Kurt VanWuyckhuyse
DemocraticQ1 Data centers are a controversial part of America’s growing AI industry, supporting cutting-edge innovation and potential job creation, but raising issues of resource use and utility costs. New York now has a moratorium on data center construction. At the same time, state tax law grants tax exemptions to equipment and services used by data centers, which some proposed legislation would repeal. What do you see as the right balance of costs and benefits for new data center construction in New York, and how would your policies accomplish that balance?
As an auto shop manager and renter, I see working families in our district already squeezed by high electric bills, and feel the same pain. We can’t allow tech monopolies to privatize profits while dumping their resource and infrastructure costs onto everyday New Yorkers.
I support immediately repealing state tax exemptions for data center equipment. If any new data center is permitted, it must meet three non-negotiable conditions:
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Ironclad environmental guarantees: Facilities must run entirely on dedicated, on-site clean renewable energy with zero strain on local water supplies or New York’s CLCPA climate targets.
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Full corporate liability: Owning corporations must be legally and financially liable for 100% of grid upgrades and utility cost increases, ensuring working-class ratepayers never pay a single dime for their power draw.
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Community profit-sharing: We must mandate community wealth models where profits and municipal revenues generated from the facility are returned directly to the host municipality and neighborhood residents through local dividend funds and neighborhood improvements.
True innovation serves the public good, not corporate greed. If tech giants want to build in New York, they must enrich the community, not exploit it.
KEYWORDS: Ratepayer Liability, Community Wealth Sharing, Environmental Mandates, End Corporate Subsidies
Q2 New York currently generates about 47% of its energy from low carbon sources including nuclear, hydropower, and wind and solar, with the remainder coming from combustion sources (natural gas, oil, biofuel, and solid waste). While New York committed to shifting to low-carbon energy sources and emissions reductions in passing the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), Governor Hochul recently moved to delay implementation of several components of the state’s climate law to December 31, 2028. As concerns about energy costs, reliability, and emissions grow, what energy sources would you prioritize, under what timeline, and what evidence would guide that decision?
Governor Hochul pushing our climate law deadlines back to 2028 is a massive mistake. Working families in our district are already getting hammered by sky-high electric and gas bills. Delaying our clean energy goals doesn’t save ratepayers a dime—it just protects corporate fossil fuel profits while our air quality gets worse.
We need to move as fast as humanly possible. My priority is rapidly scaling up wind, solar, and geothermal right now, keeping our zero-emission hydro and nuclear running so the grid stays reliable, and shutting down dirty plants in working-class neighborhoods. We also need to pass the NY HEAT Act immediately to cap utility bills for working families and stop forcing us to subsidize new gas pipelines we don’t even want.
The evidence guiding my decisions won’t come from utility lobbyists protecting their monopolies. It will come from independent climate scientists and grid engineers. Moving to clean energy isn’t just about the planet—it’s about breaking up energy monopolies, creating good local union jobs, and actually lowering bills for everyday New Yorkers.
KEYWORDS: NY HEAT Act, Break Up Monopolies, Public Renewables, Working-Class Jobs
Q3 Young adults say that social media is their top source of science information, but acknowledge that it is less trustworthy compared to other sources. In addition, the widespread usage of social media and other sources of scientific information has resulted in the spread of misinformation that has spurred public education policies to curb it, such as a NYC vaccine misinformation legislation. What role should public education play in combatting misinformation and disseminating trustworthy, up to date scientific information to students and their families?
Let’s be real about why junk science spreads online: social media algorithms push sensational, clickbait garbage because that’s what makes tech billionaires their ad revenue. Busy, working parents don’t have the time to sit around debunking internet myths every night.
Public schools should be our first line of defense, but we have to give teachers the resources to do it. Instead of just prepping kids for standardized tests, we need to teach real-world digital literacy early on. That means showing students how to question sources, spot paid corporate spin, and understand why an algorithm is pushing certain content into their feeds.
