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Tom Reynolds spent 29 years as an executive in the areas of business, health care, social services, and education.  He lives in Newfield, and has three grown daughters.  He worked for Ithaca College for nine years, and lived for three years in Albany.  Reynolds has been conducting an aggressive campaign for the Assembly seat currently held by Barbara Lifton, stressing issues that have primarily to do with the budget deficit and jobs.  He stopped by the Lansing Star Tuesday to talk about his campaign.

Lansing Star: Why are you running for State Assembly?

Tom Reynolds: Someone's got to do it!  I've moaned and groaned about politicians in Albany for years.  When they approached me with the chance to run for Assembly my first reaction was, 'I don't need Assemblyman on my tombstone.'  This is nothing that I particularly need, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life complaining about the politicians and the bureaucrats.  My history is that I don't complain about it -- I do something.  So I wanted to get involved.

I already had my career.  I'm retired.  This is a cause, not a career.  I don't need to do this.  I want to do this.

LS: New York has almost a $9 million deficit.  It's probably going to go up to about $10 billion, and the Governor recently said it might go up to $11 billion depending on what the federal government does.  In this environment I hear a lot of challengers say 'Why should you vote for somebody who got us into this mess?'  I want to turn that around and ask why would a challenger do any better?

TR: First of all, the budget situation is worse than it's made out to be.  The budget is not $135 billion.  It's $180 billion when you add in public authorities.  They're another $45 billion, and they're running a deficit, too.  It's much worse than the numbers show.

If you look at my background, I spent the last 29 years as the chief financial officer involved in turnarounds.  We had a local nursing home.  We went in and took it from a $930,000 loss to a $230,000 profit in one year.  That says something right there, and this was a nursing home that everyone had given up on.  This is not the first time I've been involved in those kinds of things.

When I look at the issues with New York State, they're huge.  But there are answers.  Those answers are not going to come out of the incumbents.  They're not going to come out of the people that are there.

(Former New York City Mayor) Ed Koch has said that we're not going to change and reform Albany until we change the leadership in the Assembly.  Frankly we're not going to change the leadership in the Assembly until we change the members of the Assembly.

LS: I think people see state politicians as being so caught up in their partisan battles that they are forgetting about what is right for the state.  Do you think there is any real chance of representatives from both parties actually getting together to do the right thing for New York or is the solution going to be a matter of who has the most people in power?

TR: Unfortunately the incumbents think of themselves as protecting the institution instead of what's good for the people of New York State.  You see it locally, and you see it state-wide and nationally.  We elect these people to do the best for everyone, and once they get in they start protecting the institution.

I've been around.  I recognize this.  My job is not protecting the institution.  In fact, the reason I'm running is to change what is happening.  I hate using 'change' because that's been corrupted -- let's say reform what's happening.

That's my reason.  As I said, I don't need this.  I'm running to make a difference, to make a change.  I think there are more people out there like that, but I can't tell you who they are.  We won't know until I get into Albany and start working on this.

LS: You mentioned Ed koch, and as you know he has this stunt going where he he is trying to get legislators to sign onto his three part agenda...

TR: New York Uprising.

LS: Right.  And anyone who doesn't sign it is on his 'enemies list.'  The three points are non-partisan redistricting, improvements in the budget process, and stronger ethics laws.  Is that something you would sign on for?

TR: I have signed on, as have the majority of the legislature and all of the governor candidates.  It's a start.  It's going to be very difficult.  1) you've got to hold the people who have signed on to their pledges, and 2) the devil is in the details.  As we all know politicians have a habit of skirting around some things they have said.  I genuinely mean it.

I think ethics reform is at the core of what's wrong in Albany.  At the core of ethics reform is (Assembly Speaker) Sheldon Silver.  We have simply got to get him out.

Redistricting will be very difficult.  Try defining how you should redistrict.  Try giving the directions you would give this committee -- what are the ground rules?  I've tried it -- it's very difficult to come up with something that's truly fair and nonpartisan.

LS: What would you propose?

TR: As I said, it's very difficult to come up with something.  I would try to follow existing government districts to the extent possible.  If you can get an entire county in a district you should.  In Newfield, where I live, we're in a couple of different Senate districts.  That doesn't make any sense that you walk across the street and you're in a different Senate district.

LS: Do you mean State Senate?

TR: Yes, State Senate.

LS: Here in Lansing we have a different U.S. Senator, and a different State Senator than Ithaca.

