( Frank Eltman, File / AP Photo )
U.S. Representative Tom Suozzi (D NY3, parts of Long Island and Queens), now running for the Democratic nomination for governor, makes his final pitch to voters as he campaigns to be the next governor of New York.
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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. Here we are again, another Supreme Court decision day. They announced their rulings beginning at ten o'clock, remember, on these designated decision days, so ready, set, go.
We will keep our eye on their feed and break in if any of the ones we're all waiting to hear about come down on abortion rights, on forcing New York City to allow more people to carry guns in public on the streets, on President Biden's right to impose clean power plant standards or not, on the Remain in Mexico policy for people seeking asylum in this country and one or two others. Meanwhile, we've got Tom Suozzi as our first guest today for one final candidate interview in the Democratic primary for governor.
We'll note that Governor Hochul has apparently decided to skip this round, declining on many invitations for her to come on this month despite many options for live appearances or pre-tapings. It's just her opponents, Congressman Suozzi and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams who are appearing. We know it's not just us. By the way, Hochul has declined other news organizations' interviews as well recently where she has done them before like she's come on this show.
In fact, The Times says the story out now about how the governor is pursuing a so called Rose Garden strategy, which means barely making any campaign appearances at all, counting on the press she gets for her actions as the current governor and trying to rest on an apparent lead in the polls. For the record, Williams and Suozzi in this round, no Kathy Hochul, not for lack of trying.
Tom Suozzi, you will recall, undertook this primary rather than run for re-election for his congressional seat from the North Shore of Long Island and Northeastern Queens. He's been endorsed by the New York Post, while Hochul has been endorsed by The Times and The Daily News, and almost all the major unions and elected officials in the Democratic Party. Congressman Suozzi, always good to have you on the show. Welcome back to WNYC.
Tom Suozzi: Hey, Brian, how are you? Thanks so much for having me on the show. I've been endorsed by the Local Electricians Unions, IBEW Local 3, 25, and 1049, and a bunch of other ones as well.
Brian Lehrer: Hear you. If the Supreme Court does make any of those big rulings in the coming minutes, you're going to get first crack at them. Meanwhile, as we did with Public Advocate Williams the other day, I'll give you up to two minutes right at the start here to introduce or reintroduce yourself to voters because we know lots of people only get their minds around primary elections in the final stretch here. Not everybody's as politically obsessed as this show, or as you in the context of your job.
Tom Suozzi: We're upset, Brian. We're upset.
Brian Lehrer: Open mic, why you and not them?
Tom Suozzi: Well, very clearly, I'm a proven executive. I'm trained as a certified public accountant, and an attorney. I was the mayor of my hometown in Glen Cove for eight years, I learned how to run government, get things done. I was a county executive in Nassau County for eight years where I turned it around. It was rated the worst-run County in America before I got there. I turned it around, I ran the 12th largest police department in the country, bigger than Detroit or Boston.
When I left, we had the lowest crime rate in the country for any community over 500,000 people. I've been in Congress for the past five and a half years, I know how to get things done in government. Number one, I'm a proven executive. Number two, I'm a common sense Democrat. I'm not going to pander to the left, I'm not going to back down to the right, I'm going to work with anybody to get things done on behalf of the people the way I've been doing my whole career. I'm a lifelong Democrat.
I was the environmentalist of the year for all of New York State for the New York League of Conservation Voters. I was the person of the year for the New York Immigration Coalition for my work helping the undocumented, both as mayor and as county executive. I have 100% rating from Planned Parenthood, 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign. I have an F rating from the NRA. I'm the chair of the Labor Caucus in Congress.
I'm a lifelong Democrat, but I'm not going to pander. I'm going to work together to get things done. Number three, my agenda is very clear. Kathy Hochul has been in office for 10 months. I don't know what her vision is for the future of New York State. I don't know what she's campaigning on. I'm running on very clearly, we have to reduce crime, people don't feel safe in New York City and in many places throughout the state.
Number two, we have to reduce taxes. We want to increase taxes, let's increase them in Washington DC. The people are leaving New York State because they can't afford to live here or because they just want to escape the taxes. Everybody listening to your show knows somebody who moved to Florida or North Carolina or South Carolina or somewhere else or they're thinking about leaving. Number three, we have to help our children and our troubled schools that have been left behind for generations.
