By Scott Brinton
Fuschillo's district includes the Merricks, Bellmores and parts of East Meadow.
"My main issue is the economy and taxes," said Fuschillo. "People are shocked when they get their school tax bills." In August, the senator voted for Gov. David Paterson's plan to cap property taxes at 4 percent, unless a community overrides the cap with a super-majority vote. Thus far, despite Paterson's call for a cap and Senate passage of one, it has not passed the Democratically controlled Assembly. "I'm hoping the Assembly passes" the cap, Fuschillo said. "Something needs to be done. We spend more per pupil than any other state in the nation. People are in a desperate situation right now. People are watching their retirements go down as they watch TV."
Gordon said she favors a property-tax "circuit breaker," which would cap property taxes for homeowners who could not afford higher rates. She said the circuit breaker is especially needed with higher fuel costs burdening many. "A lot of my neighbors are elderly," Gordon said, "and they're living hand to mouth."
Gordon also said that she does not want Nassau County school districts to be consolidated into one district in order to save money, but she said she would like to see certain district services, such as legal and accounting services, shared among districts.
Gordon also said she would like to see more youth centers to keep children and teenagers off the streets. She said that her oldest of four children was shot and killed in a fight in Virginia, and her second oldest was shot up in a gun fight in Amityville, where she grew up. At the community centers, she said, "Have a Game Boy contest," referring to the popular videogame player. "Have the kids do Web sites for non-profit organizations."
Fuschillo said he is focused on affordable housing for young people. He noted that he helped to secure $31 million in state monies for the Long Island Housing Partnership, as well as helped pass legislation requiring that 10 percent of new homes in a development with more than five units be dedicated to "workforce," or affordable, housing. "To buy a house for $400,000 or $500,000 is a huge amount of money," he said. Young people need help.
The senator also said that he is working to secure grants for school districts to erect solar paneling on their rooftops. Solar energy, he said, will lower districts' costs by reducing the need for expensive energy from the Long Island Power Authority, thus helping to contain property taxes. Most recently, he secured a grant to put up solar paneling at the Town of Hempstead's senior center in Merrick.
One the senator's central efforts has been upgrading identity-theft statutes. He authored legislation that allows consumers to instantly put a freeze on their credit accounts if they believe their identities have been compromised. The freeze now takes between one and three days to lift, but Fuschillo said he is working on a measure to speed that process up to 15 minutes. Fuschillo said that he, himself, was a victim of identity theft.
Fuschillo also authored legislation to reduce the legal blood alcohol content level to drive from .1 to .08. Now he's working on legislation to require ignition interlock devices in all cars driven by convicted DWI offenders. The devices would require offenders to breathe into a tube and pass a sobriety test before they could drive.
Gordon, a grandmother of nine who worked for 25 years at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Northport and retired to become executive director of the Amityville Economic Community Council, said, "I believe things can be made much better than they are now."
Gordon is vice president of the Breezy Point Civic Association, a member of the Save Jones Beach committee, a board member of the North Amityville Community Economic Council, a member of the North Amityville Old School Association and third vice president of the central Long Island chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Fuschillo, a father of three and former executive director of the Education and Assistance Corporation, said, "I'm always looking out for ways to reach out to my constituents. I've always felt grassroots is the key to understanding what's going on." He graduated from C.W. Post with a degree in finance.
Comments about this story? Sbrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
