Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno OUT, Senator Dean Skelos IN (New York: house, bills)

[bellafinzi]

Capital News 9 | 24 Hour Local News | HEADLINES | Skelos new Senate Majority Leader

With a new Senate Majority Leader from Long Island, is this good or bad news for Western NY and Central NY?

I say good.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos from Long Island is better than a Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno from the Capital District for the Syracuse area. Why? ANSWER: Most of the State money that made its way to Upstate NY went straight to the Capital District via Joe Bruno. Now that all Upstate New York is in the same boat, more State money may make it to more depressed regions.... like the Syracuse area etc.

[rochacha]

I think there are a lot of laws in this state that are good for downstate but not for upstate and vice versa, and in that respect having all 3 top politicans from downstate is not a good thing.

EDIT: BTW, it is going to get worse if the Dems take over the State Senate this year, as most of the Republican Senators are from upstate I believe.

[juppiter]

Originally Posted by bellafinzi

Capital News 9 | 24 Hour Local News | HEADLINES | Skelos new Senate Majority Leader

With a new Senate Majority Leader from Long Island, is this good or bad news for Western NY and Central NY?

I say bad. Bruno's district didn't cover most of the Capital District, just the Capital District east of the Hudson River and Saratoga County. Neil Breslin, a Democrat, has a district whose boundaries match Albany County's boundaries. So what this meant is that whenever there was an ALBANY project, it went to Bruno's district. For example, the ALBANY Amtrak station is east of the Hudson River in Rensselaer. Same with the "Joe Bruno Stadium."

This is bad for upstate NY because Bruno blocked a lot of bills that downstate Democrats wanted that would've been bad for upstate NY. Who knows if the new guy will do the same?

[Sgoldie]

I believe it's bad too. Not only are both of our federal senators from NYC but now our governor as well as the two top legislative leaders in the state who essentially control it are also from NYC or it's immediate area. No reason to sustain a presence in Albany whatsoever except for show. It would be like having the president, vice president, and the top house and senate leaders all from Miami trying to pass laws for Wyoming.

Upstate will become the place NYC will dump their garbage, place nuclear plants in, run high tension wires through, and take water from. In other words the poor servant. Money goes where the power is and it isn't in upstate. Why do you think we never see a presidential candidate upstate? If it comes down to a consideration between what's good for upstate and what's good for the NYC area the former will merely be an annoyance at best. The two worlds are so vastly different I can't see it being any other way at this point.

[juppiter]

Originally Posted by Sgoldie

I believe it's bad too. Not only are both of our federal senators from NYC but now our governor as well as the two top legislative leaders in the state who essentially control it are also from NYC or it's immediate area. No reason to sustain a presence in Albany whatsoever except for show. It would be like having the president, vice president, and the top house and senate leaders all from Miami trying to pass laws for Wyoming.

Upstate will become the place NYC will dump their garbage, place nuclear plants in, run high tension wires through, and take water from. In other words the poor servant. Money goes where the power is and it isn't in upstate. Why do you think we never see a presidential candidate upstate? If it comes down to a consideration between what's good for upstate and what's good for the NYC area the former will merely be an annoyance at best. The two worlds are so vastly different I can't see it being any other way at this point.

Well, I don't think nuclear plants would be so bad. They don't pollute and produce lots of power. But I definitely see what you mean otherwise.