Patty Ritchie's Blog entries

My top priority as your State Senator has been to hold the line on taxes.

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RP425.pdf

What does New York need to continue our recovery, build a stronger economy and create jobs?

Over the past 12 months, we reached across party lines to cut taxes—including the new Middle Class Tax Cut that takes effect New Year’s Day—reduce spending, and reform Albany to make state government work again.

Whether you talk to farmers from Long Island, Western New York or Northern New York, they all ask whether it really makes sense for more than 22 different state and federal agencies to have a hand in regulating family farms.

Take pesticide regulations.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency currently regulates chemical companies which produce pesticides for the nation’s farms. Before a company can sell a pesticide in the U.S., the manufacturer has to meet a battery of national scientific standards and tests to prove the chemical combination will not harm human or animal health or pollute the environment.

 I WANT TO HELP YOU FIND THE JOB YOU WANT

40,000 ALREADY HIRED THROUGH ONLINE WEB SEARCH

I'm committed to helping you find the job you want. Some 2,000 job-seeksr have already found help through the four Job Fairs I've hosted in Oswego and St. Lawrence Counties in 2011 and 2012.

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Oswego Hire Yourself

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Jefferson Hire Yourself

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St. Lawrence Hire Yourself

I had a an opportunity to speak to members of the community at the Watertown Italian American Civic Association on Wednesday, Sept. 28. Here's a copy of the presentation I made at that event.

File: 
0928 IAC Powerpoint (Final).pdf

A major accomplishment this year as your State Senator was the historic two percent property tax cap Governor Andrew Cuomo and the legislature passed this year.

After 40 years of talking about holding the line on property taxes, legislators from both sides of the aisle worked with the governor to provide taxpayers with some degree of relief from one of the biggest problems facing New York State’s economic recovery.

This week, the Senate appointed me to serve on a new bipartisan task force on government efficiency that will help investigate and identify wasteful spending in state government.

Ever thought about starting your own business?

Ever daydreamed about taking that hobby or interest you enjoy and turning it into a part-time or full-time venture.

Someone once said that if you find a job you love, you’ll never feel like you’re working. That’s one of the reasons I developed a guide called “Hire Yourself” that provides detailed information for existing companies that want to expand and advice for people who want to turn their passion into their own business.

Small businesses are the backbone of our nation’s economy. In 1995, 78 percent of America’s 5 million companies had fewer than 10 employees.

Ten years ago, on Sept. 11, our world changed.

Our nation discovered that the end of the cold war had not left us without enemies plotting our destruction.

But as we watched in horror as the twin towers fell and thousands of our countrymen were murdered on national television, we also witnessed our nation come together in a way that had not occurred since the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in the 1940s.

People of all religions, colors, ethnic origins and ways of life came together to vow they would work to insure that the sacrifices of those who died in that tragedy would not be in vain.

The next time the state looks at rebuilding a road in Central or Northern New York, planners will have to consider whether it makes sense to widen it to allow for a bike path, a pedestrian walk way or even sidewalks.

With many of our roads in Oswego, Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties originally designed at the turn of the century when carriages, wagons and stage coaches were the primary means of transportation, all of us have worried how hikers and bicyclists manage to safely travel some of our narrower byways.

That’s why I supported a new law that the governor signed last week called the “Complete Streets”

bill (S 5411) that requires transportation planners to consider the needs of pedestrians and bicyclists when they design new roads or rebuild old ones.