Taxpayers voicing bailout concerns to representatives

CAPITAL REGION — Capital Region residents are bombarding elected representatives in Washington and telling local candidates running for Congress they do not support the current Wall Street bailout plan, saying they want accountability in return for providing $700 billion in taxpayer money.

“We have received hundreds of calls and e-mails from people on this issue,” said Jess Fassler, chief of staff for Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Hudson. He termed the volume of correspondence above normal.

“Folks are very concerned and they want to make sure it is not a misuse of taxpayer money. People are really paying attention,” Fassler said.

Gillibrand said the bailout package has no accountability, no oversight and does not protect the taxpayers. “It does more for Wall Street than Main Street. My number one priority is to protect the taxpayer, and I do not want upstate New York families paying the price for the greed and excesses of Wall Street,” she said.

Alexander “Sandy” Treadwell, a Republican challenging Gillibrand for the 20th Congressional District seat, did not return a phone call.

Spokesmen for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Charles Schumer, both D-N.Y., also report their offices receiving a high volume of calls.

Schumer spokeswoman Deirdre Murphy said “New Yorkers ... want to make sure that the legislation being hammered out in Congress includes protections for taxpayers and homeowners, reforms this broken system and ensures that there is oversight. Senator Schumer is working day and night to make sure this happens.”

Candidates seeking the open seat in the 21st Congressional District are hearing similar concerns, they said.

“Some people are worried about the bailout plan because it is happening too fast,” said Beau Duffy, spokesman for candidate Paul Tonko, a Democrat. “They are nervous about it and are asking why should they have to pay to bail these people out,” Duffy said.

Jim Buhrmaster, Republican candidate for the 21st District, said people he has talked to want to hold accountable the CEOs of the firms responsible for the meltdown in financial markets.

“They do not want to go on protecting these people who have been in charge, who allowed it to happen and who had knowledge it would happen,” Buhrmaster said. “They need to be held accountable. That is the least we should expect from them.”

Buhrmaster said he has also heard from the local banking community. His family is associated with First National Bank of Scotia.

He said small banks are worried the government will come up with a plan that will hurt them. “We stand by the small community banks and we want to make sure they are held harmless,” Buhrmaster said.

Public concerns with the bailout plan appear to cross party lines. Two residents of the Capital Region, Debra Dodd of Glenville, a self-described “anti-Bush” liberal Democrat, and Bill Zilberman of Niskayuna, a Conservative, said they oppose the initially proposed bailout plan, but for different reasons.

Dodd called the plan a travesty. “I am alarmed as a citizen. I don’t want them to vote for the bailout as it is.”

Added Dodd: “I feel it feeds the greed of Wall street. Unless changes are made, the only people who will suffer are my generation and my children.”

Dodd said the current plan gives too much power to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and does not do enough to punish the leaders of failed Wall Street companies. “A lot of the CEOs who ran their companies into the ground already made their millions. They should be made to pay it back,” she said.

Zilberman said he sees injustice in the current plan. “On the face of it, it strikes me as wrong. It is our money. If people mismanage companies, I don’t understand why we have to bail them out, especially when they get millions of dollars in compensation.”