This has been a busy year for the Skoufis family. In the spring, they moved from Woodbury to Cornwall. And in January, James Skoufis moved from the Assembly to the State Senate.
On July 23, he stopped in our office on the way to his first “Skoufis on Your Street” visit of the year. He was going to Washingtonville, where he knew he’d be challenged on the repeal of the religious exemption for vaccinations. And he was ready to defend his position.
“No organized religion has an issue with vaccines,” he told us. “It’s a matter of public health. Vaccination only works when all, or almost all, are being vaccinated.”
The issue surfaced with the outbreak of measles. While some people believe that vaccines are linked to autism, the senator claimed that’s “factually untrue.” He did say that medical exemptions would continue. For example, children would not have to be vaccinated if they were receiving chemotherapy.
There have been changes in Albany. The Senate has 15 new members. But Mr. Skoufis is the only newcomer with experience in the other house. His previous position has helped him when he needed the Assembly to support a bill. “I knew who to talk to,” he told us, “and what levers to pull.”
The Senate is less than half the size of the lower house. It’s not as rigid as the Assembly. The senators often sit around a conference table and have intimate debates. Chairmanships are not based on seniority. As a result, Mr. Skoufis started his senate career as the chairman of the Committee on Investigations and Government Operations. This spring the group focused on commercial drug middle men, which led to the “most comprehensive PBM accountability measures in the country” (where PBM stands for Pharmacy Benefit Management).
The committee’s next assignment is the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), an organization that isn’t very popular in the Hudson Valley. “We overpay for under service,” Mr. Skoufis maintained. He said there will be a forensic audit of the MTA, to root out waste, and he promised that there will be significant announcements coming soon.
The Senate had a productive session, passing almost 1,500 bills — of which, 900 got through the Assembly. Sen. Skoufis was responsible for almost 60 of those bills, more than any other freshman. “Statewide matters a lot,” he admitted, “but I’m most effective focusing on local issues like roads, schools, and bridges.”
We mentioned that a few days after his real estate closing, workers were repairing a road near his home. The senator laughed. “I had nothing to do with that,” he assured us.