We have some of the best schools in the United States here in New York. We also have some of the most troubled schools as well. We have to bring our social services into those schools to help lift up to those children. Finally, we have the most corrupt state in the country according to The Washington Post. We've seen so many people leave in scandal, even the handpicked Lieutenant Governor by this governor, Brian Benjamin, was arrested for bribery and corruption after being in office for only eight months, but he's not alone.
Shelly Silver, Joe Bruno, Dean Skelos, Alan Hevesi. People left in scandal for so many-- three governors, attorney general left in scandal. That's not normal. I will go against that corruption as I have [inaudible 00:05:34].
Brian Lehrer: Let me leave that opening statement there. Thank you for that. Listeners, we can take some candidate questions for Tom Suozzi as we do, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692 or tweet your question @BrianLehrer.
On guns, Governor Hochul said, with this expected Supreme Court decision allowing much more public gun possession on the streets of New York, if it comes down that way as many people expect, that she has a legal strategy ready to go to restrict that again within the bounds of the Constitution in a way that the court might find acceptable. Do you have a legal strategy ready to go if that ruling comes down the way it might?
Tom Suozzi: I don't have it in my pocket right now but I would be able to pursue a legal strategy if that was to happen and be ready to go right away. It's going to have to happen before I take office in January. I have to point out though, Brian, that when Kathy Hochul was a member of Congress, she voted with the NRA, she was endorsed by the NRA, she took money from the NRA, she had an A rating from the NRA.
In fact, she voted to allow concealed carry in the United States of America, so that people could bring guns here into New York, absent of this Supreme Court ruling. It's really the height of hypocrisy that she tries to run on the gun issue now without ever even apologizing for what she did. She says, "I've evolved." She didn't evolve after Columbine, she didn't evolve after Virginia Tech.
When she was in Congress, she had a 50% rating from the League of Conservation Voters. When she was a member of the Erie County Clerk of Erie County, she said, "I'm going to report the undocumented to ICE if they come to me for a driver's license." When she was running upstate, she was a far right candidate for the NRA, environmentally and with the undocumented.
Now, running for governor trying to get people to vote down state and in a primary, she picked Brian Benjamin as a running mate who campaigned on defund the police when he was running for New York City Comptroller. She has a socialist as her head of Inter-Governmental Affairs, and she endorsed the democratic socialists in Queens in the City Council race.
Brian Lehrer: Let me stay on guns. The New York Times endorsement of Hochul notes her previous position on guns, yes, and that the NRA did give her an A rating back then. The Times says that was a decade ago, it accepts her evolution after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre 10 years ago as genuine, as evidenced by the package of bills she just promoted and signed.
The Times said her familiarity with gun culture in rural areas should help her make the case for reasonable gun safety measures to gun owners. They feel that's a reason to vote for Hochul. Fair points?
Tom Suozzi: No, because she's never really explained what transpired. Why was it that Columbine and Virginia Tech, and all the other awful massacres that have taken place up until that time? I think it's more based on politics, straightforward politics, not based upon what she believes in. Listen, she evolved, that's good. I support the laws that have been passed here in New York State. I've had an F rating from the NRA.
I support every piece of legislation for gun violence prevention in the United States of America. There's a clear choice here. I've been consistent throughout and she has flip-flopped. Remember when that used to be a big thing in politics, flip-flopping. [chuckles]
Brian Lehrer: Before, he was against it.
Tom Suozzi: She flip-flopped on this and so many other issues.
Brian Lehrer: I want to ask you a few questions next, based on the New York Post endorsement of you which was the main thing other than your own ads that your campaign office highlighted to us in an email yesterday. First, you're running in a Democratic primary in New York, obviously, and for many New York Democrats, a New York Post endorsement would be a badge of dishonor, given their editorial take on most things and their place in Fox News related Murdoch world.
Why shouldn't Democratic primary voters view you with more suspicion, just for the fact of the Post editorial board being enthusiastic about you?
