Selden - Senator Kenneth P. LaValle has represented the 1st New York State Senatorial District since 1976. He has had a long reputation as an advocate for Stony Brook University (SBU) and was a major player in SBU's acquisition of the Southampton University campus. He was presented with the Medallion of the University, the highest honor accorded by SUNY Albany - and Stony Brook University presented Senator LaValle with its highest honor - the University Medal, as well the SBU athletic stadium is named in his honor. He is also the author of the Pine Barrens Preservation Act of 1993 and an architect of the STAR tax abatement program. In 1992 LaValle received the honorary title "Cavaliere al Merito della Repubblica Italiana" from the Italian Government for his work in education and promoting cultural exchange.

Lavalle's district runs from Port Jefferson, his hometown, and Center Moriches in the west to both Orient and Montauk Points in the east. Hamptons.com sat down with him in his Selden office and posed a few questions regarding the economy, education and the environment.

Economy
When asked whether he thought the economic stimulus program of President Obama was working specifically in his district, LaValle's answer was both frank and direct, "I think the stimulus money has not worked! The president talked about bringing down unemployment to eight percent, but it has been far in excess of that and a lot of the jobs in construction have not been realized. What it has done right now is provide additional revenues for government and school districts, so at that level it has helped in retaining positions. They did not have to lay off people, however, for school districts in 27 months that money evaporates. So it is a temporary fix. Once that money is gone in 27 months the school districts will have to cut people or raise revenue by increasing the real property tax."

LaValle noted that the stimulus money is being used to subsidize state projects that were already slated, rather than creating new projects, "For example, the widening of Route 112 from Medford to Port Jefferson Station, that project had been slated with the use of state money and what they did is literally substitute the dollars they were going to use from the state coffers with the use of federal dollars. That project was going to be built anyway. Ideally, if we were really stimulating the economy we would have used state dollars for the 112 project and picked another project to fund with federal dollars."

LaValle clearly believes the answer is tax relief for Main Street, not federal subsidies, "The economy stands on the shoulders of small businesses and you need to do all that you can to let the economy grow by helping small businesses; through a reduction in capital gain taxes, through credits they get for creating new jobs, which is the better and less costly route. History is a series of snapshots and the snapshot we are seeing now is showing us that the stimulus program really has not worked. We may look back years from now and say it did, but right now I am a Doubting Thomas."

When asked if what recommendations LaValle would suggest regarding the use of stimulus monies he replied "I actually did make a recommendation directly to the governor. There are a lot of public projects in the state university system that when the economy slowed down and bond interest rates went up, the governor decided that the state should not go out and borrow to do those projects. I said to the governor, 'Why don't we take stimulus dollars to help abate the higher bond interest rates and start moving on those projects?' By doing that we will create jobs, they have already gone through the process of plan and design, all they are waiting for is to get the bids out, get a contractor and to go to work. That can be done in a very short period of time, two to six months. You are actually using fewer dollars to create jobs." LaValle advised that the governor and his advisers acknowledged it was a great idea, but no action has been taken on it in the 10 months since the senator's suggestion.

Education
When questioned as to whether there was a better formula for funding education other than the property tax, LaValle responded "Not really and people have talked about this for decades. If you use the income tax or even a sales tax, just like what would have happened now in a bad economy, you would not generate the dollars you need. The real property tax is a more reliable source of taxation in that it will survive the economic swings."

To no aspect of public policy has LaValle devoted his attention more than to education. He is a recognized advocate of public education, while still remaining a physical conservative, not an easy balancing act for the most adroit of politicians. LaValle, one of the architects of the STAR program admitted that a flaw in the original legislation lead to some budgeting excesses by school districts, "If you, let's just pick a number, received $500 back on your taxes through the STAR program, we actually sent $500 to the school districts to replace the exemption they gave to you to help you pay your taxes. What we did not foresee was that our school districts would see that as additional state aid and revenue and they spent it. So there was never a real savings there."

In essence the school districts budgeted for $1,000 when in truth they only had $500. The legislation was changed, "We changed the law and created the STAR rebate check, so you got the money directly and no one would grab it. Even then the school districts would say the average rebate check is, again $500, and we can increase our budget by all those $500 checks and the people won't get angry, because it cost them nothing, because if they got $500 from the state and we [the school districts] increase it by $500 it is a wash. So we are looking at methodologies to ensure that we can give people tax abatement and not have the school districts take it." LaValle believes that methodologies can be created that, "Provide tax abatement and still provide a free and good education. It can be done and it must be a priority."

