League of Women Voters of New York Education Foundation
Saratoga, Schenectady County, NY November 7, 2006 Election
	James N. Tedisco Answers Questions Candidate for Member of the State Assembly; District 110

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of the Capital District and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. "007" accounts, better known as member items, account for $200 million in tax payer dollars doled out to individual legislators each year. These pork barrel funds are not covered under New York State's Freedom of Information Laws. Do you support efforts to make the distribution of these funds public record?

There is an old saying that goes something like "Sunlight is the best disinfectant" - and I am committed to that principal. The taxpayers of New York, overburdened as they are, have the absolute right to know what we are doing with their hard earned money.

2. Legislative district boundary lines are drawn by the legislators themselves and are tied directly to the advantages of party politics. Would you support the establishment of an independent commission as a more open and ethical way to create districts?

I support the idea so strongly that we Assembly Republicans included this very idea in our "Restore New York" legislative package in 2006 (A.9441). Uncompetitive legislative districts make for lazy and even corrupt legislators, who never need to fear a reckoning from their constituents on Election Day.

3. Amid the recent reports that more and more young people are leaving upstate cities for better opportunities, what would you propose to reverse this trend?

If anything, the question understates the problem. I think it's less that young people are leaving voluntarily than that the high costs imposed by all levels of government in New York State are driving them out. This is why I have led the fight against our crippling real property tax burden.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League. 

• Original answers for a published Voters Guide were limited to 50 words and are presented as submitted. Candidates have since been invited to supply answers of any length for the Web.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 12, 2006 19:23
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