Tompkins Conservatives

08/06/2026

Upstate New York Elected Officials Join Downstate Officials to Abolish ICE

While most of the elected officials who signed the letter to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer were from downstate, a number of Upstaters also signed, including Tompkins County officials.

Tompkins County Legislator Veronica Pillar, District 2; Ithaca Mayor Rob Cantelmo was joined by Ithaca Common Council Members Jorge DeFendini, Ward 1; Kayla Matos, Ward 1; Ducson Nguyen, Ward 2; Hannah Shvets, Ward 5.

The letter calls for: For the safety of our constituents and to restore public trust and the rule of law, we call on you and all congressional Democrats to publicly support the abolition of ICE and to leverage your positions to defund and dismantle this rogue federal agency.

Click below to see the letter and its signers.

Letter from 100+ NYS elected officials Abolish ICE to Restore Public Safety File File Text Pages Notes Results Search Page of 9 Zoom

08/05/2026

The NY Budget: Short-Term Gain (Governor’s Votes in the Election), Long-Term Pain (For Taxpayers)

From Comptroller DiNapoli's latest analysis of the New York State Budget: “(NYS Division of Budget) projects cumulative outyear budget gaps have increased since January and are now projected to total $31.7 billion (by 2030).” The Division of Budget is the Governor’s department, controlled completely by the governor, that develops the Budget, negotiates the Budget with the legislature, and controls the Budget throughout the year after it’s passed.

2030 isn’t that far away. $31 billion, nearly $32 billion, is a lot of money to find in the couch cushions.

The Citizens Budget Commission agrees: “What’s crystal clear is that despite very strong revenues, the State squandered the opportunity to stabilize its fiscal future. It kept its rainy-day reserves virtually flat, even amid mixed economic currents. It layered billions of dollars of spending on top of a base it already could not sustain… Over the past decade, State spending has grown $40.6 billion higher than inflation.”

Meanwhile, the Governor is running all over the state announcing projects funded by our tax dollars, like she put up the money personally. Nobody is embarrassed by pork spending anymore or who gets it.

07/30/2026

While Governor Hochul is outspending our candidate, Bruce Blakeman, it's clear that his message is making sense to New Yorkers. We have to make sure we tell our friends, family, and coworkers about the conservative message of lower taxes, less government, less fraud, and more opportunity between now and Election Day.

Gov. Kathy Hochul leads her Republican opponent Bruce Blakeman by just 4 percentage points, according to a bombshell new poll.

07/28/2026

Saritha will use the office of the Attorney General to change New York, unlike Letitia James who has used it to further her political career. Letitia James is more concerned with criminal rights than victims' rights. More concerned with giving illegal aliens rights by stopping law enforcement from pursuing them than with pursuing them. Letitia James is wrong for New York.

07/25/2026

Our Lt. Governor Candidate, Sheriff Todd Hood, is Warned by the AG to Stop Cooperating with ICE

AG Letitia James has threatened Sheriff Hood and 11 other sheriffs that they must terminate their contracts with ICE in one month and then send proof to her office that they have done so or face legal action.

Governor Hochul signed into law a bill that bans state and local law enforcement from helping federal agencies in civil immigration enforcement. The ban takes effect August 25th. This law also created the Office of Immigrant Trust.

What about an Office of Taxpayer Trust?

It’s expected that law enforcement will sue to block the law.

Democratic Socialists of America Release New Workers Deserve Better! Platform

The new platform from the DSA certainly shows imagination. No need for money. No debt. No landlords or private home ownership. Labor unions for everyone. Free healthcare. Free college. There are several different versions of their platform out there.

Our current Constitution would be thrown out the window. The Senate would be eliminated. The President and the Supreme Court would remain, but they’d be appointed by the House of Representatives and serve at their pleasure. The House would be the only directly elected branch of government.

All elections would be publicly financed. The two-party system would be done away with. The thing that is dangerous about this system is that the smaller states would not be represented. This has been a top goal of the ultra-liberals long before the DSA. Those states tend to be rural and conservative. They don’t agree with their goals.

