{"id":110261,"date":"2019-12-24T11:16:25","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T16:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=110261"},"modified":"2019-12-24T11:16:25","modified_gmt":"2019-12-24T16:16:25","slug":"stirpe-as-2019-draws-to-a-close-central-new-york-celebrates-big-legislative-victories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=110261","title":{"rendered":"Stirpe: As 2019 draws to a close, Central New York celebrates big legislative victories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Assemblyman Al Stirpe<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The holiday season is in full swing and soon we\u2019ll be\nringing in the new year with our loved ones. As we start looking forward to\n2020, it\u2019s important to reflect back on how far we\u2019ve come and the successes we\nhad this past year. And for our Central New York communities, there\u2019s a lot of\nprogress worth celebrating. From enacting groundbreaking environmental\nprotections to passing critical reforms that make the voting process easier,\nI\u2019ve put the needs of our families and children first and will continue to do\nso in the new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our future is only as bright as our students, which is why I\nfought tirelessly this past year to improve educational outcomes for all New\nYorkers. A law I helped pass, which goes into effect Dec. 28, will ensure\nchanges to a business\u2019 payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement are not made\nuntil after a school district\u2019s fiscal year is complete (Ch. 421 of 2019). This\nway, our students and teachers won\u2019t be unfairly hurt by changes made beyond\ntheir control. To put the focus back on learning rather than test-taking, I\nco-sponsored a law that delinks teacher and principal evaluations from student\nperformance on state assessments (Ch. 27 of 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change is a very real and serious threat that\u2019s\nputting our future in jeopardy, and it\u2019s imperative that we take action now to\ncombat it. To put us on a path toward a more sustainable future, I co-sponsored\nand helped pass the New York State Climate Leadership and Community Protection\nAct, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050, requires\nthat 70% of electricity be produced by renewable energy systems by 2030 and\nrequires 100% of the state\u2019s electricity be produced without emissions by 2040\n(Ch. 106 of 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to this historic victory, I also helped champion\nthe Post-consumer Paint Collection Program to require paint manufacturers to\nsubmit a recycle and reuse plan for disposed paint to the DEC, thereby ensuring\nNew Yorkers can minimize waste and help local governments save money (Ch. 673\nof 2019). I also helped pass laws that protect our families and the environment\nfrom harmful pollutants by limiting the potential health risks posed by mercury\nin mercury-added lightbulbs, and banning offshore oil and natural gas drilling\nin New York\u2019s coastal waters as well as most single-use plastic bags (Ch. 647,\n29 and 58 of 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veterans embody what it means to be a hero, and they deserve\nour utmost respect and support when they return home from service. Earlier this\nyear, I helped pass the Pension Poaching Prevention Act to protect veterans and\ntheir families from unscrupulous financial planners or insurance agents (Ch.\n183 of 2019). To better support women veterans, I helped pass a law that\nupdates the duties of the women veterans coordinator in the NYS Division of\nVeterans\u2019 Services and requires that the division highlight contributions of\nwomen veterans on its website (Ch. 480 of 2019). I also helped secure funding\nin this year\u2019s state budget for the Military Enhanced Recognition Incentive and\nTribute (MERIT) Scholarship and expand the scholarship to include families of\nmilitary members who lost their lives serving the military in any capacity, as\nopposed to only in combat or preparing for combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one should ever have to face discrimination or\nharassment, especially in their workplace. This past year, I was committed to\nempowering and protecting victims and worked hard to ensure New York State\nleads the way on this important issue. To protect working New Yorkers, I helped\npass a law that eliminates the \u2018severe or pervasive\u2019 standard for harassment to\nbe legally actionable in the workplace (Ch. 160 of 2019). In 2020, I\u2019ll\ncontinue to stand up for victims of discrimination and sexual harassment and\nmake our workplaces safer and fairer for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voting is what makes our country the great democracy that it\nis, which is why I helped pass many election reforms to make the process\nsimpler and more accessible to all. This includes laws allowing early voting\nduring a nine-day period before any election, permitting 16- and 17-year-olds\nto pre-register to vote and requiring boards of elections to automatically\ntransfer voter registration information for New Yorkers who move from one county\nto another (Ch. 6, 2 and 3 of 2019). I also co-sponsored and helped pass a law\nto combine state and federal primary election dates to the fourth Tuesday in\nJune (Ch. 5 of 2019). In 2020, I\u2019ll continue fighting to enact same-day voter\nregistration and authorize no-questions-asked absentee ballots (A.777, A.778).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As your representative, there\u2019s nothing more important than\nmaking our region a better and safer place to live and raise a family. Central\nNew Yorkers can rest assured that I\u2019ll continue bringing home real results in\nthe New Year. As always, my door is open. Please feel free to reach out to me\nwith any questions or concerns at 315-452-1115 or StirpeA@nyassembly.gov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The holiday season is in full swing and soon we\u2019ll be ringing in the new year with our loved ones. As we start looking forward to 2020, it\u2019s important to reflect back on how far we\u2019ve come and the successes we had this past year. And for our Central New York communities, there\u2019s a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43068,"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":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-sGp","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Al-Stirpe.jpg?fit=226%2C222&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110261","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=110261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}