By John C. O'Connell
Taxes, schools, health care major issues
Voting booths will be crowded with concerns Tuesday, as residents go out to elect a President, VP, senator, Congressional representatives, state senators, assembly members, Hempstead Town board members and judges. Voters' concerns range from the local to the national.
Education is an important issue with parents of school-age children this Election Day. "The school taxes are forever getting raised, and where's it all going?" Valley Stream District 24 parent Jackie Zarro said just 11 days before casting her ballot. "It's the same at every level: all the taxes are forever getting raised, and I don't see it helping us."
Another parent, Lisa Bruno, agrees. "Why doesn't our district have what other districts have?" the Buck School parent asked. "Anything our kids get that's extra comes out of PTA funds. I'm just really wondering where our taxes are going. We pay all this money in school taxes, and still there's no full-day kindergarten, no free hot lunch program."
Education concerns are only some of what's on parents' minds. Mrs. Bruno points to health care as another issue for her this election day. "Health care is a big concern for all of us; imagine they're telling us what tests we're allowed to take."
Health care and the environment are issues for parent Liz Podgorsky. "We definitely need better health care," she said. "It's not right that they can tell us what doctor, what hospital, what everything we can have. It's very frustrating."
George Schuchman, a Valley Stream resident and veteran, thinks about the morale and effectiveness of the military after years of what he sees as neglect.
"I personally would like to see an upgrade of the military," Mr. Schuchman said. "What happened to the U.S.S. Cole - the bombing in Yemen - should never have happened. Bases should be reopened and there ought to be tighter security. Morale is way down in the armed services. Fewer people would be leaving, and more would be joining, if the military was expanded so that conditions were more favorable."
The Reverend Brenda Overfield had several personal concerns during this election. "First, I want to inform myself about the candidates' qualifications, experience, and whether they're knowledgeable, and also what their abilities are to do what they say they will do for us," said the pastor of Valley Stream's Holy Trinity Episcopal Church.
"Another concern is the state of medical care in this country now, in the area of HMOs and insurance," Rev. Overfield said. "It seems now that the government is more interested to assure that HMOs make large profits than that people get quality medical care.
"Human beings created in the image and likeness of God are now treated on Wall Street as market share commodities. That's what the business of HMOs are," she said.
"I want to see a politician say 'We're not going to let you make a profit off peoples' suffering'; 'we're not going to tell you that you can only be sick a certain amount of time because that's all we're willing to pay for.'"
The Rev. Overfield is also looking for a politician who has the knowledge and experience in the "global realm of international politics."
Beyond and underlying her specific concerns about health care and international competence, the Rev. Overfield is generally upset that politicians seem to be most concerned about themselves and not the well being of their constituents.
"They're all in it for themselves. I'd really like to see a politician who has the courage to vote for term limits, to vote himself out of the job; to eliminate all this spending on campaigns since it's so self serving. In the end, all this money we're spending on campaigns hurts all of us."
Joyce Fallace has local concerns about the environment, and words of admonition. I think we're creating a concrete jungle here, building over all the green we have, what little we have left."
The 48-year Valley Stream resident thinks the location of Valley Stream's new hockey rink was a bad choice because it removes even more green from the village.
"It's time we opened our eyes and took more responsibility for what's going on. We need to vote, and we need to go to meetings and speak up," Ms. Fallace said.
"I feel there's still that old boy network," she said, adding that she didn't mean political parties as much as entrenched bureaucracies. "I'm aggravated that there's so much duplication of services; there's four school boards here in Valley Stream, then there's the village board, the town board, the county board, Mr. Gulotta, the state, and on up. They each have their hierarchy. ... Nassau County is broke and everybody else, the town and village, has a surplus. You have to wonder: Why? All we can do is try to vote for the best person to do the job," Ms. Fallace said.
Valley Stream resident Joe Devine has a sports and business related concern: "I want to know when they're going to build that new stadium across from Shea Stadium that they've been talking about since '93."