Goals such as universal health care with no premiums, co-pays, or deductibles. Guaranteed reproductive and gender affirming care.

A 32-hour work week and paid family leave for all workers.

All workers would be able to migrate to any country of their choice. All immigrants would have access to jobs, labor rights, and social services.

Of course, they’re paying for all of this with the old Marxist principle of taxing the rich. Which, after they wipe out capitalism, a future goal, who is going to be rich?

Look for a comparison of the Democratic Socialists of America platform to the Working Families Party and the Democratic Party platform in the future.

Governor Hochul’s Data Center Moratorium

Labor leaders have warned that restricting private sector projects threatens immediate, well-paying union jobs.

Rich Evans, the business manager for United Association Local 22, which covers western New York and the Buffalo area, said that his union had already reached labor agreements for two proposed data centers in that region. But with the new moratorium in place, the roughly 200 union jobs that the projects would have supported are now on pause.

“To have it just go away by a stroke of a pen is extremely frustrating,” Evans said. “Labor supports the party that supports labor, and it seems like they’re getting away from that. It’s making it very hard for our membership to support them when they do things like this.”

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said “this is an easy way to cop out” and “this is not leadership.”

Who uses data centers? You do. Amazon, Google, the companies that provide telehealth, email, and other shopping services, along with a lot of things you use that you wouldn’t suspect, use data centers to do business with you.

Part of the Governor’s moratorium is to address rising costs for homeowners. But this is only a problem in the Northeast. In North Dakota, for example, which doesn’t have the green rules New York does, costs have been lowered for its residential customers.

Non-Binary Lawmakers and the Bathrooms in the Capitol

A prominent newspaper is reporting that two lawmakers who identify as nonbinary may be disappointed by the bathrooms in the Capitol and the Legislative Office Building. There are no gender-neutral or single-use bathrooms in either building.

My point isn’t about the bathrooms; it’s about the length of the article. The author says up front that “I recognize that this is not something that affects the vast majority of people who read this newsletter every day.” And then proceeds to write 1,146 words, totaling 5,764 characters. For comparison, this post is 704 words, totaling 3,551 characters.

07/24/2026

There’s been a lot of talk about socialism squeezing out moderate Democrats. There are no moderate Democrats in New York politics, and New York is already socialist.

Let’s look at some of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) platform and see what the Democrats in the Legislature accomplished long before the DSA was a gleam in anyone’s eye.

State-Run Healthcare: State-run healthcare has been a goal of the Democratic Conference for decades. They call it Healthy NY, and it would turn healthcare over to the State. This has failed, so they’ve expanded Medicaid far beyond any other state. 42% of New Yorkers are on Medicaid or Medicaid-subsidized products. New York’s per capita Medicaid spending is 82% higher than the national average. The DSA should be proud of the establishment.

Abolish prisons and the police: They’ve been working on closing prisons since the early 2000s. They haven’t stopped. Many of the so-called justice reforms the Democrats passed have been talked about since the 1960s. The Clean Slate Act seals prisoners’ jail records, cashless bail takes bail away for many crimes, and they raised the age at which a juvenile can be tried as an adult to 18, no matter what crime they committed. They’ve introduced legislation that creates a “retirement age” allowing prisoners to leave prison at the age of 55. Fortunately, it hasn’t been taken up for a vote.

Expand Union Jobs: New York has the second-highest union membership in the Country at roughly 21%. The national average is about 11%. Between collective bargaining, arbitration, and other protections for unions, most of which started in the 1970s, New York is very friendly to unions. Most of New York’s union membership belongs to public unions like teachers and state and local government employees.

Amnesty for Illegal Aliens: While the Democrats haven’t gone quite that far, they have declared New York a sanctuary state. New York provides Medicaid to illegal aliens over 65 and women who are pregnant. Illegal Aliens can get a driver's license. The governor recently announced a fund to reward local police departments for not cooperating with ICE. New York has passed laws limiting the places that ICE can operate. They passed many of these initiatives long before the DSA was influential.

