(Photo credit: Mid-Hudson News)

There’s something telling about the “40 mayors and supervisors” and their friends lobbying in Albany in an attempt to support the Governor’s proposed dismantling of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR)—an effort reportedly organized by our own City of Kingston’s own mayor alongside the Orange County Partnership, a not-for-profit economic development group.

The Governor’s plan would make sweeping changes to SEQR, including exempting large mixed-use developments—like projects combining housing and data centers—from review requirements that currently protect communities and the environment. That alone should trigger serious public scrutiny.

But it can’t—because these changes are buried in the state budget, where there is no opportunity for public comment and where two people ultimately control the outcome: Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

Budget bills are meant to allocate money, not quietly dismantle environmental law. Folding major policy changes into must-pass legislation cuts out hearings, limits debate, and shuts down meaningful public input.

Worse, this comes as the state is already in the middle of a formal SEQR regulatory update process that includes environmental justice and disadvantaged community protections. Public comment closed in May 2025 after months of engagement and substantial input from communities and advocates.

These budget proposals sidestep that entire process.

When decisions of this scale are made behind closed doors by a handful of leaders, it says everything you need to know: if these changes could stand on its own, it wouldn’t need to be in the budget.

Democrats are literally rolling back environmental laws. That’s where we are now.  CALL your state senator and tell them to get SEQR out of the budget. 

Read our FAQ: Protect SEQRA: Ensure Housing Development Without Weakening Environmental Protections