NYS ASSEMBLY MINORITY LEADER BRIAN KOLB: UNFUNDED MANDATE RELIEF FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS CANNOT WAIT, ALBANY MUST DELIVER BEFORE SESSION CONCLUDES

STATEMENT FROM NYS ASSEMBLY MINORITY LEADER

BRIAN KOLB (R,I,C-CANANDAIGUA)

“As the 2011 Legislative Session enters its final week, the unresolved issue
of unfunded mandate relief cannot wait – or be allowed to fall through the
cracks in Albany as seems to happen every year. Delivering unfunded mandate
relief that actually saves money for local governments and school districts
is a must-do priority before session concludes June 20. Just as we have on
the property tax cap, ethics reform and other unfinished business, Assembly
Republicans are also leading the fight in calling for action on unfunded
mandate relief, this year, this session.

Unfunded mandates – the endless river of rules, regulations and red tape
that Albany imposes on local governments and school districts that
ultimately raises local property taxes – are true budget busters accounting
for as much as 80 to 85 percent of many Counties’ expenses, according to the
New York State Association of Counties. Unless Albany does something to
address these principal cost drivers, state government will simply keep
passing its buck, and its costs, onto the backs of local governments,
forcing local taxpayers to make up the difference. This vicious circle must
be broken. The vast majority of local governments and school districts have
already tightened their belts and reduced operating costs. Now, Albany
needs to step up to the plate and actually deliver on the promise of
unfunded mandate relief as our Conference and I have been urging for years.

Eliminating administrative mandates is a decent start, but we can, and
should, go further. We have to deliver serious unfunded mandate relief that
actually saves money for local governments and school districts. This means
providing a moratorium on new unfunded mandates for as long as a property
tax cap is in place; freezing County Medicaid costs; giving the Governor and
state Legislature the power to repeal existing unfunded mandates; allowing
localities to seek waivers from state government on specific unfunded
mandates and enacting comprehensive pension reform. Equally important, we
need a state spending cap to ensure state government tightens its belt as
localities already have done. In fact, if a spending cap had been in place
over the past 10 years, spending would have been $30 billion less this year.
These are just some of the common sense steps we can take toward delivering
unfunded mandate relief and addressing Albany’s cost drivers that hurt local
governments, school districts and taxpayers.”

People’s Convention’ coming to town

Thu, Jun 2nd 2011 02:15 pm
Source: NFP, Niagara Frontier Publications
Assemblyman John Ceretto, R-I-Lewiston, and Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb will host a “People’s Convention to Reform New York” town hall meeting in Niagara Falls on Wednesday, June 8. The event is scheduled from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Niagara Falls Public Library, 1425 Main St.

The forum is being held to build support for the People’s Convention to Reform New York Act (Assembly Bill A.1262), legislation designed to provide state residents with an opportunity to bring change to state government by holding a People’s Convention to amend the state constitution. If enacted, the bill would put the question of whether New York should convene a People’s Convention on the 2011 ballot, rather than waiting until 2017 to hold it, as it is legally mandated.

“A People’s Convention provides another avenue to end the traditional partisan, gimmick-driven politics that New Yorkers have become accustomed to,” said Ceretto. “Citizens are demanding real long-term solutions that address our state’s fiscal problems – state government can no longer use the wallets of New York residents as its personal ATM. Our conference believes strongly that, if enacted, this legislation puts power in the hands of New Yorkers, giving them the ability to transform their state government into one that works for them once again.”

A People’s Convention to Reform New York is a grassroots, non-partisan reform effort to empower citizens so they can take back their state government and, in the process, chart a positive, new direction for New York. Furthermore, the legislation specifically requires that any elected official seeking to run as a delegate for, or serve in, the People’s Convention must first resign his office.”

“I invite members of the community to join Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb and I in an important conversation about the People’s Convention to Reform New York and learn how this non-partisan grassroots reform effort would benefit them as taxpayers,” said Ceretto.

