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Q: Could the FBA and TIC count on his open door for asking our Assemblyman questions?

"You have never seen a no-comment from Jack McEneny...I never dodge the phone, I love debates, and I speak constantly."

Q: What is your position on taxes?

"The state income tax is the only fair tax we have because it's based on the ability to pay. When we cut the 'fair tax', we leave the people who are on the cutting edge of delivery services with no aid." McEneny explained that the government has to tax somewhere to pay for services, such as schools, and when federal taxes are cut, we the people get left with paying more in property taxes, county taxes, and sales taxes. "It's unconstitutional, it's hypocrisy," said McEneny.

"It's not our income tax that keep people from moving to New York, it's the property taxes, as they are not based on the ability to pay."

Q: What about healthcare and insurance?

"It is a national problem...We and South Africa are the only industrialized nations that do not have universal healthcare. It works in other countries."

Q: What is your position on taxes? Is income tax the most ‘fair’?

"Absolutely. But, it isn’t right now. We have a graduated income tax. In theory, somebody who is making $250,000 is paying, percentage-wise, more than someone who’s making $50,000. The statistics belie that. The fact that the person making $250,000 has so many different tax loopholes, percentage-wise he pays less than the person who is making $50,000. He still pays more because he made more, but I think he should proportionately pay more...I don’t think sales tax is the fairest. Poor people have to go buy clothes. They don’t disproportionately buy more than wealthy people. With property taxes, you have people on fixed incomes and retirees, and if you raise them you really hurt them."

Q: What about healthcare and insurance?

"Health insurance is the biggest issue. There are 3 million people in NY State with no health insurance. The poor are covered by Medicaid. That 3 million with no health insurance, well they do have health insurance. It's the emergency room."

Q: What can the President do to balance the budget and get our country out of debt?

"Bush is not going to change. I mean, he’s announcing that he’s not going to change his policy, so I don’t think the change is going to occur with him. He still believes in the old ‘trickle-down’ theory. That is, if you give huge tax cuts to rich people, then they’ll invest and produce more jobs and more people will be paying taxes. It looks great on paper. It just has never worked. Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980 with the idea of ‘trickle-down theory’. He said he would have huge tax cuts, and he admitted they would benefit wealthy people, but the wealthy would do these things, and other people would get jobs and that would strengthen and enhance tax receipts, and the budget would get balanced. He promised it would be balanced in three years. Of course, you know the rest of the story--It was never balanced during his term in office. The deficits went up at a record rate. All I’m saying is, I go back to the admonition of Gov Al Smith of New York--Let’s look at the record. Bush today is doing precisely what failed for Reagan in 1980. I’m saying don’t repeat the mistakes of the past."

Q: Your bill caps individual contributions to a candidate to $1,000. Is this effective?

"Two years ago I ran for office in a brand new district, and it was the largest and most expensive civic campaign we’ve ever had in this area. It was terrible. My opponent had an enormous amount of money, and then you have to match it for advertising. The average person would say, ‘I don’t want anything to do with becoming an elected official because I couldn’t afford that kind of money.’"

"The second year I was in office I proposed legislation to move the deadline for passing the budget bill from April 1st to June 1st. Since I’ve been in office (12 years), it’s never passed before July 4th weekend. I applaud Senator Bruno and Speaker Silver for now taking charge on moving the date to May 1st."

Q: What did Assm. Karben say about FBA?

"I called to say I think what you guys are doing is great! The reality of the masses is they don't comprehend the power they really have."

Q: What inspired you to get into politics?

"I follow politics the way people follow the Yankees, ya know. It was a passion, but it was a passion with a purpose. The purpose is to build a society worthy to pass on to my kids."

"One of the things that I try to do anywhere, particularly schools in my district, no matter how young these kids are, is to let them know that the government belongs to them. "

Q: Is a convention center important to Albany?

"We had a very, very strong study that said this is one of the best markets for a successful convention center/hotel. We had the best people in here to assess what is going on, and it’s a transformational project. I look at it as an opportunity for us to not only transform the city, but to create several hundred permanent jobs. We talk about people who are on welfare who want to go to work. This is an ideal situation. Train them. Let them work in the hotel, in the convention center. Transition these people into work. There will be about 1,400 construction jobs, but it will also change the attitude about coming here. It’s the Capitol of New York State. It’s long, long overdue."

"I think it’s going to be one of the hottest growth areas. When I talk about Albany, I don’t just talk about the city--I talk about the region. You’re going to see this really take off, and we have to plan very, very carefully."

Q: Senator, what is your plan for mitigating the effects of US jobs being outsourced globally?"It used to be that the average Indian worker would make between 45 and 60 rupies a month. Now, they’re making between 1,100 to 1,200 rupies a month, which to them, is a fortune."

