Hannon, Carlow Vie for 6th Senate Seat

Political newcomer Francesca Carlow, D-Plainview, is challenging incumbent Sen. Kemp Hannon, R-Garden City, in the race for 6th Senate District. 

Carlow and her husband have lived in the district for more than 25 years and have two children. She served as president of the Plainview/Old Bethpage Chamber of Commerce for seven years and continues to serve as an active board member. Carlow is currently second vice president of the Nassau Council of Chambers of Commerce and has been on its board of directors for five years. She said she is running to serve the interests of the people and touts her campaign as a "grassroots movement to give Long Islanders the opportunity to take back their government."

Hannon, who lives in Garden City with his wife and twin daughters, has served the 6th Senatorial District since 1989 and is also an attorney in private practice with the law firm of Farrell Fritz, PC. The Boston College, Fordham Law School and Chaminade High School graduate is the ranking member of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and is secretary of the Senate Conference. During his 20-plus year tenure, Hannon spearheaded the establishment of the Senate Medicaid Task Force, led the health committee of the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) and serves on NCSL's Health Policy forum, among other service. Before serving in the Senate, he was minority leader pro tempore in the assembly.

Q & A With the Candidates

Patch: Many small business owners are struggling to stay afloat in these tough economic times. What can be done to help them?

Francesca Carlow: As the owner of a small business that has been on Long Island for many decades, I know first hand what goes into meeting a payroll every week and what place that payroll has in the lives of our employees who count on that money to feed their families. The first thing I would do is to repeal the MTA payroll tax. It is a tax that especially penalizes small businesses who are forced to choose between cutting payroll and jobs or passing on the additional costs to  consumers in the form of higher prices. In these tough economic times, our state should be providing tax incentives to hire people not tax obstacles.

Our government and state agencies are rife with waste, fraud and abuse. I am in favor of conducting a full forensic audit of every state agency and authority to identify and cut the waste and fraud. The billions of dollars in savings generated would go a long way to ameliorating the need for the state to constantly look to the taxpayers for additional revenues in the form of ever increasing taxes. This would in turn help to retain and attract the creation of new small businesses by making our state more attractive to business that now seek to move or open in other states.

Kemp Hannon: Creating a business-friendly climate was a major priority for Senate Republicans for more than 20 years. From 1994-2008, I was successful in enacting over $33 billion in tax cuts, many of them targeted to small business owners and their employees. One of our major initiatives, which was passed by the Senate from 2003 through 2008 (but never acted upon by the Democrat-led Assembly) was a small business health insurance reform package which would help small business provide health insurance to their employees. I also passed a Small Business Assistance Package (2007), which targeted the biggest concerns holding back small business from growing and creating new jobs. Again, this was not acted upon by the Assembly.

Patch: School administrators are concerned about the situation in Albany, particularly when it comes to state aid projections. How can state legislators communicate better and earlier with school districts regarding how much money they can expect from Albany, even if that means promising less during these economic times?

Carlow: We need to ensure that our state budgeting process is both transparent and timely. Doing so would enable greater communication and coordination between the legislature in Albany and local school districts. It would give those districts the time needed to make intelligent and considered budget choices by removing the siege mentality caused by a delayed and murky budgeting process.

I do think that incentives work and as such, I am in favor of having all legislators permanently forfeit a day's pay for every day that the budget is late.

Hannon: The governor proposes his initial figures for state aid, which I then attempt to increase, and have been successful in so doing every year I have been in elected office. The most important thing for administrators is for the Legislature to pass an on-time budget so they can know, prior to school budget voting, how much state aid they can expect. The late budgets of the past two years, and especially this year, when the budget process completely broke down under Governor Paterson and the Democratic-led Legislature, was especially difficult for administrators.

Patch: Do you intend to get more aid to local school districts in light of the state's plan to toughen academic standards? If so, how?

Carlow: On Long Island we have long been denied our fair share of the tax revenues that we send to Albany. Unlike my opponent has done over the years, I would not vote in favor of any budget that continues this practice. It is time we received our fair share.

