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Barbara Lifton if running for a fifth term as New York State Assemblywoman.  Originally from the Geneseo area, Lifton, a former teacher, moved to Ithaca in 1984.  She has two children, Christine and Paul, and is a grandmother.  She served as Chief of Staff to Assemblyman Marty Luster before he left the Legislature.  Lifton ran for and won his seat, and has is currently completing her fourth term in Albany.  Lifton took some time Sunday to talk to the Lansing Star after appearing at the Tompkins County Democratic Committee's annual 'Meet the Candidates' barbecue in Stewart Park.

Lansing Star: Why are you running again.  You are finishing your fourth term, so haven't you done everything yet?

Barbara Lifton: There is always work to do.  You pick up an issue like hydrofracking.  We're only partially through that issue.  I'm very invested in it.  I want to continue.

Of course the budget issues continue, the reform of our regressive tax structure that has most people struggling under a terrible tax burden and a few wealthy New Yorkers doing very, very well and not struggling in the least.  We need to fix that.

There are many things we need to do.  We're in the middle of this terrible recession.  It's going to be a process to bring us out of it and get people working again, I hope in green jobs and in a sustainable economy, with renewable energy and a sustainable future.

There is much work to be done, and I feel invested in the current battles that I've taken on.  Some wind up and you're happy about that.  But other things tend to be ongoing.

LS: A lot of people -- and especially people running against incumbents -- are saying the state is so messed up now that the only way to fix it is to replace the people who got us here with new people.  I noticed you made Ed Koch's 'enemies list'.  He tried to get legislators to sign a pledge to fix redistricting (which I've heard you speak to), improvements in the budget process (I've heard you speak to that), and ethics reforms.  Why put incumbents back in Albany, and also how are you addressing these things?

BL: I am working on many of these issues.  When this first happened I said I may agree or disagree with groups that come out with these kinds of agendas and pledges.  But I decided in my first year that I wasn't going to take any pledges because you may end up being 90% in agreement, but the other 10% doesn't work.

But the point is that it's not really my job to take pledges from outside groups like that, to say I'm going to do this, this, this, and this.  My job as a legislator is to review every piece of legislation that comes in front of me.  In some cases to author legislation, or to cosponsor legislation, and to review it carefully and then vote on specific bills.

To say I'm going to take a pledge to do this and this and this for some outside group, I think, is an inappropriate thing.  I pledge to represent my constituents and fight for the things they care about.  It may be that much of it is in agreement with someone else's agenda, but I just don't believe in taking pledges.  I don't think legislators should do that.  That can cause a lot of misunderstandings about 'what would I do.'

LS: The reason I bring it up is that when you look at all the issues, even something as important as hydrofracking pales in comparison to what's happening with the budget.

BL: I disagree.  Look, it's a very tough year.  We're in a major recession.  It's not just New York.  Almost every state is in deep trouble.  We've had terrible struggles.  We're going to see more ahead.  We're one of the first budgets that has to get done in the country.  Some of that is a bit exaggerated.  Yes there are problems.  A lot of it is because of the recession brought on by the bankers of Wall Street, and we grappled to deal with it.

You can see the GOP in Washington is blocking the President and the Democratic Congress from getting more stimulus money out as all the leading economists are telling us we need: Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, Robert Kutner -- conservative economists: Barb Zandi saying we need more federal stimulus.  It's being blocked.

We have an enormous budget problem.  We had a nine billion dollar deficit, and that's after two rounds of state budget cuts.  We had cut thirteen billion dollars out of the state budget.  That is a very difficult task.  We're cutting schools, we're cutting hospitals, we're cutting nursing homes, we're not properly funding road and bridge programs, we're not properly funding out DEC to watch out for our environment, and a host of other things.

It's a difficult task.  We've obviously had a Senate that is close with 32 Democrats.  Just as in Washington the GOP in Albany is not going to help with any major issues.  No votes can be had there.  John Sampson, the head of the Senate, has to get all 32 Dems to agree to something.  Very hard to do.  It's made it very tough to get things done in Albany this year.  Between that problem and the recession, and a court order -- I didn't even talk about that -- a court ruling done by Pataki appeals court that has given the Governor enormous power in budget making.  It makes the Governor able to change law by him or herself.  The legislature can't do anything about that.  It can't amend it, so all you can do is delay.  So we've got a triple whammy going on in terms of getting things done.

Look, there are some bad actors here and there, a few corrupt people.  Some of them are going to jail.  We need to get rid of a few bad actors.  The idea that you get rid of everyone and start over is sort of a naive notion.  It's ironic, because two of the people that people complained about the most this year, Senator Espada and Senator Monserrate were both brand new members of the Legislature.  So new doesn't necessarily mean 'Mr. Clean'.

I think most people understand.  You make judicious decisions about who is doing a good job, who's working hard, who's honest, who has integrity... you keep the good and toss out the bad.

LS: This probably comes from my idealist, naive side -- is there any chance of people from both parties coming together and just doing the right thing for New York?  We have the appearance of two battling states, but it's one state.

BL: Well, the Democrats are in charge of both houses now, and the Governor's office.  The partisan issue in Albany right now, is, once again, that the GOP in the Senate is not giving any help.  We've seen it on several occasions.  On the main issues, budget being one of them and there were others, 'no votes from us.'  So they're being very partisan, refusing to cooperate.  These are the folks who talked for years about bipartisan cooperation.  But now that they're in the minority we're not hearing that from them any more.  I think that's where a lot of the partisanship is right now in Albany.

A lot of the struggles are not partisan struggles right now.  They're about the recession.  They're about that close division of power in the Senate, and they're about the court ruling that's given the Governor inordinate power in the budget process to change law by him or herself.  That's causing enormous problems for getting things done in Albany.