Tom Suozzi: Well, Eric Adams was endorsed by the New York Post as well. The reason I've got endorsed by the Post is because I'm talking about crime and taxes and many people say, "Tom, Hey, you're a Democrat. You're talking about crime and taxes. Those are Republican issues, crime, and taxes." My response is, "No, they're not." Everybody's concerned about crime. Everybody's concerned about taking the subway. I'm concerned about taking the subway. I'm concerned when my kids take the subway. This is a real-life problem that must be addressed and I'm not going to address it like Fox News addresses the issue.
I'm going to address it in a reasonable fashion with a 15-point crime intervention and prevention plan that deals with things that need to be done right now, as well as long-term things to fix systemic injustices in our system, especially related to education. I've been in your show for 25 years, Brian. I'm a rational, reasonable, thoughtful person who's a lifelong Democrat who's in this business to serve people and solve problems.
Right now, the people, including Democrats, are concerned about crime and affordability, and I've got plans to address those issues. This governor is not addressing those issues. There's a clear choice in this race. If you're concerned about crime, then I'm your candidate. If you're concerned about taxes and affordability, then I'm your candidate. If you want to beat the Republicans in November, then I'm your candidate. Kathy Hochul has a 40% job approval rating.
That's terrible going into a general election when people are talking about a red wave. If you want to win this race, the Republicans can't beat me because I'll win on Long Island and I'll win in Westchester and I'll win in this city and because I'm talking about crime and taxes. What are they going to say? That they're going to be tough and mean I'm going to be rational and reasonable and address the issues that people care about. [unintelligible 00:11:44]
Brian Lehrer: Let me ask you about both crime and taxes, drill down a little deeper on those. I'm going to draw these questions again from The Times and Daily News editorials endorsing Hochul. The Times says-
Tom Suozzi: Let me just point out that the Daily News editorial board just two days ago came out knocking Kathy Hochul for her handing out checks right before the election with her name on it, really in violation of the spirit of the laws of that. You're not supposed to be using public money to campaign, right for an election. This governor said she was going to be the most ethical, transparent government. We did give $1 billion to the Buffalo bills with no public hearing.
She handpicked a Lieutenant governor with ethical scandals. Who's been indicted for bribery and corruption. [unintelligible 00:12:27] answer your question.
Brian Lehrer: The Times endorsement of her says, "Your focus on tax cuts isn't sound economics. However, his ideas for housing policy sound more of the same, and his tough-on-crime campaign seems to ignore some of the important lessons around the need for bail reform."
Then the Daily News endorsement of Hochul said this about you on crime, "When banging the drum on the need to reform the State's bail reform law by giving judges the right to order pretrial detention based on perceived dangerousness, he's cast aside important nuance. Though we share many of his criticisms of the statute, we've been candid that most of the increase in crime is not the result of that law. Suozzi has been less careful with his language and on this issue, the details matter mightily."
Your responses to the Daily News editorial board and The Times?
Tom Suozzi: I wish that all of the journalists were as careful as you are and trying to give people a chance to have a conversation because I have a 15-point crime intervention and prevention plan to help the mentally ill, to develop a comprehensive plan for people that are mentally ill. 75% of the people in jail have a drug alcohol or mental health problem. 50% of the people in jail have a learning disability.
I've laid out a clear plan to bring all of our health and human services that are federally funded, state funded, locally funded, not-for-profits into our schools to help children at a young age because when we ignore the problems of children at a young age, those become the big problems of life that cause crime, that cause poverty, that cause homelessness, that cause domestic violence and other societal dysfunction.
I have a comprehensive plan to deal with crime and I've done it before. I did it when I was a mayor of a small little city, when I ran the police department. I did it as the county executive of Nassau County when I ran the 12th largest police department in the United States of America, bigger than Detroit and Boston. When I created a model program for health and human services called No Wrong Door, by getting different agencies to collaborate with each other.
We need to break down the silos between law enforcement, health, and human services, and education and try to solve the problem we [unintelligible 00:14:42] .
Brian Lehrer: Do you acknowledge what the Daily News says that most of the increase in crime is not the result of the bail reform law suggesting that that you've been emphasizing it too much in your ads, that they're applying about crime-fighting.
Tom Suozzi: It's the Daily News [inaudible 00:14:58]. They've hardly covered this race at all. There's been very little journalistic coverage of this race and I've emphasized my 15-point plan. I've emphasized implementing the red flag law. When that racist murderer killed those people up in Buffalo, they were red flags all over. We have a great law in New York state called red flag law, but we have not implemented that law. It's been in place for three years.
