MARYJANE SHIMSKY has represented New York’s 92nd District in Westchester County since January 2023. The district includes most of the Towns of Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant and a portion of northwest Yonkers. She serves on the Assembly’s committees on Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions; Governmental Operations; Judiciary; Local Governments; Tourism, Parks, Arts, and Sports Development; and Transportation. She is also a member of the New Americans and Puerto Rican/Hispanic task forces, Legislative Women’s Caucus, and Bipartisan Pro-Choice Legislative Caucus.

MaryJane’s accomplishments in the Assembly include enacted legislation expanding the use of e-filing in courts statewide; creating guidelines for opioid overdose response at nightlife establishments; permitting local governments to provide tax relief to homeowners who lost their residence due to extreme weather events; and enabling cost efficient design-build public works projects in Westchester County. Working in cooperation with District 92 municipalities, she has sponsored numerous enacted “home rule” bills allowing for local initiatives including the extension of income-generating municipal hotel/motel taxes; the installation of red-light cameras at historically dangerous intersections; and various authorizations to facilitate the employment and benefits of police, court officers, and volunteer fire fighters.

MaryJane successfully advocated for more than $250 million in added funding for local roads and bridges, while also securing a $2.6 million investment in Rivertowns infrastructure projects and advancing local legislative initiatives to assist the various municipalities in District 92. She continues to champion efforts to increase increase investments in Region 8 (Hudson Valley) roads and bridges, to meet the State’s renewable energy and environmental goals, to protect the Kensico Reservoir and other critical water resources, and to fight Con Ed utility rate increases.

Before becoming a member of the State Assembly, MaryJane served on the Westchester County Board of Legislators from 2011-22. She was Community Relations Director for Assemblyman Richard Brodsky from 2007-10. Prior to that, as a volunteer advocate for the Town of Greenburgh, she was instrumental in securing a $5 million settlement for traffic improvements in response to the Ridge Hill development.

During her tenure in the County Legislature, MaryJane was the elected Majority Leader of the Democratic caucus during the 2020-21 session and Majority Whip during the 2018-19 and 2012-13 sessions. She distinguished herself on the Board of Legislators through her work on infrastructure, the environment, and public health. MaryJane sponsored the “Clinic Access Bill” to expand protections for those visiting and working at women’s health clinics; legislation prohibiting the sale or distribution of flavored tobacco products; and an update of the County Charter to use respectful language for people with disabilities and mental health issues. She served as founding Chair of the Saw Mill Watershed Advisory Board (2011-22), co-chair of the Bronx River Advisory Board, and an ex-officio member of the Westchester County Stormwater Advisory Board.

As three-term chair of the Board’s committee on infrastructure, MaryJane was responsible for advancing hundreds of construction projects for road and bridge repairs, sewer and wastewater facility upgrades, County park and historic site restorations, and a broad range of other projects. She is perhaps best known for her persistence in advocating for the reconstruction of the Ashford Avenue Bridge — the second-largest bridge construction project in Westchester County history. Other projects include the Yonkers Wastewater Treatment Plant; Warburton Avenue Bridge rehabilitation; traffic safety improvements along the Saw Mill River Road, Lawrence Street, and Jackson Avenue corridors; Sprain Ridge Pool; South County and Bronx River Reservation trailways; and more than $30 million in local municipal storm water management projects.

MaryJane served on the New York State task force to study mass transit options for the Mario Cuomo Bridge, and has remained an active member of the Coalition for the National Infrastructure Bank (NIB). She also served on the Executive Committee of United Westchester — a working group of elected officials convened to assess storm preparedness and response by Con Edison, NYSEG, Altice (Optimum), and Verizon — and was instrumental in preparing their two comprehensive Storm Response Reports to the New York State Public Service Commission, calling on the utilities to invest in their crumbling distribution system and restore the ranks of their line crews. In turn, she led the Board of Legislators in advocating for corresponding reforms by Westchester’s delegation to the State legislature.

A lifelong environmentalist, MaryJane has fought for a legislative agenda designed to reduce both pollution and the cost of government. She worked in support of successful green initiatives that include the installation of solar and other energy-saving measures on County property, conversion of the County’s bus and car fleets to hybrid and electric power, expansion of electric vehicle charging stations, and creation of a new food scrap recycling center.

MaryJane has been a leader in Westchester’s fight against opioid addiction, and sponsored the 2017 law authorizing Westchester County’s lawsuit against the opioid manufacturers. She further advocated to require chain pharmacies to provide pharmaceutical take-back programs and to post warning signs about the potential dangers of opioid medication. She pressed for anti-smoking measures adopted by Westchester County in 2018, including “Tobacco 21,” which raised the tobacco and vaping age to 21, and regulating e-cigarettes the same way as tobacco products.

MaryJane grew up in Scranton, PA, and graduated from Yale University in 1982. She earned her law degree from New York University School of Law in 1985, and worked for four years as an Assistant District Attorney in the Appeals Bureau of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. She taught history and geography at Marymount College in Tarrytown, on her way toward earning a PhD in History from the City University of New York in 2007.

MaryJane and her husband, David Agosto, have two grown children who attended the Hastings-on-Hudson public schools. Now living in Dobbs Ferry, they are 30-year residents of the Rivertowns area of Westchester County.