Reforming Government

As a former president of the League of Women Voters of Westchester, Amy Paulin believes government should be open and accountable to the people. That's why she has sponsored numerous bills to improve the operation of state and local governments.

In 2008 alone, Amy authored three laws to ensure transparency in government. These laws:

In 2009, Assemblywoman Paulin has introduced five bills in the Assembly to continue creating a more open and responsible State government. One of these bills will require entities created by an executive order of the Governor to be subject to New York's Open Meetings Law.

Amy Paulin supported a series of rule changes to make the Assembly more open and accountable. Among these were to require open and public conference committee meetings and cable television coverage of state government proceedings.

Amy has consistently worked with her colleagues to turn around the practice of late state budgets. She knows that on time budgets restore rational planning to the school districts and local governments as well as to the non-profit agencies that provide social services through contracts with the state. Amy was the only Westchester legislator to sit on the Education Conference Committee and was instrumental in helping to pass a nearly on-time budget even in the wake of the shocking and chaotic resignation of former Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Amy also believes in creating a more responsive state government, and wrote the law allowing New York State unemployment insurance recipients to withhold 10% of their weekly unemployment benefits for state income tax purposes to help achieve this goal. This will allow taxpayers to avoid a large and sometimes unexpected payment when their state income taxes are due.