—  State Senator Catharine Young demonstrated today that her desire to attack members of the Democratic Party outweighs working within her own party to achieve results. Local farmers said today that they want her to spend her time working for our farmers, not criticizing her colleagues.

“Senator Young claims to side with Senator Aubertine in opposition to a pair of Farm Labor Bills that would devastate the farm economy here in Jefferson County and throughout Upstate New York,” said Sean Hennessey, chairman of the Jefferson County Democratic Committee. “Yet, as Senator Aubertine continues to build opposition within his own conference for these bills, Sen. Young is wasting valuable time pushing back at Senator Aubertine instead of her own conference.”

Senator Darrel Aubertine, the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, led the fight to restore funding for critical agriculture programs in the 2009-10 budget, which Senator Young voted against. He has also been working with colleagues to push for additional assistance to farmers as they face a worsening crisis, particularly dairy farmers who are receiving around $6 less per hundredweight of milk less than it costs to produce. 

Republican Senator Joe Robach of Rochester, Republican Senator Frank Padavan of Queens and Republican Senator Carl Marcellino of Long Island have all signed on to support the very farm labor bills Senator Aubertine opposes. With several Democrats teaming up with Senator Aubertine already, it will require these three Republicans and others in the minority conference to pass these bills.

Several farmers in Jefferson County have joined Hennessey in crying foul about Senator Young’s actions to “use the livelihood of New York’s farmers as a political football,” as the Democratic chairman put it.

“Darrel is doing what we elected him to do,” said Floyd Hall, a retired dairy farmer from LaFargeville. “He’s fighting for us. He’s fighting for the family farms. Senator Young isn’t helping farmers by going after Darrel. This bill has three Republican sponsors, but she decided she needs to come up here and criticize Darrel instead of getting them on our side. All she’s doing is complaining and yelling about how she wants to create another government handout when we need long term help. Senator Aubertine is working hard to help us while she’s just playing games.”

Senator Young, who has directly opposed efforts by the New York State Farm Bureau to show bipartisan unity in opposition to two Farm Labor Bills, has contributed nothing but negativity in the fight to support our farmers. The Senator has used time to talk about the labor bills to bring up amendments she introduced knowing full well they were only geared at stalling the budget process. This amendment was written with unworkable bill language and part of a Republican counter proposal that would have increased state spending by $2 billion and decreased revenue by $6 billion.

“We’re going to lose our competitiveness in agriculture with other states. It’s a matter of being competitive and not passing a law that nobody understands except the farmers and they’re not listening to the farmers,” Rod Sourwine, a dairy farmer in Alexandria Bay. “Darrel isn’t doing enough? That’s ridiculous. If Darrel’s against it he’s against it. She’s just trying to stir up trouble. Use your time productively Senator Young. Go to Rochester and meet with Joe Robach. Don’t waste our time here.”

“Ask her where she stands on MPCs and where she stands on these foreign imports?” Sourwine continued, questioning Senator Young’s record for farmers. “If she’s for the farmers, how can she be for using these foreign products when we don’t make these up here? MPCs are up 70 percent in imports over last year and farmers are getting the lowest price we’ve gotten in years. I would say that’s a pretty good reason why the price is so low. This isn’t rocket science. Darrel’s 100 percent for us.”

Sean Hennessey, Jefferson County Democratic Party Chairman




Official: Senator Aubertine

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