Issue Position: Environmental Conservation

Issue Position

I was grateful to be appointed chairman of the Senate Environmental Conservation in 2015. It's one of the Senate's key committees and, most importantly, it has an enormous impact on local communities, local environments, local economies and local taxpayers.

That's certainly been the case over the past several years.

Earlier this year, I was deeply honored to be recognized by Audubon New York with the organization's "William Hoyt Environmental Excellence Award."

I greatly appreciate this award and recognition. The past several years in New York State government have represented an era of meaningful environmental achievement, and I have been grateful for the opportunity to help move it forward.

These achievements have included, following years of hard work and effort by so many conservation advocates and others, a fully funded, $300-million Environmental Protection Fund (EPF). The EPF supports critical environmental initiatives including clean air and water projects, flood control and restoration, and open space preservation.

The EPF helps create local jobs and studies have shown that for every dollar of EPF funds invested in land and water protection, the state and localities get back seven dollars in economic benefits. That's a pretty solid investment by any measure. The EPF enjoys an impressive record of government achievement which has brought benefits to a broad-based segment of New York's citizens and communities like very few government programs ever have.

Strengthening the EPF to the fullest extent possible within the context of the entire state fiscal plan makes great economic and environmental sense. It will be an enduring and proud achievement for future generations of New Yorkers and New York communities.

The establishment of the "Water Quality Infrastructure Improvement Grant Program" continues to help localities undertake water infrastructure improvement projects including sewer and municipal water line repairs -- an action which has become particularly timely as drinking water quality concerns and crises regionally, statewide and across the nation become increasingly acute.

The Irish have a saying about offering "a thousand welcomes" and I've certainly recalled that expression a thousand times over the past several years. So I'll take this opportunity to say thank you to so many of the organizations who have welcomed me so kindly to this Chairmanship. Thank you for your advocacy and input on so many of the critical challenges and crises we face -- but equally important, thank you for the many welcomes you've extended and which have helped make the past two years enjoyable, informative, enlightening and full of new experiences.

Of course I'm constantly reminded as I travel throughout the 58th Senate District of the importance of our outdoor recreational economy, whether it's the fields and forests of Steuben County, one of New York's premiere hunting destinations, or the Bath Fish Hatchery which stocks an abundance of our rivers, streams and lakes, or a visit to Watkins Glen State Park or any one of the number of spectacular network of parks and trails dotting the landscape of home.

So it truly has been a thousand welcomes, and it has certainly enhanced my already deep appreciation and amazement at all that our state and region have to offer, and my understanding of the critical work facing all of us.

"I truly believe that we all share a critical piece of common ground, and it's a common ground that's a vital starting point for our future success," Senator O'Mara has said in reflecting on his role as Chairman of the Environmental Conservation Committee. "President Theodore Roosevelt expressed it as "the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us.' We will have differences and face controversies. But we have a responsibility to stewardship and conservation. We have a responsibility to do our best to address the challenges, to work through them, and consider and negotiate them in a balanced, deliberate, fair, serious and sensible way. I hope and I believe we will."

What we've accomplished over the past several years has been important and meaningful in many ways, but it's only the beginning and I'll be fighting to keep building on these foundations.

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