Syracuse Post-Standard - Suozzi Vows To Take On Spitzer
Syracuse Post-Standard - Suozzi Vows To Take On Spitzer
Democrat says he expects to challenge attorney general in gubernatorial primary.
Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi expects to lose the race for the state Democratic Party Committee's designation for governor. And he expects traditional Democratic interests, like labor unions, to continue to line up behind Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the clear favorite in the governor's race.
But Suozzi still expects to win in November.
If he doesn't, the man Governing Magazine named one of the country's top public officials last year said he's done with elected office and will get a job in the private sector after finishing his term as county executive.
"I think I understand what people care about, and they're going to get a sense of that from me," Suozzi said during a stop in Syracuse on Wednesday. "Eliot will be endorsed by every elected official and every interest group, and you know what? He can have them because they're part of the system that's broken in New York state."
Suozzi talked with about 50 people at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs about the campaign before discussing how he transformed Nassau County from one of the worst-managed counties in the nation into one of the best. Maxwell had highlighted Nassau in a 2002 survey of poor government performance.
Suozzi said the same work force reductions, labor concessions, operating efficiencies, reduced borrowing and balanced budgets that brought Nassau out of its tailspin will enable him to reform state government, streamline its costs and ultimately reduce property taxes and improve services in New York state.
That's why the first detailed policy statement Suozzi's campaign released was a plan to save state government $5 billion by cutting the payroll by 10 percent, rooting out fraud and waste in Medicaid, reforming the pension system, restructuring the state's debt and tightening collection of sales taxes.
That planincludes eliminating "backdoor borrowing" by public authorities, taxing Internet sales, less lucrative state retirement plans, and an early retirement incentive coupled with a new performance evaluation system for state workers.
Suozzi said the money saved through his plan would go to school districts throughout the state, and enabling cities and school districts to reduce school property taxes.
With the Democrats' state convention less than a month away, Suozzi said he has no hope of getting approval from the traditional party structure. Instead, he will collect 15,000 signatures from supporters and force a primary election in September.
http://tomsuozzi.com/news/ps_042706/