The Senate Republicans Have Turned LI into a Cash Cow for NYC

This election season, NYS Senate Republicans will try to paint the picture that they are the solution to Long Island’s economic problems.  Please don’t be fooled.  Numbers don’t lie.  The simple truth is that Long Island’s NYS Republican Senators, in the majority for most of the last 50 years, have been incredible advocates for NYS, the rest of NYS and not us.  This has created an unsustainable financial burden on working families and seniors in our community. Here is how this happened:
1.  In 2003 the Long Island Association did a study on the discrepancy of the tax burden between what Long Island received in services and how much was sent to Albany.  The total discrepancy amounted to $2.9 billion.
The latest figures have seen the number rise to $4.7 billion.  In other words, we keep paying more and more, but we’re getting less and less.
2.  Are you sick and tired of Long Island’s high property taxes?  You should be!  While Long Island is responsible for 17% of NYS public education students, we receive only 12% of the state’s education aid.  Is that a fair share of funding for our children?  If Long Island received the proportionate amount of education aid reflecting the number of students we actually have, our property taxes would be over 20% lower.
3.  While NYC receives an additional $300 million a year to fund Pre-K for its 70,000 four-year-olds, only a few districts on Long Island receive any support.  It isn’t a stretch to feel that Long Island is paying for NYC’s children.  Aren’t our kids just as important?  You can thank the Republican Long Island contingent of the NYS Senate for this one too.
4.  The NYS Senate Republicans fought hard to get $54 million in Charter School funding into the 2016 budget, which is doable what the Governor proposed.  That’s $54 million that could have gone to public education on Long Island to reduce our property taxes, instead of helping Charter Schools to profit.  And, that’s exactly why Charter Schools will be heavily funding Long Island’s Senate Republican campaigns in this election cycle.
5.  The NYS Senate Republicans should have been aggressively pushing for greater infrastructure investments right here on Long Island as happened in Buffalo.  Perhaps they were too busy reeling from an ethics scandal (which is a bipartisan problem) that took our their longtime leader from Long Island.
The property tax cap is necessary to give financial relief to Long Island residents.  I support making it permanent.  However, the tax cap alone is not enough.  I have spoken to several local mayors and school district trustees throughout the area, and they are all desperate for additional funding to ease the burden of providing quality services under the tax cap.  Long Island desperately needs a representative who will speak loudly on behalf of residents, against our historical role as the “Cash Cow” for NYC and the rest of NYS.  I am ready to serve as that representative.
Adam Haber is the Democratic Candidate for NYS Senate District #7.