Meet The Candidates: Steven Basileo In The 8th Assembly District

ST. JAMES, NY — Democrat Steven Basileo is seeking reelection to the 8th Assembly District on Nov. 5.

With Election Day just around the corner, Patch has been reaching out to the candidates to find out why they are running this November.

Here is what he had to say:

Website: stevenbasileo.com

Town of Residence: Saint James

Office Sought: New York State Assembly, District 8

Party Affiliation: DemocraticEducation: Master's in Public Policy from Stony Brook University

Occupation: Policy Analyst and Former Labor Organizer

Age: 24

Previous public office: I have not been elected nor appointed to a political office previously.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?: Nobody in my family holds a position of political influence or power.

Why are you seeking this office?: I believe Smithtown and northern Islip deserve more active representation in the Assembly. My opponent has held the position since I was two years old. I am now 24, and he remains relatively un-influential relative to his peers of similar seniority in the minority. Our community needs to have a seat at the table to tackle our greatest challenges, and that won't happen unless we make a change in who we elect to represent us.

What are the major differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?: My opponent is rabidly anti-choice, and anti-union, and supports weakening our local school districts' emergency reserves. In the past term alone, he proposed legislation to exempt an anti-abortion group from property taxes, repeal the Triborough Amendment that provides our public sector workers with protection from bad faith contract negotiation tactics, and withhold state aid from school districts that don't prematurely exhaust large swaths of their reserve funds. He also voted against giving voters the choice to codify reproductive rights into the state Constitution. These policy positions are deeply out of touch with the needs and wants of the average Long Islander, and unlike my opponent, I am committed to protecting the rights and general prosperity of our women, workers, and schoolchildren.

What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?: My main points of emphasis are on environmental protection, healthcare accessibility, worker's rights, and preserving our world-class education system.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?: When I worked as a labor organizer with SEIU's Communications Center, I was most often assigned to help persuade teachers and school staff in the south (including North Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi) to get involved with their unions. The South is generally hostile towards unionization, but our collective organizing efforts ultimately caused no less than hundreds of educators and other educational professionals to agree in just half a year. The SEIU-CC team and I also helped convince staff not to cross the picket line during the successful Columbus Education Association strike that ultimately secured robust raises and investment into air conditioning equipment across all schools in the district. I also graduated with my Master's in Public Policy in just one year, and received my Bachelor's before that with Summa Cum Laude honors. I am capable of working in time-sensitive and cooperative environments to achieve success, and I believe that would serve me well in the Assembly.

What measures would you take to help lower cancer rates and bolster research in the field?: I support continuing to provide funding support for research and development of new treatment options (or substantial improvements to existing ones) as is prudent. Cancer is a scourge, and I hope to bear witness to humanity achieving its elimination in my lifetime.

What would you do to help small businesses struggling with inflation and the cost of goods needed to manufacture their products?: Managing inflation and supply chains is largely a responsibility of the federal government due to the structure of the American economy. The state can try to ease the burden on affected entities through subsidies if financially sensible, but no one state can solve those issues unilaterally. There is good news, though: Inflation on an annual basis has declined to under half of what it had been just two years ago, and it is expected to continue to fall.

What plans do you have to help improve water quality and keep it safe for future generations?: We need to invest in sewer systems (an option being offered to Suffolk County voters this year via Ballot Proposition 2) to curb rampant nitrogen pollution that occurs with our traditional cesspools, more strictly regulate chemicals like PFAS that can contaminate our water, and allow for waste management to be handled regionally rather than by municipalities acting alone so that the best interests of Long Island as a whole are taken into consideration.

How can the immigration crisis be addressed at the federal and local level? Can federal and local officials work together? The United States Constitution very clearly places authority over immigration with the federal government. For better or worse, it is up to Congress to find consensus on a solution to improve border security, provide for the fair resolution of our asylum claims backlog, and ensure that we can continue to attract the best and brightest from around the world. State officials can certainly work with the federal government in some respects to more efficiently utilize resources, but they cannot bypass or fix the issue on their own.

What can be done about inflation, which some say can be attributed to price gouging?: As mentioned in the above question on the inflation issue, solutions are largely a federal responsibility, and inflation is well below what it was a few years ago. There were certainly a number of companies that raised their prices opportunistically rather than out of any genuine market need, but price gouging itself was not the primary reason for our inflation issue. Inflation is a complicated phenomenon that can have multiple contributing factors. The inflation spike from a few years ago was largely a product of two things: people having abundant disposable income via stimulus and the beginnings of the post-pandemic job market recovery, and supply chains remaining in relative disarray.

How can more affordable housing options be created?: We need to incentivize municipalities to allow the construction of more housing units, provide property owners with broad rights to create accessory dwelling units if they so choose, and work with property developers to create multifamily housing stock to provide a variety of options for people to live in. New York State as a whole is losing people rapidly due to the surge in our local cost of living, and the housing cost spike is a large portion of that. Like most other things, housing functions as a market, and our demand growth far and away exceeding our growth in supply is causing prices to rise at a feverish rate. Put simply, we need more housing to be built if we want to solve this issue, and we don't have an abundance of time to act before the damage becomes irreparable.

What is your stance on SALT?: The SALT deduction should be restored to its pre-2017 state. Long Island homeowners have suffered tremendously from the cap, and having elevated SALT deduction availability incentivizes states and municipalities to invest in public services knowing the federal government will alleviate some of the tax burden that'd otherwise be placed on people. However, as it's a federal tax deduction, only Congress has the power to make this change. I am optimistic that it will get done sooner rather than later.

What needs to be done to keep Long Island streets safe from crime?: Long Island is already one of the safest regions in the United States. A comprehensive review of public safety by county found that Nassau County was the single safest one, while Suffolk ranked 22nd. For reference, there are well over 3,000 counties throughout the country. The hard work of our law enforcement and broader community is to thank for our success in this regard, and we should not make drastic changes that could undermine our strong track record of public safety.

What measures can you fight for to address the escalating addiction and DWI crisis?: The best methods we have to curb addiction are focused on treatment. Addiction to illicit substances is a medical condition, and investing in healthcare accessibility will allow more people to seek professional assistance to fight those ailments. Roughly 900,000 New Yorkers are without health coverage, and this prevents many of them from seeking care. As for combatting DWIs, coordinating with local bars and retailers who sell products that inebriate people would be ideal. Having occasional checkpoints near those locations could help catch irresponsible drivers before they cause harm to themselves or others.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?: My father once advised me that it's better to try something and fail rather than not trying at all. A person can't ever improve anything if they never make an attempt, and I've come to appreciate the wisdom of that statement over time.

Is there anything else you would like voters to know about yourself and your positions?: As someone well-versed in policy research, I always try to make decisions based on facts and data rather than on ideological grounds. There are always improvements to be made, but overall, our community is economically and socially healthy, and I would like nothing more than to be a part of continuing to make life better for all of us. Additionally, if anyone has anything they'd like to ask me, they're more than welcome to submit a question via the "Contact" button on my website. All submissions through that go to my email directly, and I'll answer as promptly as is feasible.