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Environmental lawyer (and
Adminstrator of this website) Ken Kamlet (right) congratulates
Assemblyman Robin Schimminger on his support for mean-ingful
Brownfields reform at an NFIB-sponsored meeting in Buffalo
February 6, 2003.
 Assemblyman Schimminger addresses
NFIB group gathered at the Hyatt Regency Buffalo on February 6, 2003.
Four Rochester-area legislators meet with another
NFIB group gathered at the R.I.T. Conference Center in Henrietta on
February 7, 2003.
Senator Joe Robach (R-I-C)
makes a point as Assemblymen Joe Morelle (D-Rochester), Brian
Kolb (R-Canandaigua), and Joe Errigo (R-Henrietta), look on.Fred
("Rick" Herman, Executive Vice President
of the Rochester Homebuilders' Association (foreground) listens attentively.
Assemblymen Morelle and Errigo are members
of the Assembly's Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and
Industry Committee. Senator Robach serves on the Senate Economic
Development and Small Business Committee. Assemblyman Kolb sits
on the Tourism, Arts, and Sports Development Committee among others.
At the NFIB meeting, Assemblyman Morelle, responding to a question,
indicated his strong support for Brownfields reform to promote
economic development.
For Assemblyman Morelle's Bio, see
http://www.nydems.org/assembly/morelle.html |
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At a time when
Governor Pataki is preoccupied with the State's fiscal crisis and most
members of the State Assembly want to see low-risk Brownfields sites
treated as an offshoot of the Superfund program, Assemblyman Robin
Schimminger (D-N. Tonawanda), Chair of the Assembly's Committee on
Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry, is a rare voice of reason among the Assembly
Majority. He recognizes that encouraging beneficial reuse of
Brownfields sites will attract new development, create jobs, and
expand the tax base--and it will do so at NO COST to State or local
governments. He also recognizes that it will benefit the
environment--by stimulating voluntary cleanups of sites that would
otherwise fester and continue to blight the landscape, and by reining
in urban sprawl. He knows that imposing stringent, inflexible cleanup
requirements on innocent volunteers will not result in better
protection of public health and the environment. All it will do is
drive away volunteers and prevent any cleanup at all, while stifling
urban revitalization and contributing to the downward spiral of our
once vibrant older cities.
You can help
common sense prevail. Write: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
(D-Manhattan),
Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Tom DiNapoli (D-Great Neck), Economic
Development Committee Chair Robin Schimminger (D-N. Tonawanda), your own Assemblyman,
and Governor Pataki and ASK FOR JOINT
HEARINGS ON BROWNFIELDS REFORM by the Committees on Economic
Development and Environmental Conservation. Tell them that,
if cost-effective cleanups of Brownfield sites are not encouraged by
giving innocent private volunteers an incentive to redevelop these
sites, there will be no cleanups at all.
Tell them that
enacting realistic Brownfields legislation is one very positive step
that can be taken to revitalize the economy of all of New York State
(Upstate and Downstate)--and at no cost to overburdened taxpayers!
In a May 17, 2000 Press Release,
indicating support for enactment of a comprehensive Brownfields law
supported by the Brownfields Coalition, Assemblyman Schimminger stated
the following: "Too many of our older urban areas contain brownfield
parcels that lie dormant, while greenspaces in suburban and exurban
areas are used for new development. Those dormant sites
represent both lost economic development opportunities and continuing
environmental problems.... We cannot afford to simply maintain
the status quo and continue to miss the opportunities to reuse
brownfield sites and create jobs, not only in upstate, but throughout
our great Empire State."
For Assemblyman Schimminger's Bio, see
http://www.nydems.org/assembly/schimminger.html
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