Expand Rent Control: The Democrats have been working to expand rent control since I joined the legislature in 1989. They have succeeded in expanding rent control in upstate cities.

Reparations for Slavery: The governor and the legislature formed a commission to study reparations for slavery. The Commission has met in locations across the State for input. They’ve gone farther than that, though, saying all people of color are slaves to institutional racism and should be compensated for that.

The DSA didn’t really become known in New York State politics until Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign. While I haven’t explored every way that the Democrats have moved New York more and more socialist, much of this happened well before 2020.

Whether it’s the Working Families Party or the Democratic Socialists of America, they’re very active. Conservatives need to stay active as well and make sure our voices for common sense are heard.

07/22/2026

New York has over 300,000 regulations totaling over 17 million words! That's second only to California.

Governor Hochul has announced with great fanfare that she's begun a project to reduce red tape and regulations in New York state government. Senator Tom O'Mara, the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee and a long-time Senator, is skeptical. And, he has every right to be. She's not the first governor to launch such a campaign. Then we never hear anything more about it. If you want to read about the history of such efforts, click the link to his column. But here are some things to know:

Upstate business leaders routinely rank New York's regulations as their top problem ahead of taxes and health care costs. A survey of 550+ business leaders found that only 3% thought state regulators understood their business.

Along with the Scaffold Law, businesses also pointed to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which aims to phase out fossil fuel heating and air conditioning and replace it with all-electric systems, along with the mandate for zero-emission vehicles. But long before that, New York's environmental red tape increases legal and engineering fees, not to mention the time it adds to the project. New York imposes stricter labor regulations than the national average. Mandated policies like salary-range postings, expanded sick leave, and higher statutory disability/health insurance inflate costs.

We'll see what the Governor can accomplish, but our businesses need relief, or they will keep leaving the state.

Is the Governor’s “regulatory reset” just “all talk and no action?” A weekly COLUMN by NY State Senator Tom O’Mara Here’s hoping that it’s a case of better late than […]

07/18/2026

Lawmakers propose more fees; Your property taxes are going up; Moratorium on Data Centers; The Working Families Party is our real enemy.

Lawmakers propose even more fees for us to drive

Apparently, Assembly Members Bill Magnarelli and Anna Kelles (D, WFP; Tompkins and Cortland Counties) didn’t get the memo that New York’s government is supposed to be focused on affordability.

The two of them have proposed that Upstaters pay $25 more per year for the privilege of driving a car to subsidize mass transit. This is a supplemental fee on top of what we already pay. The bill is A.10431, although it will have to be reintroduced in January.

This might be one of the reasons Assemblyman Magnarelli lost the Democratic primary. Although there are a lot of other reasons he lost in June. We need to keep an eye on this next year.

Your Property Taxes are Going Up – Thank You, Governor Hochul

Pandering to the public sector unions, the Governor relaxed the Tier 6 retirement rules for public employees that were put in place to try to control the burden of New York’s retirement system. The kicker: $440 million of the $557 million price tag of her plan will be paid by local governments and school districts, not the state. Our local governments and schools will have to choose between cutting services or raising property taxes to pay for Governor Hochul’s thank you to the unions for their support.

Gov. Hochul Orders One-Year Moratorium on Data Centers

New York Governor Hochul recently signed a one-year moratorium on data centers. This moratorium is supposed to give legislators and others a better understanding of how New York ratepayers, as well as the environment, energy grid, and communities, will be impacted statewide. Part of the plan includes a fund to invest in the state's grid, which will, of course, be funded by us. Governor Hochul announced a $300 million fund for “fixing” the state’s grid.

The moratorium includes crafting frameworks that include organized labor groups to ensure wage standards and project labor agreements are part of the state's data center construction. These agreements cost taxpayers millions every year and should be ended. New York is currently home to 133 data centers, while Virginia has 637 and Texas has 504.

