Positions Summary

By Tom Casey

Summary of my fourteen priorities

I believe it is essential to democracy, good government and an informed electorate that every candidate should openly and honestly state ALL their positions and the priorities he or she will fight for. My highest four priorities are creating good jobs, reducing state and local spending and taxes, establishing term limits that is essential to achieving necessary reforms and improving the education of all our children. For change to occur specific, concrete reforms must be laid out, supported and fought for. Generalities too often lead to talk with no action. See my detailed positions for the changes I would fight for.

1. The growth of good jobs depends directly on significantly improving our business climate to increase our national and global competitiveness. This will require many changes in Albany. There are NO silver bullets or projects, but many steps we must take to improve our future. Some of the steps include: spending and debt reduction; reduction of the highest combined State and local taxes in the country; reduction of the cost of workman's compensation; reduction of costly local government mandates including Medicaid, labor laws and pension costs; focused government investment in business development that creates good jobs; supportive and attentive government assistance to businesses; improvement of the efficiency of our governments; and reduction of energy costs through Public Service Commission reform.

2. Term limits and independent redistricting commission to make elections competitive. We must improve access to state governance for all the People of New York.

3. K-12 Educational reform including an end to tenure, end to seniority based pay and position selection, alternative schools for disruptive student, increase parental power to hold their childrens' schools accountable through the right to choose any public or private school, provide additional charter schools and provide private school tax-credits.

4. Campaign finance reform to reduce the power of incumbents relative to the wishes of the People including returning all unused funds after elections, fund raising only allowed ten months before an election, no soft money, no lobbyist contributions and reduce contribution limits from individuals, businesses, unions and PACs.

5. Public versus private sector mandated cost comparisons for all feasible work and freeing of governments to privately contract or to hire more government workers, whichever is less costly. A law requiring comparison is being proposed by the NY Public Employees Federation. I strongly support this if it includes complete cost accounting and quality/scheduling consistency.

6. Further Public Authority spending reforms

7. Reforming legislative operations as per the Brennan Report to make our state government more responsive to the People -- allow open debate, open committees and introduction of laws without the approval of the Assembly Speaker and Senate Majority Leader

8. Further lobbying and ethics reform

9. Reduction of the violent and highly sensualized media, from TV shows and advertisements to video games, that permeates our children's lives teaching them the wrong values

10. Very strict crime enforcement and strong prevention measures. I support life without parole and oppose the death penalty, as I believe we do not have the right to take a life.

11. Reduction of corporate crime that hurts our economy, reduces corporate profitability, destroys jobs, and devalues or destroys the investments of our citizens and pension funds.

12. Support for the inalienable right to life of our unborn children as we do not have the right to stop a beating heart

13. Restriction of the growth of gambling

14. Adequate health care. We must work with the Federal government, as this must be solved nationally to protect the working uninsured and the unemployable, and reduce the costs to businesses.