Assemblyman Charles Lavine, a Democrat from Glen Cove, is currently serving his 11th term, and is running for re-election in the 13th District. He was first elected to the Assembly in 2004, and has since worked on legislation on guns, veterans’ services and marriage equality, among other issues.
Lavine, 79, chairs the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, which reviews and handles proposed legislation impacting the state’s courts. Enacting legislation for courts to function, he said, would be a priority if he is re-elected. He also listed restoring faith and trust in government, and developing a budget with sufficient funding for residents’ needs, among his objectives.
The budget, Lavine said, must include sufficient funding for education, health care and environmental protection. “Public education is one of the major reasons that people live on Long Island,” he said, noting the grants he has secured for districts, like North Shore, to make capital improvements and help pay teachers and social workers. One grant facilitated the purchase of a press box at North Shore High School.
Lavine has recently been outspoken about Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity as well as antisemitism and Islamophobia. He is a member of the National Board of Directors of Jewish Legislators, and president of the National Association of Jewish Legislators’ New York chapter.
He supports Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to revitalize downtown areas and incorporate transit-oriented development. Legislators, he said, must work to make housing more affordable, with seniors and young people, in particular, struggling to find places to live.
“This is basic economics,” Lavine said. “It’s supply and demand. We do not have enough supply. As a consequence, remembering Economics 101 when I was in college, the expense of housing becomes greater and greater and greater.”
With ICE activity continuing in Nassau County, Lavine said he believes it in important to speak out “in favor of fairness.” He added that undocumented immigrants who are committing violent crimes should be removed, but he asserted that the majority of those being held at the Nassau County Correctional Center have not been convicted of violent crimes.
“I know people who are in the Latino community and in other immigrant communities who live in fear,” Lavine said. “They’re afraid to travel.” He acknowledged that other communities, such as the South Asian community, are affected as well.
Many of Lavine’s constituents oppose the Propel NY Energy project. Public advocates have called on elected officials, including Lavine, to fight the project. He has met with those constituents, he said, and sent a letter to the state Public Service Commission expressing concerns.
Nonetheless, he said, “I am a legislator. I am not a magician.”
Lavine added that he believes the state needs to modernize its infrastructure, and cited underground pipes in Glen Cove as an example of that need. Flooding has been a repeat issue for the city’s residents, and he said he would continue to work to secure funding to update infrastructure but that tackling the flooding issue will require the city and state to work together.
