Published: January 08, 2009 12:14 am      

STATE OF THE STATE: State lawmakers get a shout out

Two state lawmakers representing Niagara County received special mention by Gov. David Paterson during his state-of-the-state address on Wednesday.

Paterson singled out Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, D-Lewiston, and Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, while discussing plans for a potential visit to the Niagara Region later this year.

“I look forward to his visit and his vision for the future of the Niagara Region,” DelMonte said.

Maziarz, who serves as co-chair on the Senate’s Energy Committee, gave Paterson high marks for focusing part of his speech on energy production, including a reference to upstate becoming a hub of development for batteries used by big three automakers in the production of hybrid vehicles.

“I really liked that emphasis on let’s just not change to energy efficient light bulbs, let’s make energy efficient light bulbs,” Maziarz said. “I think it was a positive part of the speech. The problem is will we have the money to do it.”

Maziarz said another problem with Paterson’s speech was its focus on new taxes as opposed to an emphasis on consolidation of agencies as a way to address the state’s deficit problem. While Paterson is looking to increase taxes on music downloads and sugary sodas, Maziarz believes more could be accomplished by consolidating state agencies like the Thruway Authority and the Department of Transportation and eliminating others, like the state Liquor Authority, altogether.

“I don’t think we can increase any taxes in this state,” he said. “I don’t see that happening.”

While acknowledging that such consolidations have been discussed with no tangible progress for years, Maziarz said economic conditions are now so bad the conversations may well turn into some action.

“I think that these concerns really, really have to push some of this stuff to the top of the agenda,” he said.

DelMonte agreed that the state has much work to do and must concentrate on lowering the cost of doing business in New York.

“Reducing state mandates, lowering business taxes, easing regulations and lowering property taxes are the spark we need to ignite the dormant upstate economic engine,” she said.

The Niagara County Legislature’s Majority Leader Richard Updegrove, who chairs the county’s Economic Development Committee, said he remains hopeful the state will be able to follow through on Paterson’s commitment to maintaining the Upstate Revitalization Fund. Niagara County was the first county in the state to submit a list of projects that could be funded under the initiative.

“We’ve already prepared a blueprint that addresses various infrastructure needs,” he said.

Updegrove said county officials also are working on a plan of a different sort for Paterson who said during a recent nationally televised interview that he would welcome suggestions from his critics for ways to address the state’s budget problems. He said the goal for the county is to do whatever can be done to combat shifts in costs for state programs to the county level.

In the coming weeks, Updegrove said the county intends to submit several recommendations for addressing Medicaid spending and other costly state programs that impact local property taxpayers.

“I’m going to assume he would welcome our suggestions,” Updegrove said. “We have an understanding of how these issues impact Niagara County taxpayers. So, our suggestions are going to be from the Niagara County taxpayers. What are the issues that are driving our budget? We know what those issues are.”

Contact reporter Mark Scheer at 282-2311, ext. 2250.