By REBECCA WEBSTER

For the C-S-E

Come Nov. 6, residents across Montgomery County will be placing their ballots for a slew of local elections.

And one of those will be for New York State’s new 111th Assembly District, which includes all of Montgomery County, most of Schenectady County, and a couple of towns in Albany County.

Schenectady County Legislator Angelo Santabarbara will face off against Minden town Supervisor Thomas Quackenbush on the ballot, both hoping to win local votes.

Santabarbara, a civil engineer from Rotterdam who has been on the Schenectady County Legislature since 2007, said he spent his five years in the legislature working mainly on “unified economic development” putting a special emphasis on local job creation.

An important piece of the development, he said, is sitting down at the table with economic development organizations, chambers, and others who can market cities to businesses to figure out how to revive the cities and make a plan of what businesses to attract.

“We have a lot to offer,” he said. “It’s a matter of going after what makes sense for businesses.”

Santabarbara said he feels people want to come back to the cities, and if money is invested in these places, businesses will come in and feed off of one another.

Quackenbush, a former assessor and mayor from Fort Plain and supervisor of the town of Minden since 2002, said he is enthusiastic about the idea of regional economic development.

Last year, after being appointed to the Mohawk Valley Economic Development Regional Team, Quackenbush said the team worked hard to obtain about $60 million in economic development money for the region.

“When it comes to regional economic development, we need to look at that in a sense of consolidation, too,” he said. “We no longer can continue down the path that we are, we need to consolidate.”

It’s been done at the county level here, he said.

He said it’s important to take government back out of the equation.

“The private sector understands how to create jobs,” he said. “As a county, as a governmental body, we shouldn’t be in that business.”

Economic development and job retention is a regional strategy, he said, and he feels that it’s working in the state.

Santabarbara, who made an unsuccessful bid for the Assembly seat in 2010, also mentioned that it will be important to establish back-to-work programs, focused on training those going back to the work force.

Both candidates also went on to mention the need for tax reform and mandate relief.

“I believe that for the people of the 111th district, I believe that the real property tax system is antiquated, out of date,” Quackenbush said. “We really need to find a different structure.”

He feels there needs to be another way, as opposed to “taxing people’s American dream, which is their home.”

Sixty-nine percent of real property tax is school tax, he said, and if even one tax was taken out it would help.

As a former assessor, Quackenbush said he understands this system well and sees the inequities involved in it, and that’s one of the reasons he got into politics in the first place.

Santabarbara has also been pushing for changes to taxes and state mandates, he said.

“We have to start to say no and stop unfunded mandate reliefs,” he said.

It forces elimination of services and passes the cost on to property owners, he explained.

“It’s got to stop; somebody’s got to say no.”

Santabarbara said he was one of the only legislatures in 2007 to vote no to raise taxes, and that it’s all about “protecting the taxpayer.”

These are things he wants to do at the state level, he said.

An additional focus for Quackenbush is on flood relief, specifically on mitigation, he said.

“We need to really take a better look at what we can do to stop it,” he said.

And Santabarbara also mentioned his distaste for regulations and fees that hurt businesses, and in exchange will show up on the grocery bill which will hurt families, he said.

“Bottom line, it’s bad for business, it’s bad for families, and that’s why I’m opposed to it,” he said.

Throughout the race for the 111th Assembly seat, the campaigns have at times gotten heated toward each candidate.

One mid-September news release from Quackenbush’s campaign expressed called for, what was referred to as, Santabarbara’s past support from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

And an early October news release from Santabarbara’s campaign expressed called out, what his campaign called, Quackenbush’s former votes for property tax increases.

But even with the heat, both candidates said they are just hoping to work hard to benefit the county residents.

“For me to promise anything other than to work hard would be a false promise,” Quackenbush said. “I can only say that I’m going to fight like hell.”

He said he understands what it’s like to be on this end of the district and has been representing the county well for 17 years.

Santabarbara’s hope is to put people back to work and make sure that the local people are put first.

“I’m running on my record,” he said. “I’m saying that I’m going to protect the taxpayer, and I’ve been doing that.”