News from Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder

April 11, 2014 In This Issue $138 Billion State Budget Passed Building Stronger Infrastructure Protecting Our Families From Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Build It Back: No More Excuses _________ Office Locations Ozone Park   108-14 Crossbay Blvd Ozone Park, NY 11417 718-641-8755 Rockaway Beach 2-14 Beach 96th Street Rockaway Beach, NY 11693  718-945-9550  Albany Office LOB 834 Albany, NY 12248 518-455-4292    Quick Links   ______  News    More About Us   Sign Petition to Quiet Airplane Noise    Sign Petition to Keep Rockaway Ferry Sign Petition to Restore Rail Line MGP Community Survey   Dear Neighbor,     After months of working with both Governor Cuomo and my colleagues, I am proud to announce the 2014-15 statebudget has passed. There are many highlights in this year's budget, but most importantly it provides real planning and resiliency for our families and small businesses still recovering from Sandy in Southern Queens and Rockaway. There is now funding in place to establish a State-of-the-Art Weather Detection System, supported by the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES), one of only six such systems in the nation. $15 million in capital resources to fund initial planning and development costs for a new College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity. Additionally, funding to ensure gas stations at selected state locations are equipped with back-up power capacity in case of an emergency. Although our work is not yet complete, we are heading in the right direction. I will continue to work tirelessly to ensure all our families and small businesses have the tools necessary to move forward and become more resilient for the future.   You can stay up to date with community news and daily updates by following me on Facebook and Twitter.                Stay Strong,   Building Stronger Infrastructure   Earlier this year, I sent a letter to the biggest cell phone providers throughout New York City, including, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint asking for updates on their upgrades, resiliency measures and future storm contingency plans. I received an immediate response from AT&T and recently met with them and community leaders to discuss improvements and changes they have made post-Sandy. I look forward to working with AT&T and urge all other cell phone providers to follow in their footsteps and meet with our community to hear our concerns.  Protecting Our Families From Liquified Natural Gas (LNG)  In July of 2013, I attended a public hearing in Long Beach to vehemently oppose the creation of a new LNG facility. This week, together with dozens of my colleagues, we sent a letter urging Governor Cuomo to strongly oppose the "Port Ambrose" project. This proposed development would place a deep-water LNG port roughly 19 miles off of the Rockaway shore. LNG is a highly flammable, unstable and dangerous product that has no business anywhere near our community.    Build It Back: No More Excuses!     In Southern Queens and Rockaway alone, there have been nearly seven thousand families who have applied for the Build it Back program and not even a single resident has received the assistance they so desperately need and deserve. I submitted testimony to the City Council's oversight hearing on Build It Back and urged the city to expedite the process immediately.   Together with Roger Gendron, President of the Hamilton Beach Civic Association, I went door-to-door with Amy Peterson, the newly appointed director of the Mayor's Housing Recovery Office and showed her firsthand the families still waiting for Build It Back to finally return to their homes and their lives!