Tom Suozzi touts ability to get things done

Noah Manskar

The Democrats running to replace U.S. Rep Steve Israel are all so similar, Tom Suozzi said, that debating specific policy position is “almost futile.”

Staying on message in a sit-down interview with Blank Slate Media, the former Nassau County executive maintained his record of “standing up to powerful interests” to change the status quo will set him apart in the five-way Democratic primary in the North Shore’s 3rd Congressional District.

“I’m willing to break the little mold to try and get something done to actually help solve the problem to benefit people,” he said. “I don’t think my opponents can point to that.”

Suozzi has been a major target for his opponents, especially Suffolk County Legislator Steve Stern, who has repeatedly admonished his record on taxes and abortion rights and for taking money from Donald Trump.

Former North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman and town Councilwoman Anna Kaplan both challenged signatures on Suozzi’s ballot petitions. Jericho attorney Jonathan Clarke has said Suozzi and the others are unreliable career politicians.

Suozzi said they’re attacking him because he’s at the head of the pack — internal polling shows him leading and he is best known in the district stretching from Whitestone, Queens, to Kings Park, he said.

Stern in particular is “being dishonest and fast and loose with the truth,” Suozzi said.

In a recent sit-down interview, Stern said he has not raised general fund property taxes as a county legislator and criticized Suozzi for raising Nassau’s taxes nearly 20 percent after promising not to do so.

Suozzi, though, said he never made a promise not raise taxes at a time of fiscal distress for the county, and added that Stern voted several times to raise police district taxes, which comprise a larger portion of tax bills.

Stern has never denied that he voted to raise police district taxes.

“It’s clear that Tom Suozzi will try anything to disguise a record that has been soundly rejected by voters time and time again,” he said in a statement. “I am the only candidate in this race who has never raised general fund property taxes. That’s a fact and Tom Suozzi knows it.”

Stern also cast Suozzi as a weak defender of abortion rights, saying he awarded “millions of taxpayer dollars” to abstinence-only sex-education programs. His campaign has also pointed to a 2006 letter from Kelly Conlin, then the president of NARAL Pro-Choice New York, slamming Suozzi for calling her organization a “special interest group.”

Suozzi called the claims “dishonest.” He said the abstinence programs had to be medically accurate and were part of a package that also gave $500,000 to Planned Parenthood. NARAL and Planned Parenthood endorsed his 2013 county executive campaign, he said.

Some of Suozzi’s policy positions are similar to the other 3rd district Democrats facing a June 28 primary.

He said he aims to protect the Long Island Sound from nitrogen pollution and offer incentives for people entering high-tech fields to increase employment and make the U.S. more globally competitive.

He said his county tax increase, workforce cuts, social service reforms and attempts at combatting corruption in Albany — which he said got him disinvited from a Democratic Party convention — prove he is willing to accomplish goals despite political consequences.

Inefficiencies in government prevent it from serving people best, Suozzi said.

Asked about inequities in education, he said more spending will not close the gap between Long Island’s school districts.

Schools generally have similar resources such as counselors and social workers, Suozzi said, but poorer districts have more children who need them while students in rich districts don’t, or can use private services.

To rectify that, he said, social services and law enforcement should be more “interoperable” and involved with schools so children can access more resources than what schools provide.

“Everybody’s given a speech since the beginning of time saying it’s better to educate a kid instead of paying for a jail cell later on,” Suozzi said. “And everybody claps and says, ‘Yay, that’s great, yeah!’ But why doesn’t it happen? Becuase there’s a humongous dysfunctional system that has not operated effectively.”

Suozzi said he would oppose any personal federal income tax hikes unless they accompany more federal money into the 3rd district, a goal other Democrats have espoused.

Suozzi said he would support a federal program offering free community college paid for with tax revenue from offshore corporations that return to the U.S., which he said should also pay for infrastructure improvements.

He said there should be a tax incentive to lure those companies back, not give a specific tax rate for one.

“I don’t wanna see our income taxes go up so we can send the money to North Carolina, South Carolina, Arizona and all the other red states that are net takers from the federal government,” he said.

On foreign policy, Suozzi said Israel and Palestine should move toward a two-state solution, but Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory and Palestine’s lack of leader willing to negotiate put one further out of reach.

Suozzi said he opposed the Iran nuclear deal and opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement because it would result in the U.S. lowering labor and health-care standards to compete with expanding Asian economies.

“That’s why I’m exploring the idea of looking at the corporate tax rate to see, how can we be competitive in the rest of the world, but in a way that keeps the things that make America great,” he said.

Reach reporter Noah Manskar by e-mail at nmanskar@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @noahmanskar and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.

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