I respect the work the Assembly and the governor have put into this amendment, but I am afraid I will be a NAY vote both when this amendment comes to a vote in this body and when it is voted on by the people. Generally I don't think there is a need for an additional regional office. Also, other than causing one more election I don't see how the lieutenant governor will have any meaningful impact. The main responsibilities of the lieutenant governor are already covered by the governor and the speaker of the Assembly.
And I'm not sure I quite understand the continued argument on not wanting to create another office. I could understand this if it were about a year ago when we were struggling to get enough candidates to even run for the Assembly, but shoot, we have a LOT of activity in this region right now, as we had several involved members of this region not even get a spot in the Assembly this month.
All I'm asking is that you stay open-minded and give this position a chance. I think people already have their minds made up going in to this and are going in with no desire to try and solve anything.
It's not only the unnecessary (IMO) creation of another office, but I also see a broader problem. We will either end up delegating such a large number of responsibilities to the new lieutenant governor that the governor loses a lot of power or we will come up with an amendment which makes sure the lieutenant governor only has a few minor tasks, which renders the position quite useless.
