By Matt Hampton
For families in Elmont and Franklin Square, the main questions center around two issues: taxation and jobs. Nowhere are those two concerns more intertwined than in the revitalization of the Hempstead Turnpike corridor and Belmont Park.
In April, Republican legislators Tom Alfano, Bob Barra and Dean Skelos stood outside Gate 5 at Belmont Park and launched an attack on the then-Democratically controlled state Senate.
“This is the most anti-hardworking family budget that I’ve seen in 24 years in the Senate,” state Senator Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) said about the recently passed state budget. “There is a lot of insensitivity here to suburban communities.”
Assemblyman Bob Barra, of Lynbrook, said the state government was essentially “three Democrats from New York City saying, ‘Hooray for me and to hell with Long Island.”
Now, with control of the state Senate ostensibly split between two factions, local leaders are hopeful that Nassau County — and the Hempstead Turnpike corridor — will be seeing more focused attention from upstate.
“This change in leadership can mean only one thing for Elmont and Franklin Square — we have a direct seat at the table and our issues will addressed,” Assemblyman Tom Alfano (R-Franklin Square) said. “No longer will city leaders be able to ignore the voices of Elmont and Franklin Square. No longer will the needs for job creation and cutting property taxes be brushed aside. This is a game-changing time for us all.”
Alfano aide Scott Cushing took it a step further. He said that during the recent Elmont Day parade down Hempstead Turnpike, residents were shouting to local politicians, encouraging them to cut taxes and look out for residents who were struggling, both to find work and to keep their heads above water with the jobs they had.
“The people on that parade route yelling out to them — that was one of the best polls we’ve ever seen in our lives,” Cushing said. He pointed to the state Senate’s likely coalition government as being more likely to heed the concerns of residents outside New York’s urban center.
“It’s now going to hopefully be a collaborative effort, the fact that you’re going to have both Democrats and Republicans looking outside the box to come up with solutions.”
Since the most recent state elections in November, Republicans have hammered home the idea that every major leadership position in Albany — from the governor’s office to the Senate Majority Leader to the Speaker of the Assembly — was held by a legislator who hailed from inside the five boroughs.
Belmont Park was used by Republicans as an example. Why, they asked, did Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens receive earmarks for video lottery terminals, when nearby Belmont did not?
Now, they say, with a change in the leadership of the state Senate, and the likelihood of shared power, the breakdown of time, legislation and resources is more likely to fall across all areas.
Even as the revitalization of Belmont is reconsidered — with the most recent possibility centering around the placement of a Shinnecock tribe casino there — Republicans are claiming that the recent state Senate majority lacked the desire to help.
Democrats, for their part, have closed ranks and remain largely silent, even among rumors of renegotiations and an attempt to wrest power back from Senate Republicans.
Port Washington Senator Craig Johnson, whose district includes the Belmont Race Track, issued a short statement recently but has otherwise been silent.
“This week’s Albany power grab has been a disappointing diversion from the important work that needs to be done during the last days of this legislative session,” Johnson said in a statement. “I am hopeful that the dust from this irresponsible and poorly thought-out attempt to subvert the results of last November’s elections will soon settle and we will be able to once again carry out the business of the people of the state of New York.”
Sandra Smith, chair of the Elmont Coalition for Sustainable Development, said she thought the switch would mean more hands-on representation for people locally,
“Things have been moving in a good direction, and the more Long Island has a voice in those rooms [upstate] the better of our projects are going to be.”
Smith said she thought it would be beneficial to the state as a whole to have representatives from everywhere working together, rather than letting New York City make decisions on behalf of the state.
“I think it’s beneficial to the state, when you have people working for all areas and not just on one train of thought,” she said.
In the meantime, Smith believes local Republican leaders will work to assure residents that projects to aid the Hempstead Turnpike will be aided by the shift to a coalition government in the state Senate.
