Issues
For the past couple of months I have spent at least a few very early mornings each week on train platforms introducing myself to the commuters of the 41st District. I have met thousands of citizens at stations in Poughkeepsie, Beacon and New Hamburg. Honestly, it's been one of the most rewarding experiences of the entire campaign.I recently received an excellent letter from a commuter I had the pleasure to meet all too briefly on the platform in Poughkeepsie. The letter contains some really excellent and thoughtful questions, questions that deserve answers.
With the the author's gracious permission, I have reprinted that letter with my answers here on our campaign website so that those who may have similar questions can benefit as well.
Saw you at the Poughkeepsie Train Station this morning... was in too much of a dash to catch the train to stop and speak with you directly.
Many people are in a hurry early in the AM. Thanks for taking the time to read our material.
I hear all this talk about how we have a tax crisis - property and school taxes combined. But what are your plans to do something about it?
At the moment, we have a 19th Century education funding system supporting a 21st Century education system. We fund our schools with a property tax which no longer is an indication of wealth or income. Therefore, many people who have homes that are now worth many times the value of their initial cost can’t afford their exploding property tax bills. We need to switch to a funding system that is based upon the ability to pay (income tax). We need to do it now.
At 30 years of age, I have yet to find myself trusting my vote when it comes time to hit the polls.
So sad and I know you would agree. So what can you tell me - and everyone for that matter, that would help me trust that my vote for you will help address and resolve our tax crisis?
I give you my pledge. I recently signed the F.A.S.T (Fix Albany School Tax) Pledge where I pledged to to FAST-track solutions to this extremely complex and serious problem. I have pledged to hold town hall meetings looking for the input of the citizens of the 41st District. What I have pledged to do is to tackle the problem from day one, to look for new solutions and new thinking, and to quit punting this problem down the road. Our children as well as the taxpayers of New York deserve nothing less than a comprehensive set of solutions ASAP.
On Tuesday October 24, 2006, Brian received the endorsement of Hopewell Junction Citizens For Clean Water. This was the statement issued by Debra Hall, a founder of the organization and concerned resident of the Hopewell Precision Superfund Site:By Debra Hall, Hopewell Junction Citizens for Clean Water
www.Hopewell-Junction-Citizens-for-Clean-Water.org
Hopewell resident, Brian Keeler is running for State Senator against the 26 year Republican incumbent, Steven Saland. When elected, Mr. Keeler will be an effective Senator, representing our interests rather than protecting special interests and corporate contributors.
Every New Yorker should be guaranteed clean, safe, potable water. We need a Senator that will protect this most basic human health issue and Brian Keeler supports mandatory well water testing, “We cannot afford to have a well water policy dependent on people becoming sick before the problem is investigated. The safety of our drinking water should not be optional.”
Twenty-five local and statewide environmental groups wrote to Saland, asking him to support a State wide well water testing bill similar to the bill which passed unanimously in the Assembly. Saland would not, instead, opting for a voluntary testing program. In Saland’s plan only the neighborhoods with contaminated water would require testing.
The rest of the statement and video of the press conference can be found in the extended entry
Brian held a press conference in front of 18th century one room schoolhouse in Lagrange on Monday with fellow State Senate candidate Mike Kaplowitz to introduce and sign the F.A.S.T. Pledge (Fix Albany School Tax). Brian and Mike pledge to make real, meaningful and comprehensive school tax reform their top priority in the 2007 legislative session and to F.A.S.T.-track efforts to fix this pressing problem right away."I will present to you, the people in my district, by April 15 of 2007, my first draft school tax reform bill, founded on the principles of my FAST pledge to you today. And those principles are: securing school funding based on the ability to pay, fair and equitable funding that provides a quality education to every child in the state and protecting our seniors and families from forced relocation due to the crushing burden of school taxes." Brian said.
"And by April 15, I will hold my first forum, in the 41st district, where I will ask for your input on my bill and other proposals that represent the spirit of my FAST pledge. I will hold other forums across the state asking people to participate in a new process of open government where we solve problems together, and where I, as your elected representative, will reach across the aisle in Albany, and bring your solutions, consolidated in my bill, to the floor for a vote. And by the end of the 2007 legislative session we, in the legislature, together with Eliot Spitzer will pass a school funding reform bill founded on the principles of my FAST pledge that I have made to you today.
I challenge the rest of the legislature to follow my lead in creating a new way of doing business in Albany that is problem-solving and participatory, based on a transparent and open government."
Brian attended a forum on school taxes wednesday night at Arlington High School.
The forum, which was sponsored by H.A.L.T. (Help Arlington Lower Taxes) was attended by well over 200 taxpayers for across the 41st District who are concerned about the school tax crisis and what is to be done about it.
From the Poughkeepsie Journal: Taxpayers, teachers call for school funding reform
The forum, which was sponsored by H.A.L.T. (Help Arlington Lower Taxes) was attended by well over 200 taxpayers for across the 41st District who are concerned about the school tax crisis and what is to be done about it.
From the Poughkeepsie Journal: Taxpayers, teachers call for school funding reform
Thursday, October 19, 2006 By Erikah Haavie
Poughkeepsie Journal
FREEDOM PLAINS —Dawn Babiker came to Arlington High School Wednesday with a question in her mind, "Why are taxes so high?"
