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Potential state Senate power shift offers big implications for upstate
ALBANY – Since state lawmakers went home for the year in June, Sen. Chris Jacobs has been blanketing his Buffalo area district with state funds.
Money for parkland, for a municipal parking lot, for libraries, for domestic violence shelters, for an African-American veterans monument, for a new health care facility at a college and for a new town water tower.
In all since the summer began, the Buffalo Republican has taken credit in whole or in part for steering $8.35 million in various state spending initiatives – or about $81,000 per day on average. It’s all been thanks to his membership in an exclusive Albany club known as the majority of the state Senate.
Jacobs, however, might not want to get too comfortable with the accolades from recipients of the money. Nor should the parts of Buffalo and suburbs to the north and south of the city get too used to the funding flow.
Even if he wins, as expected, over Democratic opponent Carima El-Behairy, Jacobs and his fellow Senate Republican are facing the prospect of losing their majority status.
And in Albany, if the GOP takes over the Senate and polls are right about how Democrats running for statewide office will fare, it would be a cataclysmic event for the Republicans: They would be cut out of decision-making in the all the branches of government that on a daily basis touch the lives of millions.
Democrats are gunning like never before to take over the 63-member Senate. They already are in control of the Assembly, where Republicans in the minority are treated like props. And a Republican hasn’t won a statewide office since 2002. Political power in New York on Nov. 6 is poised to be coalesced into the hands of Democrats from downstate in a way that could hold for decades given the looming prospect of redistricting.
First, know the first rule of the state Capitol: Majority party rules and minority party lawmakers are left with table scraps when it comes to funding and policy-making matters. As a result, millions of upstate residents could see themselves lose the sole remaining seat at the table in closed door Capitol talks each year that decide everything from school funding levels to who gets tax breaks and who gets tax hikes.
Not surprisingly, Republicans paint a doomsday scenario.
“I think it’s a problem of epic proportions," said Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, a Suffolk County Republican, of the impact on upstate if Democrats grab control of the Senate.
More at...
Potential state Senate power shift offers big implications for upstate
ALBANY – Since state lawmakers went home for the year in June, Sen. Chris Jacobs has been blanketing his Buffalo area district with state funds.
Money for parkland, for a municipal parking lot, for libraries, for domestic violence shelters, for an African-American veterans monument, for a new health care facility at a college and for a new town water tower.
In all since the summer began, the Buffalo Republican has taken credit in whole or in part for steering $8.35 million in various state spending initiatives – or about $81,000 per day on average. It’s all been thanks to his membership in an exclusive Albany club known as the majority of the state Senate.
Jacobs, however, might not want to get too comfortable with the accolades from recipients of the money. Nor should the parts of Buffalo and suburbs to the north and south of the city get too used to the funding flow.
Even if he wins, as expected, over Democratic opponent Carima El-Behairy, Jacobs and his fellow Senate Republican are facing the prospect of losing their majority status.
And in Albany, if the GOP takes over the Senate and polls are right about how Democrats running for statewide office will fare, it would be a cataclysmic event for the Republicans: They would be cut out of decision-making in the all the branches of government that on a daily basis touch the lives of millions.
Democrats are gunning like never before to take over the 63-member Senate. They already are in control of the Assembly, where Republicans in the minority are treated like props. And a Republican hasn’t won a statewide office since 2002. Political power in New York on Nov. 6 is poised to be coalesced into the hands of Democrats from downstate in a way that could hold for decades given the looming prospect of redistricting.
First, know the first rule of the state Capitol: Majority party rules and minority party lawmakers are left with table scraps when it comes to funding and policy-making matters. As a result, millions of upstate residents could see themselves lose the sole remaining seat at the table in closed door Capitol talks each year that decide everything from school funding levels to who gets tax breaks and who gets tax hikes.
Not surprisingly, Republicans paint a doomsday scenario.
“I think it’s a problem of epic proportions," said Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, a Suffolk County Republican, of the impact on upstate if Democrats grab control of the Senate.
More at...
Potential state Senate power shift offers big implications for upstate
