Assemblyman partners with parents of Suzanne Lyall and leading Saratoga County-based beverage distributor on pilot program to generate tips on location of 7 local missing persons

Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R,C,I-Glenville) today joined with Doug and Mary Lyall of the Center for Hope, and DeCrescente Distributing Company, to announce a new pilot program, “Coasters for Hope”, to help find Capital Region missing persons. 

Starting December 16^th, more than 5,000 “Coasters for Hope” drink coasters featuring pictures and information about seven local missing persons will be printed and distributed by DeCrescente to restaurants and taverns across the Capital Region. 

The public-private partnership to create and distribute drink coasters to help find missing persons is the first of its kind in the Northeast.

Each drink coaster will have a number where people can anonymously call or text a tip to law enforcement about a missing person’s case. A crucial tool in solving these cases is keeping information about missing persons in the public eye.  

Just this year, three Cleveland women who had been missing for over 10 years were freed from captivity. Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped outside her California home when she was 11 years-old in 1991 and didn’t escape captivity until 2009.

 “To be in the dark about the fate of a loved one who has gone missing can lead families to a quiet desperation of anger, frustration and deep sadness.  What we’ve seen time and again with missing persons cases is that there is always hope for answers and the possibility that a loved one, however improbable, could one day come home.  If someone sees one of these Coasters for Hope at their neighborhood restaurant or tavern then they may know something that could help solve a missing persons case,” said Tedisco. 

Statement from Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R,C,I-Glenville)

“The very good recommendations in the New York State Tax Relief Commission’s report including freezing property taxes, fast-tracking the elimination of the 18A energy tax and cutting the Estate and job-killing Corporate Franchise Tax could bode well for our state’s beleaguered taxpayers but we’ve seen a lot of talk from commissions before and little real action at the state Capitol.” 

“New Yorkers pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation and the EmpireState has the second latest Tax Freedom Day in the United States for when taxpayers pay off all their tax obligations and start pocketing their hard-earned money.  A good report with some happy quotes is not going to change that. The fortitude from our leaders to follow through with the report’s recommendations and cut taxes and continue to reign in spending will.”

“The taxpayers are sick of commissions and tax relief promises that are never fulfilled. If the Governor and Legislative Leaders are going to talk the talk about tax reform they better walk the walk with results or taxpayers will make them walk the plank in the deep waters of the 2014 election with the heavy burden of failing to fulfill the promise of significant tax relief!”

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State Legislators seek 1^st in nation law to ensure “knockout game thugs” get up to 25 years in prison regardless of their age for sucker-punching and assaulting innocent bystanders

Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R,C,I-Glenville) today announced that Senator Hugh T. Farley (R,C,I-Niskayuna) will be the lead Majority sponsor in the New York State Senate of the “Knockout Game Deterrent Act” – a first in the nation law to protect innocent bystanders from being sucker-punched and assaulted by gangs of thugs, who in many cases are juveniles.

The Knockout Game has become an epidemic in New York and across the nation leading in several cases to serious injury and even death.

Tedisco and Farley’s bill, which is being drafted and is expected to be filed next week, will make any person regardless of their age who is convicted of Knockout Game individual assault or gang assault will be subject to 25 years in prison (currently it’s between 4-15 years depending on the age of the defendant).  The legislation would ensure that juveniles who “play the Knockout Game” are sentenced as adults.

Assemblyman seeks law to ensure that gangs of “punks” who are convicted of brutally sucker-punching and assaulting innocent bystanders face stiff jail time and are tried as adults

Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R,C,I-Glenville) today announced he is introducing new legislation, the “Knockout Assault Deterrent Act”, to protect innocent bystanders from being victimized by the so-called “Knockout Game” – a brutal new trend whereby gangs of youths target unsuspecting people and sucker-punch them in an attempt to make them unconscious – in some cases causing serious injury and even death.

Tedisco’s bill, which is being drafted, would amend New York State’s penal law to make any person regardless of their age who is convicted of knock out game individual assault or gang assault to face up to 25 years in prison (currently it’s between 4-15 years depending on the age of the defendant).  The legislation would ensure that youth who “play the Knockout Game” are sentenced as adults. Those who are there and take part in the action also would be held liable.

