Latest news with #DanStec
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Peru student shadows Stec in Albany
ALBANY — State Sen. Dan Stec (R,C-Queensbury) welcomed Peru High School junior Connor Baehre to Albany Tuesday as part of the League of Women Voters' 2025 Students Inside Albany Conference. Baehre, one of 60 students statewide selected for the conference, spent the afternoon in Albany at the Capitol and shadowed Stec while the Senate convened for session. Stec appreciated having the opportunity to welcome him to Albany and show him firsthand how the state's legislative process works. 'It was a pleasure to welcome Connor to Albany and show him how the state Senate operates,' Stec said. 'I'm glad to assist in a program like the Students Inside Albany Conference, which helps encourage civic engagement and participation and allows our young people to see our government in action. I hope Connor enjoyed his time at the Capitol and that the experience furthered his interest in government and public service.'
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
North Country state lawmakers decry late state budget
PLATTSBURGH — The failure of the state to meet its April 1 budget deadline is not sitting well with North Country state lawmakers. 'Given the failure of Democrat leadership to transparently negotiate a state budget, I voted to pass a budget extender today to ensure New York State meets its financial obligations and that the state workforce is paid,' State Sen. Dan Stec (R-Queensbury) said. 'Democrats control the governor's office and both houses of the legislature, yet they can't even work with each other to present a fiscally responsible, on-time state budget. This failure rests with them, their ongoing dysfunction and inability to move beyond their high tax-and-spend, anti-public safety agendas.' SIXTH MISSED DEADLINE The legislature could not come up with a final spending plan by Tuesday's deadline as they deal with potential cuts to federal aid. This is the sixth straight year the budget will be late. Last year, the state budget was finished on April 20 and in 2023, it went into May. In the 1990s, the budget was often late, with final approval sometimes not occurring until mid-summer. Assemblyman Matt Simpson (R,C-Lake George) also was not happy with Tuesday's missed budget deadline. 'Albany Democrats have once again failed to pass a budget on time. This is the consequence of single-party rule; endless backroom policy fights while working class New Yorkers struggle under record high costs,' Simpson said. 'Instead of reining in spending and providing relief, they are setting us up for another bloated, unsustainable budget.' Assemblyman D. Billy Jones (D-Chateaugay Lake) said a late budget is no way to conduct business in this state. 'The taxpayers, municipalities, and school districts deserve an on-time budget,' Jones said. 'My colleagues and I remain ready to negotiate and pass a State Budget that benefits all New Yorkers.'
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Stec leading NY-21 Conservative Party preferences
The state Conservative Committee has narrowed its selection of a candidate in the upcoming 21st Congressional District special election to three candidates, all Republicans, with state Sen. Dan Stec (R-Queensbury) being the 'party preference,' Conservative party spokesman William O'Reilly said Sunday. PARTY PREFERENCE The Conservative Party Executive Committee will be meeting with Stec, Assemblyman Chris Tague (R-Schoharie), and Liz Joy, a conservative speaker and writer from Glenville, in the coming days. 'The Party could get behind any one of those three candidates, but Senator Stec remains the Party preference,' O'Reilly said. 'The Conservative Party has informed GOP leaders that it hopes to work with them to advance one of these three. Discussions are ongoing.' The special election will be held to fill the congressional seat that will be vacant when U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik resigns to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. VOTE NEARING A U.S. Senate confirmation vote is expected to be held around April 2, according to multiple national news reports. Unlike a regular election, there is no primary in a special election. Party chairs in the 15 counties in the 21st Congressional District select the nominee. All three of the Conservative Party's acceptable candidates are also seeking the Republican nomination, and were on a list of 11 finalists Republican leaders announced earlier this month. State election law allows candidates to run on multiple party lines and combine the votes received on all lines in the tabulation. Conservative party leaders have said they hope to run the same candidate as the Republican party. The Democratic candidate is Blake Gendebien, a farmer from Lisbon, in St. Lawrence County. The Gendebien campaign announced March 19 that it has raised more than $2 million since mid-December.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Stec says concerns of officers universal
