Infrastructure is much more than just our highways and roadways. Infrastructure deals with our electrical grid, water, sewage, ports (air, sea, and land), communications grids, internet, and so much more. Outside our city-centers, in the more rural areas of the state, which describes the majority of our district, infrastructure is underfunded and falling apart or is nonexistent. I would propose multiple pieces of legislation to address the shortcomings, specifically for our district, but statewide.

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Internet; the days of Internet being a luxury for life are all but past as it has become a basic need; we must ensure that every citizen, every residence, every school, every medical facility, and every business has access to reliable, high-speed internet.

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Water & Sewage; systems are out of date and are in serious need of replacement and repair.

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Ports; we have many small airports but many are not able to handle traffic big enough to sustain the local area businesses and residents. Our seaports are barely used and are out of date. Our land ports have all moved out of the district for the most part to be closer to centers of commerce and high speed transit.

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Roadways; our roads are falling apart as fast as contracts are fulfilled to fix and replace them. I would propose building up the New York State 12 corridor and making it into a 4-lane roadway system from Utica to Fort Drum / I-781. This would make driving to areas downstate anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes faster and would entice people downstate into venturing into this area as the roadways would be more capable of handling increased traffic. Additionally, I would propose a "seaway connector" that would parallel the St. Lawrence Seaway connecting I87 north of Plattsburg to I-81 west of Alexandria Bay. This would bring more traffic into the district, generating more business; additionally, this would open up the seaway ports to greater accessibility to high speed roadways which would help bring business to the Ports as well as entice businesses to move into the area.

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Mass Transit; currently there is no mass transit capability in the rural areas of our district as well as much of the State of New York that is not near populated areas. We need a fully functional mass transit system that would include bigger and better bussing to the city centers from the rural areas as well as high speed rail connecting the district both for commercial and personal travel.

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Power Grid; our power grid is seriously outdated and composed of old poles and wires in an area that is heavily impacted by mother nature. We need to build an underground network that is accessible to utility crews and safeguards it from weather.

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Flood Protection; we reside in an area at the base of the Adirondack Mountains and the Tug Hill, surrounded by massive waterways to the north and west and that sprawls throughout this district. Instead of reacting every time flooding becomes an issue, we need to rebuild our infrastructure to plan for these emergencies in advance.

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None of this is cheap and all of it is in need of repair. The State budget needs to provide for these improvements as soon as possible and in doing so, will improve our way of life and will become more inviting to people looking to relocate to the area.