George Winner's Blog entries

Are we in for a repeat performance?

At least some of New York’s current leaders appear to be slowly but surely spinning out their case for higher taxes.

A new analysis by the Senate Minority Finance Committee (see a copy of this analysis attached below) has uncovered a list of new taxes and fees being, at least, talked about -- and it rivals the $8-billion-plus tax package enacted by Governor Paterson and legislative leaders last April.

So, yes, I remain concerned that they just refuse to understand that New York’s workers, families, and employers can’t take any more taxes.

File: 
NoNewTaxes.pdf

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. 

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.

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.

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.