Episode Transcript
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Good morning everyone, and welcome toLife Happens Radio, your weekly radio broadcast
that brings you ideas, thoughts,and plans to successfully retire, take care
of yourself, your spouse, yourfamily, put a plan in place to
make sure that what you have workeda lifetime for is protected for you.
And today we are very lucky tohave a special guest with us in studio,
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Senator Jacob Ashby. And Senator Ashbyrepresents the forty third District, which
is parts of Rensselaer County, Washingtonand Albany Counties, so a lot of
you listening will be his constituents.So that's a good thing for you,
Jake, and we're very happy tohave him because he is an up and
coming rising star in the New YorkState Senate. We've had some opportunities to
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work with Senator Ashby on a numberof different projects in a forum that we'll
talk about that just occurred last week. So with that, Senator Ashby,
good morning, Good Morning Loop.And it is Memorial Day weekend, So
one of the things that we tryto do is commemorate the national holidays that
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the reasons that we're here and thereasons that we're all here and that we
have this opportunity to enjoy a beautifulweekend, to have barbecues, to have
an opportunity to be with our families, and to not have to be running
for shelter, to not have tobe in a place where we fear on
a day to day basis that we'regoing to have some catastrophe before us.
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And a lot of that is dueto the service of the people that have
come before and Memorial Day and SenatorAshby, I'm gonna call you Jake,
if that's okay, that's fine,Jake. You were in the service.
Why don't you tell our listeners alittle bit about that? Sure? So
I served in the United States ArmyReserves for eight years. I deployed to
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Iraq and Dial Province in two thousandand eight, and I spent a little
time in my Lie Lowie, Africain twenty eleven, and then I deployed
to Coast Province, Afghanistan in twentyeleven twenty twelve, and I was a
civil affairs officer. And so thejobs that I had, the taskings that
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I had kind of varied. InMalawi, it was a humanitarian mission,
it was a medical, medically basedmission and threat level was low, so
we were playing clothes a lot oftimes, working out of the embassy and
going into the villages and kind ofliaising with local leaders there, making sure
that the services that we were goingto be provided that we were maximizing them
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and that the communication was on point, and making sure that when our supplies
ran out, that there wasn't goingto be a riot and that it was
going to run smoothly. So thatwas the large portion of our mission while
we were there, And when Iwas in Coast Province, Afghanistan, I
was a civil Affairs team chief.I was attached to an airborne infantry company
and we patrolled with the platoons everyday, sometimes was more than more than
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once a day. Worked with localgovernment leaders there, tribal leaders there,
trying to help the good guys andget the bad guys, and simplistic terms,
well sometimes it's hard to tell themapart. Yes, yes, certainly.
And you know, I got mystart as a medical officer. I
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was commissioned as a medical officer.So when I deployed to Iraq in two
thousand and eight, that was thatwas my role there. But it's interesting
story is that when I graduated fromhigh school in the late nineties. They
disqualified me at MEPs because I hadflat feet and a heartmorm and I got
a waiver for one but not forthe other. And I kind of said,
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well, I guess this is notin the cars for me. And
when I was a senior in college, nine to eleven occurred, and you
know, I just made up mymind that you know, I'm going to
serve. I don't care in whatcapacity, I'm going to do something.
So I went back same result.I wrote my Congressman, Mike McNulty at
the time was my congressman, starteda congressional inquiry and ended up going through,
but it took a number of years. So you know, again,
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every chance I get it, youknow, I want to thank the congressman
for not giving up on that andrecognizing the importance of service. He has
helped a lot of people. Hecertainly has. Yeah, And it's great
when our legislators take that kind ofan interest and actually help their constituents,
as I know you do. Yes, So it's a good model, good
role model. Let's flip it over, because you are also the ranking member
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of the Senate Committee on Veterans HomelandSecurity and Military Affairs. Yes, and
that's a very important committee. Obviously, they're federal committees. This is the
New York State Senate committee. Talkabout what that committee is looking at and
the veterans that have given life limband sacrificed, What types of services and
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what types of things that you're lookingat from that committee perspective. Well,
my focus right now is really tryingto provide resources for the Department of Veterans.
Services in New York State was recentlyelevated from a division to a department.
So before a lot of the servicesthat the division would provide were run
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through you know, if there wasan educational benefit, it would go through
the Department of Education. If itwas run through health, that had to
do with a with a health benefit, right. So what we're trying to
do right now is centralize that throughthe department and give them the resources that
they need, whether it's funding,whether it's the human infrastructure that they need,
the staffing to provide these resources.That's really been a main focus for
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us. And for the most part, it's a bipartisan it's a bipartisan committee.
