{"id":182642,"date":"2026-04-01T20:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182642\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T20:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:52:10","slug":"tague-aims-criticism-at-democrats-for-missing-state-budget-deadline-daily-freeman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182642\/","title":{"rendered":"Tague aims criticism at Democrats for missing state budget deadline \u2013 Daily Freeman"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, N.Y. \u2014 GOP Assemblymember Chris Tague, who is running for a state Senate seat to represent parts of Ulster County, has taken critical aim at state Democrats he says are brawling among themselves over financially harmful green mandates.<\/p>\n

In a statement issued Wednesday, April 1, the day the state budget was due, Tague said that the Democratically controlled state government is too busy fighting and not using sound financial practices.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Tague<\/p>\n

The budget was due April 1, but the deadline was extended to Tuesday, April 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven with unilateral control in Albany, the Democrat Majority can\u2019t even pass a timely budget without another extender because they\u2019re too busy fighting among themselves over costly, tone-deaf green mandates that are driving up utility bills for hardworking New York families,\u201d said Tague, who is running for the 51st Senate but currently represents the 102nd Assembly District.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of delivering real relief, they\u2019re pushing more ways to take taxpayer dollars and pile on unfunded mandates that trickle down as higher costs for everyone,\u201d Tauge added. \u201cNew Yorkers don\u2019t need another quarter-trillion-dollar bloated budget; we need spending restraint, lower energy costs, and common-sense policies that put our wallets ahead of special interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 51st Senate District comprises the Ulster County towns of Olive, Marbletown, Rochester, Gardiner, Shawangunk, Wawarsing, Denning, and Hardenburgh, the village of Ellenville, and a portion of the town of Hurley, along with all of Sullivan, Otsego, Delaware, and Schoharie counties and parts of Broome and Chenango counties.<\/p>\n

On Friday, leading local Democrats and activists decried Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s recent move to delay the full implementation of the state\u2019s landmark climate law.\u00a0The matter is now being negotiated by Hochul along with the state Legislature.<\/p>\n

At a press conference at the Ulster County Area Transit Headquarters in the city, officials \u2014 including Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger, State Sen. Michelle Hinchey, and Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha \u2014 spoke in support of the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act<\/a>, or CLCPA.<\/p>\n

The law requires New York to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and by no less than 85% by 2050 from 1990 levels. In a statement on Friday, March 20, Hochul cited a memo by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), which said implementing the aggressive climate laws could cost the average Upstate household using oil and gas more than $4,100 annually.<\/p>\n

Hochul proposed to amend the law to require regulations to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions to be issued at the end of 2030. She added that she was \u201cseeking to change what emission limits the regulations are tied to \u2014 including a new 2040 target as well as the existing 2050 statewide emission limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Saugerties, responded to the criticism by pointing out that Republicans have complete control of the federal government and have damaged it beyond belief.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans have complete and unilateral control in Washington D.C., and, yet kept us in a Homeland Security government shutdown for weeks, leaving government employees without pay and wreaking havoc in our airports,\u201d Hinchey said in an email.\u00a0\u201cMeanwhile, the President remains fixated on foreign conflicts, including the war in Iran, driving up gas prices and surging them more than a dollar a gallon, squeezing families across New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HincheyHinchey (Tania Barricklo\/Daily Freeman) 101122<\/p>\n

State Democrats are different, Hinchey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike the Republicans in Washington, we take our role in government as a coequal branch seriously,\u201d Hinchey added. \u201cWe are not a rubber stamp. We are fighting for a budget that delivers real relief for New Yorkers, one that reins in unchecked utility companies that are raking in record profits while driving up rates on working families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York State will remain funded, public employees will be paid, and we will conclude a real, balanced budget in the coming weeks,\u201d the senator said. \u201cIn fact, members of the Legislature, including myself, will not collect a paycheck until a budget is passed. We will keep standing up for New Yorkers and are hopeful for a resolution very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Sen. Peter Orberacker, R-Schenevus, who currently represents the 51st Senate District, said Wednesday that Tague\u2019s assessment is on the mark.<\/p>\n

\"PeterOberacker (File)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile New Yorkers are figuring out how to make ends meet and debating leaving the state altogether, Kathy Hochul and Albany Democrats are arguing over how to separate New Yorkers from more of their money,\u201d Oberacker said in an email. \u201cAssemblyman Tague is correct, which is why he and I have been working every single day to make life more affordable for our constituents. Albany Democrats should join us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oberacker is running for the 19th Congressional seat.<\/p>\n

Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha, D-Esopus, who represents the 103rd Assembly District, said state Republicans ought to be directing their ire toward the federal government, which is controlled by their party.<\/p>\n

\"AssemblymemberAssemblymember Sarahana Shrestha, D-Esopus watches results from the primary at the Kingston Standard Brewing Company on Jansen Street on Tuesday night, June 25, 2024. (Tania Barricklo\/Daily Freeman)<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps my Republican colleagues should be asking their counterparts in Congress why they\u2019re getting so much joy out of cutting people\u2019s healthcare, giving New York\u2019s millionaires a tax cut of $12 billion, and escalating a war for which their constituents will pay out of their pockets,\u201d Shrestha said in an email on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KINGSTON, N.Y. \u2014 GOP Assemblymember Chris Tague, who is running for a state Senate seat to represent parts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4353,85,267,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,87,4941],"class_list":{"0":"post-182642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-chris-tague","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-new-york-state","15":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-state-news","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-ulster-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}