Skoufis, Basile come out swinging at 39th Senate District debate

Oct. 25--CITY OF NEWBURGH -- The two candidates vying to succeed retiring Sen. Bill Larkin in the 39th Senate District peppered each other with jabs, threw a few haymakers and agreed on almost nothing during a raucous debate on Wednesday night before a packed room at the Ritz Theater.

Assemblyman James Skoufis, a Woodbury Democrat, and Tom Basile, a Stony Point Republican, clashed on single-payer health care, ethics reform and other topics for an hour, fielding questions from Barry Lewis, the Times Herald-Record's executive editor, and Ken Hall, a Record opinion writer, at an event sponsored by the Record and Orange County Citizens Foundation.

One fight was over the Child Victims Act, a longstanding proposal in Albany to extend statutes of limitations for criminal and civil cases over child sex abuse and give all past victims a one-year window to sue their abusers and culpable institutions. Senate Republicans have blocked the bill because of the lawsuit provision, which the Catholic Church and other institutions oppose, and proposed creating a $300 million fund to pay victims instead of letting them sue.

Basile opposes the Child Victims Act and supports the Republican alternative. He argued that the Child Victims Act would not allow lawsuits against school districts and other public employers and would be subject to constitutional challenge by religious institutions -- an objection that the bill's supporters say is not true.

Skoufis, who supports the bill, called it a "straw-man argument" that is meant to protect institutions that have shielded abusers.

"If ever there was an issue that ought to be non-partisan, it's the Child Victims Act," he said. "It's embarrassing that the state Senate hasn't passed this."

The policy differences were overshadowed at times by the sharpness of the exchanges.

At one point, after Basile said Skoufis had pushed no reforms in his three Assembly terms, Skoufis offered him a deal: "If you stop lying about me, I'll stop telling the truth about you."

Basile responded: "He's real slick, isn't he? He's voted against term limits, he's voted against term limits for leaders. Now we're supposed to believe that he's going to be a reformer?"

Skoufis cast the race as a contrast between what he said was Basile's partisanship and demonization of Democrats and his own readiness to work with Republicans and independents.

"That's the difference in this race," Skoufis said. "I'll represent everyone regardless of who you are."

Basile put the focus instead on affordability and New York's high taxes, something he said he understood best because of his background and because he's a parent, homeowner and business owner.

"I know what it takes to make government less expensive and more efficient because I've done it," he said.

Basile vehemently opposed a proposal for single-payer, public health insurance in New York, saying it would end employer-subsidized plans and turn health insurance over to what he referred to several times as the most corrupt state government in the country. He questioned why the state should upend private insurance coverage to help 5 percent to 8 percent of New Yorkers who are uninsured.

"It's nonsensical, and it doesn't work," he said, adding that he wants to give consumers more options, not fewer.

Skoufis defended the proposal, known as the New York Health Act, after pointing out that the federal waiver a single-payer system would require means it couldn't be done for at least two years. He noted the frequency of constituent complaints about their medical insurers, and argued that taking the profit motive out of health care is the best way to reduce costs.

After Basile suggested that lifting onerous regulations on insurers would be a better way for New York to lower costs for consumers, Skoufis shot back: "What I just heard is Tom Basile wants to hold insurance companies less accountable."

Basile opposed banning lawmakers' outside income, saying the Legislature needs people from all walks of life. "We need more regular people, like the people in this room, to run for state Legislature," he said.

Skoufis supported an outside-pay ban, noting the role that private-sector income has played in some of Albany's recent corruption cases and arguing to remove that temptation. He also argued that having a senator with a private-sector job and limited time for legislative duties would be a disservice to the district.

Basile advocated term limits as a better ethics reform. Skoufis turned that idea around by invoking the retiring senator each of them hopes to succeed, who has spent the last 40 years in Albany.

"By the way, I don't think Bill Larkin should have been term-limited out," Skoufis said.

Earlier, he took a poke at Basile for calling himself "Our Senator" in his campaign materials. That title, he pointed out, still belongs to Larkin.

"Despite my opponent's signs, he is still our state senator until the end of the year," Skoufis said.

cmckenna@th-record.com

___

(c)2018 The Times Herald-Record, Middletown, N.Y.

Visit The Times Herald-Record, Middletown, N.Y. at www.recordonline.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.