DISCUSSING ISSUES
108th Assembly District candidates participate in online forum
TROY, N.Y. » The League of Women Voters of Albany County and the Council of Albany Neighborhood Association recently hosted an online candidate forum.
The forum featured incumbent Assemblyman John T. McDonald III and challenger Albany County Legislator Sam Fein.
The two are vying in the 2020 Democratic Primary for the 108th Assembly District seat, which consists of parts of Albany, Rensselaer, and Saratoga counties.
Both candidates discussed topics ranging from the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, to racism and policing, protecting the environment and ethics reform.
“What I think we really need to do is provide real relief for people who are struggling based on the situation they’re in now and the funding can’t be limited because then people will be denied and go on a waitlist,”
Fein said on addressing the urgency felt by homeowners and renters.
“We have the funding to do this, we just have to have the courage to tax the wealthiest people in this state. We have a number of proposals in the state legislature right now that add up to the upwards of $30 billion in revenue, things like the stock transfer tax, the ultra billionaires tax, the pieda-terre that would tax high-value properties in New York City,” Fein noted on proposals he’d like to see enacted.
McDonald countered with actions already being taken up by the legislature.
“We’ve already started to take action. We took action last week and we took it swiftly. We appropriated $100 million of federal money that came to the state to help both tenants and landlords,” McDonald explained.
“When I say landlords, I’m talking about small landlords, not the corporate giants but the average person that owns the two or three family in the South End,” McDonald continued on those they’re looking to help.
“People are hurting and to be honest with you I wish we had more resources to do it. The reality is, even if we passed them today they wouldn’t take effect until next year at the earliest,” McDonald added.
Another pandemic related issue is that of being able to vote safely via mail.
“I am fully supportive of no- excuse absentee ballots. We want more people to be involved in the electoral process, plain and simple,” McDonald remarked, adding the need for campaign finance reform as well.
“I strongly support mail voting. I think this pandemic as we see is really exposing a lot of the flaws within our system and this is one of them,” Fein agreed, adding he’d like to see automatic voter registration enacted as well.
In addition to COVID-19 disproportionately affecting low-income and minority communities, both spoke to environmental issues in poorer neighborhoods.
“One of the many unfortunate things about this pandemic is that it’s so dispro
portionately impacting lowincome people and people of color,” Fein said.
“Ezra Prentice, I’ve been working with the community there for a while, I proposed legislation aimed at requiring the global company there to paint those tanks white because the DEC declared that would actually reduce pollution,” Fein continued on the Albany South End neighborhood.
“We have to build new safe housing there in Norlite. It’s great that action was taken to PFAS but at the same time a lot more has to be done and we need much stricter regulations,” Fein added on the pollution effects in the Spindle City.
McDonald spoke to the long term problems over time, which have exacerbated the health issue.
“Where do you begin and where to you end when it comes to the environmental justice zones of the
108th assembly district? From one end to the other, from the South End of Albany up to Cohoes to Norlite and across the river to Dunn Landfill. It’s part of our history, it’s part of our makeup, we were the industrial zone at the time,” McDonald commented.
“Unfortunately, people long before us made decisions to locate public housing in some of the worst communities, which has only exacerbated the disparities that many individuals living in poverty, particularly those of color are struggling with,” McDonald continued.
“As a health care professional, I see this, I’m more sensitive than the average person to this because I know about the high intensity of asthma in our children in these communities. That’s why I’ve worked collaboratively with all of the elected officials at the local level, state level, county level, and the federal government to bring solutions,” McDonald noted.
“Down at Ezra Prentice, working with [Albany]
Mayor [ Kathy] Sheehan, the County Executive [Dan McCoy], we petitioned the Governor [Andrew Cuomo] to get a half-million dollars to do a more in-depth study on exactly what the environmental issues were at Ezra Prentice and obviously the truck traffic, the diesel emissions have made a large difference and we’re working on a solution to detour those vehicles,” McDonald detailed on steps he’s taken to rectify the problem.
“Dunn Landfill convened the elected officials in DEC to make the polluter over there at Dunn Landfill spend $350,000 to remove the odors that we’re going to start to see results. I am still working very closely and hope to pass very soon legislation to prohibit the incineration of AFFF on Cohoes at Norlite,” McDonald III added on steps still being taken to address environmental health concerns in Rensselaer and Cohoes respectively.
Both candidates also tackled the issue of racism
and police reform.
“When it comes to COVID-19 we’ve got a lot of work to do because we can’t make up for the sales tax that they’ve lost. We’ve got to find bring more aid to the communities,” McDonald remarked on recovery efforts.
“We also have to provide more resources to our law enforcement departments to make sure they have the appropriate resources to train their officers properly. The George Floyd incident definitely exposed not only racism, that is totally unacceptable in this country, but it also reminds us that law enforcement’s not an easy job. We need to have the resources in place,” McDonald added on the need for more resources.
“We have to address the systemic racism in our society. George Floyd’s murder was a tragic murder and it was an injustice,” Fein said.
“We hope that we’ll use this opportunity to pass real change that will reform our police system and also address a lot of the in
equities within our society. Policies like the Safer New York Act, which repeals 50a, a law that seals police conduct. We also have to support our local governments with resources to help our communities with education and health care,” Fein noted on reforms he’s like to see enacted.
“I support repealing 50a, I’m a co-sponsor of the bill and I look forward to passing that bill next week when the legislature reconvenes,” McDonald said.
McDonald also noted he would’ve like to have seen reforms enacted years ago, but believes that now with Democrat control of both the Assembly and Senate and the Executive it will be much more possible.
On ethics reform, both candidates seemed to agree on the need for more independent oversight.
“We need one that’s gonna have more individuals outside of appointments of the legislation and the executive who are there, who are truly independent. They get appointed for five years to be totally
independent,” McDonald said, adding the majority should come from the court system and that JCOPE and the legislative ethics commission should be truly independent.
“I also strongly support reforming JCOPE,” Fein said.
“I think we have to have completely independent ethic commissions that look at all of the state legislators and look at their financial filings, look at what we’re all doing to operate ethically and there needs to be real teeth with the organization to take action when there are violations,” Fein added on ethics reform.
Both candidates also voiced their support for a state- sponsored universal health care plan like the New York Health Act. Each candidate also favored campaign financing legislation for state elected offices.
Additionally, McDonald said he favored term limits for statewide offices, while Fein says he favors term limits for some.