Assemblywoman Jenne says importance of agriculture to state's economy needs to be part of budget talk

I'm back in Albany for what I expect will be the beginning of a busy couple of weeks as we work to reach an agreement on the 2018-19 spending plan by the April 1 deadline.

I, along with several of my colleagues in the state legislature from the North Country, am serving on the Joint Budget Subcommittee on the Environment, Agriculture and Housing.

Here are some of the comments I made at our first meeting last week:

As we move through this process, I would just point to the bipartisan approach of restoring agricultural programs in the budget. Agriculture is our largest economic sector. It's extremely important we take that into consideration and make restorations.

But the financial struggles of our farmers throughout the state should probably also be addressed at other tables. The support I think is necessary is beyond the scope of what this budget-area table really can accomplish. It should be addressed at more than one table.

I'm very happy to see we will be pushing the issue of having statewide programs to address water quality, specifically the algae problem we are having around the state; the need to preserve our open space and farm land for future generations; and also to have a balanced energy policy that doesn't burden one part of the state more than the other but also gets us toward our target of clean energy generation.

I think we have a lot of common ground to move from, but some things that may traditionally be found in this area of the budget may need to push into the areas, such as economic development, as well.