Candidate: Assemblyman Joe DeStefano
Residence: Medford
Office: New York State Assembly, District 3 (AD-03)
First Elected: 2018, re-elected 2020, 2022, 2024
Committees: Correction; Governmental Employees (Ranking Member); Labor; Transportation; Ways and Means; Commission on State-Local Relations
Party Lines: Republican, Conservative
Endorsements: Suffolk Law Enforcement Coalition, NYS Troopers, Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater NY, Suffolk AME, CWA, North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, United Brotherhood of Carpenters, Local 138 Operating Engineers, Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri, CSEA, FDNY Local 2507, Longwood Chamber of Commerce, NYSCOPBA
Assemblyman Joe DeStefano won this Medford-to-Mastic seat red in a close race in 2018. He’s faced only token opposition in 2022 and 2024 and is running for a fifth two-year term.
Assemblyman DeStefano sat down with The Messenger for this candidate spotlight interview.
Q: What is the state of the State in your view?
A: A lot of promises made by the Governor and the majority have not been attainable. The budget’s as bloated as can be. We’re not prioritizing what needs to be done. It seems they’re throwing what they can at the wall to see what sticks. Out-of-control spending is where my focus is because when we left Albany in June, the budget was around $260B and quickly found a $9B mistake – and that budget was 57 days late that saw people on both sides struggling to pay their bills while paychecks were held up. It’s unreasonable.
The funny part is, the Governor, Attorney General, and Comptroller still got paid while the State didn’t have a budget. It should be all-or-nothing, not people being singled out because the Governor has just as much, if not more, influence on the budget than the Legislature. She can stall the budget for as long as she wants and our constituents and employees have to suffer for that.
Bailing out New York City – they’re the economic engine of the country, but small businesses are being driven out of New York State. When you start putting payroll taxes into an exorbitant amount of money, the small businesses will never survive. That’s why you’re only going to have big box stores because the mom-and-pop shops are packing up since they can’t afford the taxes. Taxes aren’t being held steady either; the State is raising them.
As a lifelong volunteer, I believe in helping people, but I also believe that you should be able to help yourself too, if you can. You should get assistance when needed, but there’s not enough investigation. Senator Dean Murray (R-East Patchogue) and I had a press conference recently about fraud in the Medicaid system. We rank 51st of 50 states – including the District of Columbia – on recouping the money and investigating people scamming the system. You would think if we were able to protect that money, then maybe our budget could go a little further for other programs we need to fund. A couple months ago, there was a transportation company in Rocky Point that was billing Medicaid for rides that were never taken – $19 million. District Attorney Tierney was able to prosecute the fraud going on.
There’s a lot of wasteful spending. What’s been attempted with the CLCPA was cart-before-the-horse, and our energy grid can’t support it. When the CLCPA was presented to us in my first term, most of the Long Island delegation voted for it because we believed at the time it was going to address our drinking water, which it never did. It misled the legislators on why it was being introduced. I do believe in renewable energy, hence my bill for the Sunrise Wind project back in the 2021-22 session.
Democrats have a supermajority in Albany; they don’t need the minority to vote in any particular way on these broader positions. They have everybody where they need them. But when people complain if you’re in the minority that you can’t get anything done, that’s not true. Since we have such a great litigating floor leader, we find flaws in the bills that are being pushed. Most of the time in the early session months, we’re doing chapter amendments because they realized our arguments were correct so they have to go back and fix these bills.
Congestion pricing is another thing. I remember Governor Hochul saying she would put a pause on it. It was an election year, she won, and then it pushed out. I’ve never been to the City with my car in the last two years of congestion pricing, yet I got hit for 13 tolls. It rang up my plate for whatever reason. I had to prove it wasn’t me; their excuse was it misread my plate’s first two numbers. In the video, I didn’t see my Chevy Blazer. I saw a panel truck going through the toll. They got rid of most of the charges, but it’s such a rigamarole trying to get through to someone, it’s almost not worth it. They all work from home and it takes a while for things to catch up.
The big hubbub right now is with data centers. I voted against the moratorium for three reasons: 1) I knew Brookhaven Town would place their 18-month moratorium, which was stronger than the State’s; 2) I don’t believe Albany legislators should be telling any town what to do in their towns. It should be local control; and 3) While I’m elected to represent this seat, I do represent the State. One size does not fit all.
The bill passed in the Assembly and Senate, but the Governor signed her own order. My guess is once the election is over, she could pull the order. She could have signed the law if she wanted to; why wouldn’t she sign the bill if she was really sincere about holding off a year on it?
On prohibiting local cooperation with federal immigration authorities, why they want to protect criminals is beyond me. I’m not in favor of having them run into churches, hospitals, schools, and grabbing kids. But I do believe in the very basic part of immigration enforcement: if you’re in this country illegally, you have broken the law. I’m not saying it makes you a bad person, or that you’re not trying to make a better life for you and your family, but in reality, illegal immigration is still a criminal act. That said, the worst of the worst who commit heinous crimes should be the first out.