Sometimes the partisanship can heighten and spikeand other committees as on people.
I'm sure people are aware, butveterans tend to be pretty bipartisan. I
just get disappointed and sometimes because Idon't feel like there's much of a priority.
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The bipartisanship is there, but theyneed to remain a priority, not
just on Memorial Day, not juston Veterans Day, but throughout the year
because of their willingness to sacrifice.Yeah. I've talked to your colleague John
McDonald, who's been on the showa few times, and we've talked about
the service and the way that thegovernment treats veterans and the things that could
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be done so much better. Andyou didn't start in the Senate. Is
most people don't start in the Senate. You start in the Assembly. Correct.
I started out as a Renster CountyLegislature for legislator for a brief time
and then went into the state Assembly. Yes. Yeah, And I have
the years here from twenty eighteen totwenty two. And as part of that
work, you did work on elevating, as you mentioned, what was just
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a division into a cabinet level stateagency, and that process is not easy,
but you must have been able tobuild a good coalition to get that
done did and it was a Itwas a pretty colossal effort for for many
of us spent a couple of yearstraveling the state talking about this idea,
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meeting with different veterans groups from aroundthe area, and building a bipartisan effort
on this. The chair in theAssembly at the time was assembly Woman DDE
Barrett, and who represented part ofColumbia County. So Dedie and I,
you know, knew each other andI can tell you and I know she
will not disagree with this. Wedid not agree on many things politically,
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but we we developed a good workingrelationship and saw this as a priority.
And you know, I want tothank assembly Woman Barrett for really making this
a priority and drafting legislation and gettingthis included in the budget a few years
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back. It was it wasn't asingular effort. It wasn't just me.
It was it was many people workingin concert, and we traveled from Niagara
County to Nasau County throughout the statereally trying to raise awareness on this.
And there is a disparity. Thereis a disparity in terms of resources and
how New York devotes them to theirveterans we have three times the veterans that
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New Jersey has, and we spendhalf the money that New Jersey does.
That's that's an amazing statistic. Yeah, and why isn't that more publicly known?
You know, we're trying to getit out there, you know,
we're trying to talk about, youknow, where this is going through.
And I'm i am including you know, the programs that go through other state
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agencies on that on that figure.So it's not you know, I'm not
I'm not nickel and diming here orexcluding anything. I'm talking about it as
an aggregate New York state. Thosethose are the those are the expenditures.
And with the division becoming a department, we also have the ability to garner
federal funding at that point. Sure, and I know both Senate from New
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York are strong supporters of veterans affairsand try to get that money back into
the state, which is the biggame to bring the federal dollars back to
New York. Speaking of federal I'vehad Chris Gibson on the show a number
of times, who has been thecongressman from this district and is right now
not back in politics, but Chriswas a great leader in twenty year military
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career active duty, seven tours ofactive duty. We've had him talk about
his military experience and talk about hisbook. He has a book, Rally
Point, where he used all thatmilitary experience to really fashion his career in
politics and leadership. But he waspart of a group that I'm part of
and I have been since it wasincepted probably twelve years ago, now called
no Labels and No Labels has somethingcalled a Problem Solvers Caucus in Washington,
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which is I think now up tosixty four legislators, thirty two Republicans,
thirty two Democrats, and they meeton a regular basis to try to find
common ground and develop bipartisan legislation.Yes, you're in a state that is
deep blue, and his Democratic Assembly, it's Democratic Senate, it's the Democratic
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Executive governor hocal, and you're aminority member. So finding consentences is almost
necessary to get anything done. Buthow is it right now? What is
your experience in the New York Statelegislature bringing the two sides together. Well,
you know, I want to thankyou for mentioning Congressman Gibson first.
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I mean, he's just been atremendous friend and mentor to me in a
lot of ways, and a brilliant, brilliant leader, and I miss him
being involved me too, And Ihope, I hope someday he decides to
come back and whatever capacity is appropriatefor her. I'll share with you this
story because he had announced his hewas forming a committee to run for governor,
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and a lot of people got veryexcited. And I had him sitting
in that chair and he was talkingabout this is right before he pulled the
plug, and he was talking aboutall the things that he was going to
do and how he was gonna runhis campaign. And meant I had my
check book out, and people hadtheir check books out, and they wanted
to get behind Chris Gibson. Butfor a lot of reasons, personal and
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otherwise. He sat there for anhour and it was just I felt so
good. I was on such arush and such a high hearing him talk
and listening to his ideas on leadershipand on bringing the state and the country
forward. And unfortunately he went adifferent direction for all of us. It
would have been a great thing.But he went to Siena College and did
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a great job there, and theend is in good stead right now due
to his leadership in that regard.But yeah, Chris is an amazing person
leader. He is also from ColumbiaCounty, yes, and I am as
well, so we talk about that. But yeah, his experiences in yours
in the military and then into politicsare somewhat similar. They are, and
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he's you know, I'm I willsay this right away, I'm no Chris
Gibson. I mean, when youlook at his bio and what he's been
through and really how he's comported himselfthroughout whatever endeavor, whether it's political,
educational, military, it's academic,it's just incredible, an incredible, incredible
leader. And I've really benefited alot from his mentorship and friendship over the
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years, and still I still leanon him today. Just a tremendous,
tremendous guy. He did good fora farm boy from kinderhood, which is
where he started. Yeah, allright, we're gonna take a short break.
