Syracuse Post-Standard - Albany Stinks

Syracuse Post-Standard - Albany Stinks

Tom Suozzi, county executive of Nassau County and an underdog Democratic candidate for governor, traveled to Syracuse University Wednesday to speak at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Before he got started, he paused to talk about the Upstate-Downstate divide, which he cited as a symptom of one prevailing problem.

"The difference is New York state government," Suozzi said. "It stinks."

Upstate, Suozzi said, has clearly gone through worse economic times than New York City and its suburbs. But Downstate should be doing better than it is, Suozzi said. He contends the entire state suffers from inept rule by self-serving Albany politicians, and this led into the central point of the interview:

"People Downstate have this absurd bias that the reason the Upstate economy is not working and has failed to work is because of the weather, which is just wrong," Suozzi said. "It's crazy. It's not the climate, it's the economic climate." He said the classic example is the way Plattsburgh and Burlington, Vt., sit on opposite sides of the New York-Vermont border, where Burlington does well as Plattsburgh struggles.

That's not due to weather, Suozzi said. It's due to bad state government.

Once his message gets out, he said, he'll be able to beat fellow Democrat Eliot Spitzer, the favorite in the campaign to succeed Gov. George Pataki. Suozzi described himself as no more of an underdog for the Democratic nomination than Mario Cuomo was in 1982, when Cuomo roared from behind to knock off Ed Koch, celebrity mayor of New York City.

That reflection brought Suozzi into a full emotional roll. He described Spitzer, the attorney general, as a kind of political paper tiger. He said Spitzer talks a lot about reform while accepting the support of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and other Albany Democrats who benefit from their roles in a "terrible" system.

If Spitzer and Silver are really so hot on change, Suozzi kept asking, "Why can't they do it now?" Why doesn't the Assembly, which remains in the hands of Democrats, pass a sweeping and power-shifting series of reforms that would blow away the traditional art of backroom politics, thus pressuring the state Senate to follow suit?

The answer, Suozzi maintains, is that Spitzer doesn't really want to shake up the status quo, a charge the Spitzer camp quickly rejects.

The best test of who's right, Suozzi said, would be a series of debates up and down the state. He said SU's Maxwell School would be an ideal place for one of them. And once he took on Spitzer head-to-head, Suozzi said, he would quickly bring across this message to the voters:

"I want to make New York a united state again," Suozzi said. "Historically, it's been Upstate versus Downstate . . . city versus suburb and rich versus poor and black versus white.

"Why can't we all have quality schools? And why can't we all have affordable taxes? And why can't we all have a cleaner environment? And why can't New York state be the Empire State again? And why can't we be the model for everyone else to follow?"

The only thing in the way, Suozzi said with obvious relish, "is that our government stinks."

As for Spitzer, "of course he'll debate," said Christine Anderson, a spokeswoman for his campaign. She said Spitzer makes regular and pointed calls for "reforms that would make the budget process more transparent and accountable," but that he can't make it happen until he's governor.

What he does intend to do is to meet Suozzi for a debate, which could throw a searing and provocative spotlight on Albany. One point on which the two men agree, at least to an extent, is Spitzer's recent comparison of Upstate's long decline to Appalachian poverty. While Suozzi said he wouldn't have used the same words, he is glad Spitzer's quote "got attention focused" on the broader region.

Upstate, Suozzi said, has endured "a desperate economic tragedy," a tragedy best addressed by legislative measures that would benefit all of New York.

"You lower the property taxes, you reform the workers' compensation laws, you reduce the insurance costs by changing liability laws (and) you stop making economic development in New York state a favor game for the guys you know," Suozzi said.

"The reason people aren't coming (Upstate) and the reason people are leaving here and the reason young people aren't coming back is because they can't find a job," he said. "The housing is obviously affordable. . . . The architecture and history is amazing. The natural resources are beautiful (and) spectacular. The people are fiercely loyal to their communities."

Such loyalists, Suozzi said, don't move away because it snows. They move away for one big reason:

Albany stinks.

http://tomsuozzi.com/news/ps_042806/