Our schools also need to act as trusted community hubs. When public health guidance comes out, families should get straightforward, plain-English information directly from local schools and neighborhood clinics—no political spin, no confusing jargon. When you treat people with respect and deliver honest facts through voices they actually know in their community, you rebuild trust in real science from the ground up.
KEYWORDS: Digital Media Literacy, Community Hubs, Teacher Resources, Algorithm Accountability
Q4 Pesticides are widely used in food production to help manage pests and support crop yields, but ongoing debates over their safety have raised questions about their long-term use and led to proposals to restrict certain pesticides. What data and evidence will you use to weigh the role of these products in food security against safety concerns when shaping policy on their use in New York agriculture?
On the topic of pesticides and our food supply, we can’t let corporate chemical giants write the rules. If we’re going to weigh food security against public safety, the data I trust will come from independent, peer-reviewed researchers—not industry-funded lobbyists trying to protect their profit margins.
Passing the Birds and Bees Protection Act was a great step, because if we poison our pollinators and our soil, our food supply collapses anyway. But we can’t just ban things and leave independent family farmers out to dry.
If science shows a pesticide is too dangerous for our drinking water or our farmworkers, we have to pull it. But the state has to step up and financially support small local farmers so they can afford to transition to safer pest management without losing their livelihoods. We can protect our food supply by backing family farms and listening to real scientists, not by giving giant agribusinesses a free pass to spray whatever they want.
KEYWORDS: Independent Science, Protect Family Farms, Farmworker Safety, Hold Chemical Giants Accountable
Q5 New York has the second largest international student population of any U.S. state, the majority of which study in STEM fields. The federal government is pursuing largescale changes to student visa approval, including increased visa denials, revoking existing visas, restricting travel from certain countries, and decreasing student visa durations. How, if at all, should New York respond to federal visa changes affecting international STEM students and researchers, and the resulting projected changes in the scientific workforce supply?
When the federal government makes it harder for international students and researchers to get visas, it hurts everyday New Yorkers. Our state’s universities, hospitals, and clean-tech industries rely on top-tier talent from all over the world. Driving these people away doesn’t create local jobs—it just pushes life-saving research and innovation to other countries.
New York can’t just throw up its hands and let bad federal policies gut our scientific workforce.
First, we should create state-funded research fellowships and grants through SUNY and our public institutions to keep international STEM graduates working in New York. Second, the state should partner with our public colleges to provide free legal navigation and visa defense services, so students aren’t left stranded by red tape and arbitrary crackdowns.
When international students come to New York, pay tuition, contribute to our research, and work in our labs, they are a vital part of our working class. We should be making it easier for them to stay and build our future, not harder.
KEYWORDS: Protect International Students, Retain STEM Talent, Fund SUNY Research, Support Working Class
Q6 Extreme weather events are increasingly impacting farmland and food supplies across NY, including up to 30 million dollars in damages to farmer livelihoods. This has prompted the USDA to designate 30 counties in New York as Natural Disaster Areas. What policies, if any, would you support to help farmers adapt to and prepare for increasingly erratic weather?
Waiting around for the federal government to declare a disaster area after the damage is already done isn’t a long-term survival plan. Our local family farms are getting hammered by late frosts, crazy rainstorms, and droughts. They need help preparing for the next storm, not just a loan after their crops are ruined.
We can’t let extreme weather wipe out our local food supply or bankrupt upstate farmers. New York needs to step up with proactive, state-level grants targeted specifically at small and mid-sized family farms—not massive corporate agribusinesses.
We should be giving our local farmers direct financial support to adapt right now. That means the state covering the costs for things like better drainage systems, water storage for droughts, and soil health practices that prevent flooding.
When we help working family farms afford the infrastructure they need to survive this wild weather, we protect our local food supply, keep grocery prices down, and keep our neighbors in business.