When that kid said, "I'm going to kill myself and kill the fellow students," that's a red flag. The teachers knew about it. They put him in a mental health institution for a day and a half. They knew about it. The state police investigated him. They knew about it. His family probably knew about it. We have a red flag law that said that kid cannot get guns and we can take guns away from him, but nobody implemented the law.
When the two cops were killed in New York City, his mother said, "My son's been in and out of mental health treatment his whole life. He's had such a hard life." If that mother knew that we have a red flag law, that you can take guns away from people that are mentally unstable, we could have hopefully prevented crimes like that. There are thousands of people in New York State that shouldn't have their guns, that we can take away the guns with red flag law.
I have a comprehensive, thoughtful plan to deal with all of these issues related to crime. Unfortunately, not everybody's covering them in detail.
Brian Lehrer: One other thing on crime from the Daily News editorial board. They wrote, "In calling for Hochul to remove an elected district attorney, Manhattan's Alvin Bragg, Suozzi let frustration with rising crime get the better of his wisdom. The governor's power to yank a DA should only be used in cases of corruption, fraud, or outright abdication, not as a trump card," interesting use of a word there, "trump card to override prosecutorial discretion.
Besides, gun prosecutions in Manhattan are up substantially under Bragg, shootings and homicides are down. We've had many problems with him in his brief tenure, but it should be for the voters to render their judgment, not another elected official."
Tom Suozzi: When Alvin Bragg first came into office and [inaudible 00:17:01]-
Brian Lehrer: Let me ask you, are you running on firing Alvin Bragg if you're elected?
Tom Suozzi: No, I have not run on that. When he first got into office and the Day One memo came out, I said, "If you're not going to prosecute armed robbery as a felony, and you're not going to prosecute resisting arrest, that's an abdication of your duties." If you want to change the law, then go to Albany as a legislator and change the laws. It's not the job of the district attorney to say, "I want to change this law or change that law."
The job of the district attorney is to enforce the law. When he said that I said, "I would remove a district attorney who would not enforce prosecuting armed robbery as a felony." He has since changed this position. I have talked with Alvin Bragg about this in detail. I've talked to his pastor, I'm speaking at the Abyssinian Baptist search on Sunday. I was right.
Brian Lehrer: To be clear, when the Daily News referred to you, "Calling for Hochul to remove an elected district attorney Manhattan's Alvin Bragg." Did you call for her to, I know that the Republicans in their debate, [cross talk] I last week they said that they would fire Alvin Bragg if they were elected governor, did you not call for ho to remove him?
Tom Suozzi: I would fire any district attorney if they did refuse to enforce armed robbery as a felony, that's appropriate. He's since changed his position. The reality of the situation is that crime is a real serious issue. It should be the biggest priority of the governor of New York State right now. This governor's treated crime as an afterthought. She released a leaked press release 10 days before the budget was due. When she was asked about it, she said, "I'm not going to negotiate in public."
She is not treated crime, like the serious issue that it is. Even if you don't like my 15-point plan, which I think is really good and reasonable, at least debate it, at least discuss what you're going to do about crime. Don't ignore the issue. This is the number one-- 91% of New Yorkers say that crime is a serious or very serious issue. 69% of New Yorkers say that Kathy Hochul has failed on crime.
The job of an elected official in a democracy is to do what the people want. If you don't do what the people want, the people throw you out of office.
Brian Lehrer: Let's take a-
Tom Suozzi: That's the purpose of democracy.
Brian Lehrer: Let's take a phone call.
Tom Suozzi: We have a rising crime rate.
Brian Lehrer: Ray, I'm going to go to some phone calls for you. Ray, in Seaford. You're on WNYC with Tom Suozzi. Hi, Ray.
Ray: Good morning, Brian. Good morning, Congressman. This is Ray Laura from Seaford. I'm excited to be voting for Congressman on Tuesday, I'll do it on Saturday with early voting. My question, though, is that I think your message about making the state more affordable is resonating with voters, certainly resonated with people I talked to but my question, sir, is, can you identify one specific program or budget item where you feel that once you're elected, you could cut or you could reduce to help make the state more affordable?
