Nicole Malliotakis

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Mike DeCillis, the Democratic nominee for Congress, told more than 50 residents during a town hall Sunday that Social Security faces insolvency by 2032 and warned elected officials are avoiding difficult conversations about its future.

A fourth-generation Staten Islander, DeCillis, highlighted his 35 years in public service as a paramedic, NYPD officer, special education teacher and chief of staff in the state Assembly before outlining a series of proposals to strengthen the program.

DeCillis is challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis in New York’s 11th Congressional District, which includes Staten Island and part of Brooklyn and is the only New York City congressional seat currently represented by a Republican.

Speaking at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 22 in Sunnyside, the 55-year-old DeCillis said failing to act could reduce benefits by as much as 25%, hitting retirees, people with disabilities and low-income Americans the hardest.

“Social Security will be insolvent by 2032. That is factual,” DeCillis said. “Any person, any elected that is not discussing this actively and is just saying, ‘I will protect your Social Security,’ and that’s the end of the sentence, needs to have another sentence after that.”

His plan includes raising the current $184,000 cap on wages subject to Social Security taxes, increasing taxes on higher-income earners and gradually raising payroll tax contributions over the next 30 years.

He said he opposes increasing the retirement age, arguing Americans are living shorter lives. He also criticized recent immigration enforcement actions, claiming they accelerated the program’s projected insolvency by reducing payroll tax revenue from immigrant workers.

“One of the most not looked at things when we’re talking about Social Security is the fact that immigrants pay a significant amount of money into our Social Security trust every year,” DeCillis said.

To illustrate the importance of Social Security, DeCillis opened his remarks with the story of Staten Island photographer Alice Austen, who documented Victorian-era New York and immigrant communities before losing her fortune in the 1929 stock market crash.

Austen was later declared indigent and sent to the Farm Colony, a fate he said reflected life before Social Security created a financial safety net for older Americans.

“We had an entire generational population, consistently after one after the other, who ended their lives when they were no longer working,” he said. “There was no health insurance. There was no safety net. There was no income.”

Turning to the campaign, DeCillis accused Malliotakis of promising to protect Social Security without offering specifics, asking attendees whether she had explained how she would do so.

“Is she talking about it? No. Does she say she’s going to save your Social Security?” he asked as audience members responded affirmatively. “Did she have a follow-up?”

Veterans’ issues take center stage

The second half of the gathering focused on veterans’ issues and featured remarks from Dr. Mecca Nelson, a Gold Star spouse whose husband, Army Sgt. Mario Nelson, a Haitian immigrant and Army reservist, was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade while deployed to Iraq in 2006.

Now an advocate and vice chair of the New York City Veteran Advisory Board, Nelson said military families often struggle to receive support after a service member’s death.

“We as families of veterans are often forgotten about,” Nelson said. “Our children, the parents. And even the spouses, they are forgotten about.”

Building on Nelson’s remarks, DeCillis criticized Malliotakis for not signing the discharge petition for the Major Richard Star Act, legislation that would allow disabled veterans to receive both their full military retirement pay and disability benefits without one offsetting the other.

He said his veterans agenda would focus on rebuilding the Department of Veterans Affairs workforce after staffing reductions, ending offsets between military pensions and disability compensation and expanding mental health services to combat veteran suicide and homelessness.

DeCillis also argued Staten Island veterans face a financial disadvantage because the borough is grouped with New Jersey when housing allowances are calculated, resulting in lower GI Bill housing benefits than veterans receive elsewhere in New York City.

“We spend an awful lot of intense time and resources on deployment and then an absolute absence of care or focus or attention after they’ve returned,” DeCillis said.

Campaign uphill battle

Several attendees said they left impressed by DeCillis’ command of policy issues but wondered whether his campaign has enough visibility across the district.

Ann Marie McDonnell, 71, of Great Kills, and Betsy Greene, 73, of Randall Manor, said DeCillis “does his homework,” particularly on Social Security, but said they worry too few voters know who he is because of the campaign’s limited resources.

They also pointed to what they described as a lack of financial support from the Democratic Party, saying it has made it difficult to build name recognition, particularly on Staten Island’s South Shore.

DeCillis acknowledged that national and state Democratic organizations have devoted few resources to the race, forcing his campaign to rely largely on grassroots volunteers and small-dollar donations.

“Nobody cares about this district outside of New York. They don’t. They have written you off a long time ago,” he said. “The only way that we’re going to combat that is that we need to put in 10 times the amount of work.”

Asked about his top priority if elected, DeCillis said restoring Congress’ ability to function would come first, arguing that meaningful reforms to Social Security, Medicare and other programs cannot be enacted without a functioning legislature.

“If I want to fix Social Security, if I want to fix Medicaid, Medicare, if I want to pass any usable legislation, if I want bipartisanship, Congress has to function first,” he said.

Malliotakis response

Malliotakis told the Advance/SILive.com that Congress is on the verge of passing a comprehensive package of more than 60 veterans bills, including the Major Richard Star Act and legislation to improve health care, mental health services, caregiver support and benefits for veterans, widows and Gold Star families.

“Any attempt to pass the Major Richard Star Act alone would be shortsighted and a disservice to veterans when we can do so much more by passing the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act to address a multitude of other veterans’ needs at the same time,” she said.

On Social Security, Malliotakis Communications Director Anthony Raisley pushed back on criticism from DeCillis, saying, “the Congresswoman is not only protecting Social Security, she drafted the legislation that became law that refunded over 35 million seniors the taxes they paid on Social Security last year.”