Chad Lupinacci: Prioritizing Education,Vital Services And Public Safety

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For the past two years, it has been my great pleasure and honor to serve as the Member of Assembly for the 10th District. Although this was my first term of office as an Assemblyman, I believe that I made some significant strides in the areas of state aid for education, maintaining vital services, and improving public safety. I am asking for the same trust and support that I had two years ago, so that I can return to Albany to continue to do the people’s work.

As a former school board member, and now the Ranking Minority Member on Higher Education, I know just how important it is to have a solid foundation through our public school system. If a child is equipped with a first-rate K-12 education, he or she will successfully transition to college or the workforce. However, two substantial road blocks all-too-often make these aims difficult to achieve – unfunded mandates and a lack of our fair share of state aid.

Years ago, 70% of education funding came from Albany and 30% came from the school districts; today, the public school funding arrangement is exactly reverse. Additionally, Long Island sends countless amounts of money to Albany – much more compared to other parts of the state – and rarely gets its fair share returned. For these reasons, I called upon my colleagues each year to ensure that we got our deserved share, and I am proud to say that we were very successful. These funds helped alleviate the financial stresses caused by unfunded mandates and allowed our schools to keep their programs running. I will continue to fight for proper state aid, along with taking steps to eliminate unfunded mandates.

When I was a school board member, I learned just how vital the services of Sagamore Children’s Center were. Sagamore offers services for children struggling with various psychological issues, so that they can return to a normal school environment and reintegrate with their peers. The success stories that came out of that facility are too many to elaborate on here. Suffice it to say that when the Governor planned to close the facility’s in-patient services, I made it an absolute priority to do everything I could to keep its beds available. Such an end to these services would mean that families would have to look to similar facilities in New York City, which would mean that many children would simply not see their family as much as they would at Sagamore – that would be unacceptable. Therefore, along with my colleagues from both sides of the political aisle, labor groups, educators, and community activists, our voices were heard and the services will continue.

In addition to vital services, the State of New York must also ensure that laws affecting basic public safety are passed and zealously enforced. When we all learned about the tragedy at Legal Seafood, where carbon monoxide took a life and sickened many, most of us asked how this could happen. The law as it stood at the time of the incident did not require restaurants, such as Legal Seafood, to have carbon monoxide detectors. Regardless of the reason for this major gap in the law, I immediately took the steps to ensure that legislation correcting this lack of common sense was presented to the Governor. I am happy to say that the legislation is currently sitting on the Governor’s desk awaiting his signature to make it become law.

As I look forward to the future, I would like to build upon these successes and also make strides in new areas as well. My commitment to education and public safety will remain notable priorities of mine, which goes without saying. I will also continue to ensure that Long Island is an attractive place for people to live, both young and old. Furthermore, I will also work to create more incentives for businesses to remain in and relocate to our great state. All this and more is possible with your continued input and support.

Thank you for giving me your trust for the past two years. Join me in making our state the “Empire State” once again, by giving me your vote on Election Day.

The 10th Assembly District includes the hamlets of Cold Spring Harbor, Dix Hills, Greenlawn, Huntington, Huntington Station, Lloyd Harbor, Melville, South Huntington and West Hills in the Town of Huntington as well as part of Farmingdale in the Town of Babylon.