Tom Suozzi: Medicaid is number one Ray. Medicaid is-- In New York State, it's the biggest expenditure item is Medicaid. We spent two and a half times the cost of the national average, we spend more than Texas and Florida combined even though those two states are both bigger than New York State. We do a lot of great things with Medicaid and there's a lot of wonderful Medicaid programs.
I was very, very in-depth involved with Medicaid as county executive of Nassau County, and I called for a cap on the growth of Medicaid. I fought Shelly Silver and Joe Bruno, I became the president of the New York State County Executives Association, and I got a cap on Medicaid. Governor Cuomo in an effort to try and help the city and help the counties cut the cap down to zero, so there's zero increase for the city, zero increase for the county.
That's arguably a good thing but now there's no accountability whatsoever, that the counties and especially the city of New York are not monitoring Medicaid expenditures anymore, because there's no increased expense to them. We have rife with waste, fraud, and abuse, especially in the home health care model. That's the biggest area that I would look at.
I'd also look at education, of moving from a mandate model to a guidelines model because we have more unfunded state mandates in education than any state in the United States of America. We spend more per student than any state in the country on education yet our results are below average. There's so many opportunities to try and make New York State more effective, more compassionate, more helpful, increase our kids' education, have a better job with health care, but it needs to be run better.
That's why when I say I'm a proven executive, as a CPA and attorney, a former mayor and county executive, a member of Congress, I know how to run government and how to lay out a vision and drive it towards a vision and I know how to hold people accountable.
Brian Lehrer: Follow up on one of the items you just mentioned. Home health care, we know the legislature just passed an increase in what those home health care workers would be paid. Were you against that and how would you save money in-home health care without denying seniors the care they need, if they're on Medicaid?
Tom Suozzi: I think we should actually increase home health care workers' wages even more. I have legislation in Congress actually to expand home health care and long-term care insurance. I grew up in a household while four of my grandparents lived in my house, three were very sick. We took care of my grandparents, my parents got long-term care insurance, died at 95 and 93 living at home, but nobody can afford long-term care insurance anymore.
We have a storm coming with long-term care but in New York state, there is a cottage industry of adult daycare, where people sign up for adult daycare, they sign the paperwork, the administrator submits the paperwork, collects the money, but nobody actually shows up at the home health care facility and they get a kickback from the operator. There is a terrible waste, fraud, and abuse taking place in Medicaid.
It's been going on for a long time with nursing homes but it's also now in the home healthcare industry. Where we have 6% of the population of the country, do we spend 50% of the home healthcare funds in the country in new York state?
Brian Lehrer: I think we have another follow-up on your taxing and spending proposals over the tax-cutting to be clear, and cutting spending proposals from Brian in Suffolk County. You're on WNYC with Tom Suozzi. Hello, Brian.
Brian Lehrer: Hi, good morning, guys. I pretty much reiterating what the earlier caller said. If I heard you correctly, you just talked about, Congressman Suozzi, you talked about saving money with Medicaid by expanding the programs or doing more for people. If you want to cut taxes, which it's an easy thing to say as a politician, but what exactly are you going to cut? I haven't really heard with clarity what that would be.
Brian Lehrer: I want to focus with respect because that was so close to what the other caller did say. What I flagged with this caller according to my screener is that he was asking specifically how you can improve schools at the same time that you would cut taxes. Would you focus on that?
Tom Suozzi: Well, right now, it's not about spending more money. It's about bringing health and human services existing programs into our school districts. We have billions of dollars that we spend on federally funded, state funded, locally funded, and not-for-profit programs in New York State. The problem is they're all designed to help adults showing up at the window when they're in crisis and they're really at the end of their rope.
We need to change the focus towards prevention as Bishop Desmond Tutu used to say, "We spent a lifetime pulling people out of the river. Let's go upstream and stop them from falling in the river in the first place." Everybody says it's better to educate a child instead of paying for a jail cell, but it doesn't happen. We need to take our health and human service programs and bring them into our schools because the teachers, especially in public school districts, are overwhelmed.