I'm Lou Piro, your host forthis morning. I am in studio
with Senator Jacob Ashby. We're gonnatalk about the legislature, the legislative session.
We have a budget, albeit abit late, but it's there.
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What's it mean for you, Whatdoes the New York State budget mean for
you? And what's going on inNew York that we all need to be
aware of and in some cases concernedabout. I'm Lou Piro. This is
Life Happens. We'll be right backafter this short break. Welcome back,
This is Life Happens Radio. I'mLou Piro. I'm in studio with Senator
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Jacob Ashby, and I hope youare out there enjoying the beautiful day with
the radio on and it's Memorial Dayweekend. I hope you enjoy your family,
your friends, pay tribute to thosewho gave their lives and for those
who have sacrificed and for those thatare currently sacrificing all around the globe to
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keep us safe at home. AndMemorial Day weekend is a special time.
It's a time to reflect and it'stime to celebrate. Celebrate your family,
celebrate life and get out there enjoy. Hope you have a great picnic for
Memorial Day and enjoy all of theactivities that are right here in our own
capital region. A beautiful place tobe and to live at this point in
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time. And we were talking toSenator Ashby about his experience in the military,
which we covered a little bit,and his friendship with Senator for Congressman
Gibson, Chris Gibson, who's beena guest frequently on our show. But
I also talked about the New YorkState Legislature and a lot of people think
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that the legislature has become somewhat dysfunctional, somewhat lopsided. And I am a
Republican, I will put that onthe air, or at least I was
until I went independent, and nowI'm a registered independent actually for variety of
reasons. But right now in theNew York State Legislature, it is all
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blue. So you are on theRepublican side, holding the fort and representing
us there. And I gotta tellyou, downstate is a whole different ballgame
when the legislators are out there fromBrooklyn, Bronx, because it's a whole
different mentality. So talk a littlebit about your experience in what's going on
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right now. Yeah, it definitelyis very lopsided. I think both parties
are fractured right now. But wereally lack in New York a balance in
any sense of the word. Youknow, when you think about the power
that the Democrats have. They havethe City Council in New York, they
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have the Mayor's office, they havethe governor's mansion, they have supermajorities in
both houses in the state legislature.And I think most people when we look
at polling suggest or say that thestate is not headed in the right direction,
which would make you think that maybewe need more representation from the other
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side, a better balance of policyand direction than where we are currently headed.
And I know, and I andI believe that many of my colleagues
recognize that. But there there arefractures within both parties that impede cooperation and
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really bipartisanship at even some you know, basic levels, and sometimes it takes
a lot of oxygen out of theroom. But there's always, I believe
that there's always the possibility uh toimprove. There's always the impossibility, there's
always the possibility to really generate anddemonstrate a functioning government for the right for
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the right reasons, not for partyreasons, but for you know, the
benefit of public service, and youknow the ideals and traditions that this country
was founded on, and you knowto that to that point, you know,
we've been able to find areas ofagreement, even in issues as polarizing
as immigration. You we wrote legislationmany years ago that would help provide a
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pathway to citizenship for veterans who haveundocumented family members who are here, and
it passed both houses of the legislatureon more than one occasion unanimously. So
even those who are polarized on bothsides, we all found agreement on this
issue and recognize the need for it. And I think if we can do
that and replicate it, we willbe able to come together more often.
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And you know, veterans are justone example of where we are able to
find this, but I believe it'sa powerful one because of their willingness to
serve and their sacrifice and what wesee their families go through. It can
drive consensus. And you know,I know that we will be able to,
you know, one day, kindof get that legislation over the over
the finish line. But we dosee dysfunction, no doubt. Yeah,
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And up until a few years ago, I'm not sure when it flipped,
but the Senate, the New YorkState Senate was Republican. Yes, And
our firm does a lot of eldercare elder law work. And we work
very closely with the Senate Health Committeeand Senator Hannon Camp Hannon who was the
chair of the Senate Health Committee forabout twenty six years, and he was
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a voice of reason and when thingswere going too far left, he brought
them back center. Yeah, andthat was a balance. And they say
the best legislator is a divided legislaturewhere you have one party controlling both houses.
