The super PAC, New Yorkers for Independent Action (NYIA), has no upstate donors and is financed by a small number of wealthy corporate interests and hedge fund millionaires from Connecticut and New York City.
“The Wall Street millionaires and billionaires who are funding this super PAC couldn’t care less about the North Country,” Assemblywoman Russell said. “I’d be surprised if they could even find the North Country. But suddenly they’re real interested in who folks in the North Country should have as their representative in the Assembly.”
Assemblywoman Russell noted that NYIA has invested over $100,000 in television ads to defeat her and assailed the television ads purchased by the PAC as blatantly untrue. “The ad misleads people to believe that I support a huge pay raise for legislators. That’s a lie. I’m against any legislative pay raise," Assemblywoman Russell said. “Always have been.”
The super PAC is pushing for a controversial Education Tax Credit, which would give tax breaks to wealthy donors who bankroll private schools. Assemblywoman Russell has unrelentingly fought against the credit, noting that it generously rewards donors who can afford to give large sums of money to private schools at the expense of public school kids. The credit would be funded by diverting state budget driven public school aid to private school patrons.
Notable donors to NYIA include Thomas McInerney, a general partner at investment firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe and co-founder and CEO of Connecticut private equity firm Bluff Point Associates, who contributed nearly $800,000; Anthony de Nicola, co-president of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, who with his wife Christie gave nearly $600,000; and Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton and heiress to over $33.7 billion, who resides in Arkansas and contributed $450,000.
The PAC has targeted representatives who have been vocal opponents of their plan to move public school funds to private school donors in the form of tax credits of as much as $1 million.
“I’ve never backed down from fighting for our families and helping our kids get the education they deserve,” Russell added. “The super PAC’s donors are trying to sell their multimillion-dollar tax scheme as an education program when it’s really just another tax break for the very rich. The public school funds that would be diverted to their tax cuts are the foundation our kids’ futures rest on.”
“I will never put that at risk and I will never back down from this fight,” Assemblywoman Russell said. “The millionaires trying to buy our kids’ school aid have it all wrong. We’re not for sale.”
“I’ve never backed down from fighting for our families and helping our kids get the education they deserve,” Russell added. “The super PAC’s donors are trying to sell their multimillion-dollar tax scheme as an education program when it’s really just another tax break for the very rich. The public school funds that would be diverted to their tax cuts are the foundation our kids’ futures rest on.”
“I will never put that at risk and I will never back down from this fight,” Assemblywoman Russell said. “The millionaires trying to buy our kids’ school aid have it all wrong. We’re not for sale.”
