Talking Politics, Election, Issues With Assemblymember Sam Pirozzolo – Walk And Talk At Clove Lakes Park

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Talking Politics With Assemblymember Sam Pirozzolo – Walk And Talk At Clove Lakes Park

Staten Islander News Organization met Asm. Pirozzolo at Clove Lakes Park recently for a walk-and-talk about politics. With the election coming up in only a few days, we wanted to get some of his views on possible solutions for New Yorkers and for the country as a whole.

 

 

We talked about the recent opioid funding that Sam fought for on Staten Island. The settlement that New York’s Attorney General, among others, were able to win in a settlement with the pharmaceutical companies. These funds were initially intended only for the other four boroughs. When Sam heard this, he reached out to providers on the island to ask them what they needed. Then he met with the Mayor, and now Staten Island will receive a $12 Million share from the settlement.

Asm. Pirozzolo described what he sees as the solution to the problem in Albany, which he sees as Democrat Socialists. Who are these socialists? They are elected officials who seem to believe that no one should be arrested and held in a prison, even if they have committed crimes. They feel that landlords are the ultimate evil people, and they should have no rights, while tenants should have rights, even non paying ones.

Democratic Socialists are often advancing agendas that focus on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), bail reform, and other policies that Republicans feel are detrimental to American society in the long term.

One of the biggest problems in Albany is that there are too many Democrats in the ranks of the Assembly and other branches of government. What this does is creates a situation whereby everything that the Democrats, including radical Democrats,want to get passed is passed easily because they have what is termed a super-majority. This means that there are so many D’s that practically any bill they would like to pass gets passed.

It also means that any Republican that has a bill they want to introduce must get a Democrat to sponsor the bill and help them get it passed. This is something that Republicans in the Assembly and the Senate in upstate New York have learned to work around.

There are always ways to negotiate and to get bills to the table. Anything that a Republican puts forward themselves, without a Democrat sponsoring them, gets stalled in Committee. In other words, it never gets past the initial stages where it could get voted on and passed.

However, over time Republicans have learned ways to work around this super-majority. There were several bills in the last two sessions that were killed by Republicans. One of the bills we discussed made it so that landlords could not report a tenant to the credit reporting bureaus. It is also very difficult to get such a tenant out when one is a landlord, often requiring a great expense and many additional months while court proceedings are ongoing.

The second bill that was killed by Republicans said that a doctor or hospital could not draw blood from a minor without express written permission from their parent. Such a bill could have done massive damage. How many times are kids playing outside or at a sporting event where their parents are not there? How many times are they going to the store or walking to or from an event where their parents are also not there? What if something happens to them? Then, in order to even start the procedures necessary to give them lifesaving care, the doctors, police, hospital, or other caregiver must track down their parent or legal guardian in order to draw blood. This was ridiculous, and it did not pass.

The reason it did not pass is because of something called a roll-call vote. Ordinarily, a Democrat or Republican doesn’t have to be at their desk in order to vote on a bill, as long as they vote with their conference (or the majority of Democrats or Republicans).

However, if a bill is really bad, then the other party can call for a roll-call vote. If this vote happens to come on a Wednesday, when it is a shortened day usually, and many of the elected officials took off early as they customarily do, then a roll-call vote for a bill has the possibility of killing the bill. This is what happened with the two bills mentioned previously. The Republicans demanded a roll-call vote, and the bills didn’t have enough votes to pass, so they were pulled.

We also discussed the new City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposals, and how they might affect the island and other areas. We also discussed concerns related to the new Department of Sanitation rules, including time for garbage to be put out and the new pails New Yorkers will be required to purchase.

Assemblymember Pirozzolo is running in this week’s upcoming election to remain Staten Island’s Assemblyman.

Banner Image: Video cover. Image Credit – Staten Islander News 



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This byline indicates that this article was penned by a member/members of the Staten Islander News Organization office team. Our staff writers are the backbone of our newspaper, performing all sorts of important tasks like conducting interviews, investigating leads, besides writing the news stories you see.

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