I one hundred percent agree. Ithink you would find dysfunction whether you're
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in a blue dominated state or reddominated state. You really and the aspiration
to take a majority everywhere right shouldn'tnecessarily be the primary goal. The primary
goal should be to work together toget the job done. That's that's what's
most important. You know. Ican understand why people would want that at
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this point because we've been in theminority for an extended period of time and
people are unhappy with the direction ofthe state. I mean, something is
as obvious as tax checkofs is somethingthat we're addressing right now, where you
have a number of tax dollar donations, right, taxpayer donations going towards veterans
programming, going towards als research,leukemia that sort of stuff that haven't been
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dispersed in six years, according toa ConTroll or, which is crazy.
It is crazy, and I thinkwhen you hear something like that, it's
easy to lose faith in the governmentand their ability to do simple tasks.
But it's not to say that itcannot be recovered. Right, this is
we have agency over this, andwe can navigate this. We just have
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to decide to make working together apriority over other things. So we have
government on three levels, right,you have federal, state, and local
and local comes down even further thecounty, city, town village. So
we have so many layers of government. Yes, it's incredible. And one
of my friends is Peter Crummy whois currently the supervisor in the town colony.
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And Peter sat right in that seata short time ago, and he
does a great presentation on the fourthof July on Troundell and the reading of
the Declaration of Independence, and hedoes part of that on the show.
We'll hopefully have him back and gethim back for July fourth this year.
But to hear him talk about thefunctions of county government and the fact that
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they had a sewer problem. Hespent the whole weekend in the sewer plant
with the guys in the hard hats, trying to figure out how to rectify
this situation because it affected his town. Yes, and the vital functions of
county government, the vital functions ofcity government. And you've got police,
you've got fire, all of thoselocal things. Yeah, the state has
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I think two large budget items healthcareand education, and and those are kind
of the two big tickets for NewYork I would agree. And Peter Crummy
is the real deal. Oh,I mean he's he's he's been around for
a minute and is supremely dedicated topublic service and leadership in his position.
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That went to law school with Peter, he's I met I met him many
years ago when he was campaigning forjudge and instantly kind of hitded off and
just a great guy. I alwayshave enjoyed being around Peter. But yes,
the two big items that you tendto see most and hear about in
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the budget health care and education,school aid and medicaid. You know,
those those two things tend to driveconversations in the in the budget and where
to get to healthcare in the secondhalf of the show, and and my
favorite topic long term care, whichis in my estimation, over the next
thirty years, the largest problem thatNew York State has because the numbers in
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education are actually either steady or maybeeven declining a little bit, but the
numbers of seniors who are going toneed care is going to balloon over the
next thirty years. I agree withyou. I would say the number one
problem that we're facing is outward migration, and healthcare is certainly a part of
that. Howard migration of young people. Everybody, but seniors are staying home
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and coming back right see when theyneed care. I think many of them
if their support if your support systemis here right and you don't have the
means, you are more likely tostay. But if you have the means
and you're able, you're seeing moreand more people go. People with young
families, you know, not snowbirdswho are just going away in February,
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but you know people who have kidsin elementary school who were you know,
getting their start right now they're gone. They're leaving, and they're also taking
with them, if they're able,their parents, their relatives, their support
systems. We see generations going andit's just a it's a huge problem for
the state it is, and theworkforce issues will get to a little bit
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because they permeate all of the differentareas, but in particular healthcare. The
job shortages in healthcare are just astounding, the number of positions that are unfilled,
and there is no labor pool.You know, they want to give
people a dollar or two rays.There's nobody there to accept it. Right,
It's not it's in my mind,it's not an acceptable solution. It's
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really kind of a superficial attempt toaddress the issue, putting a band aid
on an artery. And we're goingto be back after the news. Stay
with us. I'm in a studiowith Senator Jacob Ashby. Hope you're having
a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Wewill be right back after the news.
