George Winner's Blog

Medicaid Fraud

Posted by George Winner on Friday, February 5th, 2010

I'm grateful to be serving as a member of the newly created Senate Republican Task Force on Medicaid Fraud to find out why state taxpayers continue to lose hundreds of millions of dollars to abuse, fraud, and waste in New York’s more than $50-billion Medicaid system.

The urgency of the state’s fiscal crisis demands a renewed focus on the fraud that has plagued the Medicaid system for years.

It’s way past time to put in place a "zero tolerance" policy to combat the millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars being lost to Medicaid fraud and waste.

Media resources

Spending Cap

Posted by George Winner on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

It seems like common sense to many of us in New York government: The first step toward fundamentally changing the way Albany does business is to limit state government's ability to spend taxpayer money.

But we've known for a long time that New York State has a spending problem. It's nothing new. Government critics have been saying it for years and, believe me, there's plenty of credit to go around for who's responsible.

Spending Cap

Posted by George Winner on Thursday, November 12th, 2009

One well-known state fiscal watchdog operates what it calls a "Spend-O-Meter," which currently estimates that New York government is spending $4,179 per second, more than $15 million per hour, and over $10 BILLION a month.

Dairy Crisis

Posted by George Winner on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

I joined several of my upstate colleagues at the Capitol to conduct a public hearing on what I believe is one of the most critical issues facing our state today: the dairy crisis.

It’s been a whirlwind of a political year at the Capitol -- and it continues to be with the state facing a deep-rooted and serious budget deficit heading into 2010 – but we cannot let the powers-that-be in New York government lose sight of the overriding importance of doing anything and everything to save New York dairy farmers on the brink of collapse.

Economy 2010

Posted by George Winner on Monday, September 28th, 2009

As our attention begins to turn again toward the beginning of the 2010 regular session of the New York State Legislature, it’s as good a time as any to start staking out the themes and priorities that need to dominate next year’s agenda.

For me, first and foremost, that’s going to mean the upstate economy.

A new Senate?

Posted by George Winner on Thursday, July 16th, 2009

Early this morning at the Capitol, I joined my Democratic and Republican colleagues to enact far-reaching legislative reforms that fundamentally change the way the Senate does business.

These reforms take power away from legislative leaders and empower individual legislators from every region. We've acted to open up the legislative process to greater public scrutiny, accountability, bipartisanship, cooperative action, effectiveness, and more reform than we've ever had in Albany.

Rockefeller Drug Law Mistake?

Posted by George Winner on Monday, June 1st, 2009

You might recall that the 2009-2010 New York State budget included broad and controversial provisions to ease the 1970's-era Rockefeller drug laws.

While this action was taken despite my strong opposition and against the better judgement of many of my legislative colleagues, a new problem has surfaced and it's an issue that's going to get plenty of attention throughout the week ahead.

Disappearing Farms

Posted by George Winner on Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Can we stop it?

I'm talking about the perfect storm that's settling over New York's dairy industry. Low milk prices being paid to farmers plus high operating costs plus a declining worldwide economy and other factors are combining to spell disaster for many state dairy farmers.

Restore the Rebates

Posted by George Winner on Thursday, May 7th, 2009

The elimination of New York’s two-year-old STAR property tax rebate program works against efforts to stimulate economic growth and arrives at the worst possible economic time for families and homeowners.

It was one of the most ill-timed actions taken as part of the 2009-2010 state budget recently enacted by Governor David Paterson and the Legislature’s Democratic leaders.

Families, seniors, and all homeowners have counted on these rebates to provide a little relief from today’s high costs and New York’s crushing property tax burden.