Biography

— Senator George Onorato

State Senator George Onorato is a full-time legislator and lifelong resident of the Queens district he has represented since 1983. Prior to his election to the Senate, he served as Secretary/Treasurer of Bricklayer's Local #41 for 15 years.

Throughout his Senate career, Senator Onorato has been a strong advocate for New York's working families, consumers, senior citizens, veterans and young people. He is particularly interested in ensuring better access to health care for all New Yorkers, improving educational opportunities for children and college students in New York City and throughout the state, spurring job creation, developing more equitable tax policies, and reforming energy laws to ensure adequate power supplies, greater air quality protection, and enhanced conservation measures. In addition, Senator Onorato, having served as a member of the Senate Minority Task Force on Legislative and Government Reform, has long championed efforts to make New York State government operations more open and accountable to the public.

During his first year in the Senate, Senator Onorato was a prime co-sponsor of the Used Car Lemon Law, which protects consumers from being saddled with defective automobiles. Since then, he has sponsored or co-sponsored many laws of importance to New Yorkers. These included laws to better monitor toxic substance recordkeeping in the workplace, provide sign language interpreters for hearing impaired crime victims, improve enforcement of family court orders of support, and provide incentives for power plants to reduce emissions. He has also championed measures to combat child abuse, provide improved insurance coverage for maternity and breast cancer patients, and advance prostate cancer research, education and detection efforts.

As a strong supporter of New York's Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC program for low- and middle income seniors, Senator Onorato is continuing to call for new legislation to curb the spiraling costs of prescription drugs. As more and more attention is focused on the need for more equitable school funding in New York City and other underserved school districts around the state, he is continuing to work with his legislative colleagues to ensure improved educational opportunities for children, and is the sponsor of a year-round "Read to Learn, Learn to Live!" program to encourage young people to read more frequently.

Other priorities for Senator Onorato during the 2007 and 2008 legislative sessions include action on legislation to improve government accountability, provide long-overdue workers' compensation benefit increases for injured employees, enact greater protections against identity theft, further crack down on dangerous sex offenders, provide greater aid to the uninsured, and address local quality of life issues including prostitution and graffiti.

Senator Onorato has been a member of the Senate Minority leadership team since 1992, and now serves as Vice-Chair of the Minority Conference. He has also served as a past Treasurer and Past President of the Conference of Italian-American Legislators. Closer to home, the Senator has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Taminent Regular Democratic Club since 1972, which he joined as a member in 1950. A United States Army veteran, Senator Onorato received a Presidential Citation while serving in the 118th Medical battalion from 1950 to 1952.

A graduate of Long Island City High School in his district, Senator Onorato is married to the former Athena Georgakakos. He is the father of three adult children -- Joanne, George, and Janice -- and has six grandchildren.