January 6, 2016
ALBANY, NY – State Senator Catharine Young (R, Olean) has been appointed as Senate Majority Finance Committee Chair. As Chair, Senator Young will lead hearings to conduct a thorough review of Governor Cuomo’s Executive Budget Proposal. Other responsibilities include reviewing the governor’s nominations for various positions. “I am honored and humbled to become the first woman to serve as Senate Majority Finance Chair in state history,” said Senator Young. “It is exciting because of what this appointment means for the people in my Senate district and all of Western New York. It gives our entire region tremendous clout and a strong voice in state budget matters and policy decisions. My goal is to deliver more attention and resources to our part of the state to address the unique needs of our economy, schools, and infrastructure. We must ensure that all of Western New York shares in economic prosperity and that we have good-paying jobs and opportunities. All of our children need and deserve to have the best education possible and we need to secure our fair share of funding for our schools. Our crumbling roads and bridges need repairs and our aging water and sewer systems desperately need upgrades. Our hardworking, overburdened taxpayers need more tax relief. There’s a lot of work to get done and I’m ready and raring to get started,” she said.
Also today, it was announced from the state capital that State Senator Tom O’Mara (R, Big Flats), who is in his third term representing New York’s 58th Senate District, has been reappointed chairman of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee. O’Mara has headed the Environmental Conservation Committee since early last year. O’Mara’s stated priorities are: soil and water conservation and quality; energy-related demands including the development and promotion of cleaner sources of energy; preservation initiatives impacting farmland, forests and other state resources; brownfields cleanup; solid and hazardous waste management; invasive and endangered species; and fish and wildlife conservation. “These challenges and issues confronting New York are vital to the overall environmental and economic well-being of the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions, and the state as a whole,” said O’Mara, “I appreciate having the confidence of the Senate leadership to continue this challenging assignment and build on some of the important foundations we achieved last year.”
