Much of the debate for the 109th assembly district focused on reforming New York state government as challenger Jennifer Whalen discussed cutting taxes and reducing unfunded mandates and incumbent Assemblyman Bob Reilly couldn’t stop talking about Andrew Cuomo.
At an hour to which Colonie Chamber of Commerce President Tom Nolte jokingly referred to as ungodly, the candidates met at 8 a.m. for their first of two, hour long debates.
Whalen, a former assistant attorney general, said she would support a property tax cap that would be set at 2.5 percent or at the rate of inflation, adding that New York has some of the highest property taxes in the nation. While Reilly, D-Colonie, said he supports a tax cap, he wished it wasn’t some he had to support.
`The Assembly has already passed, although it never got through the Senate or the governor, a cap on tax called a circuit breaker,` he said. `Unfortunately, I don’t think the 212 legislators have the wherewithal to really make the decisions on what they’re going to cut, what they’re going to support, etc.`
Reilly, in his third mention of Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Cuomo within 20 minutes, said he would support the attorney general’s proposed tax cap which would entail a freeze on school taxes and local government taxes a two percent or at the rate of inflation. He added that the provision would allow for a municipality to raise their taxes if under a large suit and that residents could vote to override the raise with 60 percent of the vote.
Whalen challenged him as she said she was confused with the reference to Cuomo as legislation for a property tax cap got held up in the assembly and they have yet to come back for another session to vote on it.
`It’s not clear on why the assembly didn’t pass a property tax cap,` she said. `It’s an outrage. 83 percent of New Yorkers wanted it.`
Small businesses were also a popular topic for the two candidates as Reilly admitted that they are underrepresented in the state legislature. He said he would work to make sure that small businesses understand how government works and to make government more aware of small businesses.
`I’m one of the few people in the Assembly who own and appreciates a small business,` he said referring to his Patridge Pub located on Madison Avenue in Albany. `We don’t have effective lobbying going on. You need to get down to the legislature and the governor’s office and be better represented.`
He added that he is working on legislation where if the state government fines a small business for a violation, the fines will stop there and the business will not be fined daily.
Whalen said that small businesses make up 98 percent of the businesses in New York state and that there needs to be energy incentives or tax credits for businesses a moratorium placed on current mandates and any mandates in the future. She cited the e-cycling waste program passed earlier this year.
`What did we do to keep the parks open? We raided some fund that was then replenished by a e-cycling waste program that is imposing a lot of extra mandated costs to electrical and computer industries in New York that’s going to trickle down to consumer,` said Whalen.
The candidates faced off on an array of other issues such as legalizing Mixed Martial Arts in the state, which Reilly vehemently opposes and Whalen said she’d be willing to explore, and energy costs which Whalen said there needs to be relief for utility bills and Reilly said to explore hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.
Reilly came out after Whalen for not proposing specific cuts when it came to the topic of controlling government spending. He singled out Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Carl Paladino as someone who `sits on the sidelines` and are `not able to identify what they are going to cut` as they will just say they will reduce waste and fraud.
Whalen said she would place a moratorium on member items as she said, `we must think of the many and not just the few.` She also suggested consolidating and merging state agencies such at the Department of Transportation.
She also criticized the state assembly over spending $10 million to bring the chip manufacturer Sematech to Albany with only receiving 100 jobs in return.
`It just seems like juxtaposition,` she said. `I think we need to take a more holistic approach of getting businesses to come here.`
For those who did not attend, here is a link to a video of the entire debate which took place between Reilly and Whalen at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library on Oct. 25, courtesy of YNN:
http://capitalregion.ynn.com/content/top_stories/521754/debate-for-109th-assembly-district-riley-vs–whalen/“
