30 Issues in 30 Days: Affordability in NY-17

Brian Lehrer (0:10)

It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. We are in our 30 issues and 30 days election series. Let other media focus only on the polls and personalities. We are choosing an issue a day for 30 straight shows to help you be as informed a voter as you can be in the local swing congressional districts and the New York State governor's race. For the next three shows, today through Wednesday, we're highlighting three issues in the local congressional race getting really the most attention nationally. It's the Mike Lawler, Kate Conley race north of the city, Mike Lawler, the Republican incumbent, Kate Conley, his Democratic challenger. We're choosing three issues from the debate that they held on News 12 last Monday night.

For today, it's 30 issues in 30 days, issue 10, affordability is an issue in the Lawler-Conley race. Honestly, we could have broken this up and made all three of this week segments about different aspects of the cost of living because News 12 focused so much of the debate on it, based on what the polls and their reporting show that people in the district are most concerned about. But we want to leave room for other issues between Lawler and Conley this week too.

So today, we will play excerpts from the debate on three different affordability issues. These are really relevant no matter where you live, as they play out in this district and all over the country, right? We'll touch on housing, utility bills, and health care, especially Medicaid. This is New York's 17th Congressional District, for those of you who don't know, which includes all of Rockland and Putnam counties, as well as Westchester, north of the Tappan Zee Bridge, and southern Dutchess County, let's say areas south of Poughkeepsie. It is the first question in the debate that we're going to excerpt from right away. It came from a resident of the district named Heidi, who asked about the cost of living generally, and housing in particular will pick it up with a start of Mike Lawler's answer. You'll also hear Cait Conley, as well as the News 12 moderator Tara Rosenberg in this excerpt. Here we go.

Mike Lawler (2:23)

First of all, we delivered the largest tax cut in American history, putting more than $4,000 back in the pockets of hardworking Hudson Valley families. I fulfilled my promise to lift the cap on SALT from 10,000 to 40,000. Over 90% of Hudson Valley taxpayers were able to fully deduct their state and local taxes. No tax on tips, no tax on social security, no tax on overtime. This was money put back in the pockets of middle class and working class families. In addition, I was proud to lead the largest bipartisan housing bill in over 36 years to pass Congress. It would increase supply, cut red tape, increase access to capital for home builders and home buyers, and ultimately bring down prices. In addition, we're working on permitting reform to increase domestic production of energy. Utility rates in New York are up 58% under Kathy Hochul in the last six years because they shut down Indian Point. I want to rebuild and reopen it. They banned natural gas extraction. I want to permit it.

Tara Rosenblum (3:25)

Ms. Conley, you have one minute to respond. What is your plan and what would it put back into the pocket of an average New York 17 family come next year?

Cait Conley (3:34)

Hi, Heidi, and thank you so much for your question about housing and the housing crisis that we are facing. There's two pieces to this. There's the supply and how do we build more of the supply responsibly, and then how do we help people afford the supply we are building?

This goes back into starting from the top, this administration has made this housing crisis only worse. Because of things like the reckless Trump tariffs that my opponent has voted for eight times that have raised the cost of construction materials, and thus raised the cost of building the homes that we need so badly. We need to do a better job of actually delivering for people, and that means putting these problems in context and solving them with the urgency and aggressiveness that people deserve. On the supply side, the other part that we need to encourage is people to have the ability to buy that supply. And that's where I support creating an American public service home loan program, a program that mirrors the VA home loan program that veterans like me get to benefit from, where after 10 years as a first responder, law enforcement nurse, or a teacher, you would get the same assistance in buying a home in the communities you serve that veterans like me do.