To read more about Daniel Ciciarelli’s opponent, Pamela Hunter, click here. To read more of Central Current’s 2024 election coverage, learn how to register to vote and more, click here.Republican Daniel Ciciarelli is running to unseat New York State Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter in November. The two are vying to represent the Assembly’s 128th district, which covers portions of Syracuse, Salina, DeWitt, Onondaga and the Onondaga Nation.Ciciarelli, who lives in Mattydale, is currently the third ward councilor in the Town of Salina. He has worked in business and finance since 2015. Early voting begins Oct. 26, which is also the deadline for voters to register to vote. Election Day is Nov. 5.Read more about how Ciciarelli sees issues in Central New York below. What’s one thing you plan to do to help bring Micron to fruition?So obviously, a big thing with that right now is issues with the DEC. There’s a very special bat population that’s in that area, and we’ve actually had some of those issues come up with some developers within the town of Salina. So first and foremost, obviously, we’ve got to look into the different environmental impacts that are happening over in that area, and be able to mitigate those in a positive way to get this back on track. And I think that’s the first key before anything else. A big concern that people have is the environmental impacts, not just of the various animal species that are over there, but also the water intake as well, and how are they properly going to clean that? So I feel like you need to get a broader explanation from Micron to get more people in favor of understanding that there’s not going to be huge impacts on our water supply that we have here. So again, really focusing in on that environmental piece is the key as of right now, from what I’ve been seeing.What is one thing you plan to do to make Micron a boon for everyone?So from a state level, it’s interesting, right? Because most of the funding and stuff that’s coming is coming from the federal level. So in order to make it more of a more of an impact for our local area, I think obviously we’re going to have very niche jobs that they’re going to be providing there, where people are probably going to have to move here from outside of the area. But to really expand the boom is going to be for the small businesses that will end up expanding and being created and opening up in our area. So to really encompass everything to what Micron is going to be, we have to make sure that we have the local businesses, as well as to facilitate the amount of people that are going to be moving in here, right? So the different industries that will pop off of that are going to be obviously different companies that Micron needs to work with directly. But then you’re also going to have more restaurants, more shopping centers and things along those lines. So from the state level, we should be looking at incentivizing specific businesses, or just making it easier for small businesses and smaller entrepreneurs to be able to enter the market and be able to be set up and be ready to go as Micron expands, so that we have those other businesses around here to help support the local community. Central Current Radio: Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny by Central Current staff October 3, 2024 2024 Elections: Williams, Mannion clash in 1st NY-22 debate by Samantha Olander and Ahna Fleming October 2, 2024 Onondaga County legislators agree district maps need redoing. Few expect to agree on the product. by Patrick McCarthy September 28, 2024 Onondaga County Elections 2024: Who will be on the ballot in November by Chris Libonati September 20, 2024 John Mannion wins Democratic primary, will face Brandon Williams for NY-22 seat by Chris Libonati, Eddie Velazquez and Anais Mejia June 26, 2024 Do you think Micron should be unionized?That’s a great question. So I think that there’s definitely some space within — because it is manufacturing, and that is something that is typically unionized, and because of theproducts that they will be developing — I definitely think there should be some level of unionization for the workers to make sure that they are being properly taken care of in a safe manner.Since the law was changed in 2019, Raise the Age has become a lightning rod topic. Do you think it should change? If so, what should change about it?Absolutely. And this is definitely something I’ve talked about in the local community many times. And even down in the South Side, it is a huge topic down there as well. Because they feel that the Raise the Age has allowed the different gangs to recruit more people, because now what they’re doing is they’re basically leveraging Raise the Age to have the children and teens, especially the teens, do a lot of things that normally the adults would have done, because they know that the teens aren’t going to be held as accountable in certain situations. So in theory, I do agree with Raise the Age, because you shouldn’t just be locking up teenagers with general population. There should be alternatives to how they should be held responsible in certain situations. And it does get to a point where, you know, now the way that the law is written is that every single time something happens, they go to family court, the judge decides on it, and that’s how it goes. But typically, we have a lot of repeat offenders that are happening now to where I feel like there needs to be some kind of alternative to where these teens will be placed somewhere but not necessarily in a prison system. Something to really identify, you know, is there a mental health issue that’s going on? What’s going on in the home? Really getting them into a location that’s just a better suited area for us to take control of the situation and get a better understanding of what’s really going on in this teenager’s mind as to why they are doing what they’re doing.Do you think