Democrats MaryJane Shimsky and Tom Abinanti Vie to Represent District 92 in NYS Assembly
Democrats MaryJane Shimsky and Tom Abinanti Vie to Represent District 92 in NYS Assembly
The candidates recently participated in a forum where they shared details of their plans for the district
by Kris DiLorenzo
Rivertowns — The League of Women Voters of the Rivertowns sponsored a Virtual Candidates Forum on June 9, in which New York State Assemblymember incumbent MaryJane Shimsky and former Assemblymember Tom Abinanti answered questions submitted by attendees, and made their cases to voters.
District 92 comprises 12 communities in the towns of Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant, including Hastings, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, and Ardsley, as well as northwest Yonkers.
Abinanti, a Pleasantville resident, represented the district for 12 years prior to Shimsky’s victory in the 2022 election. Shimsky, who lives in Dobbs Ferry, is seeking a second two-year term. Both candidates previously served on the Westchester County Board of Legislators.
Abinanti emphasized his opposition to Edgemont’s ongoing efforts to incorporate as a village (in District 88), effectively seceding from the Town of Greenburgh; and his concern for people with disabilities (PWDs). Shimsky addressed a wide range of topics, stressing that she developed relationships and worked cooperatively with colleagues to achieve goals.
Both candidates spoke about funding, infrastructure, affordable housing, healthcare, women’s rights, reproductive choice, climate change efforts, the Equal Rights Amendment, and election reform. Both are rated 100% pro-choice by Choice Matters, and support the Rape Is Rape Act; the Better Bottle Bill; the Packaging Reduction Bill; the Medical Aid in Dying Bill; the New York Health Act; and the Equal Rights Amendment to the state Constitution. They also agreed on the problems with electronic voting machines and soaring Con Edison utility bills.
In her opening statement, Shimsky summarized, “Our communities are facing serious and existential threats: threats to our democracy, climate change and sea level rise, affordability affecting housing, utilities, and healthcare, threats to women’s choices, women’s health, and women’s lives; the legitimization of bigotry and hate.”
She enumerated some accomplishments from her first term: fighting school funding cuts in the Executive Budget, passing laws protecting reproductive health choices, sponsoring or co-sponsoring bills securing more funding for higher education, childcare, black maternal health programs, infrastructure, conservation measures, and more.
Shimsky accused Abinanti of “grandstanding” on the Edgemont issue yet accomplishing nothing, voting against the Rape is Rape Act nine times, and introducing “horrible” legislation making childhood vaccinations “optional.” Abinanti eventually voted for the final Rape is Rape bill, after making changes on the previous versions to whose language he objected; some were changes Governor Hochul required before she signed the bill.
Abinanti’s record on vaccinations extends back to 2013, when he began pressing for parental philosophical or religious exemptions to a comprehensive law. By 2022, he had sponsored, co-sponsored, or supported approximately a dozen bills either limiting the use of vaccines or providing exemptions.
In his first statement, Abinanti brought up the Edgemont-Greenburgh battle, insufficient Yonkers school funding, and neglect of PWDs since he left the Assembly. “For Greenburgh, this primary is about whether they [district residents] will see a huge tax increase and service cuts, or whether their next Assembly member will fight to reverse the special carve-out which my opponent included in a new law she sponsored that lets the wealthy enclave of Edgemont continue its efforts to form its own separate village.”
Incorporation requires a petition, public hearing, and majority vote by residents of the potential village. Edgemont’s petition process is completed, but Greenburgh has sued twice to prevent incorporation. Shimsky co-sponsored two bills resulting in a new law requiring a study examining incorporation’s financial and operational impact, and creating a commission to determine whether incorporation is viable. After signing the bill, Hochul asked for “chapter amendments” exempting Edgemont from the new rules through 2040. Shimsky, who voted against those amendments, called Abinanti “confused.” “He’s confusing the chapter amendment that gave Edgemont a special break, with the laws that… apply evenly and equally without fear or favor to all communities,” Shimsky said.
Abinanti said, “As a result of Ms. Shimsky’s legislation, the Town of Greenburgh would be devastated.” His campaign literature says incorporation would be “depleting the Town’s tax base, leaving everyone else with skyrocketing property taxes and fewer services… would cause an immediate $8 million deficit, ultimately reaching as high as $18 million, resulting in dozens of municipal layoffs and severely diminished services.”
