Apparently still smarting from last week’s public vow by State Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) to take him out in November, State Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) issued a statement this afternoon criticizing his GOP colleagues. He said they were wrongheaded to defeat a procedural motion that would have allowed a Democrat-sponsored bill to be debated.
The bill by Johnson’s friend, State Sen. David Valesky (D-Oneida), seeks to stop Albany from placing unfunded mandates on local governments.
The move by Johnson was unusual because though relations between him and some members of Long Island’s Republican senatorial delegation are frosty, he rarely blasts them publicly. Last week, however, the delegation leader, Skelos, confidently told reporters that Johnson would be defeated in the fall. His victory last year narrowed the GOP majority to two seats.
James T. Madore
Click continued bar below for Johnson’s news release.
News From
Senator Craig M. Johnson
7th State Senate District
For release: March 4, 2008 Contact: Rich Azzopardi 518.859.0586
SENATE GOP BLOCKS UNFUNDED MANDATE MOTION
Statement from Senator Craig M. Johnson:
"Once again, the Senate Republicans have put partisanship over progress.
Today, my colleague, Senator David J. Valesky, put forward a motion to bring to the Senate floor his common-sense bill (S.2201) prohibiting the state from pushing unfunded mandates onto local governments, school districts and property taxpayers.
Every Republican Senator present opposed this motion.
These unfunded mandates are one of the key reasons Long Island taxpayers are in a property tax crisis, because they force local governments to hike property and sales taxes.
We need to find real solutions to this problem, but the Senate Republicans used their slim majority to block even the beginnings of a debate on this legislation for no other reason than because this idea came from a Democrat.
This unfortunate politicization of the legislative process hurts our state and our taxpayers. I hope that in the future, the Senate Republicans can find their way to abandoning this non-productive partisanship and focus on getting the people's business done."