By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
ALBANY — As Gov. Kathy Hochul was winding down her State of the State Address Tuesday Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski, R-Canisteo, realized she hadn’t mentioned a top priority for his district — the Seneca Gaming Compact.
In a statement from his office, Sempolinski criticized the governor “for ignoring the expired gaming compact between the Seneca Nation and New York State.”
The assemblyman said, “Negotiating a new gaming compact with the Seneca Nation is critical for the Western New York economy. Seneca Gaming and Entertainment generates more than $2 billion in economic activity for the region and the Seneca Nation employs more than 4,000 people, most of them non-native.”
He added: “A new gaming compact is essential to the economic well-being of the 148th District and all of Western New York.”
Since the original gaming compact between the Senecas and the state expired in December 2023, both parties have signed a series of extensions to keep operations running while negotiations continue.
Local municipalities depend on fees supported by the agreement to fund essential services like police and fire protection.
“It’s beyond time for the governor to sit down with Seneca Nation President J.C. Seneca and negotiate a fair and equitable gaming compact that protects the interests of the Seneca Nation and New York State,” Assemblyman Sempolinski said.
Sempolinski also noted that while the governor talked about making life more affordable for New Yorkers, she didn’t explain how she would do that while at the same time paying for the new programs she outlined during her speech.
“New Yorkers suffer under one of the highest tax burdens in the country and its driving people out of New York to lower-cost states,” Sempolinski said.
“The best way to address the high cost of living is to get government out of the way, cut spending and lower taxes,” he said. “I didn’t hear anything from the governor to make me believe she’s serious about cutting spending and making life more affordable for New York’s taxpayers.”
Sempolinski noted the state budget has ballooned from $177 billion in 2021, when Hochul became governor, to $254.3 billion now.
“We have a serious spending problem in New York that the governor seems incapable of addressing,” Sempolinski said. “The state budget is more than a quarter of a trillion dollars. That’s irresponsible and indefensible. New York has no future as the tax and spending capital of America.” Sempolinski said.
A former Southern Tier congressman, Sempolinski represents the 148th Assembly Diustrict that includes all of Cattaraugus and Allegany counties and part of Steuben County.
State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, called the governor right to focus on affordabilioty in her State of the State Address.
“New York State remains one of the highest-taxed and least affordable states in the nation, putting growing pressure on families, businesses, and communities,” Borrello said in a statement to the Olean Star. “Too many people feel squeezed, and too many employers are questioning whether they can keep growing here.”
In talking about affordability, Borrello said, “There are areas of agreement, including cracking down on car insurance fraud and joining the federal ‘no tax on tips’ initiative. But we did not hear anything about the broad-based tax cuts or structural reforms needed to change the state’s direction or reverse the outmigration that is hollowing out our economy. Instead, we heard once again that the answer is to spend billions more of New Yorkers’ hard-earned dollars.”
On energy and utility costs, Borrello said he supports “the governor’s focus on developing more nuclear power, but that is at least a decade away and will not help families today. If the governor is serious about lowering costs and improving reliability, she should expand access to natural gas and dependable baseload energy instead of waging war against them.”
Proposals like scrutinizing executive pay or creating an “affordability monitor” are window dressing,” Borrello said. “Utility rates are soaring because of Albany Democrats’ failed energy policies: the CLCPA, the all-electric building mandate, and the push toward costly, unreliable wind and solar. Until the Governor turns away from these policies, utility costs will remain a relentless burden for New Yorkers.”
Borrello said, “These same policies are also driving New York’s housing affordability crisis. The governor’s housing initiative will not reach its needed goals while the all-electric mandate remains in place and without restoring common sense rules like the 100-foot gas service standard. As long as Albany restricts access to natural gas, housing will remain more expensive to build, rent, and own. Period.”
Borrello said he was disappointed that the governor did not address “the state’s disastrous bail and discovery ‘reforms’ and other pro-criminal laws that continue to harm public safety and deny justice to victims.
“The high car insurance rates the governor wants to fix are due, in large part, to soaring motor vehicle thefts, which rose more than 180 percent between 2019 and 2023, and to the state’s failure to close glaring loopholes in its drugged driving laws.
“In addition, most categories of crime remain higher than they were before the bail and discovery changes, yet the governor and legislative Democrats seem content to normalize that reality rather than fix it, while continuing to push the same misguided approach of restricting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding New Yorkers.” Borrello said, “It was troubling to hear the governor’s anti-law enforcement rhetoric and her insistence on a policy of ‘non-cooperation’ with federal authorities, an approach that does nothing to make our communities safer.”
Senate Republicans on Monday “released our Save New York agenda. It offers the real prescription for turning this state around: a comprehensive, commonsense plan to cut taxes, lower energy, housing, and childcare costs, roll back costly mandates, restore public safety, and make New York affordable and livable again for hardworking families, seniors, and small businesses,” Borrello said.
“In the coming days, we’ll take a closer look at Gov. Hochul’s proposals, and especially her Executive Budget, which will be the real blueprint for what she wants to achieve. I agree with the Governor when she says ‘government should be a force for good.’ However, we disagree on what is truly ‘good’ for New York,” Borello said.
