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General News: Calhoun-Randazzo Debate Issues
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| Richard Randazzo and Nancy Calhoun kept their distance at Monday's debate. |
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| Nancy Calhoun has served in the state assembly since 1990. |
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| Richard Randazzo. |
October 21, 2008
New York State Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun and her challenger for the 96th District seat, Richard Randazzo, faced off in a debate Monday night in front of about 50 people at Monroe-Woodbury elementary school. Calhoun is running for her 10th term is the assembly on the Republic and Conservative ticket. Randazzo, the candidate of the Democratic and Work Family parties and the former Cornwall town supervisor, is challenging her for the fourth time.
In the debate, Calhoun and Randazzo agreed on several issues, like the need to provide school tax relief for property owners, but they disagreed on how to do it. And they both acknowledged that the biggest task facing the New York State assembly will be to cut large chunks of spending to cover the drop in revenue expected from the Wall Street banking crisis.
To hold the line on property taxes, Calhoun said that she favors a tax cap and a circuit breaker that would provide rebates to people earning less than $250,000 a year. Randazzo also supports the tax cap and the circuit breaker, but he would like to see a statewide income tax to pay for schools.
When asked by moderator Chris Mele, of the Times Herald-Record, how school districts could cut costs, Randazzo suggested looking at some of the state mandates, like the need to have a curriculum coordinator. He also suggested finding ways to cut administrative costs and salaries.
Calhoun presented more specific ideas. She recommended consolidating school districts under a BOCES superintendent, a step that would eliminate local district superintendents. Distance learning, via computer, would also save money, she argued. Calhoun said that savings could be found by requiring school employees to pay a larger piece of health insurance premiums. She also said that she knew retired teachers locally who could write textbooks that cost a lot less than “the 40, 50, 60 dollar books written in Texas and printed in Formosa.”
Calhoun also charged that Randazzo raised taxes in Cornwall 19.2% in 2005, a charge that he vigorously denied, saying that the average property owner’s tax went up 7% that year. He said that anyone who looked at his record as Cornwall town supervisor would find that he is a fiscal conservative.
Randazzo painted his opponent as an ineffective legislator who in the last two years in Albany has only seen two of her bills passed by the senate and assembly. He also charged that property taxes have gone up during her 17 years as a member of the real property tax committee.
Calhoun argued that as a member of the assembly’s minority party she has made her voice heard on many issues and she has worked closely with other legislators on important pieces of legislation, like the bill that would provide a certificate for the birth of a stillborn child. She also said that no one member can be held responsible for tax increases.
Calhoun and Randazzo agreed that Medicaid spending is a major area that needs to be scrutinized to eliminate fraud and waste. Calhoun said she would like to see more funds invested in building an infrastructure to bring more industry to the area. Randazzo said that he would like the state to invest in small businesses, not the huge corporations that often take advantage of American workers.
Richard Randazzo raised a local issue, the new cancer care treatment center under construction at St. Luke’s Cornwall hospital, He said he supported the facility because it will not turn anyone seeking treatment away. Calhoun said her concern about the facility is that it will compete with an existing radiation and oncology center that has served the community for 20 years. She also said the new cancer center is a for-profit operation, run by two doctors from New York City.
Monday’s debate was the only public one scheduled before election day, Tuesday, November 4.
Comments:
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50 people? That's pathetic. It should have been publicized more. I didn't hear about it until afterwards. Instead of wasting all that space with their name tag political signs they could have advertised the debate.
posted by Kate Benson on 10/21/08 at 10:14 PM
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