Property tax cap draws praise, questions

By Melissa Daniels, staff writer
Messenger Post
Posted May 25, 2011 @ 10:14 AM
Last update May 25, 2011 @ 10:17 AM

Canandaigua, N.Y. —
With roughly three weeks left in the state’s legislative session, Albany officials are saying they’ve reached a tentative deal on a 2 percent property tax cap. But the latest proposal is drawing a blend of praise and criticism, with questions on state mandate relief still not fully addressed.

A new plan unveiled Tuesday morning by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, outlines a 2 percent property tax cap deal similar to that proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier this year. But some of its differences will change how local governments manage budgets under a tax cap.

Canandaigua Mayor Ellen Polimeni said the bill’s revisions seemed to indicate that Albany had heard the message of local governments, which have been advocating for mandate relief since a property tax cap was first discussed. The revisions provide for exemptions that would help municipalities weather some of the obstacles associated with a cap.

“If it had gone through the way it was proposed, we felt it was going to be very difficult for us,” Polimeni said, speaking from Albany. “With these provisions, I think that it should work. We’ll have to make it work.”

This year, the city of Canandaigua raised the tax levy by 5.1 percent, an increase of about $202,000 for a total of $4.1 million. And in the past three years, the city has reduced spending by cutting its workforce by 20 percent, Polimeni said.

“It would be very difficult for us if they don’t make some of these concessions,” she said.

One new provision in the bill says that any increases in state-regulated pension payments beyond 2 percent from the previous year would be exempt from the cap. And if budgets don’t exceed a 2 percent levy increase, a municipality could “carry over” the remainder and add it to next year’s increase, up to 1.5 percent.

Also under Silver’s proposal, school districts would be able to override the cap, pending 60 percent voter approval. If the budget is rejected, the district may resubmit for another vote, or adopt a budget with no levy increase. That provision was included in the bill proposed by Cuomo earlier this year, which was passed by the Republican-controlled Senate but voted down in the Democrat-controlled Assembly.

If the bill passes, the tax cap would take effect for the 2012 fiscal year, which local municipalities begin coordinating in the summer. But some provisions of the final bill are still being negotiated — such as how often it will be re-evaluated, per a sunset provision.
The bill is also tied to rent-control regulations in New York City,
Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, is calling the deal a victory for homeowners — and says that there seems to be enough support in both houses of the legislature to get the bill to pass.

“We have to send a message that we’re trying to control the cost of owning a home and running a business in New York state,” Kolb said.

But he says the property tax cap proposal doesn’t end the discussion on the cost of unfunded mandates thrust upon local governments. Kolb says he’s preparing a list of mandate relief items, to be submitted to the state legislature and outside agencies.

“The property tax cap is important, and it sends a message to everyone,” Kolb said. “But we really have to have mandate relief as part of this session; that has to be done as well. I think there is more to follow.”

Unfunded state mandates called out by municipalities and school boards during the past several months include health care spending, the state pension system, and collective bargaining tools. In a poll on the New York State School Boards Association website, 93 percent of more than 300 school members who responded said that mandate relief needs to be addressed before a tax cap is considered.

NYSSBA Executive Director Timothy G. Kremer says millions of dollars are tied up in state mandates that do nothing to advance student achievement — and limiting a school district’s ability to raise revenue would “undoubtedly” force layoffs, limiting programming and extracurricular activities.

“In order to make a property tax cap have a positive impact, we urge Gov. Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Silver and Senate Majority Leader Skelos to enact reforms that will once and for all address the true cost drivers that drive up local tax rates,” Kremer said.

For some residents, the proposal is a sign that Albany is attempting to make some changes.

Jim Wolfe, who owns J.J. Wolfe Insurance Agency on South Main Street in Canandaigua, said that taxes in New York are especially difficult for commercial properties. — and private property is the backbone of the economy.

“New York state has to get competitive,” he said.

Dick Nash, a Hopewell resident, says he think the tax cap is a good idea for retaining residents, and that it’s time for governments to find new ways of maintaining its services.

“I think high taxes are driving people out of Canandaigua and out of New York state,” Nash said. “(Government) has to do what it needs to with less.”

