By Scott Brinton
Any other year, a State Senator as popular as is Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick) might be considered a safe bet for reelection. Mr. Fuschillo's home district (the Eighth), after all, has gone to a Republican for decades.
2000 is not any other year for Nassau politics, however. It follows 1999's Democratic "revolution" in which, for the first time, Dems elected three of their own to the Hempstead Town Council and took control of the Nassau Legislature. Last October, no one could have predicted that level of voter dissatisfaction with GOP rule. Now, even the surest of Republican candidates are likely wondering whether last year's political tumult will carry over to Election Day, Tuesday, November 7.
So far, Nassau voters have given little indication which way, Democratic or Republican, they might sway. That is likely why Mr. Fuschillo, without fail, walks door to door every afternoon through a different section of his district, courting votes as if he faced a hotly contested race.
That is also likely why the Democratic Party selected a candidate, Jeannette Santos, from its only true power base in the Eighth District, the Town of Babylon, where the party enjoys a voter-registration advantage. Ms. Santos, of Amityville, serves as the town's deputy commissioner for the Department of Human Services.
Charges of invisibility
Ms. Santos issued scathing attacks against her opponent. She said Mr. Fuschillo is almost invisible on her end of the Eighth District, which runs from Baldwin clear across the Nassau-Suffolk border. "In some districts, they don't even know who he is," said Ms. Santos.
"I'll be more visible." she said. "They won't be saying: ' Jeannette Santos, who's that?"
Mr. Fuschillo refuted accusations of invisibility. For starters, he said, he has walked his entire district in the last two years.
The senator also said that, when South Oaks Hospital filed recently for non-profit status, the Amityville School District lost $300,000 in annual tax revenues. To make up for the loss, Mr. Fuschillo secured a $300,000 state "bullet" grant for the district, in which Ms. Santos serves as school board vice president.
Mr. Fuschillo also cited projects on the eastern end of his district that, he said, will benefit all of Long Island. At the State University of New York at Farmingdale, for example, Mr. Fuschillo said he was instrumental in developing the Broadhollow Bioscience Park, a joint venture between SUNY Farmingdale and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. The park is predicted to add 2,000 high-paying, high-tech jobs (average starting salaries in the $70,000 range) and $140 million annually to the Island's economy. Mr. Fuschillo helped broker the bioscience park deal through State Senate negotiations that brought $23 million for the project from the Empire State Development Corporation.
State education mandates
Education ranks as Ms. Santos's number-one issue. The candidate said she opposes State Department of Education mandates, such as the call for higher graduation standards, when they come without funding. "The mandates are very costly, and the [state doesn't] come through with the money, and it has to come out of the pockets of the taxpayers," said Ms. Santos.
Many school-district officials have also called for more state aid for education to help them meet the upgraded standards, which will eventually require students to pass five Regents exams to graduate. District officials say they are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into additional teaching time for students to enable them to pass the tests, but they are receiving only a small fraction of that money from the state.
Mr. Fuschillo countered that, over the last two years, the state has provided "record" levels of education aid for districts -- $2 billion in all.
Ms. Santos, however, said, "Between 1985 and 1995, the state took a lot of money away from the school districts. They're giving us money, but they still have not reached what they should be giving us."
Mr. Fuschillo noted that, while "I agree with higher standards, I think [they were] done too quickly" by the State Board of Regents.
Like his opponent, Mr. Fuschillo said some form of "safety net" must be built into the education system for students such as English as a Second Language pupils, who might not be able to pass five Regents exams to graduate. "It's something that has to be addressed," said Mr. Fuschillo, who sits on the Senate Education Committee.
Ms. Santos and Mr. Fuschillo find common ground over the most recent hot-button issue in education -- charter schools (private schools funded with public dollars). Both oppose charters, which were recently permitted under New York State law after pressure from Governor Pataki.
Ms. Santos said she has opposed charters all along, as they draw money away from school districts. (Every time students leave public schools for charters, their share of state education aid follows them.)
Mr. Fuschillo said that when the charter school bill went before the State Senate, he was one of only two Republicans to vote against it. The measure, he said, "provided no financial relief" to school districts that lost students to charters.
Taxing questions
Ms. Santos said she would like to see the current system of assessing school taxes through property values overhauled. The candidate said she favors some form of school income tax; however, she did not offer specifics as to how she might implement such a plan. For example, she could not say how businesses might be included in a school income tax.
"Income tax, I think that's more equitable ..." she said. "I don't think it's right to fund education through property taxes." She noted older adults who are forced to sell their homes and move because they cannot meet the area's "high" property taxes.
Mr. Fuschillo declined to comment about a school income tax, because, he said, he has not seen a plan for one. He did, however, say that the state is providing tax "relief" for residents, particularly older adults, through the Star Program. The senator said the program has offered some $800 million in property-tax reimbursements for residents in the last four years. "It's really kept the residents here on Long Island. We have to continually support that program and expand it if we can," said Mr. Fuschillo.
Candidates' bios in brief
Before running for State Senate, Mr. Fuschillo served as executive director of the Education and Assistance Corporation, which provides human-service programs for residents throughout Long Island. He was also Nassau County's chief deputy clerk and press secretary for the Nassau County Board of Supervisors, which was replaced by the County Legislature. He is married, with three young children.
In her role as Babylon's deputy human services commissioner, Ms. Santos oversees programs for senior citizens, women and the disabled. She is also president of the Western Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services and vice president of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association. She is married, with three adult children.
