Concerns over tax reform, political process and net neutrality raised at Suozzi town hall

Janelle Clausen
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) is developing a bill with Rep. Peter King (R-Massapequa) as a bipartisan effort to address immigration. (Photo by Janelle Clausen)

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) emphasized the importance of communication and fighting for what’s right before a crowd of more than 150 people at the Great Neck Library on Monday night, while addressing topics like tax reform and net neutrality.

Suozzi dotted the meeting with stories of his time in Congress, underscoring the diversity of the country and how different his district – representing much of the North Shore – and others are so different. He also said that many people don’t understand these differences, which in turn makes solving already complicated issues even more difficult.

“These are serious issues and this is a very serious set of circumstances we face in our world and in our country,” Suozzi said before the crowd, which drew people from as close as Great Neck and as far as Huntington.

“And politics, unfortunately, has gotten so small, and so petty, and everybody is spending so much time being angry at each other instead of realizing that we’ve got some very serious things that require people to actually talk to each other and figure out how we can find common ground going forward to actually solve these problems,” Suozzi added.

Suozzi also emphasized the importance of competition in elections. He said that gerrymandering keeps most congressional seats secure, which does not incentivize members of Congress to work for the people and come up with new ideas.

“When there’s competition, you have to pay attention to the people,” Suozzi said.

Suozzi recalled the last time there was successful tax reform: when Ronald Reagan was president and Democrat Tip O’Neill led the House of Representatives as Speaker of the House. They spent two years debating the legislation and soliciting expert feedback, he said, a sharp contrast to today’s attempts at tax reform.

“What’s happening now is they’re just trying to ram it through,” Suozzi said, noting the plan is “not going to work” and that he opposes the legislation.

In regards to the current tax reform bill, Suozzi said it would particularly harm the district, because it’s the “no. 1 district in America” when it comes to utilizing itemized deductions and is much more costly to live. Suozzi also noted that New York and other blue states contribute more federal dollars than they get back, with Long Island giving $23 billion alone.

“We have to really fight really hard to get the state and local tax deduction,” Suozzi said.

Suozzi, however, said he was not entirely opposed to corporate tax reform in general. He expressed support for vocational programs, training more workers, closing loopholes and decreasing corporate tax rates to not give companies an incentive to move outside the United States.

While most of the concerns from residents focused on the proposed Republican legislation, two people also pushed on the idea of Democrats needing to present viable alternative to Republican propositions and fight harder.

One of those people was Donna Sue Gary, a resident of Great Neck. She said that while many recognize the legislation being presented will hurt them, it’s hard to pinpoint a specific Democratic idea to go around.

“Probably almost everybody in this room agrees that’s what’s coming down the pipe is a bad deal,” Gary said. “But we are not offering something that’s a better deal, so I think that the Democratic Party is falling on its face with its ‘well, we would like to negotiate,’ but without presenting its own plan.”

Suozzi said that in the case of healthcare, it was a deliberate decision by Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to show that Republicans did not have a viable alternative. But when it comes to tax reform, and many other issues, Suozzi said that it’s “overwhelming how big a topic that is,” that Democrats don’t have as many resources, and that attention often ends up divided to where its hard for people to come together.

“Everybody’s being pulled in all these different directions,” Suozzi said.

Joshua Tobias who said he is “speaking for anybody with an internet connect,” expressed concern about an upcoming vote by the Federal Communications Commission to potentially roll back net neutrality rules, which currently mandate that Internet service providers treat all data on the Internet equally and not charge people based on content.

“What I’m hoping you will do once it’s repealed is take it to court, fight it, if you have to, make it a states rights issue,” Tobias said. “If you can’t protect the entire country, at least protect New York.”

Suozzi said he wouldn’t necessarily be “a leader” on that front, but that he was pro-net neutrality and would support both legal action and legislation favorable to net neutrality.

Doreen Dileonardo, a resident of Bellerose, also emphasized the importance of fighting for net neutrality.

“Congressman Suozzi was talking about how different the country is, and he’s absolutely right – there are people that like hunting, I’m not really into hunting – but the Internet is everybody’s thing,” Dileonardo said. “Everybody’s got a cell phone and everybody’s using the Internet.”

Ultimately, Suozzi said that people have to keep fighting for change, but also listen to those who have felt left behind by rapid changes both culturally and technologically.

“Nothing’s easy,” he said. “If it was easy, somebody would’ve done it already.”

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