Students ‘Heard’ at Forum with Elected Officials

Environmental, education and economic topics were among the issues addressed by a panel of Putnam County elected officials and office-seekers  last week in Carmel, but the questions were not asked by journalists.

The questions were posed by seventh grade students during the 5^th Annual Sybil Ludington Civics Conference held on May 4 at the George Fischer Middle School. For the third time the event was sponsored by BE HEARD, which was founded in 2010 by high school seniors to encourage youths to become active in politics, government and their communities.

The political panel consisted of Congresswoman Nan Hayworth, Assemblyman Steve Katz, Putnam County Executive Mary Ellen Odell, state Sen. Greg Ball, and state Senate candidate Justin Wagner.

Student Sergio Zygmunt said one of the great concerns of seventh grade students at the school was global warming, although some adults do not believe in such a concept. He asked Katz what could be done about it.

“Global warming is at this point a highly controversial area,” Assemblyman Katz said. There have been many ages of heating and cooling of the earth throughout time and there is no definitive proof that man is causing climate changes today, Assemblyman Katz said. Nevertheless, there should be efforts to prevent pollution, such as creating alternatives to the internal combustion engines in automobiles, Assemblyman Katz said.

Wagner disagreed with Assemblyman Katz, saying scientific evidence indicates that climate change is caused by humans. There needs to be greater efforts to develop non-polluting alternative sources of fuel.

“We will run out of natural gas. We will run out of oil,” Wagner said.

Hayworth said the federal government through the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air and Clean Water regulations appropriately protect the public from pollution. Growing up in Indiana, she saw industrial pollution that fouled the water and air in her community, Congresswoman Hayworth said. She added there has to be a “balance” between protecting the environment and not having regulations that are unnecessarily burdensome for businesses.

Student Jeremy Shikarides asked County Executive Odell about economic issues. “We are willing to make sacrifices” for the good of the nation’s economy, he said.

“We’re looking to put in a sales tax free holiday” this coming August to give shoppers, such as students preparing for a new school year, a break, County Executive Odell said.

She also said higher gasoline prices and some other current difficulties could be used to encourage Putnam residents to shop in their communities.

“Take advantage of shopping local,” County Executive Odell said. “It’s a good thing to know your store owner.”

Senator Ball said government needs to make greater efforts to hold down taxes and make New York a less expensive place to live.

“Many of you are going to move out of the state,” he told the students, adding that excessive regulations, taxes and fees are harming small businesses, he said.

Student Frank Peters asked Congresswoman Hayworth what Congress was doing to ensure that interest rates on federal student loans would not go up this year. She said the U.S. House of Representatives recently approved legislation that would keep the federal student loan interest rate at 3.4 percent and not have it double later this year.

Assemblyman Katz was asked if the state should repeal its two percent property tax levy because under state law, a 60 percent vote of local boards or voters in a school district must agree to exceed that cap, and if that threshold was counter to the concept of majority rule.

Assemblyman Katz said he supports the cap, but the state must do more to provide relief from unfunded mandates which is “one of the biggest problems in our state.”

A student noted that middle school students had recently completed six days of state tests and asked Wagner if the number of those tests should be reduced. While there needs to be some state testing, the amount of tests needs to be reduced, Wagner said, telling the students that his mother is a school teacher in Pawling.

“Education should get back to its roots,” Wagner said.

Another student asked County Executive Odell for her advice about how youths could become involved in government affairs, who replied that young people should seek to participate in their student government and keep up-to-date with current affairs.

“Information is power,” she said.