…same as the old boss

After
a contentious redistricting process and an election notable mostly for its lack
of contention, Monroe County voters sent the same crew of state senators and
assembly members back to Albany. No incumbent state legislator from the area
lost his or her job, despite widespread frustration over the lack of progress
our representatives have made on a host of social issues and development
projects, and their inability to pass the state budget on time.

            Asked about their legislative
priorities for next year, most local lawmakers didn’t even mention such issues
as raising the minimum wage, passing legal protections for gays and lesbians,
or reforming the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Getting projects like a proposed
juvenile justice center, downtown performing art center, or soccer stadium off
the ground were also off most legislators’ radar.

            “Because of the outcome of the
election and the state’s fiscal situation, I expect I’ll be spending a lot of
time playing defense,” says Assemblywoman Susan John, who won the only close
race in this year’s election, beating a Republican opponent.

            She’s referring to the fact voters
reelected Republican Governor George Pataki, and the fact that under Pataki’s
leadership, the state has found itself facing a budget deficit that could reach
$10 billion next year.

            John’s fearful that, like Monroe
County Executive Jack Doyle, Pataki will try to balance the budget at the
expense of children and the poor. “Jack Doyle’s already gone after the children
here,” John says. “I don’t want Governor Pataki to follow that example.”

            John’s priorities for next year’s
legislative session include several bills aimed at the problem of lead
poisoning. Among them is a measure to test children for lead poisoning more
often, in part to gain a better understanding of the link between lead
poisoning and the need for special education in schools. Another measure seeks
to give the state the right to withhold rent payments to landlords who own
buildings containing both lead paint and young children.

            Forcing out-of-state contractors who
employ out-of-state workers for jobs in New York to adhere to the state’s
workers’ comp laws is also high on John’s list, as is making emergency
contraception available in hospital emergency rooms.

            Assessing the prospects of passing
such legislation, John says, “the lead poisoning ones will be difficult,
because of the potential for [testing] to have a monetary cost. I hope I’m
wrong about that.”

            “The state’s fiscal situation makes
reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws more difficult,” John adds. “Once we adopt
the reforms, we’ll save money by directing it into treatment and less into the
jail system. But in order to get there, we have to spend some money first.
That’s going be hard to do.”

            “The top priority has to be trying
to meet the challenges imposed by the state’s finances,” says Assemblyman Joe
Morelle. “And trying to ensure we keep our budget balanced while we make sure
we can find the resources to fund our education and health-care needs.”

            Morelle, a Democratic incumbent who
won easily over an all-but-nonexistent Republican challenger, says economic
development initiatives “have been, and will continue to be, my priority.”
Those initiatives “mostly revolve around tourism and cultural issues,” he says,
but he also wants to find ways to attract high-tech businesses to the state.

            It won’t be easy. “My observation’s
been that in years in which neither the governor nor legislators are running,
everything seems more complicated and difficult to achieve,” Morelle says.
“Compounding that with having to make some very difficult financial choices
will make it a difficult year.”

            “Trying to get anything done to help
the economy in Western New York and bring jobs here is going to be the number
one goal,” says Democratic Assemblyman David Koon of Perinton. Koon’s
priorities also include a measure to confiscate the cars and houses of drug
dealers, passing legislation he’s previously introduced to require background
checks on commercial drivers transporting hazardous materials, and banning the
polluting practice of incinerating trash in “burn barrels.”

            Koon says he’ll also push to have
police perform “bullet fingerprinting” on “suspicious weapons” they find that
are unconnected to any particular crime.

            “Certainly, one of the most
important things to me is to make sure that I’m in a position to access
resources for education, economic development, health care, and capital
projects that the Rochester region needs and deserves,” says Joe Robach, the
former Assembly Democrat who switched parties and ran successfully for State
Senate this year.

            Robach’s priorities involve
“anything we can do to help the local economy via reducing red tape and
regulation or liability issues that hurt businesses,” he says. He also
identifies the high costs of long-term health care and pharmaceutical prices as
“issues we have to deal with” and says he’ll “continue on my crusade to try to
make reforms to the budget process, to make [budgetary decisions] more open and
timely.”

            Democratic Assemblyman David Gantt,
who coasted to another term with 81 percent of the vote this year, did not
return calls seeking comment about his priorities.

This article appears in Nov 13-19, 2002.