KEYWORDS: Support Family Farms, Climate-Resilient Infrastructure, Proactive Relief, Protect Local Food
Q7 Law enforcement agencies across New York have contracted with Flock to install Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) cameras as a public safety tool. The technology is receiving pushback over concerns over privacy and data sharing, resulting in city councilors in Syracuse voting to remove Flock cameras. What are your views on accessibility and utilization of ALPR data by local and federal law enforcement, and what legislation, if any, would you propose governing how ALPR data is collected, stored, shared and retained?
I believe New York should outright ban local governments and police departments from contracting with private surveillance companies like Flock.
Nobody should have their everyday movements tracked and turned into corporate profits just for driving to work, the grocery store, or the doctor. Handing our public infrastructure over to private, out-of-state tech corporations to build an unchecked mass-surveillance network is a direct violation of our basic right to privacy.
If a municipality uses any public camera systems, they must be publicly owned, locally accountable, and subject to strict rules:
-Warrants required: Police must have a judge-signed warrant showing probable cause to access any license plate data. No snooping or fishing expeditions.
-Immediate deletion: Non-flagged data must be permanently erased within 14 days.
-No outside sharing: Zero data sharing with ICE or out-of-state authorities trying to prosecute people for traveling to New York for reproductive or gender-affirming healthcare.
Public safety means protecting constitutional rights, not handing millions in taxpayer dollars to private companies to treat every driver like a suspect.
KEYWORDS: Ban Private Surveillance, Civil Liberties, Privacy Protections, Warrant Requirement
Q8 Smoke from Canadian wildfires in recent summers has pushed New York air quality to unhealthy levels. The long-term consequences, if any, of these wildfires are unknown: Short-term data show a rise in asthma-related emergency department visits during smoke events, though some studies suggest the increase is comparable to that seen on high-pollen days. With extreme wildfire seasons projected to become more frequent as global temperatures rise, what measures, if any, do you think New York should invest in to prepare for future smoke events?
When the sky turned orange from Canadian wildfire smoke, it wasn’t wealthy executives who suffered—they just worked from home with their expensive air purifiers. It was our construction workers, farmworkers, and delivery drivers who were forced to stay outside and breathe it in, along with our kids sitting in older public schools with outdated ventilation.
New York has to get serious about preparing for the next bad fire season. First, we need state funding to massively upgrade HVAC and air filtration systems in our public schools, community centers, and affordable housing complexes. Working-class neighborhoods need guaranteed safe, clean-air shelters.
Second, we need enforceable, strict state regulations to protect our outdoor workforce. If the air quality hits a dangerous level, employers must be mandated to provide N95 masks, extra indoor breaks, and hazard pay or paid time off if conditions are too toxic to work in. We have to protect the working people on the frontlines of this crisis, not just tell them to tough it out.
KEYWORDS: Protect Outdoor Workers, School HVAC Upgrades, Clean Air Infrastructure, Hazard Pay
Q9 New York is the second largest recipient of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Proposed federal budgets would significantly reduce NIH funds going to New York hospitals, universities, and research institutions. Where do you stand on the proposed changes to NIH funding levels, and what steps, if any, would you take to address their potential effect on New York’s research sector?
Gutting NIH funding is a direct attack on New York’s economy and our public health. When the federal government slashes billions from our research hospitals and public universities, they aren’t just hurting scientists—they’re killing thousands of good-paying, local union jobs across the state and stalling life-saving medical breakthroughs.
As a state lawmaker, I won’t just stand by while our SUNY campuses and local hospitals get financially choked out by federal budget games. If the federal government walks away from its responsibility, New York has to step up.
How do we pay for it? By finally making billionaires and mega-corporations pay their fair share. We need to end massive corporate tax giveaways and redirect that money into a state-level Scientific Research Fund to keep our labs running and our researchers employed.
Science and medical research are public goods. We have to protect our public universities and ensure New York remains a place that invests in human health and good jobs, rather than more corporate handouts.
KEYWORDS: Tax the Rich, Protect SUNY Jobs, State Research Fund, Public Good