- By Dan Veaner
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Lansing Star: Why do you want to go to Albany?
James Rohan: The reason I accepted this challenge is I've always felt from my experience here at (Cornell) University as well as the service, I was always very good at building a coalition and helping people. Making things happen. I see that our area, as well as the state itself, needs more people to be able to do that. To be able to reach across partisan lines and to be able to have good ideas and put them into motion. And be able to sell them.
I'm not saying I'm a used car salesman, but I am a salesman. And I like to be able to try to sell an idea. It doesn't mean I have to have all the details, but I can have the idea that will spark the details and make things happen. I do that here nearly every day.
That kind of thing I think I can contribute immensely to the Albany beltway thinking. Maybe a new person with a different attitude toward things. Now, the other side of it is, I like everybody. That may be a downside, but that works for me. By having that kind of attitude I think there's nothing we can't do.
That being said, when I get there, I always have that momentum. I do know there will be failures, but I always come up with another idea to try to do something. So that's what it's all about for me to go to Albany.
LS: If you had to choose one top issue, what would it be?
JR: I will pick the top one, but there are actually two that are married at the hip. One, of course, is the jobs available in this district, both Tompkins County and and the part of the Cortland area I would cover. I think jobs, and jobs with good pay are critical to the survival of the people who live here. We have to do that to be able to distribute the responsibility of taxes more evenly. It's fairly obvious that the more people you have you can divide the cost of the expenses for a County to make it more palatable to those individuals who remain here.
That being said, there is one thing that this county does, only one, as far as what we produce. Our commodity is educated people. That's what we do. And by the way we do it very well.
So why not take that part of what we do and marry it with some new opportunities in this local area? I'm not saying bring back such things as NCR, or Borg Warner in a larger fashion than it is today. I see that large manufacturing is not something that fits with this community. I don't see that. I do see high tech/biotech fitting very well with these communities here and with higher education. And I'm talking about all four, I'm not just talking about Cornell and Ithaca College. I'm talking about TC3 and Suny Cortland, too.
So I'm talking about taking those individuals and marrying them with some new businesses. How would I do that? I'm taking the two things, jobs and the educated people that we produce and offering them to these businesses if they come here. Offering them to help the students get through through special grants, scholarships, and zero interest load.
I'm taking that from what I learned in the military. If I give you training, you've got to pay me back. I don't need you to pay me back and I don't want you to pay me back money, unless you got one of those zero interest loans. But those grants and scholarships that completely pay for your tuition to attend here, you must remain in New York State and work in New York State for a period of time. It's similar to what we did in the military.
My responsibility in Albany is the job portion. Taking a biotech company, taking our individuals with technical expertise, marrying them up with those students. I think it would be wonderful to have a business I would bring in here with lets say 100 to 150 employees, and be able to take a 17 or 18 year old freshman, knowing this is the degree that I need in my business. Marry them with this business with internships in the summer, and mentor these people so that when they walk out with their degree they have the job, I've mentored them, they don't have the responsibility to pay for the education -- and maybe I could get the business to help support that.
So we would get the money back in New York State because the student would be obligated to remain employed here for a period time.
LS: So it's like an ROTC for the civil side.
JR: Yes. I'm taking that idea from the military to the next step. And so often what we do is create these young people with fine educations, and they also have some resume building. They have some experience in the corporate world. They may have to stay here five, six, seven years -- whatever the matrix turns out to be. They'd stay longer if they got more money.
But what happens when you do something like that -- we'll say we put the hook in them. They like it here anyway because they came here to school. I've got them here, they love it. The chances are they will marry, have kids, buy a house. It's a domino effect.
We do 10,000 students, ballpark, every year out of these four institutions. I'll bet you 9,998 leave. I'm not saying I want all of them to stay. But I'm saying I'd like to offer this to maybe a hundred. Let's just work ourselves into that. The University of Buffalo offered something similar. Not exactly, but similar. It is Buffalo, a much larger city.
