I’m watching Suozzi and Faso debate on Channel 7 right now.
David Arkin from the Niagara Gazette simply doesn’t belong there. They panned across the audience, and it’s pretty empty.
Both are pro-casino, but don’t like how it’s been done in New York. Suozzi says the casinos need to be integrated into the fabric of the rest of the city. Faso doesn’t want out-of-state tribes to be able to open casinos here.
Everyone took a swipe at Spitzer for not being there.
Faso swipes Spitzer for paying more attention to Wall Street than to Medicaid fraudsters. He’s pro health-savings accounts.
Medicaid is a huge part of the $113 billion state budget, and it’s way too bloated, and there’s loads of fraud. The state needs to wring fraud and abuse out of the system and take the savings to invest it in schools, etc.
Q: How would you attract teachers, and how would you deal with the unions?
Suozzi says earmark money to improve universal pre-k, and wants to be able to give teachers incentives to go to the worst schools. Not enough kids are graduating, and we’re not doing enough to fix that problem. We need principals and teachers to have more autonomy viz. discipline.
Faso agrees with most of Suozzi’s remarks, but would add that we need young, new teachers to replace the ones about to retire. We need a streamlined certification process for qualified teachers in certain subjects like math and science. Echoes the call for incentive pay. But money isn’t the issue, we spend $32 billion per year on K-12 education – in Buffalo, it’s $17k per kid – but we spend more than anyone else, but our results are in the middle. Pro-charter schools – need choice & accountability.
Suozzi says the state shortchanges localities, and that needs to be reformed to help lower our property taxes.
Q: Pork is wasteful, no?
Faso says he won’t support member item funding that isn’t itemized. State spending went up 13% this year, including loads of new backdoor borrowing $4 billion per year just for debt service, and it’s going up. We need to put spending on a diet. (Haven’t we had a Republican governor for the last 11 years? – ed.)
Faso likes to say “deign”. Spitzer doesn’t “deign” to come here and debate us.
Suozzi says the whole system is a sham. People are leaving. Taxes are high. “No new jobs are being created in upstate New York”. Yet, people keep getting re-elected to Albany – more have been indicted in the last few years than have been ousted through election. $200 million in member item pork comes out of Albany – we need to stop the union-special interest money in Albany. Spitzer has proposed $30 billion in new spending, and hasn’t explained how he’ll pay for it – he either has to raise taxes, or he won’t do it. There is no accountability, so we have these problems.
Faso says Spitzer will raise taxes.
These guys are echoing each other.
Q: Businesses are cutting back on benefits, pensions & health care, but government keeps paying more on these.
Suozzi says that’s what he did in Nassau. Cut waste, fraud & abuse. Got concessions from the unions that battled him. He compares himself to Spider-Man, who fought for the good guys. Peter Parker for Governor. Laws are passed in Albany and the costs keep going up and up because they’re beholden to the big political donors.
Faso wants to reduce the cost of government. Faso mentions that he was on the Buffalo Control Board. The core problem is that the cost of government in Buffalo is outstripping the private sector’s ability to pay for it. City employees get elective cosmetic surgery, and the taxpayers pay for it. 666 liposuctions, 214 nosejobs, and other unmentionable elective procedures have been performed on the city’s dime. We can’t save $30 million because the BTF won’t go to a single health care plan.
Suozzi says we need accountability in the system. Suozzi calls on people to go out and vote.
Q: College kids are leaving WNY upon graduation. David Arkin from GNN needs to stop reading his fricking questions.
Faso says we need to cut taxes, including income taxes. We need worker’s comp reform. New York is uncompetitive.
A friend called, so I’m not paying attention anymore. Sorry, folks.
Tags: News
The Buffalo Record 