On June 8, a coalition led by 30 Republicans made a dramatic move to change leadership in the State Senate that took the public by surprise. However, if you examine the factors that led to our decision to shake up the Senate, enact sweeping reforms and change the direction in Albany, Western New Yorkers shouldn’t be surprised.

Democrats pledged to name Bill Stachowski chairman of the Senate Finance Committee so he could deliver for Western New York, but they gave the position to a Brooklyn lawmaker instead. That was the first of many broken promises by the Senate Democrats.

Democrats promised openness, but kept rank-and-file members of both parties in the dark during budget negotiations. Democrats excluded Republicans from discussions on how to cut spending to maintain a balanced budget and then diverted hundreds of millions of dollars from the New York Power Authority that could have been used for the “Power for Jobs” program. Democrats promised reform but failed to deliver.

Democrats promised to be accountable to taxpayers, but raised taxes by $8.5 billion, eliminated the STAR rebate checks and hit families with $2,400 in new taxes. Democrats promised to make smart investments with your tax dollars, but made dozens of political hires throughout the state and even opened up a new Western New York regional patronage office headed by failed Senate candidate Joe Mesi. Democrats promised “One New York,” but ignored the needs of Western New York.

Even the Democrats who represent the region, Stachowski and Antoine Thompson, have repeatedly voted against the area’s interests.

The allocation of $85 million in member items shows that the vast majority of those dollars will flow to New York City at Western New York’s expense. And, while a multibillion-dollar transportation plan was approved for the New York City Metropolitan area earlier this year, there is no such commitment for upstate.

These events make clear Democrats couldn’t or wouldn’t bring reform to Albany or cease their reckless spending. Therefore, we acted to stop it.

Six weeks later, the Senate has passed the most significant, sweeping reforms in the chamber’s history, making the chamber more open, transparent and accountable.

We instituted term limits for leaders and committee chairs, made it easier for members to bring bills to the floor and provided more equitable resources for all senators.

We aren’t proud of the gridlock that temporarily prevented us from doing the people’s business, however, these reforms wouldn’t have been achieved without the actions we took on June 8.

Dale M. Volker, George D. Maziarz and Michael H. Ranzenhofer are Republican state senators from Western New York.