Hannon: I have always fought for, and been successful in securing, additional state aid to eduction over and above that which had been proposed by the Executive, whether he be a Republican or a Democrat. I will continue to do so and I will continue to be successful in getting more state aid for my constituency.

Patch: Nassau residents, like most Americans, are concerned about their job security. Those that don't have jobs have found it difficult to find one. What is your plan for creating and sustaining job growth on Long Island?

Carlow: We should explore the feasibility of creating a bank owned by the people of New York State pursuant to the model long established in North Dakota. Let's call it the Empire Bank. Such a bank would [be] the depository for all state tax collections and fees. On this captive deposit base, the bank would pay a competitive interest rate to the state treasurer.

We take those funds and plow those deposits back into the State of New York in the form of loans. We invest back into the state in economic development type of activities. We grow our state through that mechanism. Such a bank would enable us to invest in certain economic areas because they provide a public good by creating specific loan programs that are designed at very low interest rates to encourage business and job creation. As an example, we could for instance, invest funds with the goal of making Long Island and New York State the alternative and or green energy capitol of the nation and even the world. Such a program would go a long way to the establishment of many small and medium size businesses and the jobs created would be relatively high paying and sustainable.

Hannon: The best way to create and sustain jobs is to establish a more friendly business climate. To that end, when I was in the Senate Majority, I cut business taxes nearly every year from 1995-2007, I passed the Small Business Assistance package ($1.3 billion in tax relief for small businesses), I sponsored a new $2,500-$5,000 tax credit for businesses that create jobs and sponsored a moratorium on new taxes, fees and regulations that hurt businesses. All of that was erased the past two years.

As a member of the Senate Majority, I cut energy taxes nine times, created and enhanced the Empire Zone Program to stimulate economic development across Long Island and created and funded dozens of programs to create high-tech infrastructure and jobs. I also enacted a repeal of the state income tax on clothing and footwear under $110. All of these have also been eliminated or dismantled under two years of democrat leadership.

Patch: How will you address the issue of high property taxes in your district?

Carlow: While I favor a property tax cap, I am not naïve enough to think that we can forgo revenues and maintain the level of services that New Yorkers have come to expect and in many cases need. To maintain those services we cannot always look to the revenue side. We have been taxed to death and I believe increased taxes are at this point counterproductive.

Once again, we need to control our wasteful spending and the fraud that is sucking the life out of our state. A complete forensic audit of every taxpayer dollar spent in our state would help breath some life back into New York's finances. Additionally, there are some areas where we can and should explore the consolidation of state buying and services. This would include the consolidation and elimination of those state agencies and authorities identified in the audit as unnecessary or wasteful.

Eliminating waste and fraud equals lower taxes and the maintenance and in many cases the improvement of needed government services.

Hannon: School property taxes, which make up the lion's share of the homeowner tax bill, are strangling Long Islanders. As a member of the Majority, I fought for and enacted the STAR program and the STAR Rebate program. In the Senate, I passed a measure that would allow communities to phase out school property taxes altogether (NY-STOP), a program that also authorized a local property tax cap if the residents approved such a cap through a petition and voting process. This initiative was not acted upon by the Assembly. As soon as they assumed total control of the state in 2009, Democrats immediately discontinued the STAR Rebate program, further increasing a homeowners' already high school taxes.

Patch: Do you support the initiative for independent redistricting?

Carlow: Yes!

Hannon: Yes. I have already signed on to Ed Koch's "New York Uprising," a non-partisan, independent redistricting of legislative and Congressional seats.

Patch: What do you feel are the best ways of addressing New York's projected $7 billion budget deficit for next year?

Carlow: Our government and state agencies are rife with waste, fraud and abuse. I am in favor of conducting a full forensic audit of every state agency and authority to identify and cut the waste and fraud. The billions of dollars in savings generated would go a long way to ameliorating the need for the state to constantly look to the taxpayers for additional revenues in the form of ever increasing taxes. This would in turn help to retain and attract the creation of new small businesses by making our state more attractive to business that now seek to move or open in other states. These new businesses would in turn generate additional tax revenues that along with the savings generated from rooting out the waste and fraud would go a long way toward solving our deficit problem.

