New York State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan came to central New York Thursday, for his first upstate trip outside of Albany since being elected to the leadership post. He was here supporting the annual Republican clam bake fundraiser.
Flanagan was elected majority leader earlier in the month when former leader Dean Skelos resigned after being arrested on federal corruption charges. Flanagan, who represents the 2nd district in Long Island, says he wants to travel around the upstate area to show that upstate and downstate share similar issues.
“We passed a bill to make the property tax cap permanent. We've kept our spending within the spending cap at the state level. We've made very strong investments in education. I believe that our members are in sync not only with their communities but with the best interest of the tax payers of the state,” said Flanagan.
The majority leader says he is confident that the New York State Legislature will pass many more bills before the session is scheduled to end on June 17.
Meanwhile, on the local level, the GOP is looking toward the November election. Tom Dadey, chairman of the Onondaga County Republican Committee, says as Democrats run more candidates in the county legislature this fall, Republicans will run more candidates in the city of Syracuse.
“We hope to have a candidate for city auditor. We're running three district council seats in the first, third and the fifth and we hope to have a school board candidate or two,” said Dadey.
Dadey says Republicans are in preliminary discussions to nominate a candidate in the event Assemblyman Sam Roberts resigns. Roberts, who represents parts of Syracuse, was nominated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to be the commissioner of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. Roberts would resign as assemblyman if the state Senate confirms his appointment.
