95th State Assembly District: Sandra Galef
For the last 37 years, Sandra Galef has been representing residents in northern Westchester—13 on the county Board of Legislators and the last 24 as a state Assemblywoman in the 95th District, and she hopes her tireless efforts as an independent voice in Albany will earn her another two-year term on November 8.
“I really believe I have served the community well,” she said. “I have been working for my constituents full-time, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. It is a full-time commitment. We’ve made some progress, but we need to do more.”
In the Assembly, Galef chairs the Real Property Tax Committee and is serving as member of the Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions Committee; the Election Law Committee, the Governmental Operations Committee; and the Health Committee. Galef also serves on the Assembly Majority Steering Committee and the Hudson Valley Greenway Communities Council.
A former teacher in Scarsdale, the longtime Ossining resident has been a leading advocate for legislative reform in Albany as well as being heavily involved in matters pertaining to education, taxes, energy, consumer issues, health, and senior citizens.
Another major focus of Galef in recent years has been ethics reform. She currently has 15 separate bills pending as part of a package that calls for banning large campaign donors from securing state contracts; enacting term limits for the Assembly speaker and Senate president; prohibiting political consultants from lobbying lawmakers; and preventing legislators from giving state money to non-profits that employ their relatives, among other proposals.
“Ethics reform is one of the major things we have to deal with,” she said. “The time is now to make true and serious ethics reform a top priority in Albany to rebuild the public trust in the way our government works.”
Galef noted while longtime Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and others in Albany have been involved in scandals she has always been able to hold her head high and be respected by colleagues and her constituents.
“I have never been part of the machine. From day one I opposed it and I’m still standing,” she said. “I think I have served with integrity and honesty.”
While Galef opposes pork barrel “member earmarks,” she said she has managed to secure funding for her district, including $400,000 in state grants for road improvements throughout the 95th Assembly District and state grants for Teatown, the Ossining Public Library, the Desmond Fish Library, the Paramount Center in Peekskill, the Cold Spring Railroad station, Copeland House, the Briarcliff Manor, Hendrick Hudson, Kent Libraries, and the Ossining Railroad Station waterfront.
Galef also brought in $1 million for the new Sing Sing Historic Museum in Ossining, a project she stressed will be an economic boom for Ossining and the Hudson Valley region.
“I think everyone is very excited about it,” she said. “It’s complicated because it’s a prison that has prisoners in it.”
In addition, Galef supported legislation that capped property tax increases at 2% and reduced unfunded mandates, worked to repeal the MTA payroll tax burden, wrote a law that gives volunteer firefighters a state income tax credit, helped to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and provide 12 weeks of paid family leave and supported package of bills to fight the heroin and opioid crisis.
The 95th Assembly District covers the City of Peekskill, Town of Cortlandt, town and village of Ossining and parts of Putnam County.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/