Jo Bennett is running to represent District 15 in the Onondaga County Legislature. They would fill the seat left open by Maurice “Mo” Brown, who is currently running for a seat in the New York State Assembly. Bennett’s opponent is Republican Woodruff Carroll. Bennett is running on the Democra t and Working Families Party lines.  Central Current sent Bennett 11 questions about housing, immigration, data centers, agriculture, and more. Here are their responses.  Central Current: With Micron moving in, politicians from every part of the political spectrum have emphasized the importance of building more housing. What is your vision for increasing housing in Onondaga County, and what role (if any) should the county play in doing so? Jo Bennett: I believe Onondaga County should play a large role in increasing our available housing. The “Builder’s Fund” is a good first step to make housing more affordable to build here, but I would also push for our county to build and improve affordable lower income housing and to renovate old stock housing through the land bank. We should disincentivize developers from building “luxury” homes and apartments, as they price out working families from being able to continue to live in our community, communities which they often grew up in themselves.  Additionally, I would push for a land value tax to encourage people to build on and utilize valuable property instead of leaving it as a lower utility facility, like parking lots and empty fields. There needs to be an understanding that when Onondaga County does pilot agreements and tax abatements that there is a need to make an investment into our community and its housing in return. CC: Transparency has been a major talking point in the legislature this year – from donor transparency around the aquarium to concerns that each caucus brings things to the floor without giving the other advance notice. Where would you like to see more transparency in county government, and what can the legislature do to enforce it?  JB: Right now, working people are often left out of being able to join meetings, which are open to the community, as the timing requires childcare plans, taking time off work, and having to adjust their lives in order to participate in local governance. I would support the Onondaga County Legislature moving its Regular Session meetings to typical after work hours so our constituents could show up in person and make their voices heard. Additionally, I would support an initiative to increase transparency around our county’s funds, specifically how the County Executive may move funds around unreported. We need to ask for clarity on where the funds are coming from, what they were originally intended to support, and why it no longer is being utilized in that way. This information should be reported to the Onondaga County Legislature to be disseminated to residents of Onondaga County and help make them a part of and aware of our decision making practices. CC: As thousands of Onondaga County refugees and residents lose their access to SNAP benefits, what should the county’s role be in ensuring access to food?  JB: Onondaga County recently allocated county funds to Food Pantries of CNY, which is a good first step. The legislature should expand this to include additional funding for food pantries, as well the ability to offer paid roles to support our support system instead of solely relying on volunteers from our communities. I would support an initiative to provide funding for a county-run food pantry. Onondaga County should also provide funding to open and keep open grocery stores in food deserts and make fresh foods more accessible. As a long-term goal, I would support research into the feasibility of opening a county-run grocery store where our existing food deserts exist. CC: Roughly one-third of Onondaga County’s land is used for agriculture. What, if anything, can the county do to support farmers, farmworkers, and other people involved in agriculture in the county?  JB: The county can provide funding to local farmers in order to support their work. In the legislature, I would stand up for living-wage, union jobs for farmers, and ensure their rights and livelihoods are protected. Building a county-run food pantry or grocery store would also serve as an opportunity to support local farmers by acquiring food from local farms and help improve access to local, affordable, fresh foods. We need to also educate students and young people in Onondaga County about agricultural sustainability and farmworking and create pathways for those interested in going into the agricultural sector, doing research surrounding the topics, or for citizens to support initiatives in their community.  CC: As Micron prepares to move into Onondaga County, some county residents have raised concerns about PFAS and other emissions. How do you plan to mitigate the environmental concerns of county residents?  JB: Onondaga County should monitor the effluent from the wastewater treatment facility supporting the Micron site for the presence of PFAS and other harmful emissions. By consistently monitoring for these concerns, the county will be able to quickly move to be transparent and warn residents of concerns in our county. As a legislator, I would support setting enforceable lower allowable limits on PFAS and other emissions in the discharge to protect county residents. CC: Could the county be doing anything more to mitigate and combat its lead problem? If so, what?  