Two candidates relatively unknown on the state scale are vying for the right to represent the 112th Assembly District in a contest that has largely revolved around the issues of property taxes and upstate economic development.
The 112th covers all of Washington County along with parts of Rensselaer and Saratoga counties. In Saratoga, the towns of Malta, Stillwater and Saratoga fall within its bounds. There are nearly 90,000 registered voters, with almost twice as many registered Republicans as Democrats, roughly 39,000 to 22,000.
Tony Jordan
Republican nominee Tony Jordan, who will also run on the Conservative Party line, resides in the Town of Jackson with his wife and four children.
He has not held elected office before, but points to his experience as an assistant district attorney in Washington County and, most recently, as a small town lawyer, as a window into the trials and tribulations of small businesses in the district.
He is rolling out a job creation plan that he says would go a long way toward making New York an attractive place to start and run a business. At the heart are measures to reduce taxes and cut red tape. Jordan said he feels that the state’s bureaucracy is a big reason that workers and businesses are leaving the state.
We need to work to make state agencies a friend to businesses, not an adversary, he said.
Investment in training and education for high-tech jobs that will be coming to the state and region is paramount, according to Jordan. He also said that locals should be given the first stab at jobs coming to AMD’s future manufacturing facility in Malta.
Like many candidates in many races, Jordan is targeting rising property taxes in his campaign. He supports both a tax cap and a circuit breaker approach, and doesn’t feel that enacting both measures would be overkill.
`Both plans would not be enough alone,` he said. `We need to be aggressive.`
Support for a tax cap plays with Jordan’s belief that state spending must be curtailed in general to reduce tax burden and shore up a ballooning state deficit.
`If you spend more than you make, which the state does, you get into the situation that we’re in,` he said.
Ian McGaughey
Democratic nominee Ian McGaughey, also running on the Independence and Working Families lines, calls the Town of Wilton his home, where he is serving his second term on the Wilton Town Board. He is engaged and planning a November wedding.
If elected, he says his No. 1 priority will be addressing the property tax burden, and he is subscribing to a circuit breaker approach.
`It’s immediate, comprehensive and fair,` he said, adding a breaker would also leave school funding unaffected. `My plan would provide relief to those who need it.`
He also says he would support a millionaire’s tax, which according to the candidate, could raise as much as $2.6 billion.
McGaughey paints himself as a changer, criticizing `partisan bickering` at the Capitol. He has pledged to donate his Assembly salary to charity and keep in contact with every community in the 112th.
He would like to address the state’s budgetary woes by eliminating wasteful spending by conducting audits of state agencies, but was quick to add that school budgets should remain untouched if at all possible.
Stimulating local job growth will involve reducing the burden of state government on businesses, according to McGaughey, who says he has experienced the problems firsthand as a small business owner.
`It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,` he said. `There’s so much red tape we need to reduce the burden on business.`
To that end, he is proposing making low interest loans available to businesses and providing business owners with more information through an outreach program.
`There were times as a small business owner that I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong until I got a nasty letter from the state,` said McGaughey.“