{"id":103803,"date":"2019-06-21T13:05:02","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T17:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=103803"},"modified":"2019-06-21T11:07:44","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T15:07:44","slug":"guest-column-miller-sums-up-2019-legislative-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=103803","title":{"rendered":"GUEST COLUMN: Miller sums up 2019 Legislative Session"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Assemblyman Brian Miller (R,I,C,Ref-New Hartford)<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

With one-party control in Albany, this legislative session\nmade for a difficult year. Single-party control usually does not work out well\nfor the masses, regardless of which party is in charge. Unfortunately, this\nyear has been dominated by a downstate agenda and one aimed more at retaliating\nagainst the federal government than trying to work together for the needs of\nmany. This has left the constituents of our district \u2013 and the rest of upstate\n\u2013 reeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years now, New Yorkers across upstate have wondered how\nAlbany can be so out of touch with our priorities and have hoped that things\nwould improve. This session has gone in the opposite direction, starting by\nexpanding entitlements for convicted criminals and persons in our nation\nillegally. The budget produced billions in new taxes and fees. Sadly, session\nhas concluded with Albany focused on more entitlements \u2013 providing driver\u2019s\nlicenses to illegal immigrants \u2013 and implementing devastating mandates that\nwill cripple thousands of New York\u2019s family farms, which provide a $5 billion\nboost to our economy. Lawmakers left discouraged, without many major\naccomplishments for New Yorkers north of the Mario Cuomo Bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many lawmakers and constituents feel offended by these\npolicies and, quite often, the statements from the executive chamber and\ndownstate leaders. They are offended that their priorities have been ignored\nand that new taxes, fees, mandates and burdensome regulations will make their lives\neven harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As your representative, I continue to fight hard to make\nsure our community\u2019s voices are heard, and I will give credit where it is due,\nso did several of my upstate colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Believe\nit or not, we do often band together for the sake of our local communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though I have been hard-pressed to find many statewide\nhighlights, there were some substantial successes that I am proud to deliver. I\nwas able to pass some important legislation that will help local communities\nthroughout our seven-county district, including measures to improve flood\nmitigation, bring in economic development funds, provide financial aid for\nschools and authorize property tax exemptions for not-for-profits that do so much\ngood in our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was also very pleased to be able to stand up to defend our\nmilitary, particularly our Gold Star families. I want our troops and veterans\nto always know I have your back, and now you won\u2019t have to worry about your kids\nbeing able to afford to go to college because we fought back and delivered a\nnew scholarship program for them. We also fought back during the budget and\nrestored the governor\u2019s proposed elimination of the Joseph P. Dwyer Veterans\nPeer-to-Peer Counseling program. This program saves lives and I am so proud we\nwere able to restore it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues and I were also successful in restoring the\nbudget\u2019s cuts to library construction aid and the Extreme Winter Recovery\nprogram for our local roads as well as maintaining a middle-class tax cut and\nmaking the state\u2019s two percent property tax cap permanent. Though there is much\nmore that needs to be done to break Albany\u2019s \u201ctax and spend\u201d mentality, these\nare solid steps that will protect taxpayers in the long run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though this session was difficult, it continues to be my\nprivilege and honor to fight for you and our ways of life. Please do not\nhesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance, and for more updates,\nplease follow me on Facebook<\/a>\nand Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With one-party control in Albany, this legislative session made for a difficult year. Single-party control usually does not work out well for the masses, regardless of which party is in charge. Unfortunately, this year has been dominated by a downstate agenda and one aimed more at retaliating against the federal government than trying to work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23814,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-r0f","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Brian-Miller.jpg?fit=134%2C200&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}