Central New York voters will be choosing their respective members of the state senate and assembly this election, and all of the seats feature an incumbent. One of them is the 128th district race between democrat Pam Hunter and republican challenger Dominick Ciciarelli.
Ciciarelli is a political newcomer who says he didn’t hesitate to jump into a race against a seven year incumbent.
“I don't fear anything. I'm very driven. If I have my mind set to something, then I'm fully invested with everything that I ever done and, and will continue to do.”
I caught up with Ciciarelli as he canvassed the neighborhood just east of Syracuse University. The 128th district also covers part of the city’s southwest side, as well as the towns of Onondaga, Salina, Dewitt, and the Onondaga Nation. He says voters tell him they’re tired of crime, which he ties to bail reform measures a few years back. He says attempts by state lawmakers and the governor to reverse those changes haven’t been enough.
“People do make mistakes and I understand that. But if you continuously make the same mistakes over and over and over again, at some point somebody has to be held accountable, whether that's the parent or guardian, whether that's the individual themselves.”
But incumbent Pam Hunter says bail reform has become a convenient campaign talking point, and encourages voters to educate themselves beyond the quick soundbites and misleading political ads.
“Every single crime is attributed to bail reform, but if you weed back the actual information relative to bail is not the justice system saying someone is guilty or innocent. Bail is to ensure that someone would come back to, to court. We are now using that as the end all to just try to solve all of our problems. And we really need to take a closer look at what's going on as society and people's personal accountability for what they're doing.”
Hunter says despite break-ins at her own house and in her east side Syracuse neighborhood, most voters she talks to are concerned about pocketbook issues such as skyrocketing rent and property tax assessments. Hunter says she has legislation that may address some of the inequities between towns.
“Take like a Salina and a Clay Salina assesses every year. Clay has not assessed in many, many years. And so who's carrying the heavier burden of taxes for the Liverpool school district is Salina. Those kinds of conversations need to be happening.”
Hunter worries that some towns could price fixed income residents out of their homes. Of course Clay is the location of the 100 billion dollar investment by Micron, which is already sending property values soaring years before any construction begins. Hunter was among most state lawmakers to support 10 billion dollars in incentives for environmentally friendly “Green CHIPS” semiconductor manufacturing. Officials have said Micron would have gone elsewhere without the incentives. But Dominick Ciciarelli wants some guardrails for this deal and others.
“It's said that they need to develop within 20 years, right? Twenty years is a long time. So, but at the same time, when you're trying to bring attractions and other businesses to the area, now what's to say that those businesses aren't going to say, ‘well where's my incentive to come to this area?’ So that's the boat that people are missing. You're going to keep giving, giving, giving. You can't keep giving a little bit, okay, let's give a little bit but then phase it out and don't give it out for over a 20 year span. I'm a fan of bringing things to the area, but it's how we do it that I'm not a fan of.”
He says Micron is getting the incentives despite the fact that their business alone won’t generate direct financial benefits to the town and Onondaga County. Ciciarelli says most revenue will come indirectly from new housing and supporting businesses. Both he and Hunter worry that Micron will make an existing housing crisis even worse.
“Some of the affordable housing initiatives that we've been working on definitely need to be ramped up in very, very short order to accommodate quality housing.”
She says the state will also boost its workforce development programs to meet the unique demands of Micron.