TR: The core of it would be to follow government boundaries to the extent possible.  That's the out -- 'to the extent possible.'  If you look at my district, it used to include Tioga County which would be much more Republican.  It now includes the city of Cortland, which is much more Democrat.

Pure accident?  (laughs)

LS: To me the biggest issue facing New York right now after the budget is hydrofracking and the issues having to do with safe mining.  What's your best case scenario for that?  What do you think the State should do before it allows this mining?

TR: I think we have to go right back to the beginning on this and redefine the issue.  It's been defined solely as an environmental disaster.  What we have is an economic opportunity that has environmental implications.  (We need to) get away from the screaming rhetoric.

Unfortunately, from an economic standpoint it's the only thing out there.  We need a game changer in upstate New York.  I don't know of anyone who can argue that upstate New York's economy is doing well.  It's on its knees, and in my mind this is the only game changer.  From an economic standpoint we've got to be looking at doing that.

The issues from an environmental standpoint -- and again, the rhetoric on this has been so horrendous...  There was a guy called Walter Hang who had articles in the local paper day after day for a year until the DEC came out and said his studies aren't scientifically valid.  But the impression he made for that year is still out there.

The DEC is there to protect the environment.  Pete Grannis, the head of the DEC is an ardent environmentalist.  They went against all their normal characteristics when they said we can do this safely.  I have to believe that the scientific evidence they looked at is so overwhelming that we can do this safely.  New York State has greater regulations.  They've improved them.  The safety of the industry has moved past.  We're not dealing with a seismically active area, which is a part of the issue in some of these other areas.  It's really been distorted.

I went to Dimock, Pennsylvania even before I was a candidate to see what it looked like.  It's not at all what it's depicted as being.  I've researched some of the articles that have been in the paper, and it's nothing like it is being presented as being.

This is a good example of what I as a citizen object to: I can't get straight answers.  That's what I want, and that's a part of what I want to do as a State Assemblyman when I have the resources there  -- to get the complete picture out to the voters.  Let them decide, don't let a talking head on television or a newspaper editorial, that's maybe giving you part of the answer, decide.

I have great confidence in people.  Let's put the facts before them.

I don't have all the answers.  There are still things out there I would like to know more about, but the distortion is too much.  People need to know the whole story.

LS: Would you vote to get more funding for the DEC to monitor and enforce it?

TR: Obviously there needs to be greater work done there.  I personally would like to see us hire a private industry to come in and do it, an independent lab.  I don't have a lot of confidence in bureaucrats.  I would much rather have us hire somebody whose job depends on doing this right.

While we're on hydrofracking let me expand on that:  one of the things that I would like to do that would be a step forward would be to create an escrow account.  They have what they call 'separation taxes' in other states.  I want a separation escrow where we put in escrow a very low percentage of the money that's going to be generated out of that.  Because there is so much gas it will be a very big number.  This escrow will pay out any claims related to gas drilling.  It will be much like no fault auto insurance.  If you can prove you have an environmental issue related to gas drilling it gets paid out of this.

Now, the incentive is that at the end of the drilling or at some predetermined point the gas company gets the money back if they've drilled safely.  So they have an incentive to do it right.  Gas companies are in business to make money.  Let's take advantage of that and say do it safely and you stand to make millions down the road.  Do it unsafely and you stand to lose millions.  And we're talking, probably, hundreds of millions.  That will get them excited.

The federal government has tried that down in the Gulf where they got BP after the fact.  There is no incentive for BP to drill safely now -- it's already happened.  But what if they had formed this escrow five years ago?  Maybe somebody would have been monitoring it better and we wouldn't have had the blowout.


LS: Ethics in Albany...

TR: (laughs)

LS: You opponent actually cosponsored an ethics reform bill that the Governor vetoed, and he's in her party.  So tell me, what will you do on the ethics front if you are elected?

TR: I'll do everything I can to get Sheldon Silver out of office.  If you looked up the word 'corruption' in a dictionary they should have his picture next to it.  People don't egt all the information about some of his antics.  He's the Speaker of the State Assembly.  His job is not just to protect his district, but as speaker all the towns, cities, villages, taxpayers in New York State are his constituents.

He is bankrolling lawyers who are suing New York City.  He is charging them 18%.  When they win the city pays them, and they then pay Sheldon Silver.  Pete Rose got kicked out of baseball for a lot less than that!

