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As State Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos prepares to reclaim the house's majority, under a new governor, his statements in a wide-ranging interview with the Newsday editorial board hint at how he may shape conflicts and agreements to come from Albany's power troika.The full transcript is available here.
Some highlights:
ADVICE TO ANDREW CUOMO: "Be patient. What I told him is there is a desire within our conference to work with him. Certainly our message has been the same....We've talked about taxes, spending, private-sector job creation."
TWEAK OF ANDREW CUOMO: “This is for me, I want to be the majority leader for a few more years and then I'm going to retire. Andrew Cuomo wants to be president and so it's a different agenda.”
NASSAU’S FISCAL WOES: “I think it would not be appropriate for NIFA to take over. It can help the county work through its problems.....“I think any increase in the sales tax would not be good for the county." Red-light camera expansion for Nassau and elsehwere “is feasible, and ticket surcharges are feasible.”
MTA PROJECTS: "(East Side Access) should continue forward. That's a priority. I think that's critically important for our economy here on the island. ... "(For the Second Avenue Subway) we just don't have money."
CAPPING PROP TAX AND STATE SPENDING: I don't think there has to be a battle. I think if there's a battle, it's going to be more between the governor and the speaker."
PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PENSION COSTS: "You need a new tier and we have to look at a 401(k) type model. It's not affordable anymore."
SHINNECOCK CASINO: “I think the perfect spot would be Belmont. Because it's a destination. It's Belmont Racetrack, it's convenient, in terms of transportation.” SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: "It's something I indicated early in the year, that I would recommend to the conference that we do bring it out, but that would be a conference decision... In due course that will be discussed.”
MERGING NYPA AND LIPA "would be a problem.”
ETHICS REFORM: “I think ... what you need... is more disclosure. But if a person is a crook, they're a crook.”
THREE MEN IN A ROOM “The minority leaders in the Senate and the Assembly should be part of the negotiating process.”
LOBBYIST IN HIS LAW FIRM: "It's not an arm of the law firm, it's a separate entity that Jerry Kremer has."
HOW SENATE WAS WON: "On the Island with the two seats, certainly with Brian Foley, it was the payroll tax and STAR rebate. I think those were big issues. With Craig Johnson, I think he forgot a big segment of the community. He thought life was about the North Shore." ALIGNMENTS: "When we were last in the majority, at 32-30, we managed to govern. But certainly, if you have more people joining it will be better. And it's also going to be incumbent upon the governor to make sure Democrats are supportive of him."
UPSTATE PRISONS: “If a prison is going to be closed, you also have to remember that that is an economic engine in many of those upstate communities. So you can't just go around the state destroying their economy, either.”
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