Maloney: Puerto Rico needs more help

Oct. 11--MIDDLETOWN -- Three days after witnessing firsthand the devastation that Hurricane Maria wrought in Puerto Rico, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney said the federal government's efforts to help restore the island's power grid have been woefully inadequate for the immensity of the damage and the lives and economy at stake.

The Cold Spring Democrat, part of a congressional delegation brought to Puerto Rico on Saturday, said the Army Corps of Engineers planned to double to 400 the number of bucket trucks repairing downed electrical lines, but still had nowhere near the manpower needed to bring back a grid that was nearly 90 percent destroyed. He said a major obstacle was that the heads of utilities that would dispatch more repair crews are worried their companies won't get paid. Congress needs to guarantee that they will, he said.

"What the president of the United States should be doing is convening those executives of those power companies, convening the Army Corps of Engineers, and cracking heads until people are out there stringing wire and getting the lights on," Maloney told the Times Herald-Record editorial board Tuesday. "Because until you do that, the island's dead in the water."

Apart from the "enormous human suffering" in Puerto Rico, he said government's sluggish response will worsen the disaster if the island isn't ready by winter for the tourists its economy needs.

"They need leadership from above, they're going to need resources from Congress, and time matters on this thing," Maloney said. "Because you're going to lose the whole tourist season, you're going to lose these industries, and you have a debt situation to begin with. So it's a very serious situation, and it's not beyond our capability to tackle it."

Tax change a 'killer'

Maloney also answered questions about the state of the health care debate in Washington, tax reform and other topics in a discussion that stretched more than an hour.

He argued there could be broad support in Congress for tax changes such as lowering corporate rates and closing loopholes. But he panned the rough proposal that the Trump administration has released, saying it would balloon the federal deficit and hurt residents of New York and other states with high property taxes by eliminating their deduction for state and local taxes. That deduction would be taken away to help pay for the plan's tax cuts.

"If you represent New York, where we have the highest property taxes anywhere, this thing is a killer," Maloney said of eliminating the deduction. He later added: "God help New York Republicans who cave in to their political party and support this terrible tax bill and hurt their own districts in the process."

Asked about citizen opposition to the Competitive Power Ventures plant being built in Wawayanda, Maloney said he shares the activists' concerns but also believes the project is good for Orange County and is needed to replace part of the power that will be lost when the Indian Point nuclear plant in Westchester County closes. He also said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should invite more citizen input on siting of power plants.

"It needs to be safe, it needs to be free from corruption, it needs to be monitored tightly -- no argument from me," Maloney said. "I think at this point, it's clear that the plant's going to open, that it's not going to be stopped, nor do I think it should be."

cmckenna@th-record.com

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