Over Three Dozen People Attend Assemblyman Sempolinski’s Town Hall In Wellsville

FROM ASSEMBLYMAN SEMPOLINSKI’S OFFICE:

More than 40 people attended Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski’s second town hall meeting Thursday at the Wellsville American Legion, Morrison Hayes Post 702.

“I’m very grateful to everyone who came to the town hall and made time to meet with me on a beautiful spring day,” Assemblyman Sempolinski said. “We talked about everything from the late state budget to New York’s unworkable energy policies, particularly electric truck and school bus mandates, healthcare access and healthcare transportation and local economic development.”

Under New York’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act signed into law by former Gov. Cuomo, school districts are barred from purchasing diesel school buses after 2027 and must transition their fleets to electric school buses. The EV buses are more expensive than diesel buses, heavier and lack the range of traditional school buses. Their performance also degrades in cold weather.

“The math and the physics just don’t work,” Assemblyman Sempolinski said. “This is a $20 billion unfunded mandate to local school districts. Albany has pledged around $1 billion to help schools transition to EV buses. It’s a drop in the bucket. People’s school taxes are going to skyrocket.”

“Transportation is a huge issue in a rural district like ours. It takes two hours to drive from one corner of the 148th Assembly District to the other. So one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter policies from Albany won’t work. What works in lower Manhattan doesn’t work in Angelica or Wellsville,” Assemblyman Sempolinski said.

Assemblyman Sempolinski told everyone at the town hall that he’ll take their comments and recommendations to Albany to help him make the case for responsible change.