Copyright 2011 MPNnow. Some rights reserved

One step closer to enforcing law, collecting taxes

By Assemblyman Brian Kolb
Messenger Post
Posted May 24, 2011 @ 04:20 AM
Source: Henrietta Post, Canandaigua, N.Y. —

Right here in our Finger Lakes community — and all across western, central and upstate New York — taxpayers and businesses have been waging a fierce battle. At stake are fundamental principles such as the rule of law and basic fairness for all. Also at stake, is the economic future of countless small businesses that continue following the law, even though their bottom line suffers for doing so.

I am proud to be part of a growing, non-partisan coalition of taxpayers and businesses waging this battle to enforce the law, collect the taxes and level the economic playing field through collecting sales taxes on cigarettes and gasoline sold on Native American lands to non-Native American Indians.

This fight has been occurring for nearly two decades and, regrettably, has claimed the dreams and futures of countless local mom-and-pop convenience-store operators whose only “crime” was following the law and trying to compete on an unfair playing field. This fight has been especially costly: it has cost our local taxpayers, local governments and state government literally billions in legal fees, lost revenue, closed or bankrupted businesses, and a series of expensive court fights that seem to go on and on with no end in sight. However, this month, with the announcement of a ruling by the Federal Court of Appeals, it appeared as if the battle was over — and the rule of law had finally won the day.

On May 9, the Second Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals threw out an injunction that had prevented the collection of taxes on cigarettes sold on Native American Lands to non-Native American Indians. The ruling was a HUGE victory and a major triumph for law-abiding, taxpaying citizens and businesses. This issue is personal to me: I have spoken with, and heard from, thousands of area residents who believe, as I do, that state government should have begun enforcing the law, collecting the taxes and leveling the playing field 17 years ago. It was back in 1994 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled New York had the authority to collect these taxes. Yet, for 17 years, state government inexplicably sat on its hands.

The Judges on the Second Circuit are correct — no person or group is above the law. The Court’s verdict mirrored what I have been saying all along, that the Native American claims have no merit. The Court dismissed the tribal arguments based on a few key facts and legal principles. First, collecting these taxes does not impose an economic burden on tribal retailers. Second, the system of collection does not interfere with their rights of self-government. Third, while federal law prohibits New York from taxing cigarette sales to members of the tribe, the state can tax cigarettes sold to non-Native Americans. On all counts, the Federal Court got it right.

Unfortunately, there is another twist to this story. The day after the Federal Court of Appeals ruled New York could finally move forward, the Seneca Indian Nation sought to stall the ruling through a temporary restraining order. At the heart of the Nation’s “argument” is their claim — a baseless one, in my opinion — that the State Department of Taxation and Finance moved forward with issuing regulations to collect the taxes without “proper public input.” Keep in mind, not a single penny of sales taxes had even been collected! Yet, for some reason, State Supreme Court Judge Donna Siwek decided this was a sound argument, even though the U.S. Supreme Court and the Federal Court of Appeals both ruled that taxes could be collected on sales to non-Native Americans Indians on Native American lands. Add to this the fact that locally, we have held countless public hearings, solicited pages of testimony, circulated petitions, held press conferences and asked New York’s Congressional delegation for an end to this legal runaround.

I have spoken to former Gov. David Paterson and current Gov. Andrew Cuomo on this issue, and sponsored legislation, Assembly Bill A.10128, that directed all cigarette wholesalers to sell only tax-stamped cigarettes to everyone, unless presented with an Indian tax exemption coupon to allow for the collection of the billions in lost revenue. This bill was introduced properly, following every necessary legal and legislative requirement.

While nobody knows how Judge Siwek will ultimately rule when she hears this case on June 1, the fact that the Seneca Indian Nation continues treating our legal system like some sort of game is troubling. The Seneca Nation’s last-minute legal gambit is like a football team trying to run out the clock — even though they are losing 35-0. It just doesn’t make sense.

Frankly, Judge Siwek’s decision was one of the most shocking instances of “legislating from the bench” that I have ever witnessed. The fact that Judge Siwek stopped the state from moving forward even though the two highest courts in America have ruled in New York’s favor, makes we wonder whether the Judge is trying to interpret the law or make the law.

