By:Scott Brinton
O'Connell, of Mineola, noted that she is the only registered nurse in the state Assembly, and as such, she is often looked to as a source of information on health-care legislation. "When you stand up as the only registered nurse, people stand up and listen," O'Connell said.
She said she is worried about New York's nursing shortage, and she wants to put greater funding into educating a new generation of nurses.
O'Connell, the ranking member of the Assembly's Health Committee, worked on a law to ensure that older residents of assisted-living facilities understand their rights, and know what services they are and are not entitled to at such facilities.
She also said she has one of the Assembly's best voting records on the environment. "Health and the environment go hand in hand," she said. She noted that childhood asthma cases are on the rise, and that the Legislature is now looking closely at why. Hospitals have been asked to keep records on when and where kids are suffering from asthma. That will allow the state to potentially identify clusters of and environmental risk factors for asthma.
O'Connell is also worried that the occurrence of type II diabetes has jumped among young people, and she believes diet is directly related to the increase. Children are eating more sugar-filled junk food, and, she said, school cafeterias are often the source of the offending snacks. So she is eyeing potential legislation to limit what can be sold in school lunchrooms.
O'Connell would also like to toughen driving-while-intoxicated statutes. "Every weekend, we're having another fatality involving another group of kids," she said.
The assemblywoman supports proposals to reform legislative practices in Albany. In particular, she would like to see the state budget process overhauled. She believes legislators shouldn't be allowed to leave Albany or take vacations in the spring until a final state spending plan is hammered out. "No other bills should be considered until the budget is passed," O'Connell said.
The New York state budget has been chronically late, which creates headaches for school districts that try to hash out their own spending plans. Without definite state education aid figures, school districts can't finalize their budgets.
Pellegrino, too, supports government reform. In particular, he railed against a little-known Albany practice by which legislators can check in for the day using magnetic cards similar to ATM cards. Once they've swiped their cards, they are free to leave the legislative chambers, and on every measure called to the floor that day, their vote is tallied as a yes. Pellegrino believes the practice is undemocratic, and that legislators should be present to vote.
Pellegrino also wonders what the state government has done to guard New York against another potential terrorist attack. He noted that airplanes still fly over the Indian Point nuclear power plant upstate, and worries that planes could be used as missiles there. "If a radioactive cloud" from Indian Point "enveloped Long Island, how would we escape?" Pellegrino asked. He believes the Island needs a bridge to Connecticut, which could serve as an escape route in the event of such a disaster. "It may cost you something," he said. "But we're talking about the lives of grandfathers, mothers, fathers, children, escaping potential diseases" from radioactive fallout.
Pellegrino believes the state must do more to identify toxic waste sites, clean them up and inform the public about them. And he said the state should reform the Wicks Law, which requires government agencies, including school districts, to use several subcontractors to construct a building rather than one general contractor. The law was originally intended to reduce corruption among the larger general contractors. But critics of the statute charge that it wastes millions of dollars annually, and that use of general contractors would be significantly cheaper than numerous subcontractors.
Pellegrino also believes young people should be given amnesty on their property taxes, which would help give them a chance to establish themselves financially. He noted that young adults are leaving Long Island in droves, in part because of the area's high property taxes.
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