April 11, 2017
ALBANY, NY – On the state senate floor, Senator Cathy Young (R, Olean), the chairperson of the state senate’s finance committee, spoke about an email she got recently, that questioned her on whether the safe act is funded in the new state budget.
We spoke with Senator Young, asking her if the Safe Act is funded by the NYS Budget. The senator gave us the following statement:
“There is no identified funding for the Safe Act, and there’s no identified funding for safe act enforcement within the state police. There is also no secret squad of the state police, that enforces the safe act.” However, Young maintains that while the state senate GOP successfully blocked the funding of the ammunition database, that Governor Andrew Cuomo wanted the state police to implement, that it would be impossible to cut off all funding to the troopers. “You cannot totally defund the State Police,” Sen. Young said.
Senator Young also told Wlea News that much of the misinformation about the state budget, comes from New York City Assembly Democrats, who the senator describes as “running on the safe act gun control issues” in their districts. Young says that those New York City based state lawmakers, erroneously brag, that the Safe Act is funded by the state legislature. Young says that the NYC lawmakers have gone around telling New York City voters that the Democrats in the legislature got funding for the Safe Act, in order to give the impression to NYC voters that they (state lawmakers) are more have more sway, than they actually do.
In the video seen about, Young stated that the rumors about the Safe Act getting state funding, are not true. “There is no new funding, nor is any funding for the Safe Act, discreetly lined out.”