Copyright 2011 Henrietta Post. Some rights reserved

Cuomo urges disclosure of outside income

Legislators may have to reveal ties to firms doing business with state

Written by Joseph Spector , May 23, 2011

Source: ITHACA JOURNAL
ALBANY — Plans for stronger ethics laws in New York could put some lawmakers who are also attorneys in a tight spot when it comes to publicly revealing their clients and outside incomes.

Some of them are warning that tougher disclosure laws could infringe on the confidentiality rights of their clients.

Others say they don’t have clients and thus would have nothing additional to disclose.

Disclosure of clients and outside income are sensitive issues for some legislators, who have long been able to keep secret their roles and salaries at private law firms or companies.

Several lawmakers — including the powerful majority leaders of the Senate and Assembly — are deemed “of counsel” at major law firms, which critics say adds to the murkiness of current law.

Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Fayette, Seneca County, for example, serves in an “of counsel” position at the powerful upstate law firm Harris Beach, based in the Rochester area. Nozzolio told reporters Tuesday that he doesn’t have any clients, and a Harris Beach spokesman said Nozzolio is only an adviser to the firm.

Some good-government groups and legislators said lawmakers who may serve in an advisory role at a business should have to disclose the people they’ve met with if those people have dealings with the state.

Under current law, the public can’t know if a legislator is privately helping clients with state business, groups said.

“There’s no way of knowing right now if such relationships exist, and pretty much the only way these business relationships have been revealed in recent years is thanks to the FBI,” said Bill Mahoney, research coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group.

In the wake of myriad scandals and convictions involving legislators and their outside business dealings, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing for stronger ethics laws.

He wants lawmakers to reveal outside incomes, or at least ranges, and their private clients who have business with the state.

Speaking Friday on Talk 1300-AM in Albany, Cuomo said lawmakers should have no problem with greater disclosure if they are not doing anything wrong.

Currently, lawmakers’ outside income is listed in broad categories on their annual disclosure forms, but the information is redacted from the public. And their clients are not revealed. Legislators receive a base public salary of $79,500.

Legislative leaders and Cuomo have indicated that they are close to a deal as the legislative session nears its conclusion in late June.

Without new ethics laws, Cuomo vows to enact a Moreland Commission, which would have broad powers to investigate government corruption.

The other major piece is creating stronger watchdog agencies to oversee the executive and legislative branches. A sticking point is who would appoint board members.

“I think the issues are not big, they are little,” Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, said. “And they settle around more about the makeup of who is going to police it than they do about disclosure.”

Cuomo, a Democrat, has not introduced his own ethics bill, but he has called for setting up one independent ethics commission to monitor both the Legislature and executive branch.

Records show that some lawmakers’ firms have millions of dollars in state contracts. Harris Beach has about $3 million in contracts, including a $1.5 million deal with the state budget division as legal consultants.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, this month voluntarily disclosed the range of his outside income, between $100,000 and $250,000, in his “of counsel” role at a Long Island law firm.

Newsday recently reported that the firm, Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, represents clients with nearly $2 billion in state contracts.

Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said they do not represent clients before the state.

Silver has long been criticized for his “of counsel” role at Weitz & Luxenberg, a major personal injury law firm in Manhattan. Silver hasn’t released his salary range, saying he abides by current law.

Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, Ontario County, said full disclosure would ensure lawmakers are being transparent about any role they had in helping a client with state business.

Residents voice bevy of concerns

By Julie Sherwood, staff writer

GateHouse News Service

Brian Kolb’s tele-town hall draws hundreds

By Julie Sherwood, staff writer

Messenger Post

TAX CAP: SOUND BITE OR SOUND POLICY?

LEGISLATIVE GAZETTE
LEGISLATIVE GAZETTE.com
May 16, 2011
by Simon Garron-Caine

Gov. Andrew Cuomo campaigned heavily on property tax relief, made a tax cap the subject of his first program bill and is now touring the state drumming up public support for the cap and other priorities. But a division in philosophy between legislative leaders makes passage of a cap this session less than a certainty.

Last week, Republicans from the Senate and Assembly gathered in The Well of the Legislative Office Building to push Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. But a shouting match between supporters and opponents — mostly members of the education lobby — showed how divisive the issue has become.

