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Editorials • Viewpoints • Comments '\'•=. Holidale Opening This Saturday, November 27, at 7:30 p.m. Far- mingdale Village Mayor John T. Hallahan will throw a switch lighting the Christmas lights over Main Street of the newly designated \Village of Holidale,\ officially opening the Christmas shopping season. M The case for-pubtefinaiMdwor The stores along Main Street will be open until nine SSJ^Uffi o'clock Saturday night and carolers will create a festive — •—«— -»-- mood along the street amid the holiday decorations overhead and in the stores. The Holidale season idea, sponsored by the Far- mingdale High School Dads Club with the cooperation of the Farmingdale Merchants Association, is designed to make the holiday season more festive and to recapture the spirit of the old fashioned Channukah and Christ- mas. All residents of the Farmingdale area are invited to attend the Official opening ceremonies Saturday night. In fact, we urge all our readers to make every effort to come down to Main Street Saturday night just to show support for the effort being made to please no one else but you. If you must have a good reason for supporting the local downtown shopping area, other than the fact that the local merchant will offer good prices and local service, try this on on for size: If the Village of Far- mingdale shopping center dies as the Bar Harbor center in Massapequa did, you can count on having your local taxes increased to almost double what they are now. The shopping malls killed Massapequa's Bar Harbor center, but the taxes stayed in the same taxing district. If they>kill the Farmingdale shopping district, you will pay the price. Money spent at home in the home district stays at home. Itls your money, if you want it back the choice is up to you. CAPITOL COMMENT Congressman JEROME A. AMBRO Third District When legislation, which I co- sponsored and supported, creating such a sytem of public financing for House and Senate races came up in the recent 94th Congress, a great deal of doubt was expressed over how well our experiment in Presidential public financing was working. The facts and statistics are now in and I believe the advantages of public financing have been proven. In more than 30 primaries and the general election, President- elect Jimmy Carter spent about $35 - million in his successful bid for office. In the general election, he and President Ford received identical amounts in public funds, $21.8 - million, and that was the total, maximum amount they could spend in their head-to- head contest for the Presidency. That's a tremendous amount of money, perhaps even too much. But by way of comparison, four years ago former President Nixon spent more than $61 - million IN THE GENERAL ELECTION ALONE, or almost three times what the candidates spent this year. We all know where a great deal of that money came from. A person would have to be an imbecile or comatose for the past 30 years not to recognize that one can buy elective office. Through the media blitz, the slick ad campaign, the staged media event and hordes of paid cam- paign workers - all tremendously costly undertakings ~ elections can be so overwhelmingly in- fluenced by public relations techniques that they are simply purchased. There's no other way to put it. Individuals and organizations that can provide those types of funds acquire an influence over office holders that is un- democratic and strictly defined by self-interest. A long series of revelations about campaign ill ffc 3© Ae/( YEXECUTir CucO Last week, top representatives of Exxon, Mobil, Shell, Texaco, Gulf and Continental -- the nation's major oil companies and principal bidders for leases in the Atlantic Ocean's Baltimore Canyon -• traveled from Houstpn, New Orleans, Tulsa, Washington and New'York to meet with me in my office in Mineola. The meeting marked the beginning of an extraordinary dialogue, and it bore immediate fruit. All the companies pledged that if and when oil drilling starts in the Atlantic, they will cooperate fully with local government officials in minimizing environmental hazards and in maximizing potential economic benefits for Long Island. Nassau County is still a party to the lawsuit seeking to block off- shore drilling, and I made it clear that I did not intend to withdraw from the suit as Governor Carey has done. But I also recognize reality. Governor Carey's Stye JfanntnaCiale JftoBtj \YOUR COMMUNITY 'NEWSPAPER\ - Established 1920 - 51 Heisser Lane, Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735 Telephone: CHapel 9-0131 * 0170 Publisher Joseph Merendino Editor/Manager . . . Robert J. Starrett Production Mgr Steven Vid Published every Thursday by Island-Wide Publications, inc. Joseph Merendino, President; Steven Vid, Secretary-Treasurer COMPOSITION RESPONSIBILITY This newspaper will not be liable (or errors, appearing in any adver- tising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. By—Lined Articles and Columns are the sole opinions of the writers and do not necessarily represent views of this paper. Second Class Postage at Farm- ingdale Post Office. SUBSCRIPTION RATE: 1 YEAR $5.00 MEMBER: New York Press Assoc. MEMBER: Nassau County Press Assoc. MEMBER: American Newspaper Repre- sentative MEMBER: Natior.al Editorial