The two have known each other for about 12 years, but got to know each other better when they served on the Veteran Affairs committee together for about 7 years. On Tuesday, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, a Democrat from the Bronx, got to tour the 139th Assembly District of his friend, Republican Steve Hawley, visiting various businesses and farms in Lyndonville, Medina, Oakfield and Batavia.
On their Oakfield stop, the pair stopped in at Z&M Landpro Equipment on Lewiston road to tour the store and repair facilities. Benedetto was able to sit behind the wheel of a combine and a tractor while store manager Keith Conway explained the farm machines and what they do and what they cost.
“Its been a wonderfully educational tour,” says Benedetto.
“As a kid I used to get up early and watch Martin Farmer, I used to read all about this and watch it on TV, but you don’t know what the hell is going on, you don’t know the implications of all the legislation we pass in Albany and why we do it. Here, seeing it, and talking to the people and getting down deeper into the running of their business, be it an orchard or a dairy farm, you begin to realize the importance of this legislation and why we allocate money to research at Cornell University because that directly benefits the people who I am meeting here today, it becomes alive and real.”
Benedetto was shocked to learn it takes $1200 per day to feed the farm machines with diesel fuel.
“That’s incredible, we all pay attention to driving our cars and we all complain about the gas prices going up and we complain we have to put in $30 every week, it becomes real to you when you realize someone is putting $1200 per day just to keep their business going, that in my mind is absolutely incredible, it is these little bits of detail that you would never get sitting at home in the Bronx and picking up a book.”
Hawley in turn will visit Benedetto’s district in the Big Apple.
“I just think its very very important to have a relationship with other representatives no matter where they live, no matter what kind of constituents they’ve got, we see too much rancor going on in terms of you said this and I said that or I don’t believe what you believe in, we need to have respect for each other as human beings and we need to acknowledge that are constituency are very different and we are representatives of those constituents,” says Hawley.