Energy, food, infrastructure
Both candidates support clean-energy development in the district, but in the meantime, Gibson said, the nation’s fossil fuel resources need to be expanded.
Gibson said he explored the possibility of siting another nuclear-power plant in the Hudson Valley but abandoned that idea “because I won’t be around to pursue it.” He intends to serve only eight years in Congress, and says that siting and building a nuclear plant would take much longer. Schriebman said he opposes such an idea.
If Indian Point in Westchester County is closed down, as Schreibman advocates, the cost of electricity will increase for everyone, Gibson said. “At the least, we need a plan. There’s no reason why the cost of energy in Albany should be 20 percent higher than it is in western New York,” Gibson said.
Both candidates support rebuilding and improving the state’s infrastructure and agree it should come from higher taxes on “record profits” being enjoyed by oil companies.
With farming an economic leader in the mostly rural district, both candidates support federal aid to farmers, either in the form of crop price subsidies or low-interest loans and grants. Gibson notes also that the farming population is aging — average age of farmers is 57, he said – and that young people need to be encouraged to participate.
Gibson used the minimally supported Cooper-LaTourette bipartisan budget bill as an example of the wide divisions in Congress. “Extremists on both sides took a walk,” he said. “We wound up with 16 Democrats and 22 Republicans.” He feels Congress will be more amenable to compromise after the election.
Both candidates support an adjustment in federal reimbursement rates to local hospitals, which currently favor Dutchess County at the expense of Ulster. Northern Dutchess Hospital is in the southern end of the congressional district.
Gibson said he will attempt to have rates changed through administrative action. Maurice Hinchey repeatedly failed to get it through Congress. “There’s a 22 percent difference in reimbursement between Northern Dutchess and Kingston, the second most in the country,” Gibson said.
Reminded that Hinchey blamed House Republicans for blocking his efforts, Gibson noted that Democrats controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress in 2009-10.
While in favor of cost controls, Gibson said “we cannot cut spending sharply or quickly. We need time to work through these things.”
Schreibman has accused Gibson of supporting spending cuts for education, energy and on women’s issues.
Schreibman would retain the affordable healthcare program advocated by the president, with some minor adjustments. Gibson, while praising the president’s “goals and aspirations,” called for repeal “and a better, more economical way to do it.”
Among his ideas is to make health insurance more accessible across state lines and therefore more affordable.
Pick up this week’s Saugerties Times for editorial endorsements, predictions and scores of political letters to the editor.