Ed Koch is starting to deal with it.  He's made it an issue.  The first step is to say to all those who have signed on (to Koch's 'New York Uprising' pledge) and get elected, 'You've signed on and now you've got to live up to it.

LS: So that sounds good in theory, but in reality what does an assemblyman from one district have to do with ousting an assemblyman from another district?

TR: Obviously I can't.  What we could do is that if we get enough Republicans in the Assembly then maybe we could dump Sheldon Silver.

LS: You mean as Speaker?

TR: As Speaker.  That would be a big step.  What I can do, even being in a minority party, is shine a light on rats.  And that's a part of what I want to do, is start communicating with the public about what's really going on.  Instead of sending out these 'aren't I wonderful' letters every month I'd actually put some substance in them to say this is what's happening.  And use Internet and emails to lay out the things that are going on.  I doubt very many people know about Sheldon Silver bankrolling people suing New York City.  We need to do more of that.

LS: This is the place where I asked Barbara Lifton about one of her successful issues, voting machines.  What is your top issue that you would make a difference at?

TR: First of all, I don't think voting machines make a difference.  Our issue is the economy and jobs.  We have a key issue in upstate New York with jobs.  It's not just unemployed people -- it's those who have given up working and those who are underemployed.  We need to deal with that.  The only way we can deal with that effectively is to bring in private sector jobs.  Not government jobs.  Not government funded jobs.  Private sector jobs.

And we need to change New York's whole attitude towards business.  New York's body language is anti-business.  It's actions are anti-business.  We've got to change that.

You can't triple the industrial development agencies by taking tax credits due to business and deferring them for four years, and calling them a budget cut.  What does that say to businesses about how you can count on New York State?  Businesses, like all of us, want stability.  They want to know what the rules are.  New York State has shown that it is as unstable as it can possibly be.  We need to live with the agreements we have made.  We need to stabilize what we are doing.  We need, in terms of the budget, the taxes.  Nationally and in New York State there is a lot of money sitting on the sidelines right now because people don't know what the government's going to do.

We need to change that.  We need to send clear messages that say this is what New York State's about.  Unfortunately we have and it's the wrong message.

LS: What will be your top issues if you are elected.  What will you spend most of your time on in Albany?

TR: I think jobs, the economy, and corruption.  We've just got to get this economy back on track.

LS: Give me some examples of how you would do that.

TR: I think hydrofracking is right there up front. We've got to look at that.  What should have happened is when the DEC came out with its original study the Governor should have gotten people together and said 'How do we make this happen safely?  it's your job to make this happen safely.'

LS: You're saying making it happen is as important as making it safe?

TR: Yes.  If we determine that we can't do it safely, Ok, then we have to back off.  But then the definition as to what's safe comes in.  I saw an anti-hydrofracking sign at a booth at the Trumansburg Fair that said 'If it's 99.5% safe that's not good enough.'

How safe is airplane travel? Every once in a while a jet plane lands in the middle of the Hudson River.  I'm not terribly concerned about that, but it is within the realm of possibility.

LS: These companies that will drill are from outside of New york.  They'll create jobs for a time, but is that a stable source of jobs?

TR: It is the only thing out there that starts the turnaround.  We've got to start somewhere.  We're not talking about a five year job.  Gas drilling will go on for decades, producing this ongoing stream of revenue.  I was talking to a guy in Spencer that goes down to Pennsylvania to drive one of the water trucks (for a gas mining company).  He told me that the lowest paying job they have down there is 20 bucks an hour and you can get all the overtime you want.  Up here we're complaining about people not getting a living wage.  Here's the answer.  it doesn't take government action. It just takes letting an industry come in that pays twice a living wage.

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

TR: This is my first run for public office.  I've never even been involved with a political party until a year ago.  I'm running against politicians and bureaucrats in Albany, especially the bureaucrats in Albany.  I've had to deal with these people and I know that they don't operate in the best interests of the people.  They operate in their own self-interest.

That is one of the reasons that hydrofracking is so strange.  The DEC operated against it's normal allies.  That says something to me about what's going on there.

I had to deal with the Department of Health.  These are self-serving disasters, because they exist for their own benefit.  If anyone other than an Albany bureaucrat gets a benefit, that's the law of unintended consequences.  We need to change that, and bureaucrats in Albany are not going to change it on their own.  It's going to have to come from outside forces.

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