Taxpayers call for NY senator to resign

BLASDELL, N.Y. (WIVB) - He's one of only two local state lawmakers who voted in favor of Governor David Paterson's record-high budget. And Thursday night, taxpayers in Blasdell let Senator Bill Stachowski know they're sick of the status quo.

Mothers, fathers and even children came to protest against Senator Stachowski. While he attended a fundraiser inside Ilio DiPaolo's in Blasdell,demonstrators stood outside calling for him to resign.

Demonstrator Kathy Dulanski said, "I've only been in the state for five years and it's, this is awful - the taxes."

Taxes aren't the only issue that has the protesters outraged. They still remember that Stachowski and Senator Antoine Thompson are the only two local lawmakers who voted to pass this year's budget.

Dulanski said, "Oh, after everyone called and called and called and said no."

Senator Stachowski said, "We did our job by filling the hole by increasing some taxes. Do we like some of the fees that we're adding? No, but the governor had those in the budget."

Senator Thompson was attending a Solar Conference in Buffalo. So News 4 went there to ask him for his response.

Senator Thompson said, "The reality is that we had a, a responsibility to pass the budget on time and we did that."

Rus Thompson, the organizer of the demonstration, is promising to publicly protest against a number of politicians. Senator Stachowski is the first target.

Thompson said, "He got re-elected on the promise that he was gonna be the most powerful senator in charge of the finance committee in the State Senate and instead he gave it up."

Senator Stachowski is now the Chairman of Economic Development.

So why did he make the switch?

Senator Stachowski said, "There's certain fights you can win and certain fights you can't."
Thompson said, "We are tired. We're tired of waiting for Albany to start responding to our requests."

Rus Thompson hopes the demonstrations motivate other taxpayers to start questioning politicians more often and wherever they are - about their decisions in Albany.