League of Women Voters of New York Education Foundation
Monroe County, NY November 7, 2006 Election
	Willa Powell Answers Questions Candidate for State Senator; District 56

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of New York State and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What programs and actions will you support to protect communities from the negative consequences of the state’s increasing dependence on gambling revenue?

I am of the opinion that this region has already achieved the saturation level in the gambling industry. New endeavors will not generate more tax revenue or economic growth. What this region needs is a genuine commitment to a manufacturing-based economy.

2. Legislative district boundary lines are drawn by the legislators themselves and are tied directly to the advantages of party politics. Would you support the establishment of an independent commission as a more open and ethical way to create districts?

I support either an independent or a judicial commission for redistricting. While I am very comfortable with the voting population that currently makes up the 56th Senate District, there is no question that it violate the intent of countiguous boundary lines. The 500 yard ribbon of Ridge Road that connects Rochester and Greece is purely commercial, and has no residents or registered voters.

3. Amid the recent reports that more and more young people are leaving upstate cities for better opportunities, what would you propose to reverse this trend?

The CEO of Paetec Corp. understood that the downsizing of our large employers (Kodak and Xerox) represented an opportunity to hire highly skilled workers. We need to attract other forward thinking business leaders that understand the extraordinary opportunity the our many colleges and universities represent as a potential workforce that is already comfortable living in our area.

4. 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.

See my answer to district boundary lines above.

If the legislature cannot commit for themselves to a non-partisan process, then it is up to the voters of New York State to vote for a Constitutional Convention and to demand a non-partisan, open and ethical process when writing the next State Constitution.

5. Do you support joint committees to reconcile differences between bills on the same issue passed by both houses of the legislature?

One-house bills are a real problem in New York state. The extreme conservative Republican majority in the current Senate is in conflict with the progressive Democratic majority of the current Assembly. I am skeptical that joint committees or "conference committees" could work out compromises to any legislation that could pass under the current circumstances. I think the voters need to apply a consistant political standard to the candidates they elect so that the houses son't hold such extreme positions. Once the majority of each house is holding a more moderate position, then conference committees may have some positive affect.

6. New York State Legislators did not address the pending CFE (Campaign for Fiscal Equity) suit during the 2006 session. What would you propose to expedite the resolution of the CFE case?

This is my top motivation for running for New York State Senate. While many other issues, including health care, tax reform, Albany reform, jobs, and social justice are of grave concern to me, this was my primary motivation for running. We must hold our elected officials accountable for failing to act throughout the 10 years that the CFE case has been litigated and the 2 years since the DeGrasse judgement. The Republican Senate majority is uniquely responsible for the failure to implement even a modest revised funding formula state-wide, because it failed to at on an Assembly bill that sought to do so. We must change the makeup of the Senate to do this. Four seats must change from Republican to Democratic representation to make that happen, and I would like this to be one of those four seats.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Answers are published as submitted without editing.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 20, 2006 18:53
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