I shared with LaValle a conversation I had with new Stony Brook University President Dr. Samuel Stanley wherein he told that SUNY tuition policy must be revised, "I have told the [SBU] president and other people that yes they need greater autonomy, yes we need to adjust the tuition rates. The first level is to adjust the tuition for out-of-state students. Our out-of-state tuition is far less than those students that go to Penn State or other state university systems. Then we can look at, when the economy begins to level out, some sort of rational tuition policy that I have articulated for many years, in which it goes up by the cost of living or something like that, small increments. I don't think anyone would be opposed to that and I have actually had legislation that says whatever tuition you had as a freshman, you have got that commitment for four years."

Noting the state of the economy and the fact that most families struggle to survive on two salaries, LaValle believes that families cannot and should not be surprised by a tuition increase halfway through their child's education. The simple act of tying yearly guaranteed and expected yearly freshman tuition increases to the COL index, along with out-of-state tuition adjustments, might very well address the revenue needs of the SUNY system. LaValle is working on such legislation. The senator went on to state, "Changing things in mid-stream for many families, by even a couple of hundred dollars, is a big deal. To say, 'Go out and get a loan!' is not a good answer."

In response to my comment that as many as two thirds of recent college graduates, even middle class students, cannot find a job in their chosen fields, LaValle sympathetically noted, "We need to do a better job to get our young people into employment. The burden of the cost of a college education falls more heavily on the shoulders of the middle class. I have introduced legislation trying to address this issue. A student with $20,000 to $40,000 in student loans is at a disadvantage. They cannot buy a home or a condo, some have actually told me they hesitate to even get into a relationship because of the obligation of their student loans."

Environment
I asked LaValle to comment on Governor Paterson's recent decision to eliminate funding for open land acquisition and a 50 percent reduction in farmland preservation funding, "We have to be very surgical during these tough times, for us here on the island we need to preserve the quality of our life, part of that is through open space preservation and farmland preservation. There are dollars, and I have articulated this, from people in the Adirondacks that do not want anymore, at least not right now, land taken off the tax rolls. They do not want to preserve anymore and I have made the argument to the Commissioner of the Department of [Environmental] Conservation, Alexander Grannis, that we would with open arms take that money. What I am saying is that we need to re-allocate. We have situations where an individual actually went to contract and was given a time when he was going to be given a check and they just said, 'Sorry, you are not getting your money.' Under our constitution and its due process stipulations you are taking someone's property without compensation and you can't do that."

LaValle is also upset with the proposed closing of state and county parks, "We need our parks open to have people recreate close to home. Orient Point Park is one of those parks they have on a list to close. I think that is reprehensible, it is difficult to make cuts and provide services, but it can be done. You have to look at the details, the devil is in the details, but I think we can continue open space preservation. You have to move money from one place to another and change the methodologies of purchasing."

LaValle went on to suggest that an immediate remedy would be to pay for open land acquisition in payments over years, not as a single purchase payment, "It would actually help the seller who would not have a large single tax payment, but the ability to spread it out over several years." Of course, this would also mean that the state or county could spread the monies necessary to acquire the land over several years of payments. It is an obvious and common sense approach to the important act of land preservation and the preservation of the quality of life in the East End, "The preservation of our environment is critical to our economy, to tourism, to the second homeowners who have made investments out here."

Touching on both the economy and the environment, LaValle stated his support of green businesses, "This whole thing about green jobs is real. This is where we are in the 21st century and we probably should have been where we are now years ago. I am meeting with business people all the time who are talking about green businesses and green jobs."

I have always thought that a good use of open land, both to preserve it and create clean energy, would be windmill farms. To which LaValle noted, "I got the money for the clean energy center at Stony Brook [University] and gave the keynote address at the opening. I said that we have the technology, but we need to look at policy regarding windmill or tidal technology. We need to look at sites; we need to get the towns that control zoning to do things in a proper way. Things like windmills affect the quality of life, the towers are very high and they create noise. So how can we site them in a way that is user friendly? I mentioned something at the conference that got a chuckle - that the site of windmills, unless done in a thoughtful way, can be in the pathway of migratory birds." LaValle continued, "There are good places to site them and, obviously, not so good places. We need to create policy and get our best thinkers to start developing regulations."

We ended our interview with LaValle proposing his wish list for the present legislative session, "There is something that is going to happen by the spring, we are going to enlarge the Calverton incubator. We are hoping that this will stimulate some activity to get some young companies to come to EPCAL."

EPCAL is the Grumman property in Calverton, a 2,900 acre site that LaValle thinks is the most important and potentially productive opportunity for his district regarding new business and job creation, "My focus is on how we produce jobs. There are two places in my senate district that should be promoting and bubbling in terms of job producing industries, EPCAL, which is an Empire Zone and moving funding to Gabrewski Airport to make it an Empire Zone. These two places should be creating good paying jobs."

LaValle followed up by stating that he is bringing a bill to the floor that again addresses real property taxes, "We need to deal with real property taxes to make sure we are keeping people in their homes and avoiding foreclosure."

Senator LaValle's website is www.nysenate.gov/senator/kenneth-p-lavalle.