And we are back. I'm Lupiro, your host for this morning Life Happens
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Radio, your weekly radio broadcast thattries to bring you fresh ideas, thoughts,
and things relevant to you. Andwhat's more relevant to you than what's
going on right here in Albany,New York. And the New York State
government, the legislature of the Assembly, of the Senate, the Governor's office,
the state agencies, all the variouslevels of state government. We are
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talking about all the things that arebad and some of the things that are
good, and the ability to reachconsensus so that we can have good,
solid legislation going forward. And Jake, We're going to talk about a number
of different areas, but I wantto talk about taxation in New York because
I am an elder law attorney,which involves Medicaid, but I'm also a
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tax attorney where I'm counseling all ofmy clients on how to beat the tax
man or at least minimize their taxesto the legal level, not to waste
money on taxes, but to paytheir fair share. But in a lot
of cases the fair share ain't fair. So in New York we have income
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tax, property tax, sales tax. So you and we play the Beatles
song here. I don't know ifit'll be on but it's the tax Man,
and the line I love from thatsong is if you want to walk,
we'll tax your feet. So revolver. Yeah. And so in New
York we are a tax state.I think Massachusetts is probably right there with
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us, Connecticut maybe, but NewYorkers are fleeing New York. And you
mentioned this in the first half ofthe show, and a lot of my
clients we help them with the residencyaudit. How do I cut the trail
from New York State so that Ican avoid my state income tax? And
if I'm in we're in New YorkCity, you have a New York City
income tax. So that's a bigissue for New York. And balancing the
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budget is a big issue for NewYork. So how do you with with
a government that we have, let'ssay, how do you reconcile those two
things? How do you put theservices in place that people want a need
and still have a budget that allowstaxes to be under control. Well that's
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a tough question. It's not questionfor the ages, I mean, and
I don't expect you to be ableto come up with an answer to that
question. But part of the solution, I think is what we were talking
about earlier, which is a balancedapproach right right, And so far we
have not you know, we havenot seen that, and we've just seen
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a ballooning with Medicaid in particular andhealthcare and really a misplacement of priorities.
And I think when there's not alot of accountability going on, when you
don't have that check to where balancegets you political check, that is,
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you can tend to balloon out ofcontrol, which is where I think we
are right now. And you know, to your point in terms of in
terms of taxes, you know,we do have legislation that I believe would
help with this issue. And NewYork is one of the few states that
still requires counties to participate in Medicaid. Yes, so, and it's an
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extremely onerous part of the county budget. For most counties, it's roughly eighty
percent of their budget is their Medicaidcontribution. And that I've had my good
friend Steve Aquario on the show.Yes, And this is the head of
the New York State Association of Counties, and we've talked about this and he
was successful in getting the county sharecapped. Yes, which John McDonald is
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very quick to talk about, andthe amount of money that it has saved
counties. Right with the Medicaid budgetrising, that puts it over to the
state side. Yes, And mostof the time, I think most people
will be able to recognize the correlationbetween the Medicaid contribution and property taxes and
if we can shift that burden backonto the state like virtually nearly every other
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state in the country. It canprovide a level of accountability that I don't
think that we've seen in New YorkState, and that can help infuse and
really demonstrate better priorities. Right.It can illustrate better priorities. It can
illuminate better priorities that I think thestate because they just find ways annually to
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address these issues superficially with new taxes, raising taxes and other areas, instead
of saying this is our responsibility,these are our residents. We know that
we're going to get federal funding forthis, but we need to be good
stewards of these recent versus rather thanjust making promises we can't keep and prioritizing
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political agenda's overquality of care and accessibilitywithout looking at cost. That's been a
huge issue for a long time,and that brings up one of my pet
peeves, one of my gripes,and that is we are the only state
that has a governor develop a budget, issue it in January and pass it
by April first, and you're talkingabout a two hundred and thirty seven billion
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dollar budget, which is complex ashell. Yeah, and having to negotiate
and deal with every piece of legislationwithin that timeframe. There is absolutely no
way that you can. But thenonce the budget passes, it's well,
budget seasons closed. Let's get onto next year the other priorities. Yeah.
Yeah, And so a little reformwould be maybe to move that deadline
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realistically, act to June first,and allow the legislature time to analyze these
bills allow And I think the BudgetOffice does a pretty good job. I
think the Controller does a really goodjob. I think overall Controller's Office has
been a good thing for New YorkState over the years. They've done some
pretty good stuff. I don't knowwhat your feeling is on that. No,
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I'm in agreement. Uh, comefrom Anapoly has done, has done
a great job, and many ofthe things that we've taken issue with have
come from his office, in hisin his reporting. So they do the
work they do. They dig in, they look at numbers, they crunch
numbers, they look at the details, and they communicate when we when we
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reach out to them, they getback to us. It's a good it's
a good relationship. But extending thebutt, extending the budget deadline, I
think giving more time and more ofthe ability to talk about these issues.
You know, if it weren't justthree people in a room, if it
were you know, more of usincluded three men in a room. But
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we can't say that anymore. No, no, which is a good thing.
