By Angela Marshall
Murray, November vie for assembly seat
The race for the 19th State Assembly District seat pits incumbent Republican Kathleen Murray against Democrat Steve November. Election day is Tuesday, November 7.
The 19th district, which runs along the South Shore from Levittown to Island Park, has long been a Republican stronghold. Ms. Murray replaced Assemblyman Charles O'Shea in a February, 1998, special election after he resigned to become county assessor.
In November that year, Ms. Murray was reelected to serve her first term, and her freshman status is something that Mr. November is counting on to help his chances.
However, during her short time in office, Ms. Murray believes she has accomplished a lot. Environmentally, Ms. Murray, an attorney from Levittown, was a sponsor of an MTBE ban. Currently, the federal government requires the use of the gasoline additive as part of its clean-air policy to help reduce air pollution. However, many environmentalists believe that MTBE's presence in ground water is a bigger threat. "Certainly, that has been an issue that's percolated literally and figuratively into our consciousness," she said.
Although Congress has yet to pass a ban on the federal level, Ms. Murray believes her bill sends a strong message for them to be environmentally responsive.
As the ranking Republican of the Housing Committee, Ms. Murray has co-sponsored several pieces of bipartisan legislation. With Democrat Tom DiNapoli, she helped create an experimental program to help people who are facing foreclosure because of a traumatic event in their lives. A first of its kind, the program is being tried in Nassau County. "We hope that this might become a blueprint for the rest of the state," she said.
Ms. Murray has also worked with Democrat Vito Lopes to co-sponsor an extension and enlargement of the Fannie Mae mortgage program. This bill was designed to give people of middle and low incomes a leg up when purchasing a home for the first time. The program, Ms. Murray said, provides competitive interest rates and down-payment assistance.
"On Long Island, the issue of affordable housing is becoming a hotter and hotter and more intense issue," Ms. Murray said. "So, I think programs like these are steps in the right direction to help. Not everybody's wealthy, as we all know, and I think it helps a growing number of people who are finding it difficult to live on Long Island."
Ms. Murray said her motto is: "Think globally and act locally."
She feels the most important part of her job as assemblywoman is to listen to residents' problems, such as pot holes in the streets or the cell-tower issue in Merrick and Bellmore, and to help get them solved. "As much as I think my legislative voting record and what we do in Albany is incredibly important, I think where I touch people's lives on a daily basis makes the most positive impact."
Ms. Murray has also helped her senatorial counterpart, Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick) on a number of projects, including the continued revitalization of the Long Island Rail Road stations in the district. "We feel that revitalizing and renovating the LIRR train stations themselves will really have the trickle-down effect of giving a boost to downtown business areas, which are really taking it on the chin these days, I think, with all these malls."
In her home town of Levittown, Ms. Murray helped organize a $12 million renovation of Hempstead Turnpike. If all goes well with this project, she hopes to continue westward with beautification projects in other parts of the district.
Education has long been an interest of Ms. Murray's. She headed the minority's task force studying the new education standards for New York State. During 1999, she held 17 round-table meetings throughout the state, discussing the standards with superintendents, teachers and residents.
Although she favors the standards, Ms. Murray believes safety nets have to be created for such vulnerable children as special education, vocational, technical and English as a Second Language students, who might have trouble passing five Regents.
As for criticisms of state legislators for not providing enough funding for the mandates, Ms. Murray said she understands them. "I know from all of my school superintendents that the initial outlay -- for extra remediation, extra teachers, extra books -- was certainly far in excess of the dollars the state had allocated for bringing the students up to speed on the new tests."
However, she said that state aid to education has increased for the past three years and that legislators have worked to give school districts more discretion in how they spend that aid. "We increased the operating standards aid. That's the category of aid that has the fewest strings attached," she said.
Ms. Murray has also sponsored bills to revamp what she called an "archaic" funding system that does not bring Long Island its fair share of funding. However, she said getting the upstate representatives to pass them is a continuing struggle.
Steve November
This may be Steve November's first attempt at political office, but, he maintains, it is not an area with which he is unfamiliar. As a longtime Democratic committeeman, Mr. November has worked on a number of campaigns and written several pieces of legislation. "I've worked in the background of the party," he said. "So, I understand the process and I'm hungry."
Most recently, Mr. November worked to get fellow Merrick resident David Deneberg elected to the Nassau County Legislature. The challenger said he walked part of the district then and has continued trekking over the past year.
With Mr. Deneberg, Mr. November has held several town meetings to get to know what issues most concern area residents. The meetings also have provided information regarding the current county budget problems and the fight against West Nile Virus. "This excites me, because this is something that people can sink their teeth into," he said. "That's the type of thing that I want to bring to state government."
Mr. November feels that, as a member of the Assembly majority, he will be in a better position to get legislation passed. "I have a much better chance in the future of bringing back to my district the types of state aid and the types of legislation that it wants," he said.
He, too, would draft legislation to see that Long Island gets its fair share of state funding. He believe this is one reason why Nassau County is so far in debt. "A lot of the things Nassau County is now providing should be provided by the state."
As examples, Mr. November listed the continued threat of cuts to busing and youth programs. "While I don't believe in excessive taxation, I believe that these funds can be found. The state's in the black. There are ways in which the state can help."
Another waste of time and money, Mr. November said, is the state's requirement that an authorizing bill is needed from the houses of the legislature to release school funding. "I think there should be direct disbursement from the lottery fund," he said. "Isn't that the way the lottery was meant to be?"
As a former teacher, now an attorney, Mr. November said he wants to "make sure schools are well provided for."
This includes making the state fund its mandates. Although he believes the standards are necessary, he said the state is moving too fast and not providing the funding for it to work in all schools.
In order to make the new standards attainable, he feels school districts need to hire more teachers, build better scholastic infrastructure and purchase more computers and books. "The state wants to move ahead with the mandates and put everything on the local school district. No! I think if the state wants everybody to move ahead with the mandates, the state provides the funds. The state has the funds."
As for students who might have trouble making the grade, he thinks the state should fund summer schools and after-school programs. "Go the extra mile for these kids," he said. "Don't drop them. Just provide the state aid."
Environmentally, Mr. November has several projects in mind. "I was very disappointed that the state legislature did not pass the reauthorization of the Super Fund program. That has to be a priority. How can it not be?"
The Super Fund program was created to eliminate health and environmental threats posed by hazardous waste sites.
He would also like to see the South Shore Estuary program strengthened and more protections for the ground water. The estuary consists of 70 miles of wetlands stretching from Nassau County's West Bay to the Shinnecock Bay in Suffolk County. It was created to protect the rare and endangered plants and animals that live there.
"We need more accurate policing and a bottom-line ban on all building without a thorough environmental review," he said.