Assoc. mmmmm J decision to withdraw New York State's support, along with language in a U.S. Court of Ap- peals decision overturning a lower court's injunction against lease sales, raises very serious doubts about our ability to win in court. Add to that the failure of Congress to enact a national energy policy, and our growing national dependence on foreign oil, and you have some of the reasons that prompted me to invite the oil companies to a meeting to work out a kind of detente, a way of living together, if they become our neighbors. Back in 1973, when the Arabs imposed their oil embargo, we were importing 38 percent of all the oil we used, and ll percent of that was coming from Arab countries. Today, we are im- porting 44 percent of our oil, and 22 percent of our imports are from Arab countries. So not only is the nation's energy depen- dency worsening, but we are twice as dependent on Arab oil today as we were three years ago, and twice as vulnerable to another embargo. Three specific goals were accomplished in this first meeting. First, the oil company executives agreed to support my efforts to persuade Congress to change the laws so that state and local governments can get a share of federal lease sale revenues and oil production [Continued on page S] contributions points up a fun- damental flaw in our modern political process - the abject dependence of public officials on these contributions and the inordinate influence of those who can provide them. The entrenched forces in Washington, in both the public and private sectors, don't like public financing because it diminishes their political clout. I believe financing, supported by voluntary taxpayer contributions and not general revenues, as well as financial disclosure by elected officials, guarantees that the public interest overrides special or vested interests. I will support both in the 95th Congress. From Assemblyman Philip Healey The New York State Lottery Commission has announced the details of a new fifty-cent lottery game to distribute the $1.4 million in prize money remaining from the old weekly Colossus lottery game, which was suspended by the Governor last year. Approximately 66 million tickets will be printed for the new game and these tickets will be somewhat different from those now being sold for the instant lottery game. Each fifty-cent ticket will be divided into two parts. On one part, there will be two three-digit numbers. Ticket holders with one winning three-digit number will win $25 dollars. Ticket holders with two winning three-digit numbers will receive $3,000. On the second part of the new fifty-cent ticket a six-digit number will appear. A winning six-digit number will entitle the holder to a prize of at least $5,000 and make the holder eligible for a grand prize drawing expected to be worth more than $500,000. This new fifty-cent lottery game will be in operation for five weeks, beginning November 27, and the current instant lottery game will be suspended during this time span. I would also like to inform you that the present instant lottery game established this year is scheduled to conclude on November 26, 1976. No one can deny that the reformed lottery in New York State was a great success with more than 75 million of the one-dollar instant lottery tickets having already been sold throughout the state. However, any holder of a winning ticket in the instant lottery game will have until November 26,1977 to claim prizes. There will still be a New York State lottery next year, but it will be in a different form. A new game will be established in- volving fifty-cent tickets with a top cash prize of over $500,000. Supervisor JOHN W.BURKE.. REPORTS The New York State Board of Regents recently proposed major changes in the State aid-to-education program that could once again send suburban school taxes soaring in order to bail out the school systems of New York City and other urban areas. The proposals would result in a sharp reduction in state aid to the so-called \wealthier\ districts, such as those in Nassau County, to give more funds to those in thirties. The proposed redistribution would give New York City an additional $42.19 million for 1977-78 and, at the same time, reduce the aid to 37 of 39 school districts in Nassau by $15.7 million, according to estimates made by the State Education Department. Among the hardest hit districta would be Farmingdale, which would lose $2.19 million, and Massapequa with a $1.7 million loss. The Regents also have proposed the elimination of the \save har- 5 B ^?JP n ! w r lon of the curren t aid program, which guaranteed school districts at least the same amount of aid this year as received the previous year despite a lower figure determined by the state-aid formula. The phght of the urban schools is critical, but shifting the problem to the suburbs is no answer. A cut in state aid to suburban school districts would mandate an increase in local property taxes to make up the deficit, and that well has long since gone dry , com P tete overhaul of the entire system of financing education is T 8 TIT*?' U would ** much more Productive for the Legislature to direct its efforts toward a total reform of educational financing than attempt to shore up the present, inadequate system. Please write to your State Legislator and tell him so.