But you still only have three voices, right, and there's a lot
more And there's one voice that tendsto be much louder than the other because
the governor, the executive has hasa pulpit. Correct, Yeah, but
getting back to the point of balance, right, where's where's the check on
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that? Where's the rest of therepresentation? Right in New York State?
Difficult to find its way into thatroom. And again, I feel like
if we had that opportunity we coulddo that. I think you might run
into some political opposition to that.Because the primaries have been moved back right
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into June. That would be thatwould be a tough ask for I think
a lot of the political leadership.But I agree, more time to talk
about this and come to agreement andconsensus. Where is the public hearing on
the on the budget? Yeah,where are the people in the budget process?
The Finance Committee does hold and thecommittees do hold public hearings and some
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of them do go pretty lengthy,and some of them are unrelated to the
budget. You know, we seethose held throughout the year. But to
your point, we could be doingmore with that, and there could be
greater input than we're receiving right now. Two hundred and thirty seven billion dollars
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is a lot of money. WhenI first got elected in twenty eighteen to
the state legislature, I believe itwas right around one point fifty so just
since that time, it's grown tremendously, and Medicaid has been the biggest,
the biggest part of that. Andgovernment can't just print money, no noment
federal government can, but the stategovernment cannot. And even with the federal
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government, I don't necessarily think that'sa good idea. You have to pay
attention to what you're spending it onand make sure that the services that you're
delivering our quality services, that it'sa good return on investment. And I
think for many of the programs thatwe've seen come up, we could be
doing we could be doing a betterjob. Yeah, And just to put
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the focus on Washington for a minute, because we don't want to bash Albany
all day, but Washington has beena very dysfunctional place for a number of
years. Now. You have asmall minority of people in the assembler or
in the House kind of holding theHouse hostage for for a long time.
But we saw a little breakthrough inthat. And I tell you when I
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saw it. It was on aSaturday, and I saw the headline come
across on the New York Times feedand they they kept the speaker in with
a bipartisan vote, and he thenwent and saved Ukraine because they're getting their
butts kicked because the a's been stalledfor six months. So I found that
as very encouraging. I hope thatthat was a sign of things to come.
(34:00):
What do you read in it?I you know, I was encouraged
by it too, And I thinkit's a display a good leadership on both
sides, right. They they bothunderstand where where they are politically, and
they are prioritizing the need to deliverfor their constituents and their country, and
they recognize that these issues may bebigger than their political aspirations. Yes,
(34:23):
and the need to really do thejob legislatively rather than on the performative side,
which I think we get enough oftoo much of And you know,
I was I was encouraged. Iwas encouraged by that. I thought it.
I thought it was a great Ithought it was a great thing.
And I know that you know,my friends in Congress that some of whom
(34:45):
I've served with, michae Laller,Congressman mal and Arrow, Andy Garbarino,
these guys, I mean, they'rethey're in it for the right reasons and
they're really trying to deliver for theirconstituents. And I'm encouraged by them being
there. And a lot of themare some of them are no labels members.
Yeah, Joe did Joe Lieberman Thatthat came from Joe Lieberman. It
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was a group of people that cameout of federal government, the bureaucracy,
all of who saw the handwriting onthe wall that we were going down a
divided path yea, and tried tobring it back to the center. Because
that was a big fan of JohnMcCain, Yeah, and his his relationship
(35:29):
with Joe, with Joe Lieberman overthe years. You know, I really
thought that demonstrated the best of whatwe have to offer. And it was
Susan Collins and Joe Manchin and yougo down the list. It's the moderate
Republicans and the moderate Democrats looking foropportunities to work across the aisle. And
that's how government used to be.That's really how things get done, yeah,
(35:50):
right, and how it used tobe, and you look to how
it is now, and when youhave polarization within the parties and one faction
screaming loud, it just it makesit very difficult to get anything done on
either side of the isle. Andreally, you know, as I said
earlier, you know it shouldn't necessarilybe to assert party dominance so you can
(36:15):
get things done. You should beable to recognize that you can still get
things done whether you have you know, a supermajority or not, and multiple
levels of government. If your ideaswin the day, then you work with
those and the other side accommodates themand works with their ideas to try to
meld them together. And that's whatcounts. But today it's blood sport and
(36:38):
it's winner take all, yeah,and it's a scorched earth philosophy. If
we win, we're taking everything,and if we lose, we're going to
try to get it all back atall costs. I just I don't see
how that's sustainable. I really don'tthink. I think that the true desire
for public service will endure longer thanthan than attitudes like that, because,
(37:02):
like you said, they're too scorchedearth, you know, there's it's too
volatile, right, the true desireto serve, whether it's whether it's in
public service in this capacity or inthe military. I talk to kids who
come into our office sometimes and theytell me they want to join the military,
and I ask them why, youknow, why, why do you
(37:22):
want to serve? Do you wantto serve, you know, for college
benefits, for you know, forother things, and and and the ones
that say they want to serve becausethey want to just serve their country.