The Working Families Party is a Conservative’s Real Enemy

From Joe Burns in City Journal: "The results of the 2026 primary undoubtedly show that the DSA is now a player in New York Democratic politics. But the attention given to the DSA misses another institution behind these far-left primary wins and New York Democrats’ lurch to the Left: the Working Families Party.

Across the state, the WFP took sides in hot Democratic primaries in deep-blue districts. While it is its own political party with its own ballot line and all the legal advantages state law gives to political parties (advantages the DSA does not enjoy), the WFP’s real political strength comes from its ability to mobilize on behalf of candidates in Democratic primaries.

The WFP has been at this since long before anyone—including veteran New York politicos—had even heard of the DSA, and 2026 proved no exception. From mailers to foot soldiers, the WFP pulled out all the stops to get its favored candidates through the Democratic primaries."

While there's all sorts of hysteria around socialism, the WFP has long been exactly what Joe says it is. It's the real enemy of conservatism and the organization that we have to guard against

Joe has been an Election Law Attorney in New York for over 20 years. He’s always been a good friend to the Conservative Party.

07/15/2026

Mike Bolles, a retired Army Veteran, Firefighter-Paramedic, and Federal Investigator, is running against Senator Leah Webb this November. ​Today, Mike is a small business owner and founder of Triple 1st Response Apparel. His company is committed to American manufacturing. Senator Webb is one of the most liberal members of the Senate, receiving a 25% Conservative rating in 2025 and a 15% Conservative rating of 15% in 2024. Senator Leah Webb doesn't represent our community's values. We need someone who does; that's Mike Bolles.

07/13/2026

Governor Kathy Hochul said in 2022 about Republicans, “Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, okay.” She said of Lee Zeldin and his followers, “Get out of town because you don’t represent our values. You’re not New Yorkers.”

And people did get out of town. They also took their wealth with them. Nearly 250,000 New Yorkers got on a bus between 2022 and now.

Fast forward to budget negotiations in 2026. Governor Hochul, “The fact is I need people who are high net worth to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state.” And they certainly are generous.

In order to lure those New Yorkers back to New York, did she propose lowering taxes or making New York more affordable? No. She encourages “patriotic” New Yorkers, those who stayed, to go to Florida and “See who you can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded.”

According to the Comptroller’s office, in 2024, the largest group leaving the state was people earning over $500,000, followed by joint filers earning between $100,000 and $500,000. While the exact numbers have changed, the statistic hasn’t changed since 2022.

This is important because about 50% of New York’s revenues come from income taxes. When people flee the state, so does the tax revenue to pay for “generous social programs.”

And our programs are generous. New York’s per capita Medicaid spending is a whopping 82% higher than the national average. New York provides Medicaid-like health benefits to 44% of the population. New York offers the Essential Plan, which extends Medicaid to people who make up to 250% of the poverty level. The highest income threshold in the country. Medicaid spending has risen 57% during her 4 years in office. More than the 10 years Governor Andrew Cuomo was in office. New York's Medicaid system has the highest administrative costs in the country.

We need to cut Medicaid costs. We can start by cutting eligibility. New York has the highest income levels for its health insurance program in the nation at 250% of the poverty level. The poverty level in NY is $47,190 for a family of four. That means a family of four earning $188,760 is eligible for Medicaid-subsidized health insurance. The Governor likes to characterize this as free health insurance. If it’s free, why am I paying so much for people to have it?

Attack Medicaid Fraud. New York’s Medicaid Fraud Unit, overseen by Attorney General Letitia James, was recently ranked 49th in criminal investigations per billion dollars and 51st in fraud indictments. Between 2020 and 2025, fraud investigations dropped by 50%. These statistics have caused the federal government to suspend funding for the Unit and launch an investigation. Conservative Party Chairman Jerry Kassar: “New Yorkers are being robbed blind, and their Attorney General has turned a blind eye to them.”

As long as we have the highest combined tax rate in the nation and rank 50th in economic opportunity, people will continue to flee the state. We have to put a stop to it.