Dmytro Fedkowskyj, longtime resident and civic leader of the 30th Assembly District, officially announced his Democratic candidacy for the New York State Assembly on Saturday, in front of Maspeth High School.
“I’ve spent the last 10 years safeguarding the educational interest of our parents, students and school communities, but now I want to safeguard and protect the interest of all our residents, which is why I’m running for the State Assembly,” Fedkowskyj said. “This campaign will be about the people, not the politics.”
District 30 is comprised of Maspeth, Woodside and parts of Long Island City, Middle Village, Astoria and Sunnyside.
The district’s current assemblywoman, Marge Markey, who has held the seat since 1998, has said she is planning on running again.
Fedkowskyj is a Middle Village resident and has served as a member of the Community Education Council of District 24; as chair of the School Construction and Zoning Committee; and as a trustee for the city’s Board of Education Retirement System.
A former member of the city’s Panel for Education Policy (PEP), which serves to improve the welfare of schools and students in the city, Fedkowskyj is an advocate for more funding for education. During the announcement, he spoke about the need for more seats to relieve overcrowding in schools as well as the need for extended yellow bus service.
He supports the pending NYC Council’s Audible Alarms Bill that requires a door alarm to be installed on the outer doors of the city’s schools.
For crime prevention, he plans to advocate for increased state funding to hire more police and emergency personnel.
On the subject of taxes, he said that “it’s unconscionable to increase taxes on the working middle class, so I will only support a plan that keeps income and property taxes at their lowest possible levels. We need our middle class families to keep as much of their earned income as possible.”
Additionally, he said that he will support the Senior Citizens’ Exemption, which helps senior homeowners by reducing their property taxes so that they can continue to live in their homes.
He said he aims to advocate for equal pay and for closing the wage gap for working women.
Fedkowskyj said he also hopes to improve quality of life in the district by creating more green spaces, minimizing petty vandalism and upgrading technology in libraries and community centers.
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