By Scott Brinton
McDonough says he is running on his four-year record in Albany. He noted that 93 bills for which he has served as co-prime sponsor or as a sponsor have become law. He also said that he has brought in more than $500,000 in special legislative appropriations for his district, primarily in the form of $5,000 grants for schools, libraries, Little Leagues and chambers of commerce.
The assemblyman was rebutting Birnbaum¹s assertions that he had authored but one bill that was passed into law, and brought in little grant money for his district. Birnbaum believes that, as a majority party member of the Democratically controlled Assembly, he would wield greater political power than McDonough, which would enable him to pass more bills into law and bring home more grant money.
McDonough said he has acquired political clout by working with both Democrats and Republicans in the Assembly, by taking on leadership roles in the Assembly Republican conference and by working closely with his counterpart in the Senate, Charles Fuschillo Jr., a Republican from Merrick.
Sub head: Sex-crimes laws
McDonough, who has made toughening state sex-crimes laws a priority, noted that he serves as co-chairman of the Assembly Minority Sexual Assault and Violence Education Task Force and as chairman of the Crime in Our Communities Task Force. The SAVE Task Force, he said, collected more than 15,000 petition signatures statewide in 2005, calling on the Assembly¹s Democratic majority to allow a series of sex-crimes bills to be voted on by the entire Assembly. Previously, the Democratic majority had blocked the bills from moving out of committee onto the Assembly floor for a vote. The measures included a bill that eliminated the state¹s five-year statute of limitations on rape cases and a bill that upgraded Megan¹s Law to require lifetime registration of the most dangerous sexual predators.
The SAVE Task Force, McDonough said, also held numerous public hearings throughout the state, including one at the Merrick Firehouse in the summer of 2005. As part of the Crime in Our Communities Task Force, McDonough is conducting hearings on gang violence, looking for ways to upgrade state law.
Birnbaum, a former New York City and Nassau County prosecutor, said he favors lifetime registration of the most dangerous sexual predators. ³Nothing works on a sexual predator,² he said. ³That¹s why I believe you have to have as strong a Megan¹s Law as possible.² But Birnbaum added that he did not believe tougher penalties necessarily stop crime. He said the ³swiftness and certainty of punishment² serves as the greatest deterrent.
Sub head: Property taxes
Both candidates spoke at length about the need to rein in property taxes. Each noted that the biggest chunk of a property-tax bill goes to the schools. Both spoke about encouraging school districts to consolidate services.
McDonough, who owns a debt-collection agency, Graydon Associates, said that school districts could consider sharing their purchasing agreements, and that a number of districts already do. He also said that the Assembly Republican conference wants an independent inspector general for education to oversee school spending, in particular staff contracts. McDonough wants all contracts posted on the Web one month before school boards vote on them, and said he would like school budgets posted as well.
Finally, McDonough said he has consistently voted to increase school aid. Education aid, he explained, has become tougher for Long Island schools to get following a recent court ruling that granted $15 billion to New York City schools. The decision came after the Committee for Fiscal Equity sued the state, claiming that the city¹s poorer schools received a disproportionately small amount of state aid.
McDonough said that aid to Long Island districts should be indexed to regional costs. Instead, because the Island is perceived to be wealthy, it receives, on average, 25 cents in state education aid for every dollar it sends to Albany in income taxes. In a number of upper-middle-class districts, that figure could be as low as 13 cents. Upstate schools often receive a considerably higher proportion.
³We¹re fighting constantly² for more state aid, McDonough said. ³This year, we delivered record school aid. ... We keep coming up with more aid, but the pie is only so big.²
Birnbaum said he sees consolidation of janitorial services as a possible revenue stream for the schools. He believes the schools have too many custodians. He would also like to see students given laptop computers, from which they could access textbooks online. He believes the cost of textbooks drives up budgets unnecessarily. He said the state could give districts grants to pilot such programs. Birnbaum also said he would win greater aid for Long Island schools by negotiating with and winning the favor of state legislators from other suburban counties that have traditionally received less than their fair share of state aid. ³My strong point,² Birnbaum said, ³is negotiating.²
Sub head: The environment
On the environment, McDonough wants the state to pass a more expansive bottle bill that would allow consumers to return a greater variety of bottles and cans, for which they would get back their 5-cent deposits. That¹s currently the case with many bottles and cans, but not all. McDonough said the state has run into opposition from distributors, who claim they would have no place to store all of the collected bottles and cans under an expanded law. But McDonough said that bottles and cans are too often discarded rather than returned and recycled, which hurts the environment. ³The plastic gets in our landfills,² he said.
Birnbaum said he would like to see the woodlands surrounding the Meadowbrook Parkway turned into state parklands. He noted that hundreds of community residents have volunteered to clean up the woodlands. The state parks department, however, has balked at a bipartisan proposal to allow hiking and mountain-biking through the area.
Birnbaum, who has not taken part in the volunteer cleanups in the woodlands over the past few years, said he has walked his dog there and seen the devastation caused by vandals. For his part, McDonough has participated in nearly every cleanup to date.
McDonough, who earned a master¹s in economics from Columbia University and served in the military, is a former president of the Merrick Chamber of Commerce and the Merrick Kiwanis Club.
Birnbaum is an attorney in private practice in Mineola and New York City. He serves also as a money manager, or fiduciary, for disabled veterans. And he helped create the ³Law Squad,² a committee of law-enforcement officials and attorneys who visit schools to inform students about the criminal and civil consequences of breaking the law.
