District 32
Mary Lou Connolly

ALBANY COUNTY — After serving four consecutive four-year terms, Mary Lou B. Connolly is seeking a fifth in the Albany County Legislature.

She is running on the Democratic, Independence, and Conservative lines for District 32 in the Nov. 6 election.

Connolly chairs the county’s Social Services Committee and is a member of the Civic Center Committee. She has been a strong advocate for the mentally ill and chaired the Albany County Health Committee for 10 years.
Currently, Connolly is the owner of Bartolotta-Connolly Insurance in Green Island. She said she is proud to run a firm certified by New York State as a "Woman-Owned Business."

An unsuccessful write-in campaign was mounted against Connolly on the Independence and Conservative lines. She won both.

Connolly is being challenged by Republican Anton Konev in November.

She has vowed to continue fighting for health care if re-elected.
"I absolutely love what I do. It’s a privilege to be on the Albany County Legislature and serve the community," Connolly said. "My goal for the next four years is to get the Albany County nursing home moving along"That is my focus.
"Many of our residents are being forced to go out of state. There is a place in Dalton, Massachusetts, where 90 percent of the facilities’ clients are from New York," Connolly said. "We need a facility larger than 250 [beds] here"I’m not going to give up. I’m going to continue this battle."

Connolly was critical of the Berger Commission, which was established under Governor George Pataki, and its recommendations.
"I cannot believe that the state made a decision without talking to the hospital discharge planners. I think it was gross negligence"and a disservice to Albany County," said Connolly. "How can you sleep at night when you’re sending people away from their families and out of the area""Something is wrong here."
Connolly said the county legislature has to move ahead "with our eyes wide open." She said the nursing home is her number-one campaign issue, and her number-one priority.

In 1993, when Connolly was first elected to the legislature, her number-one issue was the Albany airport. She is credited with being an integral part in establishing the Airport Authority while she was serving on the county’s Mass Transit Authority.
"I used to be at the airport every morning by 7 o’clock," Connolly said. "That was my project then"The nursing home is my project now."
Connolly also worked for more than 10 years as the regional director for the "I Love NY" campaign in the Capital/Saratoga and the Central/Leatherstocking regions. Connolly said she knows the importance of tourism and of its economic value to the area.

That’s why, she said, she is for the Albany convention center.
"I’m someone who spent 20 years in the tourism industry, regional tourism was my specialty," said Connolly. "I believe it is needed if we want to attract larger conventions"we need to have a larger facility," she said of the convention center.

However, without the full support of the state and enough funding to cover the project, Connolly doesn’t see the project happening.
"If the state funding isn’t there, we have to step back," she said. "I don’t want it to be a project that’s going to hit Albany County residents; I can’t support that."

Living in the state’s capitol, Connolly said she believes in state-supported projects such as the Albany convention center because it’s a desirable area for shoppers and convention goers.
"After all, we are the Capitol of New York State"We ought to have the support of New York a little," she said. "I feel that the state does owe us that commitment."

Upstate New York is a tourism destination for the entire Northeast, she said, which is why she also supports making the temporary 1-percent sales tax a permanent measure.

Currently, Albany County towns, villages, and cities receive $22.8 million from county sales tax, according to Connolly. Out of that money, Guilderland receives $2.5 million, Voorheesville gets $215,000, and Altamont gets $134,000, per year.
"Without that sales tax, Guilderland would have to find that two-and-a-half million dollars somewhere else, and they would have to find it in taxes," Connolly said. "It is needed," she concluded of the sales tax.
Connolly said that 38 percent of the sales-tax revenues come from out-of-county people. She contends that sales tax is "across the board," paid by people all over. The beneficiaries, Connolly continued, are the county residents — especially those on fixed incomes who can’t afford to pay higher taxes.

When it comes to other issues, Connolly said she is for maintaining the current size of the county legislature. She is for the right-to-farm law, growing up on a 600-acre farm in Columbia County, she said.

Connolly also wants to continue looking into shared services between municipalities and the county.

Connolly argued that reducing the size of the legislature would result in having to pay legislators much higher wages and would leave residents under-represented.