As Senate Education Committee Chairman John Flanagan and Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb and several of his conference members rallied a small crowd of about 40 supporters on the relief a tax cap would bring, more than 100 members of the New York State United Teachers attempted to drown out the speakers with hisses, boos and chants of “tax the rich,” calling for an extension of the tax surcharge on higher income brackets and a different measure of property tax relief known as a circuit breaker.

“It really makes a difference when you can shout someone down because you have more numbers,” said Kolb, R-Canandaigua.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Rockville Centre, has repeatedly called on the Assembly to pass the tax cap bill as is since the Senate eagerly passed the governor’s program bill Jan. 31. Skelos has said he won’t negotiate on the bill because it remains as the governor intends and says he has done all he can to push the bill forward, putting the onus on the Assembly to finish the job.

The bill, S.2706/A.3982, would cap property tax levies at 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. Local voters could choose to override the tax cap on school district spending if 60 percent of district voters approve the higher levy.

The Assembly floor appears to be the final frontier in this session’s tax cap saga. Silver has said the issue will “eventually” be dealt with this session but has shown no hurry in doing so. Kolb and his conference have repeatedly called on the speaker to allow the bill to be voted on.

“While I applaud the governor for his continued leadership, it’s important that he utilize the bully pulpit to challenge the Assembly to act,” said Skelos in a statement released May 10.

During the first stop on his People First Tour in Syracuse, the governor called Skelos’ stance “Albany speak,” saying the job is not done until a tax cap becomes law. By decrying Skelos’ position that his job was completed when his house passed the bill, Cuomo appeared to be opening the issue, and his bill, to negotiation.

Perhaps the more eye-opening aspect of Cuomo’s distancing himself from Skelos’ stance is that it gives credence to two notions: one being that the Senate majority actually does not want the tax cap to pass, as Democratic lawmakers have suggested; the second being that the goal of the tax cap legislation is to appear to address a hot button issue rather than an institution of real reform.

Whispers in Albany, pushed by Democratic legislators, suggest the Senate majority wants to keep the issue alive heading into the next election cycle and are worried that negative effects on school districts — with the teacher lobby issuing dramatic warnings — would give local legislators an opening to gun for their seats.

Ulster County Legislator Susan Zimmet, D-New Paltz, backed up the notion that Republicans want the issue of the cap more than the cap itself, based on conversations she said she had with unnamed Republican senators following the one-house passage of the bill and called the cap “the greatest scam I’ve ever seen.”

“The night they voted for the tax cap I had a number of Republican senators coming over to me saying don’t worry about it, this is not what it’s going to end up being,” said Zimmet. “Most of the senators understand, even the ones who voted for the cap, without mandate relief and a lot of other things taking place, it’s going to devastate their local communities. They voted for something for political reasons and now there’s a chance [it passes].”

Karen Scharff, executive director of Citizen Action New York, called the proposed 2 percent cap “one more fake Albany quick fix,” an idea echoed by other advocates who called the proposal “simplistic,” “shortsighted” and a “Kool-Aid cap.”

“It is a sound bite, not sound policy,” said Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, at a press conference with others pushing the circuit breaker mere hours after the tax cap rally. The press conference also featured Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, D-Ithaca, and a host of good government groups, education lobbyists and business and tax reform coalitions.

Throughout the debate, there has been general agreement among interested parties that a property tax cap must be coupled by relief of unfunded state mandates on localities. Kolb underscored the importance of mandate relief, calling it the “800-pound gorilla” in the room.

While opposition to Cuomo’s bill warns of passing the cap without instituting mandate relief, Kolb and other tax cap proponents have said passing the cap is important in forcing the conversation on mandate relief to be taken seriously.

The New York State Association of Counties, whose key priorities include relieving the state’s counties of unfunded mandates such as Medicaid, indigent defense and early childhood intervention programs, maintains that property tax relief won’t come from a cap but from mandate relief.

“By and large our membership consensus is that there needs to be mandate relief and property tax relief will follow,” said association spokesman Mark LaVigne. “What you’re doing when you pass a property tax cap before mandate relief is causing a crisis and saying then we’ll deal with the crisis when it happens.”