LS: But those two things that you mentioned are growing industries, at least in Tompkins County, right here in this park. (Cornell Business and Technology Park)
JR: That's right, right across the street, as a matter of fact. But wouldn't it be nice if I said to them, 'can we do this, will you help with this?' I know if I were the CEO I'd be jumping on it. I'd call Assemblyman Rohan, and I'd say 'OK, let's see what I can find for you.' I'd get hold of the various persons responsible at the various institutions and find some of these students. Have them go over and interview with the corporation. Is this someone you want for your business? OK, I will help somehow to get the money.
And I think the money's there. And the money is really the small portion of it, because we're going to get it back. This is a great investment. You know we always say, 'invest in our kids.' And I'm not saying they have to be New York kids -- they don't have to be here, they just have to be attending here. And that helps in another way. Think about it -- if we did something for a student from Ohio or Michigan or whatever... the chances are somebody else might come here. Mom and Dad might move here. It really does have that effect when we do something like this.
LS: What other things do you see that need to be done in the Assembly?
JR: First of all the Assembly is quite lopsided. (laughs) So what needs to happen... and I'll take an example of what happened this last time in Tompkins County. Tompkins County for many years has had the 11-4 ratio between the two parties. This last year, in 2005 we had the chance to narrow that ratio, because there were many seats that were challenged. I think 11 of the 15 were all up for election.
The community had an opportunity to kind of balance it out to a 9-6. And it didn't happen. There was a change, but the change still netted 11-4, which meant it's still lopsided. I'll also mention that had I been elected last year we wouldn't have the new transfer tax, because I'd have voted against it. The person who won the seat did vote for the transfer tax. So now we have a new tax, and that election alone changed the requirements for Tompkins County. I'm not big on taxing the individual.
One of the things I am going to introduce when I get to Albany -- because so often this weapon is pulled, that these are mandates from the state government. For the most part they are mandates from the state. The federal government mandates the state and the state mandates us. So it really comes from the state.
When we produce bills in the Assembly that we pass to the Governor to be signed into law, I want a rider on every single one that tasks a county or municipality. I want an 'excuse me' clause on it. I'd like to see something similar to what they do in Louisiana with the parishes, because of Napoleonic Law. And I used to live there, that's how I know a little bit about that.
When you're putting requirements on a particular municipality, in this case Tompkins County or Cortland County, the legislative body for that area can submit to their Assemblyman or their Senator. The Tompkins County legislature could exercise the 'excuse me' clause from this mandate. Number one, I want to put the onus on them to decide whether they want to follow these rules, and do they need to do them. And if they submit a single page document to me and the responsible senators for this county, and if we sign it you are excused for the period of time designated. Two years, five years, whatever it is, before you have to reapply for an 'excuse me' waiver for this mandate.
Two things happen here. Number one, the Assembly has to answer for, 'why am I passing all these extraneous laws and mandates to counties?' I've got to answer for why I'm doing that. Well, I've got to answer to those counties, because we're doing it for the entire state. But oftentimes the only reason they pass some of these mandates for the entire state is because they have to do it that way. I say they don't because they're really focusing toward getting certain geographical parts of the state under control.
I hate to pick on New york City or Long Island, but oftentimes that's what they're doing. So places like ours, and other places, Steuben, Chemung, and others, often get these same things shoved down our throats. That makes it very difficult, because we don't have the populace to be able to fund it. It becomes detrimental to our residents, and people now want to leave here because the burden is just too much, because we can't compare what we earn here against what may be earned in a larger metropolitan area.
So that 'excuse me' clause is the first thing that I want, and I'll take responsibility for that.
LS: That raises the question, who should pay for state mandates?
JR: I think the state should pay for state mandates. It would be like me mandating to you that you can only wear this uniform. This does happen in some schools if I'm not mistaken. And it happens, of course, in the military. But the military gives you a clothing allowance to pay for that.
Well, if I make that mandate that you have to wear black shoes or these kinds of glasses... if you're saying that you must offset this to me. If I'm the person mandating it, I must subsidize or completely pay for that. That goes back to the 'excuse me' clause. I would say to the chair person, in this case Tim Joseph, 'This is the mandate, talk it over in your committees, you vote on it, you say whether you want to comply with this mandate or not.