It's a patriotic sense that they have. You know, when you decide to
endeavor into a career like that,there's going to come a point where you
(37:43):
are cold, tired, hungry,and uncomfortable in a lot of different ways,
and it's going to affect you deeply, and you're going to wonder why
you're doing this, and if it'snot that sense of duty and honor and
really the opportunity to serve, it'sgood to be harder to sustain. And
I believe that to be true.In the political realm, two people can
(38:06):
get fired up and people can getpolarized, and they can, you know,
really rally for certain causes. Butwhen your ideology is based off of
the destruction of somebody else, it'snot going to sustain. It's not what
this country is founded on. AndI believe that the people who get into
the job to demonstrate the realities ofpublic service and what this country has founded
(38:30):
on, they will endure because itfits the model. And I know that
everyone that I encounter that's a soldier, now, anyone that's been a soldier,
that's a veteran, the pride theytake in what they do and the
loyalty they show to the country,but also to the military. Because my
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dad was twenty three years in thearmy and he was in World War Two,
he was in Korean War, andhe was reserves for a number of
years. It shaped him in hislife and his philosophy and the way that
he went about everything. It's wehave a job to do, let's get
it done. You you're gonna beover there, You're going to be over
here. It doesn't matter who youare, what color you are, what
party you are, we're the team, We're going to get this job done,
(39:14):
and that if you're in the military, kind of goes with you.
Yeah, yeah, I mean itwas one of the benefits of serving in
the Army is being able to workwith and meet people of you know,
various backgrounds. And I can remembergraduating from my officer basic school down at
Fort sain Houston and one of oneof my fellow officers, he came from
(39:38):
Sierra Leone and he was in tearsbecause his entire family had been murdered and
he came here as a refugee andhis first inclination was to serve. That
was his goal. That's what hewanted to do. He wanted to give
back right and those are the traditions, and that's that's what makes America the
(39:58):
greatest country in the world, andthat's why it will endure past this,
you know, this phase of politicalpolarization and emphasis on political ideology. I've
been a believer in public service,and I have a radical idea that everybody
should do two years of some typeof service, be it military or social
(40:22):
service, or some community service orPeace Corps or job corps. But two
years in some regimented service capacity forthe public good. I agree, and
I used to be proud of thefact and I still am that we are
a country of a volunteer service,and I think it's I think it's a
(40:42):
great I think it's a great displayof patriotism and belief and faith in our
country for those who do decide toserve. But you know, last year,
I had the opportunity to go toIsrael before October seventh, and I
saw the impact of public service withintheir country, the generational systemic impact that
(41:02):
that has, and it's unbelievable.And I'm not saying that we should model
that here in the United States,but I do believe that it's a way
to impact our culture in a morepositive way and bringing about the positive attributes
of public service, showing the importanceof it, and making sure that that's
(41:23):
handed down after generation after generation,doing a better job, certainly than we
are right now. I mean,our recruiting levels are at an all time
low, and you know what,instituting something like that, it would take
a lot of political will on bothsides of the aisle. But again,
I do believe that, I dobelieve that it would be a tremendous benefit
(41:45):
for our country for years to come. And it has an impact not just
on that public service and the volunteerism, but on business. Yeah, because
when you hire a veteran, youhave somebody who has training in all of
those different aspects of getting a jobdone, where somebody out of college read
(42:06):
a book and never had to applyit. Yeah. So it also leads
to and I think in Israel someof the best entrepreneurs have come through the
military. Oh yeah, yeah,absolutely. I remember my first deployment.
I walked into a motor pool andyou know, this E five, he's
a motor pool sergeant. You know, he couldn't have been more than twenty
(42:29):
twenty one years old. I meanhe was so squared away, he was
fast tracked, he could tell justkind of moving up. But at that
age, in charge of million dollarsof equipment, right, and personnel.
And I think back to when Iwas twenty years old, and you know
what I was doing, you know, going through college and you know I
(42:49):
was having a good time. Imean, those were my priorities. His
priority at that age was maintaining aresponsibility in a combat zone that I could
not have even fathomed at that age. So it does provide a level of
preparation later on in life that Idon't think many people are familiar with.
We won't talk about my fraternity days, so we'll leave those three years,
(43:10):
I think it was three years outof this, But we're gonna come back.
And that was a great, greatsegment for a Memorial Day because doing
those things and being part of themilitary, being part of public service for
the right reasons is what this country'sall about. So thanks to all of
those who have come before. Again, we're going to take another short break.