DANNEMORA — With more correctional facilities in his district than any other state lawmaker, State Sen. Dan Stec said he has heard plenty from striking correction officers about their safety concerns on the job. 'Every facility, more or less, has the same issues and they are very remarkably consistent,' Stec (R-Queensbury) said. 'The bottom line is from what I've heard at all of the facilities is so far a list of almost identical concerns. Their number-one concern is the unsafe environment that the HALT Act has created.' TOURED PRISONS Stec completed a two-day tour of all seven correctional facilities in his district on Friday with visits to Washington, Adirondack and Altona Correctional Facilities. On Thursday he went to Bare Hill, Franklin and Upstate Correctional Facilities in Malone and Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. Officers across the state have been participating in a wildcat strike not sanctioned by their union, the New York State Correction Officers Police Benevolent Association, since Monday. They are protesting conditions inside the prisons, saying they are unsafe due to a lack of staff and the Humane Alternative to Long Term Incarceration Act that strictly limits the amount of time inmates can be sent to special housing units. VIOLENCE LEVELS Officers cite the sharp rise in inmate on inmate and inmate on staff assaults that have occurred since HALT was implemented in 2022. Stec said the public should understand that the issue is not about money, but rather safety. 'The data shows inmate on staff and inmate on inmate assaults have gone through the roof,' he said. 'And you've got a retention and recruitment problem because word is out that it's not a good place or a safe place to work.' Since the officers have hit the picket lines, prisons have been functioning with those who have decided to show up for work. Many of those officers have been forced to stay inside, working multiple shifts without leaving the facility. Gov. Kathy Hochul activated the National Guard on Wednesday to help cover shifts at several prisons across the state. Stec said that he saw Guard units at the Malone-area prisons on Thursday and was told that Guard units would be arriving at Clinton Thursday night. The governor and the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III offered some concessions on Thursday and called for several sessions with a mediator set for next week. The state offered a temporary suspension of portions of HALT as well as offering that any officer picketing would not face punishment for the illegal strike if they reported to work as of 11:59 p.m. Thursday. Stec said he did not know if any officers opted to go back to work as of the midnight deadline, but said as a group, the state's offers were not well received by the picketing officers. 'I've gotten reactions from people on that memo from all five facilities (that he had visited) and to a person... they laugh because it doesn't nearly go far enough,' Stec said. 'To a person, they rejected it because it doesn't go nearly far enough and more importantly, they don't trust the commissioner or the governor as far as their reliability to deliver on it.' Word from the picket line in Dannemora Friday afternoon was that no officers crossed the picket line on Thursday. RUNNING OUT THE CLOCK Stec said he hopes the mediation sessions can help, but the officers are not confident that they will, and they are suspicious of the mediator, Martin F. Scheinman, who reportedly has donated thousands of dollars to Hochul's campaign. 'They (officers) are already suspicious of that, but they are also bothered that this mediation isn't being proposed to start until next Thursday or something like that,' Stec said. 'They get a sense that the governor is playing run out the clock, and the governor is basically saying, 'I'm not going to talk to talk to you for another six days.' She's trying to wear them out.' Late Friday afternoon, Scheinman issued a statement saying that mediation sessions would start on Monday rather than later next week. 'At the initial meeting today, Feb. 21, 2025, NYSCOPBA pressed for formal mediation to start more quickly. Based upon NYSCOPBA's arguments, I suggested it was a good idea to begin earlier and the Commissioner of DOCCS; and his Chief of Staff, and the Director of OER, readily agreed,' Scheinman said. 'Therefore, the formal mediation will begin Monday, February 24, 2025.' Stec said the officers on strike seemed resolved to stick it out as long as it takes. 'My observation, moving from group to group as I have the last two days, is they are all basically saying the same thing, that this (state offer) doesn't go far enough and it isn't changing anything so we are going to be here,' he said.
