NYSAA Legislative Agenda

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Let Your Voice Be Heard! How to Contact Your State Senator to Support the Removal of Part K from Budget Bill S.4009

Let your voices be heard by calling or emailing your State Senator. Yes, we understand it can be a bit scary and you may not know what to say. Calling or emailing is an effective way to let your representative know your position. When you reach out to your representative it shows commitment to a cause. If your representative doesn't hear the concerns of their constituents, then they think everything is okay. We all know that is not always the case. Hopefully the following questions and answers will clear up any hesitation you may have. Please feel free to reach out to your legislative committee any time.

Maggie Alix – Maggie.Alix@villageofgreenisland.com

Scott Shedler – ShedlerS@ramapo-ny.gov

FAQs

I don't know who my representative is. 

You are not the only one.  There are many people who do not know who represents them in the Senate and/or Assembly and that's okay! Just know that you have one representative in the state Assembly and one representative in the state Senate.

Visit  New York Legislators - Open States. Enter your address in the box on the right side of the page. Click on each legislators name for their email address and website.

OR

Go HERE - https://nyassembly.gov/mem/search  and input your street, city and zip code; it will tell you who your Assembly member is. Visit the Assembly member’s page to get their contact information! 

Go HERE - https://www.nysenate.gov/find-my-senatorand input your street, city and zip code; it will tell you who your Senator is.  Click on Message Senator and create a profile so you can be involved in the legislative process! 

How do I contact them?

The easiest thing is to call their offices directly or send an email. 

What happens when I call?

Someone from their staff will answer the phone. Keep in mind it’s important that you are clear about what issue you're calling about. You don’t have to go into a lot of detail as to why you support or oppose certain legislation. Getting straight to the point is key.

Here's an example of what you could say;  

"Hello, my name is ________________. I'm an assessor for the Town/City/Village of _____________________ and a member of the NYS Assessors Association. I am calling to let Senator  ___________________ know my position on the Senate's removal of Part K of bill S.4009. I support that removal.  I would greatly appreciate you sharing my position with the Senator. Thank you for your time and have a great day. 

What happens when I send an email?

You can use the copy above for an email, with the subject line: Support for the Removal of Part K of budget bill S.4009. Someone in the office is monitoring constituent email. The office has the ability to track the number of number of contacts it receives on any given issue. Emails can be mass loaded into a database, easily coded, and reports can be generated. 

Keep in mind someone has to read and sort all the emails, so be clear, concise, and get straight to the point!

Is there anything else I should know?

• Contact only your representative, your call/email will be ignored if you are not a constituent of the representative you are contacting.
• Keep your call or email short and direct. Keeping your call short allows the office to answer more calls, which means more people are being heard. The same goes for email, keep it short and direct, you want the representative to read the email not get sidetracked or lose interest. Time is of the essence; the more emails they can read the better. The more contact, the more the representative has to pay attention.
• Know your facts. Please feel free to rely on NYSAA Legislative Committee for guidance. 
• Be sure to say Thank You. Thank them for their time and consideration.
• Let the NYSAA Legislative Committee know you called. Send a quick email to Maggie.Alix@villageofgreenisland.com.