The leader of a group opposing the Long Island Rail Road’s proposed third track has thrown his support behind Republican Elaine Phillips for state Senate, saying a GOP majority is key to blocking the project.
Floral Park attorney Bill Corbett, head of the coalition group Citizens Against Rail Expansion, or CARE, said he thinks a Democrat replacing state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Old Westbury), a staunch opponent of the $1.5 billion project, would likely bend to political pressure from Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to fund it.
“We know that a Democratic Assembly will give him whatever he wants and we know that a Democratic Senate will do the same, so it’s important that the Republican Party keep control of the Senate,” Corbett said.
Phillips, mayor of the Village of Flower Hill, and Democrat Adam Haber of East Hills, a Roslyn school board trustee and former Nassau Interim Finance Authority board member, are running to replace Martins in the 7th Senate District as he runs for Congress.
Corbett, a registered Republican, said Phillips assured him in three meetings that she would block state funding for the plan Cuomo announced in January for a third track along the LIRR’s Main Line between Floral Park and Hicksville.
Corbett sent an email June 29 encouraging CARE supporters to attend Phillips’ campaign launch event June 30. About half a dozen showed up, he said.
Corbett only speaks for himself in endorsing Phillips, he said, but CARE could agree to support her collectively after its dozens of members meet later this summer.
Several other members have told Corbett they think it’s important to keep Martins’ seat Republican, he said.
“I know that she would work with the Republican majority so … the eight or nine communities around here would not have to be put through so many problems during the construction,” Corbett said.
Corbett’s son, Bill Corbett Jr., was the spokesman for former Republican Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray’s campaign for Nassau County district attorney last year.
Bill Corbett Sr. said he has voted and campaigned for Democrats in the past.
In an email, Phillips said she is concerned that the LIRR has yet to answer local officials’ and residents’ “basic questions” about construction, traffic and other issues.
“The MTA is asking us to get on board this proposal without even telling us the destination,” said Phillips, adding that she appreciates the support from Corbett and others with whom she has discussed the project
Haber said he would support a third track when he ran against Martins in 2014, but he has not taken a public stance on the most recent proposal.
While he said he sees the project’s potential benefits, Haber rejected Corbett’s claim that he would bend to political pressure from his own party and said he would fight the project if district residents continue to oppose it.
“I’m not going to push something through that hurts 100,000 people and destroys amazing communities that people grew up in,” said Haber, who called himself “an independent Democrat who will do what’s best for Long Island first.”
The race to replace Martins marks an intersection of statewide politics with strong opposition to the project in communities along the Main Line such as Floral Park, New Hyde Park and Mineola.
Since it was reconstituted in January, CARE has encouraged local residents to voice concerns to elected officials about how the project would damage local traffic, commerce and quality of life by increasing noise and vibrations both during the estimated three-year construction period and in the long term.
Project supporters say it would ease train commutes in both directions and be a boon to Long Island’s economy by making New York City more accessible and creating temporary and permanent jobs.
Tanya Lukasik of community organization Open Nassau, which CARE lists among its members, said politicking detracts from the goal of getting more information from the state and LIRR, which many opponents say has been lacking.
“This is not partisan,” said Lukasik, a Hicksville resident and registered Democrat. “This is more about focusing on getting an understanding of what this project entails, if this is something that is needed for our area, how the Main Line communities would be affected.”
MTA spoksman Shams Tarek declined to comment for this story, but has said the project scoping process went beyond what state environmental review law requires and that planners are doing “unprecedented” public outreach.
Cuomo has tried to distinguish his plan as less invasive than one the Metropolitan Transportation Authority proposed in 2005 by promising to eliminate the seven street-level railroad crossings along the corridor, build the track entirely within the LIRR’s right of way and take no residential properties.
A draft environmental impact statement to be released later this year will show construction plans, the LIRR’s right of way and other details critics have requested, project officials have said.
