By Mark Scott
Buffalo, NY – The majority leaders of the respective houses in the State Legislature weighed in Wednesday on this Fall's race for New York governor. At issue was Democrat H. Carl McCall's commitment to upstate New York.
State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno says McCall will not be an advocate for education in Western New York. During a brief stop in Buffalo, Bruno quoted a New York City television interview in which McCall reportedly says upstate is "getting more than they deserve" in state education aid.
"He was quoted as saying that. I'm not saying it. He said they (upstate) deserve less," Bruno said. "If they get less, that means property taxes will go up. if property taxes go up, you're going to have a lot of unhappy people in Erie County and the surrounding areas. If he's elected governor, you can almost be sure that he will try to cut school aid in upstate New York and transfer it downstate."
Following his stop in Buffalo, Bruno flew on to Rochester, Watertown and Binghamton to talk up Governor Pataki's re-election campaign. Back in Buffalo, the majority leader of the State Assembly accused the Pataki campaign of going negative. Paul Tokasz says Bruno is taking one sentence, out of context, and blowing it out of proportion.
"Carl McCall has been very clear. We need to invest more in education. He is not going to play Robin Hood," Tokasz said. "He's not going to take from one community and spend it in another community. We're going to grow the pot, if you will."
Bruno was also critical of McCall for investing too much money from a venture capital fund in out-of-state companies. Tokasz says McCall has made a substantial investment in New York State but that he has a fiduciary responsibility as comptroller to seek the best returns, even if it means investing elsewhere.