that New York State has enough tools to boost affordable housing? And how would you add to those tools?I think we have a lot of the right tools, but we can always use more tools. New York state, to an extent, obviously we can do all kinds of different tax incentives and grants and things along those lines to help support that. But obviously, if the cost of materials and things like that are at different levels, it makes it difficult for developers, even with all these incentives, to make it worth their time to want to build these affordable housing. Just because, as the investors, they’re going to either make very minimal money or it’s not going to be worth their time to do it, unfortunately. So, we need to find kind of a happy medium between, what is the state able to incentivize? What can the state talk to the different counties to incentivize? And then even going down to the town level, what’s the way that the towns are able to convince people to want to redevelop different areas? So it’s a more complex thing than just picking specific things. I think you need to have your representatives from the state all the way down to the towns and villages, really sitting down in a room together to figure out what makes the most sense for each individual area within the districts themselves. Because obviously, something that’s going to work down in New York City, obviously is going to be completely different from what’s going to work up here in Central New York.Do you support the right to counsel in housing court?Absolutely. Everybody should be properly represented in court, and they shouldn’t have to go in there alone, because, obviously, we know there’s a lot of situations that are out there where you know the tenant, that doesn’t have the means to be able to take care of certain things. And you know these, there’s a lot of landlords out there that know this, and they take advantage of that. So they should definitely be able to have some kind of representation within the court system.Do you support the Equal Rights Amendment?There are parts of it I do agree with. There are parts of it that I feel like are already in law, so I’m trying to deep dive into understanding, — get a bigger understanding as to where this popped up in the first place. Because as I’ve been reading through it and researching, there’s a lot of pieces that are in there that — it could potentially take away some parental rights, and obviously, parents should be able to know everything that’s going on in their child’s lives. So there are some different things on the parental side that concern me a bit. But obviously, as far as the overall, general idea of it, I do agree with that part of it.Do you support codifying abortion rights?So, this is how I’ve been answering it. So on a personal level, right, if I was to get somebody pregnant, I’m obviously going to step up and it’s my responsibility to take care of the woman, take care of the child, and see it through to the end. And the way that I would obviously talk about it as well is, I don’t feel that abortion should be used as a form of birth control. Obviously, in situations of rape, incest, potential harm to the mother, things along those lines, I 100% agree with that. But ultimately, it’s not my choice, or my decision to tell somebody what they should or shouldn’t do in that situation. Ultimately, it’s up to the mother to decide what they want to do in the situation. And that’s how I would vote on it.What would you do to fight energy rate hikes affecting working families?So obviously there’s the big conversation of trying to figure out, do we do more solar? Do we do more wind? Do we do more nuclear? Things along those lines, right? So obviously, from different research, nuclear puts out the most energy, and it’s the cleanest energy as well. So I’m definitely in support of providing more nuclear power. But obviously we need to take hold on these — they’re basically government monopolies, is kind of how I look at it, right? So National Grid, or anything like that, that’s really the only power supplier that you get stuff from. So the state needs to crack down on them and really get an understanding of why they are charging what they’re charging and put limitations on what they’re what they’re able to do. And then there should also be alternatives to where National Grid shouldn’t be the only option. There should be opportunity for other options as well, because when we create that competitive nature, obviously you’ll have different pricing rates, and they should decrease as well.How will you make sure that construction on the Interstate 81 viaduct doesn’t worsen health outcomes and living conditions for residents who live near it?So every time we see construction, there’s always all different kinds of debris and things along those lines that are happening. Obviously, we’re looking at least a six to eight year project, from what the state (Department of Transportation) has put out to us. There has to be a way of mitigating traffic to where not everyone’s trying to go down 81 and there needs to be a way of mitigating traffic to where there’s not as much standstills going on. And then obviously you’re going to have to divert some of that, you know, through the neighborhoods or through some of the other state routes that are through the area. So, like Route 11 used to be the highway, you know, way back before the thruway was ever there. Something also is that if there’s a way to use the thruway to mitigate it as well. There should be a way to not have to charge anybody who’s using a thruway as a detour as well to kind of bring all that into full effect there. … It’s definitely something that we have to work with the state DOT on that to make sure that we’re keeping traffic from being at a standstill as much as possible.The post 2024 Election Q&A: Republican Daniel Ciciarelli hopes to unseat Pamela Hunter from NYS Assembly appeared first on Central Current.