New York Congressman Paul Tonko held a town hall in Saratoga Springs Wednesday, hearing concerns and questions from his constituents.
Tonko, a Democrat from the 20th District, spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at Saratoga Springs High School.
Before taking questions, Tonko highlighted some of his top concerns including President Trump’s tariffs, Immigration and Custom Enforcement raids across the country, and rising inflation.
In the coming weeks, Congress will iron out the details of its budget plan. Tonko, who sits on the Budget Committee, says one of his priorities will be defending Medicaid from potential cuts.
“This radical budget scam will rip away from millions of people all together. Raise healthcare and prescription drug costs for millions more and increase grocery bills for working families. All to give that effort of more tax breaks to wealthy donors who do not need it. Amidst this onslaught of attacks on our rights, our economy, and our government, one of the many questions I received at previous town halls was this: do you think the red line has been crossed? My answer? Yes,” said Tonko.
Tonko is also on the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment. He says investments in an upgraded electric grid to incorporate renewable energy sources will be necessary to combat climate change.
“We need a state-of-the-art grid. And we had incorporated that into the inflation reduction act which I helped write and certainly support and the investments in that upgrade are going to be very critical. Now our fight is to make certain that that progress is not clawed back,” said Tonko.
Waterford resident and physicist Alec Lindman is weeks away from completing his doctorate.
“Yeah, I was very heartened to hear the congressman’s support for environmental policies, climate policies. Obviously that’s something that’s foundational to all of us living at all. And I know that his engineering background is very important, I think having folks with STEM backgrounds in politics is critical because understanding the technical issues is essential to good policy. So, I was heartened to hear that and also heartened, of course, to hear that he’s in the right place, morally and practically, on the other issues that were raised,” said Lindman.
Bryan Paz-Hernandez, who is a co-leader of the Troy Indivisible chapter, wasn’t as satisfied.
“I think Paul Tonko has been a really good Congressman but today his answers were a little bit half-baked. They asked him ‘would you commit to a moratorium on evictions’ he did not give a yes or no answer. They asked him ‘will you commit to supporting the Green New Deal,’ he did not give a straight answer. So, it was a very non-answer, a very politician non-answer. I don’t think that’s what the constituents want from him, they want straight answers,” said Paz-Hernandez.
Last week, ICE arrested a person on Broadway .Tonko was asked about the case’s status.
“As soon as we heard it we issued a statement and we made contact to the ICE forces. Again, it’s a concern that if it’s an innocent person. We’ve been made aware by other colleagues in the country that people have been picked up who are totally innocent. And some of it might just be racial profiling and they assume someone is an illegal immigrant or what have you. But we want the details on this case, it was in the district, and we think the community has a right to know,” said Tonko.
Paz-Hernandez would’ve liked to have heard more from the congressman on that issue as well.
“He said ‘I gave a statement.’ OK? Well, we need more than a statement. You can give a statement, I can give a statement but we need more than that. He needs to have an investigation from his office into ICE to see if that arrest was legal or not, and if it wasn’t legal use every lever of power that he has to stop future ICE arrests in our community,” said Paz-Hernandez.
Julie Lewis co-founded C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios, a non-profit arts studio in Saratoga Springs, Schenectady and Troy that provides low-cost art workshops and wellness activities to locals.
“I think part of what non-profit leaders in communities need to do right now is just remind our legislators that we’re here, that we need to be heard, that we’re the people providing these vital services. And I know that he knows that but I was really pleased to hear him address the issue around SAMHSA and rearranging all of that under HHS which would be disastrous. So, I was pleased that at least he’s conscious of that and it sounds like he’s tuned in to what could potentially be an enormous risk for funding for organizations like ours,” said Lewis.
Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. has proposed a plan to consolidate HHS services, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, into one office.
