Giglio served Allegany County - opted not to run again. Joe Sempolinski to take over
If I could have one wish granted in the New Year, it would
be for be for a return of respect and bipartisanship in Albany to ensure that
state government serves the common good of all New Yorkers, both upstate and
downstate. This is my last statement as an elected official. It is not made out
of malice for any region or political party. It is made out of profound concern
for our great state and the hard-working New Yorkers who make this the Empire
State. New Yorkers have a lot to be proud of. New York was the first capital of
the United States. Much of the Revolutionary War was fought here and more New
Yorkers fought and died during the Civil War, ending slavery and saving the
union, than any other state.
Wall Street is the center of global finance and many
consider New York City the cultural capital of Western civilization. We are
truly all in this together, upstate and downstate, but a majority of those in
power in the state Capitol don’t think or believe it. The fact is the people
running things in Albany have turned rural, upstate New York into a colony of
New York City. They treat us not as fellow New Yorkers but as a resource farm
to supply them with energy, food and raw materials. Sometimes we are a convenient
backdrop for a press conference. It’s a resource extraction model that would
have the NYC elites protesting in the streets if it were happening to their
constituents. We send money and electricity to NYC. In return we get taxes and
regulations that are killing rural New York.
Under one-party-rule, the most powerful members of the
legislature are from New York City. Yes, Gov. Hochul is from Buffalo. I hoped
she would bring some Western New York common sense to Albany. Instead, she
embraced the most radical members of her conference. Despite the cache of being
home to one of the world’s great cities, upstate would be better off without
New York City. That’s why I co-sponsored A01978 to hold a referendum on whether
we should divide New York into two separate states. The Democrat majority
killed the bill in committee and it never got a fair hearing.
We are in a similar situation to what the 13 Colonies lived
under. We need independence from New York City the same way our country needed
independence from the British Empire. A lot of my downstate colleagues believe
upstate could never survive without Wall Street revenue. The truth is New York
City needs upstate more than we need Wall Street.
Sure, Wall Street generates $19 billion in revenue for New
York each year and all of us benefit to a certain degree. But relying on Wall
Street is dangerously short sighted. Wall Street is data. You can do data from
anywhere. The pandemic proved it, which is why so many offices in Manhattan
remain empty three years later. Agriculture is the true economic foundation of
New York State. New York’s farmers and ranchers generate $5.7 billion in gross
income per year. Agriculture and related industries like cheese and yogurt
production account for a whopping $44 billion in economic activity each year.
And you can’t squeeze a potato or a cow down a fiber-optic cable. Meanwhile,
the majority is working hard to drive us into bankruptcy. New York State’s
budget has ballooned $70 billion dollars since 2018 when the one-party rule
took over.
Our state budget was $170 billion in 2018. The current state
budget is $234.9 billion dollars. That’s insane, reckless and unsustainable.
The governor’s own budget division in June projected that current state
spending will far outpace revenue to tune of $2.3 billion in the 2025-2026
fiscal year, $4.3 billion the following year and $7.3 billion for the 2027-2028
fiscal year. Her own accountants are projected a $14 billion deficit within
four years. Let’s put these numbers in perspective. New York has a population
of 19 million and an annual budget of $234.9 billion. That’s nearly double the
state budgets of two places New Yorkers are fleeing to. Florida has a
population of 22.6 million and a state budget of $116.5 billion. Texas has a
population of 30.5 million and a state budget of $144 billion. So the combined
budgets of Texas and Florida, two more populace states, is $260.5 billion. Our
budget is $234.9 billion. Does that make sense?
And where is that $234 billion going? The CEOs of regional
nonprofits, schools, libraries, hospitals and human service agencies tell me
all the time that their state aid is has been flat or heading in negative
territory. They rarely receive cost of living (COLA) increases from the state
despite having to pay for unfunded mandates from Albany like increases in the
minimum wage, and demands to switch their facilities from fossil fuels to all
electric heat, etc.
The governor held a press conference last year to laud a
$500 million fund to help school districts switch to all electric buses. The
media played it up. She got great press on that one. In reality, it will cost
taxpayers $20 billion to fully convert all New York schools to electric school
buses by 2035, which is the mandated deadline of New York’s fatuously misnamed
Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). The CLCPA is leading
New York to bankruptcy. It also won’t do a thing to mitigate carbon emissions
and reduce global warming. New York State is responsible for 0.4 percent of
worldwide carbon emissions. If the majority truly cared about climate change,
they would be protesting in Tiananmen Square demanding that the Chinese
government stop building coal-fired electric plants.
Generations of New Yorkers will wind up paying for these
policies. We are being taxed to death and taxpayers and businesses are fleeing
New York like they never have before. New York leads the nation in
outmigration. It’s the great emptying of the Empire State. Devoted to their own
short-term interests, those in power ignore or are blind to the damage they are
doing to our state.
New York politics is out of whack. Only New York’s voters can save it.
