By Scott Brinton
Skelos, 60, who is serving his 12th two-year term in the Senate, earned a statewide reputation as a victim's advocate in 1995, when he authored New York's version of Megan's Law.
On July 29, 1994, Richard and Maureen Kanka's daughter, Megan, was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a neighbor, Jesse Timmendequas. Timmendequas was a violent, repeat sexual offender. But the Kankas, who lived across from Timmendequas in Hamilton, N.J., had no idea that a predator was lurking in their neighborhood.
Those were the days before sex-offender registries.
New Jersey acted immediately to write the nation's first law requiring community notification whenever a convicted sex offender moves into a neighborhood.
Skelos, a Republican who was named the Senate's deputy majority leader in 1995, quickly took up the cause, calling for New York to enact its own Megan's Law. He wrote the legislation with Assemblyman Daniel Feldman, a Democrat from Brooklyn. On July 26, 1995, the two joined with then Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, as he signed the measure into law. The following year, Congress enacted a federal version of Megan's Law, requiring community notification across the country.
In many ways, Megan's Law has defined Skelos's public-service career. It was a landmark piece of legislation that raised his statewide profile, and was hailed and derided with equal vigor.
Under Megan's Law, people convicted of sex offenses such as rape, sexual assault and child molestation must register their addresses and workplaces with the state. The registration period depends on the nature of their crimes. Violent sex offenders must do so for life. The state also created a database of convicted sex offenders that the public can access on the Internet.
Skelos's biography on his state Senate Web site begins, "As the author of Megan's Law, Senator Skelos created the New York State Sex Offender Registry and authored numerous measures strengthening this powerful statute, including the Workplace and Campus Registration acts, and laws establishing lifetime registration for dangerous sexual predators, and posting information and photos about more sex offenders on the Internet.
"This year," the Web page continues, "Senator Skelos worked with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to enact the new e-STOP law, which prevents registered sex offenders from accessing social networking Web sites, including MySpace and Facebook, and prohibiting online communication between sex offenders and children."
Even before Megan's Law was enacted, libertarians decried it, saying it was an unnecessary invasion of the private lives of ex-convicts who had served their sentences and were trying to put their lives back together.
The law's proponents argue that it empowers parents by providing them with information that they otherwise would be unable to access. In Bellmore recently, Alfred Balcerak was arrested and charged with sexually abusing two teenage boys, one 13 and the other 14, at his home and upholstery business last month. Nassau County police began investigating the case after the mother of one of the boys found Balcerak's photo on the state Sex Offender Registry Web site. Balcerak had lured the boys with promises of odd jobs and then "rough-housed" with them.
Laura Ahern, executive director of Parents for Megan's Law, recently said in a published report, "We've seen more legislation [focused] on child protection issues than we've seen in the history of New York state" during Skelos's tenure.
Skelos has also authored laws to eliminate the statute of limitation in cases of rape and violent sexual assault, as well as to expand the state's DNA database.
He has written laws to eliminate New York City's commuter tax, a special income tax on commuters who worked in the city but did not live there. He helped enact tax credits for corporations to promote creation of high-technology and biotechnology jobs. And in 2002, he helped develop the $71.5 million Long Island Biotech Investment and Job Creation Program.
Now, Skelos said, he will focus on reducing New York's property tax burden, which is among the highest in the nation, while working to increase the number of high-paying, high-tech jobs across the state to attract more young people to the state.
No doubt, Skelos will have his work cut out for him as Senate majority leader, one of the three most powerful elected positions in the state. But he has a long line of legislative victories behind him and a host of friends in Albany from whom he can draw support.
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