LS: Is there any way of changing that?

BL: Yes.  I cosponsored a bill that would amend the constitution to very clearly say -- which I think the constitution now says -- that is the Governor wants to change law you have to propose a separate Article 7 bill, separate from the budget bill.  you keep the current language of law in the budget bill.  If you want to change the school aid formula, if you want to change the TAP (Tuition Assistance Program) formula, if you want to change the Medicaid formula you have to give the Legislature an Article 7 bill, and that's the bill we get to negotiate over.  We decide jointly whether we're going to change the language of state law.

That's how it should be.  We're coequal branches of government, right?  So that court ruling created a good deal of the stalemate this year.

So we need a second passage of the bill that would amend the constitution, and then we need the public to understand that issue and to help us by voting for a proposition on the ballot eventually.  I hope we have a second passage.  We got a first passage and we've got to have a second.  Then we need the public's help to understand that right now we are not coequal branches of government when it comes to the entire budget process.  And that's a big part of the job we do every year.


LS: You're a leader on the hydrofracking issues.  Obviously the oil and gas companies are going to come here and drill at some point...

BL: Well, we don't know yet.  We're calling for a moratorium to decide whether this is really safe for our water.  So it's not a done deal.

LS: What would be the best case scenario?

BL: Right now the best case scenario is to get full data and full studies.  We don't have that, really.  We need the EPA study.  There is a study being done for the Delaware River basin.  We need to collect all scientific evidence.  It's not in yet.

And we need our DEC to look at a whole bunch of issues that they haven't looked at, including cumulative impacts.  They need to withdraw that SGIS and start over.  They need to work in conjunction with the Department of Health.

There are a bunch of things that we're dealing with there, and that's what I'm calling for: to have a process with greater scope and greater integrity in the end, with more knowledge to help us with this decision.

LS: So when you take all the hyperbole away, right now it's about finding the facts?

BL: We're still in fact finding, yes, exactly.  The DEC's SGIS did not look at all the issues that we should be looking at: cumulative impacts and health issues.

LS: Why did Governor Patterson veto the ethics bill you cosponsored?

BL: I don't remember now why the Governor said he vetoed it.  It was a very strong bill.  It had increased income disclosure requirements to help avoid conflicts of interest and a number of other things that had been called for.  It set up a new independent regulating group.  The League of Women Voters was very happy with it.  Common Cause, NYPIRG -- they were all supporting it.  Most of the good government groups.  I don't think there was any real opposition.  We were really surprised and disappointed when the Governor vetoed it.

LS: Do you plan to bring it back?

BL: I'm vice chair of the Assembly Majority Steering Committee.  In that capacity we deal with some of the more difficult issues before the body.  I'm going to be urging that we take up the issue of ethics reform in this coming session.

LS: I almost can't talk to you without asking about voting machines.  That was an issue that was about ready to jump off the cliff.

BL: I agree.  After Florida, and after Ohio.

LS: Where are we now with that?

BL: In New York we're implementing the setup of the new machines.  Many places upstate, including quite a few areas here in Tompkins County, did a dry run last time around.  We found that the machines worked very well.  We did a lot of auditing and found it was practically a flawless election.

New York City is putting them in this year and running into more problems.  It's a very big, diverse place, and they've got multi-language issues, and the fonts are too small.  So it's going to take a little more work to get there, but I think it's going to go fairly well in the end there.  I'm going to be monitoring it.

We're working towards completion on this, but because it's computers and because there are security issues the most secure, reliable and accurate voting machines and voting system in the country, bar none.  No question about it.  Bo Lipari, who has done a lot of work on this and who has looked around the country, attests to that.  We're in full agreement on that.

We're wrapping it up, but there are always issues, and I'm going to look at that and see what I can do to make the system even better than it is.  We're going to full implementation this November.  It's going to be everywhere, the new optical scanner with the original paper ballot marked by the voter.

LS: Going into a fifth term, what will be your top issues that will take the most of your time?

BL: If I am so fortunate as to be reelected the hydrofracking is going to continue to be a first priority issue for me.  Budget is always a top priority.  Again, working on tax reform, trying to capture a little more of the wealth of our state and getting it to our schools, to our hospitals, to our infrastructures, and to the cleanup of our environment, and so on.  Then you always see what comes down the pike.

I'm going to be drafting a bill to try to refine the budget process more, try to tweak that a bit.  I'm sure that hydrofracking is going to continue, as it has for the last few years, to take up 50 to 60 percent of my time.  It's an enormous issue.

But there will be others.  Other things pop up.

LS: What else would you like to say that maybe we didn't talk about, or just to wrap up?

BL: It's been a tough year in Albany.  We're in the depths of the deepest recession we've had since the Great Depression.  People are understandably frustrated and angry.  People have lost their jobs because of the irresponsible and greedy behavior of the CEOs on Wall Street.  Government is picking up the pieces from the irresponsible behavior of the private sector.

We need to make sure we have a strong enough government to support people as we get through this, and to have a vision for the future.  I'm pushing a green jobs bill that's spending millions of dollars retraining people for green jobs, for weatherization and conservation, and many other things.  We need to do more of that.  The Excelsior jobs program is going to help sponsor and support green tech and biotech and other things that I hope will move us into a green, sustainable future, which we very much need to do.

The biggest threat facing everyone including every New Yorker is global warming.  Because the GOP in Washington is pushing back and keeping President Obama and the Democratic Congress from doing as much as we need to do, the states and individuals are going to have to step up and say how do we move towards sustainability?  We're running out of time on that.  That's going to be a priority for me , as well.

People need jobs.  Some of those jobs are going to have to be green jobs that help us all move into a sustainable future.

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