Andrew A. Monteleone | General Election, November 6, 2018

Andrew A. Monteleone

Republican

BACKGROUND: Monteleone, 45, of Syosset is running on the Republican and Conservative party lines. He practices criminal and personal injury law as a partner in a Mineola law firm. He received his undergraduate degree from Bucknell University, a master's degree in political science from LIU's C.W. Post campus and his law degree from Fordham University. He is on the board of the Criminal Courts Bar Association of Nassau County. He is married with two children.

ISSUES: Monteleone said the most important issue facing his district is high taxes. “The big problem with New York State is people leaving and the reason why they're leaving — both young and old — are the incredible taxes that we pay,” he said. Monteleone said he supports a proposal by Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro to reduce school taxes by 30 percent. He said he would need to look at what state programs can be cut to pay for the reduction in school taxes. “What we need to do is prioritize what programs we need and what programs are not necessarily needed,” he said. Monteleone said businesses that remain on Long Island should get “tax benefits” and that the state and local economic development agencies “can work wonders for bringing in economic development, bringing in new business to the state.” Those entities, however, need better oversight, he said. “There should be more due diligence into what companies are coming in and what they can bring in,” he said. “It should be less of a gamble.” He said he was unsure whether clawbacks of benefits from companies that don’t meet economic development goals would be appropriate: “That kind of hinders the businesses from coming in at the beginning and every business is a risk to some extent." He also said suburban areas such as Long Island “give a lot of money into the state government and my goal would be to protect that so we get our fair share back.”