Lawmakers unveil new transparency bill which would require legislative vote to protect Wilton’s Mt. McGregor and prevent governors from closing state prisons by fiat

Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R,C,I-Glenville), Senator Kathleen A. Marchione (R,C-Halfmoon) and Assemblyman Tony Jordan (R,C,I-Jackson) today announced new transparency legislation to protect Mt. McGregor state correctional facility in Wilton and three others that are slated for closure by requiring the state legislature to debate and vote on any prison closure plan submitted by the governor.

The public safety bill, which is being drafted, requires the executive to submit any prison closure plan a year in advance to the legislature for ratification or amendment. Mt.McGregor houses about 450 inmates and employees 320 public safety professionals and is scheduled to close by executive fiat in July 2014.

“This prison closure plan is yet another example of covert government in action. Last I checked New YorkState was still a representative democracy with three branches of government: the executive, legislative and judicial. Any prison closure plan should be brought before the legislature for a full and open public debate and a vote and not crafted in secret and handed down by fiat from the administration,” said Tedisco.

McLaughlin, Tedisco, Fitzpatrick to Introduce New Law Banning State Employeesfrom Personally Benefiting From Official Travel Perks And Any Other Financial Gain

Assemblymen want to stop elected officials and state employees from cashing in on frequent flier travel miles, free hotel stays gained as a result of taxpayer-funded official state travel

Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin (R,C,I-Melrose), Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R,C,I-Glenville) and Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick (R,C,I-Smithtown) today announced new legislation to prohibit New York’s elected officials and other state employees from pocketing free airfare and luxurious hotel stays as a result of frequent flier/travel reward points gained from taxpayer-funded travel.

McLaughlin, Tedisco and Fitzpatrick’s legislation, which is being drafted, would require all benefits gained by state employees from conducting official duties, such as frequent flier points, hotel travel rewards, and car rental discounts, to be banked to reduce future taxpayer costs for state travel and not for personal gain.

It’s been reported that NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) may have earned up to 205,000 frequent flier miles – enough for a trip around the world – from his weekly commute from Albany back to New York City, via air travel to Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.

Assemblyman who was driving force behind Buster’s Law applauds Governor Cuomo’s signing of legislation Tedisco sponsored to increase penalties for killing police animals

Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R,C,I-Glenville) today announced that Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed into law legislation that was on the agenda for Tedisco’s NYS Animal Advocacy Day on June 4th to make the killing of a police dog or a police horse while it is performing its duties a class E felony. It is currently a Class A misdemeanor. The new law takes effect on November 1, 2013.

Tedisco was a co-sponsor of the bill (A.2596A/S.1079A), known as “Ape’s Law” and named after a K-9 that lost its life in Herkimer County protecting others. Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski (D-Rockland County) was the main sponsor in the Assembly and Senator George D. Maziarz (R-Niagara County) carried the bill in the Senate.

Tedisco Launches 2013 Safe Summer Bike Helmet Program

Assemblyman partners with Clifton Park Supervisor Barrett, Glenville Supervisor Koetzle, local police, Martin, Harding & Mazzotti, Stewart’s Shops, Friendly’s and Ben & Jerry’s to encourage kids to wear their bike helmets for safety’s sake

Exercise safely this summer and get free ice cream to beat the heat. That’s the goal of the innovative Safe Summer Bike Helmet program founded by Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R,C,I-Glenville). Tedisco is again partnering with 10 police departments in Saratoga and Schenectady Counties to distribute thousands of “good tickets” for free ice cream to reward children who wear their helmets while bicycling, skateboarding, and rollerblading.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, in 2010 in the U.S., 800 bicyclists were killed and an estimated 515,000 sustained bicycle-related injuries that required emergency room care. Roughly half of these cyclists were children and teenagers. About 26,000 of these bicycle-related injuries to children and adolescents were traumatic brain injuries from not wearing a helmet.