ANNA LEWIS HAS A PLAN TO BALANCE NEW YORK STATE BUDGET
Candidate Intends to Strengthen Senate's Oversight and Investigative Powers
Anna Lewis, Attorney, and Candidate for State Senate in New York's 31st District, has made balancing New York State's budget a priority in her campaign. Her plans include strengthening fiscal oversight, reforming the State's pension system, reinstating the Commuter Tax, and finding a more proportionate balance between taxes on Co-Ops and condos.
Speaking at a recent labor endorsement meeting, Anna Lewis remarked, "Balancing the budget is not going to be easy. It is going to hurt, and it will take sacrifice, but we must as a people pull together in order to ensure a more prosperous future for us and for our children."
Ms. Lewis spoke to her past tenure as Lead Counsel to the "New York State Assembly's Committee on Oversight, Analysis and Investigation" as an experience that will allow her to successfully expose and eliminate government fraud, mismanagement and waste: "While I was Counsel to the Committee we saved New York substantial sums of money. In light of our current deficit crises, our government's oversight functions couldn't be more crucial in balancing our budget. She continued, "The problem that exists in the Senate is that while it has an investigative committee, it isn't active enough in oversight, and must be strengthened. It is essential that we more acutely scrutinize how the Senate spends our money, and I have the will to do so."
Ms. Lewis went on to discuss other plans for balancing the budget, including reform of the state pension system: "I wholeheartedly believe our hard workers should get the full pensions they deserve. As a State employee, I understand how tough it can be to make ends meet. But abuses of the system must be brought into the light and eliminated." She continued, "We know what the abuses are, we know who is committing them, and they must be stopped."
The candidate also intends to "reinstate the Commuter Tax," calling it the "most progressive tax our city has ever enjoyed." She continued, "It was done away with for political reasons, and political expediency should not determine fiscal policy. The residents of our city deserve more."
Finally, a strong supporter of more affordable housing, Ms. Lewis included tax reforms in her plan, "We must explore the disparity between taxes paid on condos and those paid on Co-Ops. This isn't the most popular campaign position with everyone, but tough times require tough decisions."
Anna Lewis, an Attorney for 26 years, has served as Lead Counsel to the "New York State Assembly's Committee on Oversight, Analysis and Investigation," an Assistant Chief Administrative Law Judge with the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, and is currently a prosecutor with New York State's Health Department, where she prosecutes physicians and physician assistants for professional misconduct, including cases involving insurance fraud, negligence and the sexual abuse of patients. She is a 25 year resident of the Upper West Side.