Newly elected Republican state Sen. Jack Martins was sworn in on Tuesday in Albany, and immediately turned his attention to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed property statewide tax cap.
Martins said he supports in principle Cuomo’s proposed 2 percent property tax cap, but believed the tax cap needs to be considered in relation to local communities’ needs.
“I agree with the tax cap and there’s general consensus on that point. Where there’s going to be discussion is how to implement it,” he said. “There really is an important distinction there. We have to press for a tax cap but we have to press for pension reform and health-care reform.”
Decreasing statewide Medicaid spending should be the primary focus in the context of health-care reform, Martins said. Failure to address pension and health-care costs that are fueling increases in local taxes would present serious dilemmas to officials drafting municipal budgets, according to Martins.
“You have to get a handle on those cost-drivers, or local communities are left with some difficult decisions,” he said.
The new 7th Senate District representative said he’s ready to review Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s anticipated budget draft proposal as his first order of business.
Using the Village of Mineola as a reference point, the former Mineola mayor noted that capping property taxes at 2 percent would limit an overall budget increase to 1 percent, necessitating cuts in services or other areas such as road paving and fire emergency services.
“We’re going to look at the governor’s proposal as to where he hopes to cut spending and gauge the impact to our local communities,” Martins said.
Martins said Cuomo’s idea of freezing state employees’ salaries in the current budget “bears reviewing,” but said that proposal should be accompanied by one that would hold the line on salaries for local municipal employees as well.
“Let’s get Albany out of the way,” Martins said, sounding a traditional conservative mantra. “It all goes back to allowing state and local governments to establish a base line. It’s taxpayer relief that we’re looking at.”
Martins’ court-contested victory over incumbent Craig Johnson gave Republicans the majority in that branch of the state Legislature, but left Martins little time to prepare for the new session.
“We’re scrambling to get our staff together, but we’re working on that,” Martins said on the eve of his swearing in ceremony. “I’m optimistic that things will be in order. I certainly would have hoped that [Johnson] would have reached out so that those things that are in the pipeline would be handed off seamlessly, but I guess that was not to be.”
Martins said he had hoped that Johnson or members of his office staff would have offered information about issues already on the senate agenda or local financial commitments that had not yet been fulfilled. Martins said he hasn’t communicated with Johnson since the campaign ended.
“They’ve just been silent altogether,” Martins said. “I’m concerned about prior commitments that were made. Certainly I would have to identify the commitments that were there were actually documented.”
Martins said he expects to sort all that out shortly, probably in first few weeks of this year. He said he’ss hoping to get input from community organizations to get a sense of what financial commitments made during Johnson’s term remain outstanding.
Johnson’s chief of staff Rich Azzopardi, said he understood that Johnson had attempted to contact Martins, and said he himself is available for consultation if needed.
“I haven’t fielded any calls from these guys. If somebody on Martins’s team wants to give me a call on something, I’ll talk to them,” Azzopardi said.
The short transition period since his election was officially certified by the state Court of Appeals late last month has left Martins with no staff positions yet officially filled.
“We do have some offers out and have had some people accept,” he said, declining to make any official announcements yet. “There’s a practical end of getting the office set up and getting it staffed so we can provide constituent services.”
Martins said he would like to retain the same local Herricks Road offices in Garden City Park that Johnson maintained during his term in office, but that remains uncertain since the two-year lease on the space expired at the end of last month.