JB: Onondaga County should provide funding to towns and municipalities for inspectors and lawyers to hold landlords who perform poorly during inspections and subsequently do not comply with County-enforced lead removal requirements. Additionally, I would like to expand programs like the Lead Freedom House program and provide funding for similar housing and opportunities for apartment-type housing. We should also test children within Onondaga County for lead at a younger age and more frequent testing in order to more accurately assess potential for exposure. CC: Over the last two years, USCIS has rolled back protected status for many groups of immigrants and has begun to target people for detainment who might not have been targeted in the past (i.e.: asylum seekers). Do you believe the county needs to do anything more to protect its large immigrant and refugee populations? If so, what?  JB: I would support legislation to ban federal detention centers in Onondaga County and to cut off any funding to ICE and companies which work with ICE. Our residents’ tax dollars should not be used to support this. Onondaga County should provide resources to immigrants and asylum seekers, including housing, food subsidies, and education about their rights and the immigration process. CC: What – if any – role should AI have in county operations? Should the county develop rules and policies to regulate its use?  JB: AI should not have any role in county operations as it has not been tested appropriately. Multiple recent studies have shown that AI cannot be controlled, which would put our county operations at risk. I am concerned about the implementation of AI into emergency management systems since this gives an uncontrollable system access to Onondaga County residents’ personal information and could potentially result in our residents receiving faulty or harmful misinformation. I would support research into how to regulate AI usage at the county level in order to protect against AI infiltration into governing systems. CC: County Executive Ryan McMahon has announced a plan to study the feasibility and potential impacts of building a data center in Onondaga County. What would be the ideal outcome of that study? Depending on the outcome, how do you plan to respond?  JB: The ideal and most realistic outcome of the study would show that the construction of data centers would have widespread, adverse effects to which residents of Onondaga County should not be exposed or put at risk. As a legislator, I would support a ban on the construction of data centers in Onondaga County in order to protect our residents from the known adverse effects, including but not limited to their excessive energy consumption, concerns about increased utility costs, the air and water pollution, as well as the fact that the long-term utility of data centers is not well known. At a minimum, I would support a moratorium on data centers for at least four years in order to study the impacts of data centers constructed in nearby areas and to pass regulations in order to protect Onondaga County residents from these harmful effects. I would support regulation of the following, non-exhaustive list, including the effluent from data centers, noise pollution, energy usage and production, and cooling systems, and require that data center owners support utility costs. CC: Syracuse consistently has one of the highest rates of childhood poverty in the nation. Do you believe the county should be doing anything more than it is currently to address childhood poverty? If so, what? JB: Yes, Onondaga County needs to play a large role in addressing the childhood poverty crisis in Syracuse, and I believe this starts by making Onondaga County more affordable for working families and providing reparations to communities which have been affected by red-lining and racism. The county should make a robust plan to develop affordable housing in key areas across the county and disincentivize developers from making “luxury” apartments to push the current community out. We should also provide affordable childcare and transportation so parents are able to go to work and support their families. As a legislator, I will also work to expand unions and union protections so residents have access to good paying and secure union jobs. Additionally, Onondaga County should follow and support the outcomes from the NYS study about communities affected by red-lining and racism and push for the county to provide direct payment reparations to the affected communities and impoverished families. CC: What county issues and concerns have an outsize impact in your district specifically? How do you plan to address those concerns and bring them to the forefront of the legislative agenda?  JB: In my district, the affordability crisis, the poor quality and limited infrastructure, and the diminishing small businesses are major concerns I intend to address in the legislature. To address the affordability crisis, I will push for Onondaga County to develop more affordable housing options, build and run more county-owned, affordable childcare facilities, expand bus routes throughout the county, and make buses free for county workers.  In addition to expanding bus routes, I will also address the infrastructure concerns by supporting funding to make our roads safe and minimize traffic accidents and deaths, as well as address potholes quickly to minimize road hazards. Furthermore, I will work in tandem with the city and state to develop streets with safe and accessible, non-vehicular methods of transportation, making it safe for people to get around without a car.  To address the concerns about diminishing small businesses, I plan to cut red tape surrounding starting and owning a business and supporting funding to provide expert liaisons who can walk new business owners through starting and maintaining a business. The post 2026 General Election QA: Onondaga County Legislature 15th District candidate Jo Bennett appeared first on Central Current. ...read more read less