Liz Krueger's News items

By Casey Seiler

Albany Times Union 

Krueger noted that most of the Senate Republicans have already endorsed Mitt Romney for president, and suggested that the effort to squelch Stavisky’s resolution was a miniature version of assaults on reproduction rights on the federal level. “This is the beginning of their little national Planned Parenthood moment, so to speak,” she said.

By Glenn Blain

New York Daily News

Democrats said a resolution submitted late last week by Queens Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky seeking to proclaim next week “Reproductive Rights and Justice Week” was scrubbed by Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos' office to take out any mention of abortion, family planning and reproductive rights.

Instead, the GOP offered a re-written resolution that proclaimed it "Women's Health Week."

"They took my resolution, censored it, and gave us a sanitized version," Stavisky said at a press conference with fellow Democratic Senators Liz Krueger of Manhattan and Andrea Stewart-Cousins of Yonkers.

by David Howard King

Gotham Gazette

This week a number of Assembly Democrats got a peek at what their new district lines will look like if the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment has anything to say about it. And LATFOR, with legislative leaders, has for decades had the final word on drawing district lines for the state. The process of redistricting was conducted in secret, lines were drawn to protect incumbents and maintain the senate Republicans’ majority, legislators were consulted on what would be convenient for them. The people were as far away from the process as possible.

Our Town, December 15, 2011

By Liz Krueger

In another whirlwind session in Albany, Gov. Andrew Cuomo pushed through a new tax plan that will generate $1.5 billion in much needed additional revenue for the state. I supported the plan because that revenue will make it easier to balance the budget without devastating cuts to education, health care and social services, and because it creates a more progressive tax structure than we would have if we did nothing. But there is also plenty to be critical of, both in terms of the minimal progressive reform to our tax structure and the record-breaking 26 minutes the Legislature and public had to review the contents of the package.

By Marissa Maier

Our Town

“Ban Fracking Now” was the rallying cry for about a dozen downstate lawmakers before a Nov. 30 hearing on the drilling procedure, held at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, though a few acknowledged the long odds in pressuring Governor Andrew Cuomo to keep the industry out of the state.

Senator Liz Krueger, who represents Manhattan's 26th district in the New York State Senate, reacts to reports that Governor Cuomo will propose a higher tax rate for high income earners.

Listen Here

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Governor Andrew Cuomo is considering restructuring New York's tax code as he prepares a budget that must close a deficit as large as $3.5 billion after a temporary surcharge on those earning at least $200,000 expires Dec. 31.

Cuomo has said he opposes the state's so-called millionaire's tax. With the levy set to expire at year's end, he's now discussing a broader rethinking.

"What I'm looking at is what do you do with the tax code and how you use the tax code to stimulate jobs," the 53-year- old first-term Democrat said on WGDJ in Albany today.

By Jill Colvin

DOWNTOWN — The Department of Education has cautiously reopened the door to a plan that could alleviate overcrowding at a Kips Bay school.

P.S. 116, on East 33rd Street between Second and Third avenues, is currently at 120 percent capacity, according to advocates. To ease the strain, parents and elected officials want the city to start kindergarten classes for nearby P.S. 281, which isn't scheduled to open until 2013, this fall so that some P.S. 116 students can go to school there.

By Ken Lovett

The federal food stamp program alone pumps more than $5.3 billion a year into the state, the letter says.

"While the Farm Bill is not up for reauthorization until 2012, we are concerned this critical program may be fast forwarded within the Super Committee deficit process," the lawmakers wrote.

"The Farm Bill needs major reform to better help end hunger through strengthening the SNAP Food Stamps, promoting a health diet, and supporting family farms and a local food economy."

The group says it is "particularly disturbed" by recommendations from the American Farm Bureau Federation that nutrition programs should bear 30% of any deficit cuts made in the Agriculture Committee's jurisdiction