding, insurance fraud, and tourism.

The Assembly passed an early voting bill last week. I voted against this measure. At a time when localities are stretched to the max, this would create another unfunded mandate and change our current system when it doesn’t need to be changed.

Small business owners throughout New York State recently made their way to Albany. Chief among their concerns again this year pertained to overreaching regulations and paperwork mandates, which add to the overall cost of doing business.

It was recently reported that two Albany lawmakers from Downstate were involved in corruption and bribery.  One lawmaker, Assemblyman Eric Stevenson, is accused of accepting more than $22,000 in bribes from four adult daycare centers, with the understanding that he would put forth legislation that would benefit the centers.

We hear about cases on the news and we see mug shots of those who are charged or convicted of some heinous child sex abuse act. There is no excuse for these perpetrators and sickens the majority of us who have to read these stories. The good thing about these news stories is that when we see them reported, we know our law enforcement is catching more of these types of perpetrators.

Last week, I talked about the State Budget in this column and this week, I wanted to expand on some elements in the budget. We passed a $141.2 billion spending plan before the April 1 deadline but it wasn’t without its problems. One of the biggest problems for me was the “sweeps” that took place. While “sweeping” is nothing new to New York, this year the budget used a bigger broom and swept more money from various funds into the general fund.