Hannon: Nothing in terms of spending cuts or consolidation should be off the table. New York simply spends too much and taxes too much, and both of these need to be restrained. We can recoup additional funding by reeling in rampant Medicaid fraud. These expenditures account from nearly $52 billion of New York's bloated budget (approximately $1 billion per week), and I have been at the forefront of efforts to reform Medicaid to achieve significant savings for taxpayers. My Task Force on Medicaid Fraud and Reform released on March 17 of this year details serious examples of Medicaid fraud and abuse that have a direct impact on state and local taxpayers each year. My report sets forth major policy recommendations that will empower localities to boost anti-fraud efforts, more aggressively combat waste and over-utilization of services and save taxpayers hundreds of millions, if not billions, per year. But the simplest way to reduce a budget deficit is to reduce state spending.

Patch: What do you feel about consolidation and the Cuomo bill? How in your view does it need to be revised/amended, etc.?

Carlow: As I stated earlier there are some areas where we can and should explore the consolidation of state buying and services. This would include the consolidation and elimination of those state agencies and authorities identified as unnecessary or wasteful in the forensic audit I favor.

Hannon: I believe it is a good starting point. Republicans have been calling for consolidation of certain governmental services and duplication of various governmental entities for several years. There are many areas where consolidation would make sense. I will be happy to work with whomever is governor towards achieving this end.

Patch: What is your position on whether the state should give approval to permit Nassau County the ability to distribute commercial property tax receipts county-wide to school districts and libraries, which would help communities in your district that don't have much of a commercial tax base?

Carlow: While I am not sure I am in favor of this, I do think it is an idea worth exploring. I suppose my answer would be based upon the results of such explorations and studies.

Hannon: I have not been provided with any legislation which would do this. I would certainly consider anything which might be presented to me but this is something which would first have to be sought and approved by those at the local level.

Patch: This year many cell tower projects proposed in the area have drawn concern from residents. What is your position on whether these cell towers should be installed near residential neighborhoods?

Carlow: From the point of view of potential health issues as well as aesthetic issues I am not in favor of locating cell phone towers in or near residential neighborhoods.

Hannon: The citing of the cell towers is specifically a local issue, and the matter is one for the towns and villages to best decide how to balance their residents' health and safety concerns with the rights the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted to wireless telephone providers. The Town of Hempstead's new law attempting to restrict cell towers to more than 1,500 feet from residences, schools and day care centers and houses of worship is one of the strongest in the nation. This is clearly becoming a quality-of-life issue, and in this regard, I support the town's rights to protect their residents.

Patch: One problem facing the East Meadow School District is thievery. Bowling Green Elementary School has had two separate break-ins, and people continue to access school property well after hours. Do you think that security upgrades are needed in the district? If so, what would you want to implement?

Carlow: Security, both in terms of public safety and protecting property, is and should always be of paramount importance. Toward this end, I am in favor of investing in additional and enhanced video security in and around our schools. Advances in technology have brought costs down and have made it possible for security personal to view live feed video on smart phones from anywhere in the world, if need be. Such capabilities would extend the reach, effectiveness and productivity of existing security personnel and create a record that would assist in apprehension and conviction of those who would commit crimes in our communities.

Hannon: This too is a local matter. The police and the school need to work together to come up with a workable plan to keep the school safe. If the school were to seek state assistance for security upgrades, I would certainly work to make this a reality.

The 6th Senate District includes Bethpage, East Meadow, Farmingdale, Plainview, Plainedge, Massapequa, Uniondale, Lakeview, Hempstead, Garden City, Levittown, Salisbury, Island Trees, Franklin Square and Garden City South. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Visit http://www.vote411.org/pollfinder.php to find your local polling location.