The one school psychologist, and the one social worker, and the one guidance counselor can't deal with the volume of problems. We have to integrate our existing health and human service programs, especially for not-for-profits, and as I said, federally, state, and locally funded programs and we'll make them available to our school district. When a teacher or administrator identifies a child having a problem, they get the help that they need at a young age before their little problems become big problems.
Brian Lehrer: You're talking about doing more in that respect. How is that consistent with a 10% state income tax cut that you're running on?
Tom Suozzi: Because it's not about spending more money, it's about running things better. It's about taking our existing programs, which are all completely separate from our school districts, and bringing them into our school districts, so revolutionary change towards prevention. Instead of waiting for adults to show up for help, bring those services in at a young age to children. We have-
Brian Lehrer: What would the state spend less on, there must be something if you're cutting the budget?
Tom Suozzi: We'd spend less on Medicaid.
Brian Lehrer: We are in the realm of education. Sorry.
Tom Suozzi: In the realm of education, we should be increasing state aid and tying it to a reduction in property taxes. Listen, I've been doing this for 30 years. I know how to run things. Our state budget right now is 18% higher than it was in 2020. Just literally from 2020 till now, it's over $20 billion more than it was. That doesn't make sense. We increased a bunch of spending in 2021 because of COVID and we got the money from the federal government.
We got more money for 2022 but we increased spending even more again, instead of reducing it now that COVID is going down. We should be using that money to reduce our debt. We should be using that money to reduce people's taxes. There's a downturn coming in the economy. This is not sustainable.
Brian Lehrer: I've seen you on your campaign cutting the state income tax by 10%. Jumaane Williams here the other day, obviously, one of the other candidates in this race, advocated raising taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers so they do their fair share. Would your income tax cut be across the board and apply to the top tier as well?
Tom Suozzi: Yes. People are leaving New York State. Listen, I've proposed tax increases at the federal level so that people all over the country are taxed more, I'm for that, but at the state level, people are leaving New York State. When I was born, there were 45 members of Congress from New York State. Today, there are 27 members of Congress, and it's going down to 26 In January. It is not sustainable.
People are leaving our state, both because they can't afford it and/or because they can afford it, but they just don't want to pay the taxes. We're losing people, and it's not sustainable for the long term. If we're going to try and increase the popularity of New York State, we have to make the state more competitive, more successful.
Brian Lehrer: Samantha in Manhattan, you're on WNYC with Congressman and gubernatorial hopeful Tom Suozzi. Hello, Samantha.
Samantha: Hi, thank you, Brian. I love your show so much. My first time calling and asking a question.
Brian Lehrer: Glad you're on.
Samantha: Congressman Suozzi-- Yes, thanks.
Tom Suozzi: Hi, Samantha.
Samantha: Hi. [chuckles] You come from a suburban district and Governor Holcomb comes from upstate. I'm curious, we're facing so many challenges in the farm industry, climate change, rising costs, and aging farmers, enormous inequities in the system as well. I'm curious what your vision for agriculture is in New York? We're a big dairy state. We're a big state, upstate and even on Long Island, lots of agriculture and meanwhile, we've got a thriving market in New York City.
I'm curious what your vision is to help strengthen the farmers [inaudible 00:30:00] the system in New York.
Brian Lehrer: See, only on this show, Congressman can the caller from Manhattan be the one who brings up the agriculture question, but go ahead.
Tom Suozzi: I will be going to Union Square market on Saturday morning campaigning at the farmer's market. We need to do a much better job of integrating the city of New York, as well as upstate and other urban areas in the state with our farmers. We have to try and increase farming in New York state.
When I was county executive in Nassau county, I actually gave property to be utilized by organic farmers in return for the county getting a piece of the profits that they made. We have a lot of open space and we actually gave the property to organic farmers to start farming in Nassau County, which we've lost so much farming over the decades. In New York state, from the '50s until now, we have a third of the acreage, we have a third of the number of farmers that we used to have.
We should be promoting sustainable farming. We should be promoting the use of animal waste, for example, in the dairy industry, in digesters, and converting it into fuel. We should be doing more to integrate the fresh produce and the fresh products from farmers in New York with our school districts to provide healthy food for folks. This is a win, win, win for people where people can be healthier.
