United States Senator Charles Schumer came to Long Island on Friday, May 22, and met with representatives of local weekly newspapers at the Nassau County Bar Association. The senator had a busy schedule, meeting with the Long Island Lawyers group before meeting the reporters and following that meeting with a meeting with leaders in the Long Island Breast Cancer Coalition.

Senator Schumer said that when he was a congressman he had regular meetings with the local press and planned to continue that practice now that he is a member of the United States Senate. Referring to his predecessor, Senator Alfonse D'Amato's nickname of "Senator Pothole," Senator Schumer said, "I've never demeaned that title. No request from a constituent is too big and none is too little. I will listen to the towns, the villages and the civics and make a vigorous effort to keep my feet on the ground."

Deferring questions to later in the meeting, Senator Schumer launched into his vision for Long Island. The first priority, he said, is to keep the job base growing. "The Long Island economy will continue to grow" he said, "because Long Island is in good shape with its good colleges and schools." One reason he believes the local economy will continue to grow is because the high tech industries of the future will be able to attract quality employees because of the good life style they will be able to enjoy on Long Island. Forty percent of the population of the United States is located within 500 miles of Long Island, he said.

Related to that first priority is his second issue, that of education. He recognized that there is a problem with property taxes on Long Island and said that "we must make education better without raising taxes." He will propose that the money that will be received by the government as a result of its settlement with the tobacco companies be divided with 50 percent going to the federal government, 25 percent to the states and 25 percent to localities, which will make it possible to lower property taxes. As he stated in his campaign for the Senate, Senator Schumer said he is "pushing to make tuition tax deductible." In an effort to attract more talented young people into teaching, the Senator proposes that the federal government should agree to forgive student loans to those who agree to teach in the public schools for a specified period of time.

Senator Schumer then turned to another of his high priorities, the issue of Social Security, an issue on which he is a strong supporter of President Clinton. Asked about the invasion of the Social Security funds for the general funds, Senator Schumer said that he strongly opposes the practice and that it has not taken place since 1992. President Clinton will propose that 60 percent of the projected federal surplus this year be returned to Social Security. "We'll see a battle in Congress over this, this year," the Senator predicted. He said that the Breaux-Thomas Bill which proposes privatizing Social Security would be a Trojan Horse and he is strongly opposed to it.

The day before Senator Schumer met with the Long Island newspapers he had seen his anti-gun legislation pass by one vote and he was delighted that it had passed. "It was a big victory," he said. "I'm tough on crime in general." In fact, while he was a member of Congress Schumer sponsored and helped pass one of the nation's most important crime-control laws, the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1994, which put 100,000 new cops on the street, enforced "three strikes and you're out" sentencing and created after school programs for troubled teens.

In response to a question from a reporter as to his views on local transportation issues, Senator Schumer said that he is preparing an overall plan which will both outline what is needed and where the money will come from. He has met with the Metropolitan Transit Authority and with the Port Authority. He said that he is "not happy" with the current proposal for the "train to the plane" and thinks a better plan can be formulated.

Other issues touched upon in the session were health care (he's for a Patient's Bill of Rights); coastal erosion (he is working with the Army Corps of Engineers on a plan to control the western movement of sand from Montauk to Breezy Point); and Israel (he views the recent election as a "very good change".

When a reporter said that she was surprised to have seen Senator Schumer at the Nassau County Democratic convention, the Senator replied that the former Democratic County Chairman, Steve Sabbeth, "was not my cup of tea." He praised Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli, the present chairman, as "honest, thoughtful and a strong leader, unlike his predecessor. "I don't want to run things but I do want to help. In selected areas I will get involved." He added that his support could be bipartisan. "I will go to bat for Tom Gulotta. I work well with Congressmen King, Forbes and Lazio."

And when the inevitable question was raised as to Hillary Clinton's possible run for the Senate, Senator Schumer said: "She campaigned for me and she was impressive. She was firm, calm and focused. She would make a strong candidate and a good senator, but she'd have to devote herself exclusively to New York."