Shimsky agreed that Edgemont incorporation would affect Greenburgh financially, but an independent Center for Governmental Research (CGR) study presented three less dire scenarios. 1) Edgemont would contract highway and sanitation services from Greenburgh, continue receiving library and police services, and the Town would minimize tax impact by reducing appropriations in other service areas by 7 percent. Edgemont property taxes would increase about 2.7 percent; Greenburgh taxes would remain nearly level. 2) If Edgemont contracted services from other entities and Greenburgh made 7-15 percent cuts in most departments to replace revenue loss, Edgemont property taxes rise 5 percent, Town taxes by 0.7 percent. Without cuts, Greenburgh taxes would increase about 8.5 percent. 3) By shifting costs from Greenburgh to the Village for a share of liabilities (litigation settlements, property tax refunds, retiree benefits), Edgemont property taxes for municipal services rise about 10 percent. With 7-15 percent cuts in most departments, Greenburgh taxes decrease about 1.3 percent; without cuts, taxes would increase about 6.5 percent.
Abinanti has always prioritized PWDs, creating and chairing the Assembly’s PWD Committee. “People with disabilities deserve the same rights as everyone else… you’ve got to take people for what they can contribute, not for what they look like, or how somebody terms them.” He referenced housing and employment problems, especially for those with autism. (According to the National Autistic Society, only 16 percent of autistic adults are in full-time employment.)
Shimsky noted that PWDs are an Assembly priority; she has sponsored or co-sponsored approximately 10 bills relating to PWDs, some dealing with housing and employment.
She also highlighted her advocacy and cooperative work with colleagues on such successful efforts as the “Save the Hudson” bill prohibiting radioactive wastewater discharges into the river during the decommissioning of the Indian Point nuclear power plant at Peekskill.
Both candidates offered ideas on increasing affordable housing, “so our seniors can stay in the communities they’ve lived in their entire lives, our young people can stay in the community where they grew up, and our workers who work in our community don’t have to commute for miles and miles and miles,” Abinanti said. “What we have to do is look at each community and figure out the character and what fits.” He favors mixed-use development, e.g., encouraging landlords of commercial properties and shopping centers to add two stories for housing above the storefronts, and suggesting re-zoning some office buildings for housing.
“I was very disappointed that my first year in the Assembly was wasted on this issue by the back-and-forth over the Governor’s attempt to make mandatory certain targeted increases in housing,” Shimsky said. (Hochul’s idea of “transit-oriented development” would create multifamily housing near transportation hubs in every community.) She mentioned financial incentives for homeowners who create Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), and cautioned “…we have to watch what’s happening to rental costs in our community. There are large developers who think it’s Lotto time, and people end up having to leave their apartments because they can no longer afford them.”
For healthcare, both candidates favor a NY Health Act, which would establish a single-payer system; Abinanti was a co-sponsor of the bill, which was introduced in 2017, but has not yet passed.
Regarding election reform, Shimsky wants voting machines backed up with a paper trail and and assurance that “the mechanisms within the machines that scan those are beyond reproach.”
Abinanti, who chaired the Assembly’s Subcommittee on Election Day Operations and Voter Disenfranchisement, was adamant that “we cannot possibly allow the use of computerized machines that do not print a ballot for a person to read and put into a box. Right now there is a big push to have machines that look like ATM machines. But there’s no ballot that is produced.”
In his closing statement, Abinanti reeled off a list of issues the next Assemblyperson will face, criticizing what he considers Shimsky’s lack of action. Shimsky responded, “There is a lot that has to be done. It’s not all going to be done in two years.” She noted that many of Abinanti’s bills didn’t pass: “Remember, he had 12 years to do it.”
Abinanti rebutted her statement, saying, “I passed 157 bills when I was in the legislature... I could go down a list of those bills, but… there are new things that need to be done, and those are the things that I would take on.”
Early in-person voting extends through June 23; the Democratic primary is on June 25. Hours are 6 a.m.- 9 p.m. Look up your polling place at voterlookup.elections.ny.gov.
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