If they comply with the mandate, now they must answer to the voters about why the tax is, because they accepted it. My responsibility is not to make those bills ambiguous. If I'm to be called in front of the County Board, and I'd be happy to do that and define the bill, that's my job.
LS: Before we get off of this I should bring up the Help Americans Vote Act (HAVA). The problem is that we have a federal mandate, but I think it's a mandate before its technologically feasible time. Now we have a one year extension, but the problem isn't going to go away. What are your thoughts on that?
JR: We're talking about the election machines.
LS: Right, and their accountability, recountability.
JR: It just seems so ironic, and I think it was the Assembly... I can't understand why it always takes somebody so long to make a decision. I'd rather make a wrong decision so I can correct it than do nothing at all. I'm not a procrastinator. Never have been. I won't ever be a procrastinator. I won't mind making a decision. If it's the wrong one I'll say, 'I'm sorry, I'll make one to correct it.' At least I did something. I can't stand not doing anything.
In this case it's New York not doing anything. I have deadlines here in the university. I had deadlines in the military. This is not an option. I've got to work this out. So I have to make decisions. Sitting on the fence post does nothing. With this issue, New York State has sat on that fence post. Make a decision. There are good machines available.
There are 49 other states. They've made their decision. There are very few that have not. We may be the only one left. Are those people all much smarter than we are? Are they more aggressive than we are? I can't possibly even fathom that to be true. So it must mean we're procrastinators. And I have never seen a procrastinator win.
So my decision would be to go ahead and put this in. Now, every decision that is made by any leader at any level does not please and satisfy every person. But that's what leaders get paid to do. Make decisions that are best for the majority of the people, and right wrongs should they have to do that. Anybody you ask will say Jim has no problem doing that.
LS: You may have heard there's a bit of a tax revolt going on in Lansing, and that's not the only place in the world this is happening. What can you do on the state level to give property owners relief?
JR: The first thing I'll go right back to is my 'excuse me' clause. For the most part there are two taxes, school and property, which may include county, fire... That approach would help alleviate that.
Now let's talk about the people it is hurting. When I sell you an apple for a nickle it's no problem. I may have to raise it to a dime. But if I raise it to a dollar you don't buy them any more. So now what happens? They die, they rot... you will reach a point where I would have paid 95 cents for that apple, but I can't pay the dollar. It could be as small as ten dollars. People might be right at that edge, and you have to be attuned.
I think it's the responsibility of the official to know, 'where am I going to push people right over the edge?' Is it two dollars or ten? They're saying now it may go six dollars on the thousand because of some of the things on the budget. So per hundred thousand that's sixty bucks. That may just throw somebody into a tizzy.
LS: It's not just the county tax. Everyone is doing it.
JR: That's right, everyone's doing it. I don't want them to keep using the excuse that these are mandates. I think one misinterpretation is that mandates are based on whether you are involved in a particular program. If you don't opt to be in that program there is no mandate, so oftentimes that is misinterpreted. If I didn't involve myself in a tire change program that mandates that I recycle them a certain way that costs the taxpayer, I just don't do it. If I throw them in the trash there's no cost whatsoever.
LS: And theoretically if you wanted to be in such a program, you could run your own program.
JR: Exactly. Then as the legislative official you are answering for it. The state didn't make me do this. I did this as your elected official. I want to put the blame where the blame belongs. Don't keep saying, well the state mandated this. With my 'excuse me' approach, though a program may have many merits, and those individuals, those 150 assmblypersons, and the senators and the governor do believe this is the best for the state... I believe we should be asking the counties if this works, because as we all know, if we pass a law it doesn't suit everybody. A mandate can't possibly suit every single county in the state.
There must be others that are completely hurt by this, and devastated by it in some cases. Are we losing these individuals? When I returned here from the military I came home to be with family and raise my daughter. But also because this is where I will rest when it is time. I want people to come here because this is where they want to rest. It's a beautiful place to do that. I should not force them to Orlando or Tampa or Phoenix.
Number one that separates them from where they have family or strong emotional ties. I just don't want that to happen. Now there are legislators who don't care if you left your house. 'Somebody else is going to pay the taxes, what's the difference if you left?'
My problem with that philosophy is, I'll miss you. That may not win me the election, but I want people to think that way.
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