She described the taxes on her Town of LaGrange home as astronomical. "I want to see what they're going to do about taxes in our community," Babiker said. The topic of school taxes brought about 200 school board members, district staff and community members together for a meeting in the high school auditorium.
The Help Arlington Lower Taxes committee sponsored the informational meeting to discuss the complexities of school funding and what proposals are out there to fix the school funding system.The following is video of taxpayers who attended the event. Brian was there to listen to (and share) their concerns.
....
"There is a problem. We don't have one fix," said Michael Shields, a Town of Poughkeepsie resident and co-chairman of Help Arlington Lower Taxes.
Shields said he'd like to see more community discussion and more action by local legislators on school funding.
Taxnightmare.org and Ulster Publishing Company Cordially invite you to a forum on the Property Tax Nightmare & school property tax reform.
Where: at SUNY, New Paltz in the Lecture Center, Rm. 102.
When: Sunday, October15th at 2 P.M.
Who: Geddy Sveikauskas (Publisher of Ulster Publishing Company ) will moderate. Gerry Benjamin (Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at SUNY New Paltz) will lead the discussion.
Distinguished Panelists
41st Sendate District-Brian Keeler
38th Senate District-Nancy Low-Hogan
39th District-Christopher P. McBride
42nd District- Ulster County Legislator Susan Zimet
This from the New York Post:
STATE TACKING TAX ON REBATES By FREDRIC U. DICKER State Editor
September 27, 2006 -- ALBANY - More than 1 million New Yorkers may owe a large chunk of taxes on the school "tax relief" rebate checks they're now receiving in the mail, officials conceded yesterday.The checks, hundreds of thousands of which were rewritten earlier this month to credit Gov. Pataki and the leaders of the Legislature for issuing them, fail to mention that the refunds are subject to city, state and federal income taxes for those who itemize their returns.
"It wasn't something that we really wanted to have out there," said a legislative staff member who worked on the rebate plan.
State authorities claimed they didn't have enough room on the checks to notify the public that they are taxable - even though room was made to feature Pataki's name.
UPDATE 9/25/06: Citizen Action of NY Endorses Brian Keeler for NY State Senate!
Much of the huge mess in Albany can be mitigated by returning accountability and transparency to the electoral process...and by removing the need for qualified candidates to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to challenge incumbents. Citizen Action of New York has a great description of Clean Money, Clean Elections:
More and more New Yorkers are fed up with a political system where contributions from wealthy special interests matter more than health care, decent jobs, education, Social Security and the environment.
Our property tax bills will soon be arriving in the mail. The numbers on those bills and the present real property tax crises that created them, are an indication of how broken and unresponsive our state government in Albany has become. Over the past four years, as our property taxes have increased over 40% statewide, we have heard nothing from the Senate Education Committee; no leadership, no guidance, no research and no reform.
The crisis has become so acute that property tax citizens’ organizations have sprung up all over New York, especially here in Dutchess County where nine of thirteen school budgets were rejected this past Spring. Arlington School District Superintendent, Frank Pepe, was quoted in the Poughkeepsie Journal as saying: “This is not a vote against Arlington, but a vote against the governor and the state legislature for their inaction on school tax reform.”
During the last four years while this tax crisis has exploded, Poughkeepsie’s Steve Saland, in his role as chairman of the Senate Education Committee, blocked all serious reform legislation in his committee. As a result, he is more responsible for our current property tax crisis than any other Senator in Albany.
Interestingly enough, just 3 days before the end of the latest legislative session, in an apparent response to mounting political pressure and criticism from voters, Saland proposed his “School Tax Act”; a confusing and unworkable one-house bill that could never become law. His act appears to be nothing more than election year political posturing.
Accountability.In business, if you make a lousy product or treat your customers like dog food, you’ll be hanging out a quick “going out of business” sign. In schools, in the workplace, and even in personal relationships, you mess up, you pay the price. Accountability. It’s the ultimate check and balance.
Now, with all the Ned Lamont news swirling around and all the talk about anti-war and left v. right ideology, we seem to be losing track of a very basic instinct that has been lost, and that loss is REALLY what people power politics is all about.
I know, because I’m on the front lines and I’m hearing the story every day as I knock on the doors of the 41st District here in New York. What people are telling me isn’t about ideology, left v. right or even specific issues. The one theme I’m hearing is that people are VERY angry because there is NO ACCOUNTABILITY in government anymore.
Democrat mounts challenge in state Senate race
By RICHARD ROTH
HILLSDALE—Brian Keeler, the Democratic candidate for the 41st district state Senate seat held by Republican Steve Saland for the past 16 years, says he can’t outspend the incumbent, but he will have a “well-funded, well-supported” campaign.
“We will give [Mr. Saland] something he hasn’t had, which is a serious race here in the Hudson Valley,” says Mr. Keeler. “Steve Saland has, at last report, $300,000 in the bank from years gone by. But we can run an effective campaign with the budget we have.”
Mr. Keeler says Mr. Saland, as chairman of the Senate Education Committee, is “more responsible for the property tax crisis than any other senator in Albany, period.”
