AUBURN - Often citing the state of New York's economy, candidates for the 49th state Senate District seat agreed during a debate Thursday that work has to be done to help taxpayers, but offered different approaches on how to accomplish that.

Incumbent David Valesky (D, WF) and challenger James DiStefano (R, C, I) focused mostly on the economy, jobs and taxes during an election forum hosted at Cayuga Community College.

While DiStefano said the cost of government is too high for taxpayers to swallow and “everything should be on the table” when it comes to trimming money, closing prisons that are not at full capacity should not be considered.

“As far as I'm concerned,” he said, “closing prisons at this point in time is not an option. It's not something I'd be in favor of, but as part of the overall picture, if we're looking to the extent we can rehabilitate more people and to the extent there may be some administrative savings as opposed to closing prisons, I'd be in favor of taking a look in that circumstance.”

DiStefano pointed to Malone, a community in the North Country, that has one warden running three area prisons, as a way to consolidate administrative costs.

But Valesky believes officials should consider closing prisons that are less than 50 percent occupied - Auburn Correctional Facility would not be one - and reallocating inmates and corrections officers to other prisons. That falls in line with Valesky's advocacy of closing the Auburn Residential Center, a non-secure facility for girls that hasn't seen a resident from Cayuga County in several years.

“In my mind, particularly when we're in an economic crisis like this, we can't afford to be keeping facilities open that have no residents whatsoever,” he said. “We ought to be closing those facilities, selling those facilities, finding other uses for those facilities so that the economy of small towns across upstate New York are not negatively impacted.”

Valesky contended that government reform is critical to providing taxpayers some relief, pointing to the Senate and Assembly's differing response to Gov. David Paterson's proposal for a 4 percent property tax cap, an idea Valesky supported, as an example of what reform can do for New Yorkers.

During a special Legislative session last summer, the Senate voted in favor of the tax cap while the Assembly acted on a “circuit breaker” proposition that would limit a homeowners' tax burden. Valesky said that if the state Legislature required the formation of a committee comprised of members from both houses and political parties to talk and devise a compromise, taxpayers could have seen property tax relief.

“I am convinced,” he said, “that the more open and transparent our state government becomes, we will have numerous success on these critical policy issues, including the property tax cap.”

DiStefano commended Valesky's efforts in promoting reform, but wondered how that impacts taxpayers in a tangible way.

“How do you tell somebody who had difficulty paying their school taxes that we're going to talk about openness in government,” he asked. “They're concerned about how we're going to get the money to pay for the gasoline prices going up, the fuel prices going up.”

Mentioning the Ton-Mile Tax, or TMT, which places a tax on truckers transporting goods in and out of the state, DiStefano said the focus in Albany needs to be on reducing taxes and keeping jobs in state.

“We have a taxing crisis right now,” he said. “We've got to reduce the cost of government. We've got to do something to help businesses. We need to grow businesses in this state. We need jobs for people. David is talking about reform, and that is commendable, it's necessary, but in terms of priorities, I think it's much lower in category and on the scale.”

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net