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Mindful of the many serious challenges facing this State, the Assembly gathers on this fifth day of the New Year filled with the spirit of thanksgiving for the opportunity to serve the people of this great state and for the many blessings of our democracy.

On behalf of the New York State Assembly, allow me to convey our gratitude to the men and women of our Armed Forces who are so far from home risking their lives in a courageous effort to sow the seeds of lasting peace around the world.

We pray for their safe return.

In addition, we join the Governor and all New Yorkers in expressing our heartfelt sympathy to the victims of the recent tsunami.

May these disasters, man-made and natural, help us put our differences in their proper perspective and rekindle in all leaders the unity and the spirit of compassion that once guided our actions after the attacks of September Eleventh.

Four days ago, Shirley Chisholm, one of America's great Democratic leaders, passed away.

In 1964, Shirley Chisholm ran for and won a seat in the New York State Assembly. She went on to become the first African American woman elected to Congress.

A powerful voice for women's rights and for civil rights, Shirley Chisholm truly was a political pioneer and a real American hero.

We recall this former member of the Assembly with pride, and we will strive to honor her legacy with our efforts this session.

We begin the 2005 legislative session stronger and more diverse than at any time in our history thanks to our unwavering leadership on the core issues: jobs, health care, education, and higher education; those issues consistently identified by working families as being essential to their security and well-being.

As I said earlier, there are serious challenges before us, most notably:

• School finance reform;

• The impending expiration of the Health Care Reform Act;

• Lifting the high cost of Medicaid from the shoulders of our county taxpayers without compromising quality health care;

• Financing mass transit, roads and bridges;

• Reforming all aspects of government;

• Rebuilding Lower Manhattan, regaining its lost employment, and restoring its vibrancy as a 24-hour community;

• And most important of all, creating jobs in every region of our State.

We invite the Governor and our colleagues in the Senate to join us in crafting the right solutions to these challenges so that we make the right choices for all New Yorkers.

We believe it is the right choice to invest in job creation so that our college graduates will not have to leave New York to find the jobs of tomorrow.

We believe it is the right choice to keep your local hospitals, clinics and nursing homes open and operating, and to ensure that we have sufficient and well-trained health-care providers.

We believe it is the right choice to support stem cell research to bring hope to people who are struggling with disability and disease, and to ensure that our biotech researchers will not move their operations to California.

We believe it is the right choice to ensure that every child receives a sound, basic education.

We believe it is the right choice to keep the dream of a college education affordable and achievable for each and every New Yorker.

However, when right choices turn into partisan budget battles; when a state supreme court justice must tell the Governor, "That we are the people's government, made for the people, by the people and answerable to the people," delay, dissatisfaction and dysfunction is what you get.

The latest state budget ever is what you get.

Parents fighting in court to force the State to honor its constitutional obligation to provide educational opportunities for children is what you get.

Public authorities - controlled by the Governor - wheeling and dealing with little or no accountability is what you get.

As far as legacies go, "It is a ponderous chain," to quote Dickens' holiday classic.

It is a chain that is weighing down all New Yorkers; residents and businesses alike.

Adding to our burden is a recent Court of Appeals decision that significantly weakens the ability of the people of this State, as represented by the Legislature, to fight for public education, health care, effective economic development and lower property taxes.

The fact is that no other executive in our nation, including the President of the United States, has been granted this unprecedented level of power.

With that power the Governor has attempted to cut billions of dollars from education and health care. Forcing the Legislature to fight in order to protect school children, college students, and our sick and elderly.

Having to fight to enact the right choices: this is what has spawned delay, dissatisfaction and the dysfunction in state government.

I urge the Governor to listen to the words of Chief Justice Judith Kaye and set an acceptable model of governing for the future.

Despite the court battles, despite the Executive's failed policies of the past decade, the Assembly Majority has, in fact, advanced a number of important reforms.

Since 1994, we have cut taxes by more than fourteen billion dollars.

We proposed the Empire Zone Program.

We made the first investments in university-based research and development to generate the jobs and technologies of tomorrow right here in New York State.

We established the first universal pre-K program in this Nation; a national model now being copied by many other states.

We proposed the Family Health Plus program.

As far back as 1994, we supported plans to reduce the counties' share of Medicaid costs.

We led the fight that resulted in the passage of the Women's Health and Wellness Act, as well as SONDA.

We were the champions of a fair minimum-wage, and of reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

We continue to lead the way in reforming campaign financing, public authorities, government procurement and lobbying as well as the cornerstone of our democracy, our electoral process.

When it comes to budget reform, we joined the Senate in passing bipartisan reform legislation last year; legislation that was vetoed by the Governor.

For ten years, we have advocated for joint conference committees.

We televise our legislative sessions, and the Assembly's Internet site is accessible and interactive; providing information on every bill.

The Assembly Majority will continue to build on our record of reform to make government more open, more participatory, and more accountable to the people of this State.

As for the Executive branch, we have a Governor who listens, who speaks, but his rhetoric fails to match the reality of his wrong choices and failed policies.

For true reform to take root in New York, we need a Governor who will lead on all of the issues I have mentioned, and many others.

Governor, a decade of stall tactics aimed at putting off school finance reform is not the legacy you want. I urge you to join the Legislature, the Board of Regents, and all of this State's education leaders in an education summit now.

Let's work together to achieve real school-financing reform that will apply to all school districts in this State.

Governor, New Yorkers also need you to use your influence with the President and with Congress to get our State its fair share of federal dollars for Medicaid, Homeland Security and for transportation.

You know that a one-percent increase in our federal Medicaid reimbursement rate would mean $600 million more for New York State. That happens to be the exact amount our county executives say they need to cover their annual increase in Medicaid costs.

And Governor, please join us in the fight to protect local taxpayers from the Bush proposal to eliminate the federal income tax deduction for state and local taxes.

Governor, there's an old saying: "We can throw stones, complain about them, stumble on them, climb over them, or build with them."

We've tried the first four. Why not begin building something better for all New Yorkers, something we can be proud of, together, this legislative session, this year.