Boyer has spent 15 years as an assistant and senior assistant public defender in Ulster and Dutchess counties. More recently, she served as principal law clerk in the State Supreme Court. The lone nay vote on the appointment came from Legislator Mary Beth Maio, who cited Boyer’s support for bail reform.
In New York State, early voting runs for nine days, from October 24 to November 1. Ulster County will hold host voting at five polling places. Unlike on Election Day itself, when voters need to report to a specific polling place in their voting district, during early voting voters can use any polling place.
State Senate District 46, which stretches from northern Ulster County to the Capital Region, is up for grabs. Democrats, who already have a decisive majority, are hoping 32-year-old Michelle Hinchey, daughter of the late U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, can turn the district blue and achieve a veto-proof supermajority. She supports a slate of progressive legislation, including expanded healthcare, marijuana legalization, and new taxes on the wealthy. On the GOP side, retired state trooper Richard Amedure of Rensselaerville hopes to hold the line. Amedure pledges to advocate for small businesses and family farms, and criticizes the state’s bail-reform and discovery-reform laws as “devastating” to “our communities and law enforcement.”
The deadline to register to vote for the 2020 general election is Friday, October 9. You can pick up a voter registration form at the Ulster County Board of Elections, 284 Wall Street, Kingston, as well as any local post office, library, city or town clerk’s office. For more info, or to download a registration form, visit elections.ulstercountyny.gov/voter-registration.
Ryan’s 45-minute speech on the 2021 budget contained no single mention of two elements by which the county’s financial projections will sink or swim: the necessity of substantial federal aid to cash-strapped local governments, and how this particular local government will manage its budget in case the on-going pandemic delivers a second lethal hit to local; sales-tax revenues in the coming months. Instead, Ryan touted the hold-the-line, no-layoffs budget under the banner of a “people-first” approach to county governance.
Woodstock town supervisor Bill McKenna proposes deep cuts to youth and senior recreation programming, eliminating travel, equipment, training and field trips.
First-term state senator Jennifer Metzger is running for reelection to 42nd State Senatorial District. She will be on the Democratic, Working Families and SAM (Serve America Movement) party lines. The Rosendale resident is opposed by entrepreneur and political neophyte Michael Robert Martucci, am Orange County resident who will appear on the Republican, Conservative and Independence party lines.
The Woodstock Town Board appointed deputy town clerk Michelle Sehwerert as marriage officer last week in order to keep up with an increasing demand for marriage licenses and officiants. Many town clerks’ offices remain closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first-term Democrat will face Kyle Van de Water in New York’s 19th Congressional District, one of the few genuine swing districts in our region.
A new agreement opens the door for towns to receive a greater share of the local sales tax revenue in the future.