[excerpt from Senator Smith’s letter to Gov. Pataki] "I am specifically and respectfully requesting and advising that New York State enter inter a ‘Sister State’ agreement, through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), with a state within India. The MOU should commit India’s burgeoning middle class 300 million strong and growing, in part, as a result of our companies engaging in outsourcing to procuring products made by our companies here in New York State. Through such an agreement, economic benefits will accrue to our companies here and this translates into greater income and job security for our working families."

Q: How does bill A10027 help have open govt.?

"The idea of the legislation was the technology and the people who have the capacity to do it, are already existing state employees. The idea is to create a centralized place where they can be. The problem we have found is that our constituents are often uninformed on very important decisions that are being made because the mechanism for notifying them is a 150, 200-year-old process. Putting an ad in the back of a paper that nobody reads is not really gonna reach anyone who is directly affected...Unless you are about paper reading, you don’t get that...we need to bring government into the current age. And we need to make sure that our constituents get to know and participate."

Q: What is your position our education reform?

"If we don’t increase [state] aid for education on a yearly basis, the schools desperate for funds will push that burden on the real property taxpayer."

"Testing is important, but I think the ‘No Child Left Behind’ is a joke. Of course, I have no confidence in President Bush in any arena, domestic or international. While the concept is good, there aren’t sufficient resources behind the act of ‘No Child Left Behind’. It makes matters worse because we are raising expectations that we can do more and there aren’t the funds available to support the program. So, the ‘No Child Left Behind’ act, while I think is a worthwhile venture, is shallow and meaningless unless the federal government comes up with more money to help us orchestrate it the way they need it to be."

Q: Res.327 requests review of Patriot Act. Why?

"It’s a real threat against the Bill of Rights. The 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments. I would not trust my future to John Ashcroft. He’s too braise, too judgmental, and too much that God is on his side. I happen to believe in a God, and worship it, but I wouldn’t shove my values down somebody else’s throat...I started it [Resolution 327] last year. I was happy to see it come to fruition. I felt that Al Queda was a huge threat to us, but if trying to defeat Al Queda causes us to defeat our own Constitution, then Al Queda won. If we suspend our Bill of Rights, we suspend our Constitution. I support our troops 100%, but I would not have put them into that mess if it was me...As far as I’m concerned, war is the total breakdown of society. I’m not happy with President Bush."

Q: What is the job of NYS Wildlife Pathologist?

"To diagnose the causes of sickness and death in the state’s wildlife. That’s heavily toward the West Nile this summer. We are also looking for Chronic Wasting Disease. We will take samples from hundreds of deer in late summer. We are also studying the impact of Botulism in Lake Erie. We are looking for any kind of new diseases that might be headed our way. Whatever the cause of sickness and death, we do the forensic pathology."

"There’s no doubt they are expanding in range. I would not be surprised to find them here...Scientists cannot say that something is something unless they have the evidence to prove it...You look at the map, and you see they are expanding this way from the Western part of the country. I would not be surprised more are here, but where is the good photo? You got to have the mountain lion placed with a spot, some kind of geographic feature to go with that picture to place it."

Q: What qualities make good police officers?

"As a police officer, you have to be totally dedicated to your job. I had to sacrifice. I had to make a commitment to work weekends, Christmas, and hack it out, apply a lot of common sense. You’ve got to be very fair, and be able to make split decisions."

"It’s near the airport, and is within the top five in NYS as far as population. We can house thousands, whereas some counties hold fifty. Our budget for the jail is $33 million. We have 300+ correction officers and 50+ supervisors. We have support services and a private medical staff paid by the county. There’s an infirmary. Last year we averaged 860 inmates on a daily basis. The ratio is three correction officers per 50 inmates."

Q: What factors do you consider when determining how aggressively a case should be pursued or the severity of punishment?

"A person’s criminal history, the severity of the crime, injuries sustained, and the sentencing guidelines we all have to abide by. In the plea bargaining process where the DA would have the number in his head and would be conveying an offer, those would be the circumstances under which you take the person’s criminal history and the severity of the crime. However, after conviction, a lot of that is at the discretion of the judge."

"The discretion of sentencing should be put back in the hands of those people who we elect, those people who we have already determined are fit to make decisions about sentencing-the judges. I believe that the monies that we are spending are spent to incarcerate a lot of these non-violent, first-time offenders. It should be spent in education, prevention, and treatment. I don’t care which side of the political spectrum you fall on-an objective person can see that the ‘War on Drugs’, the Rockefeller Drug Laws, is a failure. It’s time to start looking at alternatives. It’s time to move on and evolve as a society."