When you handcuff law enforcement, you’re just making the job more difficult. In that case, now they have to go into the communities and try to find these people. Maybe the chaos is what it’s all about for Albany Democrats; they want people to see ICE running into communities. They’re creating more of a problem and putting a wedge between everyone. I will never turn my back on law enforcement.
Q: What are your accomplishments for AD-03 in the last two years?
A: We got the Avery Property in East Patchogue $50,000 for a roof renovation and a dilapidated building that was falling apart. We did the Brookhaven hamlet’s Eagle Estates Park – rehabilitation for fencing, landscaping. We got grants for the Patchogue-Medford Library’s outdoor facility. We got $50,000 for the Town of Brookhaven’s Volunteer Fireman’s Museum to renovate the siding. Most recently, we got $125,000 for equipment in the culinary program in the William Floyd School District. We secured funds for renovations for the Manor of St. George in Shirley and for the kitchen for the Yaphank Fire Department.
We got over $300,000 for Colonial Youth Family Services to help them in the Tri-Hamlet Peninsula – after-school programs, recreational programs, etc. We want to make sure that the kids have opportunities we had when we were kids.
We got about $60,000 in bullet aid between the Mastic-Moriches-Shirley Library and the Longwood Library. For the MMS Library, they’re looking to put in two individual study pods; Longwood is getting one. They’re these closed-off pods where you can shut the door for quiet and focus to study.
Parts of the district have some challenges, and although I live in Medford, I spend more time in other parts of the district with unique challenges – particularly Mastic-Shirley. In that area, Senator Murray and I have been fighting for over five years to get the grade crossings solved. The MTA is their own autonomous agency; we can fight day in and day out and ask them to do things that don’t happen unless the Governor gives them the go-ahead. We’ve been asking them to do an overpass or an underpass. It would be a difficult chore but it would make things a lot easier. We wouldn’t need to use eminent domain and wouldn’t have to take away from the businesses there.
The MTA did invest in a train station in the Yaphank-Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) area, but nobody’s going to it. We had said to do it differently to attract more riders. BNL is trying to get more trains out there; they’re bussing people back and forth from Ronkonkoma at their own expense. It’s a beautiful facility but it’s so underutilized unless they bring people to the station. Senator Murray and I are working with the County Executive and Town Board on the rail crossings because this is going to be a mutil-faceted project with multiple government agencies working together.
And Executive Romaine has spoken how Suffolk has gotten $0 from the $1.2T federal infrastructure bill for this project, but the MTA must be involved. In the meantime, Senator Murray and I are looking to change the timing of the lights to prevent congestion and we’re talking with DPW to extend the turning lane at William Floyd and Mastic Road to give a little relief.
I also helped to fund the South Country School District last year when they were on the brink of closure.
I’ve been able to get good bills done by giving them to someone on the other side to help our constituents. My opponent says he’ll be more effective than me in the majority, but what is so wrong about being bipartisan to get things done? I don’t look for the pat on the back; I work for my constituents.
Q: What have your prerogatives been statewide?
A: I’m big on education and libraries. The libraries have so many services and I wish the State was more cooperative in investing in them. It would shift the burden a bit. A big problem is the e-books. It’s costing libraries a fortune in rental fees. Those fees should not be recurring.
Q: Where do you fit into the fold of a shifting political environment in Albany?
A: This year, we saw more Democrats get beaten by DSAs in the primaries. The Assembly Speaker has a hard enough time keeping control of what he does have; now he’s going to have a harder time. If he reached over to us to make a happy medium, or if something to the effect of the Independent Democratic Caucus (IDC) came up, I would definitely take them up on that.
Q: What is your favorite quote, motto, or work ethic?
A: People before politics. I put everyone in my community first, regardless of their party or where they come from. I worry about their concerns more than political things, especially since I can’t control what goes on in Washington and that’s where most people’s attention is right now. People around here say, “Go to Joe,” as I’ll take on any concern they have.
Q: How do you like to connect with your community and what do you do in your spare time?
A: Again, putting people before politics and simply being involved. I’m involved with all the chambers of commerce, the civic associations, the Veterans’ groups, the boating clubs, and the ribbon cuttings. My office is also on a weekly schedule to call the other representatives for this area to check in. I find shopping local also keeps me very well aware of what people are thinking and how they’re doing. If anything, I get to sit down somewhere, have a sandwich, and just shoot the breeze with people in my district.
In my spare time, I’m visiting my daughter and grandchildren in North Carolina. My son is getting married soon, so we’re looking forward to having our family grow. My wife and I love traveling in our free time. I would love to see Italy at some point, but that’s down the road somewhere.
I’m a 47-year volunteer with the Medford Fire Department, and I still take calls.
The Messenger thanks Assemblyman DeStefano for his time for this interview.
