State Senator Antoine Thompson finds himself in a position to spend big money on local green projects

Entering the first year of his second term, State Senator Antoine Thompson has positioned himself to make a lot of promises to his constituents.

Thompson was co-chair of the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee (the first African-American senator to hold that post), and so played a key role in winning Democrats their first majority in both houses of the state legislature in decades. In reward, Thompson was made deputy majority whip and chairman of the Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee. That committee steers a lot of capital, and even more money will likely flow through it in the next two years thanks to the federal stimulus package.

Thompson’s leadership position in the new majority means he’ll also have lot more discretionary cash to spread around his district, which runs from Buffalo to Grand Island, the Tonawandas, and the City of Niagara Falls. He guesses he’ll have several million to spend this year, as opposed to the $250,000 per year he controlled as a freshman senator in the minority party.

So Thompson seems set to direct a great deal of public investment into Western New York in the next couple years. What is he prepared to promise?

“First of all, I never try to promise more than I can deliver,” he says. “But I always try to deliver more than I promise.”

In an hour-long conversation two weeks ago, Thompson promised a lot. Below are excerpts of that interview, so you can score Thompson’s delivery at home over the next year or so.

AV: So what are you working on this year?

Antoine Thompson: For one thing, the Youth Conservation Corps. The Youth Conservation Corps is a program that was started in the 1980s. It was generally funded by the feds, but the state never put a dollar in the program. Now, with the federal stimulus, the Department of Labor is going to put more money into the Youth Conservation Corps, which is going to hire thousands of kids and young adults in the state. The state still wasn’t going to put any money into this program that promotes working in parks, and deals with everything from weatherization to recycling in communities. A whole host of things that can promote conservation.

That program’s my baby, so I’m really pushing to get $30 million in the budget to go with whatever federal money comes in.

AV: Some federal stimulus money will be directed toward developing renewable energy, creating so-called “green collar” jobs, and other environmental projects. How specifically will your chairing the committee that considers these projects benefit Western New York?

Thompson: Most of that money is going to come in chunks to various parts of state government. When we talk about waterfront revitalization money, my committee is the committee that allocates $27 million a year in waterfront revitalization money—that’s Environmental Protection Fund money. So when we talk about getting money out of the state for waterfront revitalization, yours truly will be the one who’s working those meetings and deciding how much of that money can come to Western New York.

Clearly I will be able to play a significant role in trying to get as much of that money as possible. Because years ago you know where most of that money went? It went to Long Island and to where the Republican districts were. If you looked at the last 10 DEC and EPF budgets, most of that money did not go to Buffalo. When you look at the competitive grants, we get some of those—recently the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper got some money—but those are small dollars compared to a $200 to $300 million EPF budget. That’s a lot of money, right? Well, now I’ll be doling out that money—me and Mr. [Robert] Sweeney from the Assembly.

AV: Democrats in the Assembly have passed the Bigger Better Bottle Bill in previous years, only to see it killed by Senate Republicans. Now Governor Paterson is counting on revenues generated from deposits on non-carbonated beverages to plug holes in the budget. As deputy whip, you’ll be lining up votes for the measure in the Senate. Will it happen?

Thompson: The governor in his budget has an expansion of the bottle bill, something I’ve been a supporter of for a long time. We’re looking at trying to make that happen this year. There are people on both sides of this issue, so we’re working tirelessly on it.

What most people don’t realize is that when you go to a corner store or a supermarket or one of the big-box retailers, non-carbonated beverages have more shelf space than carbonated beverages now. Coca-Cola has more Aquafina on the shelf in those places than they have actual name-brand Coca-Cola.

AV: How would revenues be directed?

Thompson: Initially it’s proposed it go into the general fund, possibly with a phase-in to go to the Environmental Protection Fund and other environmental programs like nature preserves and the other things the EPF usually funds.

AV: Because the EPF took a hit in the deficit reduction process. The governor raided the fund, right?

Thompson: It did take a hit, it did get a sweep, which we’re very concerned about. That really strengthens our resolve to make sure that we do this bill. At the end of the month we’re going to do some hearings on the Bigger Better Bottle Bill.

Another big issue we’re working on this year is e-waste. I met Apple Computers the other day, and they’re one of the leaders across the nation in pushing e-waste legislation encouraging state governments to set policies to recycle computers and computer-made products—cell phones and things of that nature. Over the next couple weeks I’ll reach out, the way I recently did to Mayor Brown, to more cities to encourage them to dedicate one recycling pickup every six weeks to electronic waste recycling. Every year about 85 million computers are thrown away. That’s a lot. And they wind up in China, Ghana, Nigeria, and other developing countries. The young people dismantle them, they melt them down for the finer materials, and it causes all kinds of environmental problems. And when we keep them here, they go into the landfill, and, as we all know, they’re not biodegradable.

I’d like to try to fund a couple of green business incubators this year. That’s a nonlegislative initiative. I’d like to get some money through the EPF for Riverside, Delaware, and Martin Luther King parks. The people who run at Delaware Park, like I do, have been asking me for the past few years when I’m going to get the ring road fixed. So I’m hoping I can bring a half million dollars to Delaware Park, and then get the mayor and some others to be helpful with that.

Also, I have this Renaissance Neighborhood Initiative to focus on mixed-use housing as well as traditional residential housing—where we can really transform neighborhoods, not just with scattered rehabilitation and new housing, but real neighborhood transformation.

A gentleman asked me if we could put together a demonstration project where we would work with the New York State Power Authority and NYSERDA to go into a neighborhood and weatherize 400 homes. If you can weatherize an entire neighborhood, you can see the difference, you put a lot of people to work, and in addition you save people a lot of money. We already partner with the Apollo Alliance. We helped last year to weatherize some homes in the Black Rock area, and we hope this year to expand into the West Side and Riverside, and then bring it on to the East Side to service some folks over there.

AV: So NYSERDA and NYPA will underwrite it, maybe with state money too?

Thompson: Well, NYSERDA and the Power Authority have a lot of money, and I will always put some member money in there. But they have a lot more money than I can put up.

AV: One question about politics: You were instrumental in helping State Senator Bill Stachowski pull out a win against Buffalo Police Detective Dennis Delano, who held a substantial lead just two weeks before the election. Do you think Stachowski’s problem was the commonly held view that state government is dysfunctional, and that long-time incumbents are part of the problem?

Thompson: I don’t think that was his problem exactly. I think his problem was that he was in the minority his entire career.

Look at Dale Volker: He always lost Erie County because this county is brutal on elected officials in Albany. But he always wins those small towns, and those suburban counties, because he brings so much money to them. In Erie County, when Democrats saw people bringing home money from the Senate, it was Dale Volker, Mary Lou Rath, Catharine Young. They didn’t see Stachowski as the one bringing home the big money.

My member item money last year was $250,000. This year it’ll be a few million. It’s just a big difference. So when I show up at the BPO when they’re having their thing on Bidwell Parkway with a $25,000 check helping them to build a new stage, or buy new seats at Kleinhans, it’ll be different.

There is money in Albany that only goes to the majority. The Senate Republicans got $300 million, the Assembly majority got $300 million, and then the governor would get $300 million. If you’re Senate Democrat in the minority for 28 years, you don’t get any of that money. You just sit there and vote for it or against it.