By JUDY RATTNER
The 60-year-old Republican from Rockville Centre, who was elected to his leadership post by Senate Republicans last June, is seeking his 13th term.
Challenging Skelos is Democrat Roy Simon, 59, a professor of ethics at Hofstra University’s law school who is making his first run for public office. A Chicago native who moved to Long Island in 1992, Simon graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts and NYU Law School. He was a litigator for several years before he became a professor at Washington University in St. Louis. He lives with his wife in West Hempstead.
If elected, Simon said, he would serve Long Island as a junior member of what may become the majority party in the Senate. The Republicans currently hold a one-seat majority, so a loss by any one of them would hand the majority to the Democrats. Simon describes himself as objective and as a good questioner, listener and advisor, and says he has demonstrated the ability to draft language that solves problems. He cites experience as an authority and consultant on ethics and an accomplished author of a book on the subject. He also points to his five years as chief reporter for a state bar committee that writes rules of professional conduct for attorneys.
Simon said he has no ax to grind and no political ambitions beyond being a senator. One of his main reasons for running, he said, is to restore New Yorkers’ faith in the state Legislature. “The government is just rife with conflicts of interest,” he said, “not all criminal, but it can make people suspicious of the intent of legislation.” He said the government, and the Senate in particular, suffers from too little oversight and “a shameful lack of curiosity on how taxpayers’ money is being spent.”
Skelos prides himself on “delivering” for his constituents, providing state grants that support many local community organizations throughout the district. He cites his ongoing fight for Long Island’s “fair share” of state funds among his major accomplishments. He is the author of Megan’s law, which created the New York State Sex Offender Registry, and serves as the Senate representative on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Capital Program Review Board and as co-chairman of the legislative task force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment. He created the legislation for the EPIC program, a low-cost prescription program for seniors, and the HELP and Long Island Workforce Housing Act that, he said, put home ownership “back in reach” for young families.
Skelos said he helped lead the crackdown on Medicaid fraud that has already saved taxpayers “more than $1 billion.” He also said he has “pushed for reforms to make Albany more open and accountable to New York’s taxpayers” and mentioned the budget process that culminates in sessions, known as Leaders Meetings, with the governor, the speaker of the Assembly and the Senate majority leader. Skelos said they should become joint conference meetings that are open to the public. “Joint conference committees, when they’re in public, they work and you get things done,” he said.
The Rockville Centre native, a member of South Side High School’s class of 1966, received a degree in history from Maryland’s Washington College in 1970. He earned a law degree in 1975 from the Fordham University School of Law, and is counsel to the Mineola-based law firm Ruskin Moscou Evans & Faltischek.
Skelos and Simon share several legislative priorities, and finding a way to lower the property tax burden while continuing to provide strong financial support to the area’s schools is at the top of both of their lists.
They agree on the proposed 4 percent property tax cap, and also say it is not a solution that can work on its own. “The cap alone, you need more than that,” said Skelos. Both said they believe the state must provide relief for school districts and offer incentives for the sharing of services. Both said the Senate should not run school districts, and Skelos said that decisions on consolidation should be left up to the residents of school districts, special districts and municipalities. Simon said that the state can mandate some consolidation, and both men have spoken of the need to end “double dipping.”
Skelos has said that the current state aid formula ensures that poorer districts throughout the state receive solid funding. Simon said the current system fosters and preserves inequalities among communities. He has said he would support a “circuit breaker” to limit the amount of property taxes people pay based on their income, helping to moderate the burden on those who struggle with fixed or fluctuating incomes and those who have been laid off.
Simon said he would like to make a gradual transition from a property tax-funded system to one supplemented by an income tax on the very wealthy, with incomes over $500,000 taxed at 1 percent and incomes over $1 million taxed at 2 percent. “The income tax structure in New York state favors the very wealthy,” said Simon. “The cutoff for the top tax bracket is $40,000. With an adjusted gross income of $40,000, you pay the same rate as someone earning $400,000 or $4 million,” he added.
Simon said the very wealthy see higher taxes as an investment in a better-educated, trained, healthier and more stable work force rather than a burden. “I don’t believe that taxing the rich will dampen job creation, and if used wisely, [taxes] can stimulate particular areas of the economy,” he said, recommending that the money be used to invest in renewable energy technology and tax incentives for people who make and buy the most advanced technologies.
Skelos has said that job creation is also central to his agenda. As the chairman of the Senate’s NextGen Task Force, he wrote a plan that he said resulted in the enactment of tax credits and other incentives designed to promote the creation of high-paying jobs in high technology and biotechnology. And he points to his involvement in creating the New York State Center for Excellence and Innovation in Homeland Security and, in 2002, the $71.5 million Long Island Biotech Investment and Job Creation Program.
Skelos has called the MTA “a bloated bureaucracy that unfortunately, we have little control over.” Simon questioned what he said are 600 to 700 public authorities, special authorities and industrial development agencies that are off the books of the state budget and whose members are not elected. He advocates hiring forensic accountants to look into them because, he said, he is convinced that there are billions of dollars that could be retrieved and used by the state. “They’ve not been studied. The Senate has shown no interest,” Simon said.
Skelos has said that as a senator, he receives $3 million to $3.5 million in member item funds, a total Simon said is actually closer to $3.74 million. In the event that the Democrats gain a majority in the Senate, Skelos’s member item funds (which Simon referred to as an “incumbency fund”) would be expected to drop to closer to what senior Democrats receive — about $600,000. In contrast, Simon said that if he is elected, he would receive about $2 million as a junior Democrat if his party becomes the majority.
“Whether [Skelos] wins or he loses, the Republicans are not going to bring home the kind of money they used to,” Simon said of a possible shift in majority. “The Democrats are going to start bringing home the big money. We are going to take over the Senate.”
The 9th District comprises southwestern Nassau County, from Franklin Square to Long Beach and from Inwood to Baldwin.
Comments about this story? RVCeditor@ liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 208.
