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The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Nassau County and asked of all candidates for this office.
See below for questions on
Education Finance,
Redistricting
Click on a name for candidate information. See also more information about this contest.
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1. Public education is financed through property taxes and state funds. What other means of raising revenue would you support?*
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Answer from Joseph S. Saladino:
I believe we must study all options to change the current funding method through property tax assessments based on current property value. It pits senior citizen against parent and business owner against educator. I have written legislation to change the school aid formula to insure greatly increased state aid to high cost regions, namely Long Island. I have called for developing the State's fully funding education, thereby addressing each homeowner's ability to pay.
Answer from Craig S. Heller:
I would favor an independent commission to be formed to investigate the use of an income tax to fund education. However, my first efforts will be to provide more state aid to our Long Island schools, in that the present formula, by taking real property values too much into account, unfairly shortchanges us and thereby causes our school taxes to spiral out of control.
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2. Legislative districts have been determined on a partisan basis. Would you support establishing an independent commission as a more open and ethical way to create the districts? Please explain.*
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Answer from Craig S. Heller:
Yes. It is clear that the legislative districts as presently constructed favor the incumbent. Therefore, there has been a very low turnover of their seats. A commission should be set up that eventually will have a bi-partisan group, without legislative intervention, to determine fair and equitable districts.
Answer from Joseph S. Saladino:
I support this initiative if a method guarantees the commission would not be chosen by political process or be appointed by elected officials or those with political agendas. The result must create an equal balance of Republicans to Democrats in total. It would be a flawed system if every district were not equal, including all districts within New York City. The Assembly contains 105 Democrats and 45 Republicans. This is a substantial problem especially for Long Island taxpayers.
Responses to questions asked of each candidate
are reproduced as submitted to the League.
- Original answers for a published Voters Guide
were limited are presented as submitted. Candidates have since been invited
to supply answers of any length for the Web.
The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.
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League of Women Voters of New York Education Foundation
