Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle – (Republican - NY 25th Congressional District) held a town hall meeting at the Newark Municipal Building on Thursday, Feb 3. which lasted about an hour and 45 minutes. In attendance were in excess of 100 citizens residing in the district and several local officials.

Ms. Buerkle was introduced by Assemblyman Bob Oaks (Republican - NY 128th Assembly District) who also served as moderator. The meeting began with a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting in Tucson, Arizona, victims of the recent school bus accident near Savannah and members of the armed services.

Ms. Buerkle began with a general statement of her principles regarding economic issues and how to deal with them i.e., lower taxes, reduced regulation, smaller government, etc. Essentially, she believes that government tends to stifle economic growth through excessively burdensome taxation, regulation and bureaucratic interference. She asked the crowd if they believed that in the current economic situation with current governmental policies that their children and grandchildren would have the same opportunities to achieve the “American dream” that they had. Most agreed they did not. Others commented they did not agree that “big government” was the sole cause of all our problems.