ALBANY – The state legislature is expected to adjourn in mid-June and Assemblyman James Skoufis (D, Woodbury) is pushing to have his legislation that would provide additional oversight and scrutiny to the proposed Kiryas Joel annexation bids approved in both houses and sent to the governor.
At this point, one of his two bills has made it through the committee process and is headed for the full Assembly. The other must first go before the Ways and Means Committee.
With that said, Skoufis is hopeful his proposals will be voted on in the next three weeks.
“Nothing is a sure fire thing; it requires a great deal of, in politics, often times a great deal of persistence, if you will, and gathering the support necessary,” he said. “Both of these bills passed unanimously in committees, so that indicates to me that the conversations I have been having have been resonating and we are continuing to gather support here.”
The measures are being carried in the Senate by Senator William Larkin (R, Cornwall-on-Hudson).
Meanwhile, the United Monroe group has written to the Monroe Town Board calling for it to object to “critical gaps” in the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement prepared in connection with the proposed annexation of 507 acres of Monroe land into the Village of Kiryas Joel.
United Monroe requested that the town board, as an involved agency, “comment upon the DGEIS’s complete failure to address Kiryas Joel’s systemic disregard for fundamental zoning, land use and environmental laws, and the unregulated development this situation allows.”
Orange County Government has hired a consulting firm to conduct its own independent environmental review of the proposed annexation.
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