Name: John A. Messer
Age: 40
Party Affiliation: Democrat
Occupation: Lawyer and Small Business Owner
Decision To Run: As a lawyer and small business owner, who has worked in government, I am sensitive to and understand the concerns and frustrations in this community. I originally moved to New York nearly 20 years ago, when selected as a government scholar, for the opportunities that New York offered. New York has been very good to me. However, in the last 7 years, more than 2.1 million middle-income tax-paying residents have moved out at a loss of $4.3 billion annually. New York has become a symbol of waste and dysfunction and I understand why New Yorkers and businesses are voting with their feet and moving out of state. New York has the potential to once again be the shining example; however, we need new faces and fresh leadership in Albany to make our state accountable, create quality jobs, improve our schools, protect our seniors and most importantly make New York affordable again.
Major Issues: First issue resonated throughout the district is concern about the economy, availability of quality jobs and ability to provide for families. It is imperative that we enact an effective economic developmental strategy and polices that encourage businesses to expand their operations while attracting other industries to this state. We must restructure our state’s operations to increase accountability and eliminate overlapping functions that waste taxpayer monies so that essential services are not unnecessarily sacrificed.
Top Priorities: My first priority, if elected is to incentive employers to start hiring again – right now – through payroll tax credits, fast tracking responsible developmental projects, better coordination between agencies, by incentivizing businesses to move to New York or to expand their existing operations here, and working towards a long-term economic strategy that creates real jobs.
Name: Toby Ann Stavisky
Party Affiliation: Democrat, Working Families, Independence
Occupation: Former high school teacher and current New York State Senator, 16th District
Decision To Run: I am running for re-election this year because public service is in my heart and there is still important work to do. Too many people are out of work and skeptical about their government. I am working on creating sustainable, living wage jobs in New York state and doing everything I can to restore people’s faith in their elected officials by making government more ethical, transparent and accountable.
Major Issues: There are nearly 100,000 Queens residents out of work. We need to give small businesses incentives to grow and hire these workers. At the same time we must make it easier to do business in New York. A second major issue is education. As Chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee, I have worked to ensure that college is accessible and affordable, and I have fought budget cuts and secured funding for our schools.
Top Priorities: If re-elected I will continue to lead the charge to change Albany by reforming our ethics and campaign finance laws and making government more accountable to the people. In the immediate future, while we’ve made strides in sustainable job creation in the past year, there is more to be done and still too many people out of work. In order to move ahead on the many other important issues facing our state, I think it is critically important that first and foremost we put people back to work.
Name: Isaac Sasson
Age: 70
Party Affiliation: Democrat
Occupation: Retired Professor and Cancer Researcher
Decision To Run: I have been involved in helping those in need in my community for decades and have watched as my community has been ignored and taken for granted by our incumbent Senator Albany. Our representatives in the State Capital have proven they are unable to serve the people well and, because I’m not a career politician and have not taken a dime from the special interests, I will be able to be a true fighter for the people of my community.
Major Issues: There are many important issues facing our community. Senior services have been cut at many levels this year and with the cost of living going up faster than those on fixed incomes can keep up, it is important to find the resources through cuts in wasteful government spending. Another important issue facing many in our community is the poor job market and the excessively high levels of unemployment in Queens. To fix that problem, I propose reducing taxes on the small businesses to help get the economy moving again.
Top Priorities: The first item I will focus on if elected will be to work to reduce the waste our State’s $130 billion budget. Estimates from The New York Times and other sources state that about a third of NY’s $45 billion Medicaid expenditures are either waste, fraud or abuse. By eliminating this waste, we can restore the recent cuts in education, senior services and public transportation and so we can enact small business tax cuts to get the economy going again. NY Taxpayers deserve elected officials who will fight to protect their hard-earned tax dollars and ensure they are spent wisely.