LaVigne added that unfunded state mandates are the root cause of county property tax increases and said only discussions between local governments and the state can fix the problem.

“So much of our property tax levy goes to funding state programs. So when we address those state programs by reducing their costs for counties, then we can begin reversing the trend of high property taxes from the county perspective,” he said.

Flanagan, R-East Northport, dismissed the idea that the tax cap would restrict the ability of school districts to raise enough funding through tax levies.

“I don’t buy that theory,” said Flanagan, who told supporters at the rally the cap would force districts to take a look at administrative salaries and added afterwards that it would be the state’s job to ensure education funding remained at an appropriate level if a cap was instituted.

Kolb also dismissed the notion that the cap would tie the hands of localities, saying a measure in the bill that allows school districts to opt out of the cap by a 60 percent vote assures local flexibility. The advocates counter the supermajority override vote favors wealthy districts and the bill leaves out many necessary exemptions.

Kolb, who has maintained a similar but not identical position to Skelos in calling for Silver to allow the vote to hit the floor, said an Assembly floor vote should be the catalyst for any negotiations on the bill.

“If we keep introducing new ideas, new measures, new approaches, you never get a vote on the main issue,” said Kolb. “I want to know where the Assembly Democrats stand on the bill … then I want to hear what Governor Cuomo has to say in response to that.”

Kolb, however, says all of that might not be necessary as he believes there are enough Democrats in the Assembly in support of the cap to pass it, although some Democrats remain committed to their circuit breaker plan.

“We need to reduce property taxes in New York state, not just cap their growth,” said Lifton, pointing to California schools she said sank from tops in the nation to the bottom of the barrel following similar tax cap legislation.

The circuit breaker, however, appears to have little chance of a legislative revival in this Albany climate. Ron Deutsch of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness said the best way to fund the approximately $1 billion needed for the circuit breaker would be an extension of the millionaires tax. Since day one of his administration, Cuomo has maintained he would not extend the surcharge and the Senate majority has adamantly opposed such a move.

Federal Appeals Court Decision To Throw Out Native American Cigarette Tax Injunction Has My Applaud

May 10, 2011

Source: Finger Lakes1, Web Post

New York State Assembly Minority Leader Brian M. Kolb (R,I,C-Canandaigua) commended the decision by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals to throw out an injunction preventing collection of taxes on cigarettes sold on Native American Lands to non-Native American Indians. Kolb characterized it as a “victory for law-abiding, taxpaying citizens.”

“Today’s decision by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals is a major triumph for New York,” said Kolb. “The Judges are right – no person or group is above the law. The Court’s verdict mirrored what I have been saying all along, the Native American claims have no merit. It is time to enforce the law and collect the taxes.”

The Court dismissed the tribal arguments based on the following:

* Collection of the tax does not impose an economic burden on tribal retailers;

* The system of collection does not interfere with their rights of self-government; and

* While federal law prohibits New York from taxing cigarette sales to members of the tribe, the state is able to tax cigarettes sold to non-Native Americans.

“Fair collection of sales taxes on cigarettes will create a level playing field for mom-and-pop convenience stores across New York. I commend the Court’s decision – impartiality and equal treatment are at the very core of our system of justice,” Kolb concluded.

Kolb honored by Seneca sportsmen

By Tom Casey
LEGISLATIVE GAZETTE

May 06, 2011

The Seneca County Federation of Sportsmen’s Club has given Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb its 2011 Conservationist Award.

Kolb, R-Canandaigua, received the award April 12 during the group’s annual banquet in recognition of his “continued efforts to support conservation and champion the rights of sportsmen and women in New York state,” the group said.

“Preserving and protection New York’s great outdoors and the right of all citizens to hunt, fish and enjoy nature are top priorities for me, which is why I was deeply honored to receive [the award],” said Kolb.

The Seneca County Sportsmen’s Club describes itself as a 3,000-member organization that looks to “conserve, protect, restore and perpetuate” forests wildlife, forests and recreation areas in the county.

The Assembly’s minority leader has hosted the “Sportsmen and Outdoor Recreation Legislative Awareness Day” for the past two years to highlight the positive economic effects outdoor recreational activities can have for the state.