Our agricultural economy can be stronger and we can actually make the quality of life better in food deserts in urban areas. I'm very committed to trying to increase farming in New York state, increase agriculture makes it more sustainable and makes people healthier in the process
Brian Lehrer: While we're on upstate and sustainability. The New York Post endorsement of you criticized Hochul on climate. It said, "She's doubling and tripling down on new York's insane effort to go carbon neutral within a few years." I have a two-part question. One, do you consider that effort insane like the Post editorial board that endorsed you partly on this basis does?
In the Republican debate, they all talked about bringing down inflation by reversing the statewide ban on fracking for natural gas that Governor Cuomo instituted. They said it would help bring down energy costs and provide jobs in the Marcellus Shale belt upstate. They didn't mention the environmental trade-offs of that one way or another. Do you consider the effort to go carbon neutral within a few years insane? Do you support lifting the fracking ban in any way?
Tom Suozzi: I don't support lifting the fracking ban and I don't think it's insane to go carbon neutral. I just think it's mismanaged in New York state. Again, I was the environmentalist of the year for all of New York state for the New York League of Conservation Voters. I was one of the early signatories to the Green New Deal. I've actually done-- Alexandria Casio Cortez and I don't agree on a lot of stuff, but we agree on climate.
We've actually sought grants together with each other for SUNY maritime for students to learn how to work on wind projects because it's both pro-labor and it's pro-environment. I'll work with anybody to try and find common ground, even if I disagree with them on other issues. The problem in New York state is that we're trying to do it all on our own and it's causing our utility rates to go through the roof.
I talk to people throughout New York state and telephone town halls. I've talked to 120,000 people, Democrats on telephone town halls as part of this process and I can't tell you how many people can't afford to pay their utility bills. People, senior citizens on social security that are paying a third of their income on social security bills. The most regressive form of taxation are utilities and people can't afford to have their utility rates going through the roofs.
This has been completely mismanaged in New York state where in our zeal to address climate change, which I share that zeal. I've shown that throughout my career, having received awards from Al Gore with awards from every different environmental group on Long Island, awards from statewide organizations for my work on the environment, but we have to recognize that it's got to be done in a way that balances the fact that people have to survive.
That we can't keep on pushing people out of the state or pushing them into poverty in our effort to implement our addressing of climate change. We need to [unintelligible 00:34:22] -
Brian Lehrer: So going a little slower?
Tom Suozzi: -tax credit. I authored in Congress legislation for tax credits for solar and for geothermal. We have to reinvigorate the effort to try and get the climate change tax credits that we proposed climate as part of [unintelligible 00:34:37] .
Brian Lehrer: We have only one or two minutes left in our allotted time, and you're going to get to use it to give a first reaction to this ruling just in from the Supreme Court. It is a 6-3 ruling with the conservative to liberal split that exists on the court now, six to three, on the gun case from New York City. Here is how SCOTUSblog, which follows the Supreme Court is reporting it.
The court holds that New York's proper cause requirement to obtain a concealed carry license violates the constitution by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their second amendment right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense.
In other words, for people who haven't been following this case, and we've talked about it a lot in the run-up to this decision, the Supreme Court seems to be establishing not just the second amendment right to keep and bear arms, but to carry arms in public. That overturns a specific New York law. Your reaction?
Tom Suozzi: New York state has got to act immediately to try and pass a law that will protect people and allow us to prevent concealed carry from happening in New York state that passes constitutional muster. The governor should call the legislature back into session immediately-- which I'm sure they will do, to try and pass a law to address this issue. I think this is a wrongheaded decision by the Supreme Court. Just as a was a wrongheaded decision by Kathy Hochul when she was in Congress to vote in favor of concealed carry.
Brian Lehrer: I know I asked you this earlier in the interview, but now that the decision has actually come down, any thoughts on what the state legislature could pass that would, again, restrict the public carrying of guns more than the Supreme Court decision would seem to allow and still stay within what they see as the constitution.
Tom Suozzi: We have to read the decision and find out what they're basing the decision on and find out what we can do to pass a law that will pass constitutional muster.
Brian Lehrer: Congressman Tom Suozzi running in the Democratic primary for governor of New York. Thank you for today. Thank you for accessibility, your accessibility during the campaign.
Tom Suozzi: Brian, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.
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