(43:34):
We'll be back for the last segment. And what you don't know about
Senator Ashby is that he was anoccupational therapist. He also has his MBA
in healthcare management from the Union GraduateCollege, and so we're gonna come back
and talk the last ten minutes abouthealthcare and what went on at the Elder
Law Forum last Thursday. Stay withus, you're listening to your Life Happens
Radio. We'll be right back afterthe short break and we are back.
(43:58):
Welcome back to Life Happens. We'rehaving a good time talking to Senator Jake
Ashby here in the studio, andwe hope you're having fun listening. Hope
you enjoy your Memorial Day weekend.And as I mentioned at the close of
the last segment, Senator Ashby hasa background in healthcare, so tell our
listeners about it. Yeah, so, I was an occupational therapist for twenty
years. I got my start workingat some folks. If you were in
(44:22):
studio and he just told you thathe did this for twenty years, and
then he was in the Assembly andnow he's in the Senate, you would
never believe that he's more than thirty. Thank you for the compliment. But
yes, I got my start atSunnyview Hospital on the brain injury unit.
Was a team leader up there fora few years, and then moved out
(44:45):
west, lived in Billings, Montanafor two years, worked for a healthcare
system out there, and came backto New York before my first deployment.
My wife was pregnant with our firstchild at the time, and I went
back to sunny View, then WalbanyCounty Nursing Home home and started my own
practice after that, and then workpretty im for a few nursing homes or
(45:07):
one in particular during the pandemic.I had to dissolve my practice during COVID
just because it became difficult to treatduring that time, and learned the realities
of running a business in New YorkState and healthcare was It was a great
It was a great career and Iand I and I loved it. It
(45:27):
was an awesome time, meet alot of a lot of interesting people.
And you see see some amazing recoveries. I've been a part of that,
and it's it's pretty inspirational. Yeah, we have a great sick care system.
You know, I had a quintuplebypass surgery eight years ago and I
wouldn't be here today if I didn'thave it. And I'm out playing tennis
(45:49):
and I'm running and I feel great. And our healthcare system takes care of
people who have those needs that aresurgically repaarable, and you can get people
put back together again. You canget a new knee and be on your
feet the next day. New hipsare a routine. But we don't take
care of people who have chronic conditions, who need day to day help,
(46:13):
who just need a little bit ofa helping hand. And the number of
those people is growing. So ourhealthcare system is best in the world in
many respects. But if you lookat outcomes compared to the other countries and
the amount of money that we spendin healthcare. It is so out of
(46:35):
kilter. So I'm holding in myhand an article from a national healthcare publication
says, the looming home care disasterin New York State and this was partly
due to budget cuts that just occurredinto those demographic shifts. You have a
labor shortage that is not going togo away, and you have an increasing
(46:55):
number of people that are going intomore expensive care and a ninety six billion
dollars Medicaid budget which is just insane. Yeah, so how do we get
a grip on this? And wehad a forum that you were part of,
Thank you for joining us. It'scalled the Elder Law Forum. We
do it every year. This isour twenty ninth annual. And we had
(47:17):
Senator Ashby and Assemblyman MacDonald and GustavoRivera, who was very entertaining the Chair
of the Health Committee in the Senate. And we had Lieutenant Governor Delgado who
came in and addressed the audience,and a number of people from different disciplines
and fields, State Office for Aging, Department of Health, local providers,
hospitals, nursing homes, home healthcare, and the consensus is the system
(47:40):
is broken. The one gentleman whospoke and I think you had maybe left
by then, but he was thehead of the Hebrew Home which is now
Riverdale down in the Bronx, andhis conclusion is we need to burn it
all down. And it got astanding ovation when he said that. So
how do we fix it? Well, I think, getting back to what
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we had talked about previously in termsof priorities, the state has neglected I
think a number of measures that theycould have taken over the years that would
have helped prevent us, and oneof which is rebasing Medicaid. When we
look at how Medicaid is reimbursed,the formula behind that, it hasn't been
(48:23):
changed in nearly twenty years. Andthere's been a lot going on economically just
in the last two to three years. Think about twenty years what that looks
like. Well, I can tellyou twenty years ago most of the care
was provided by not for profits,which has flipped and now a good portion
of it is for profits. Yes, and profit taking in healthcare has always
(48:45):
been a problem for me. Yeah, yeah, And they how those profits
are spent and and what happens withthat. But the ballooning of Medicaid since
then, just you know, inthe last two years, really are looking
back over the last twenty years,and we haven't addressed how this formula is
(49:07):
calculated. Is it's unbelievable. It'sunbelievable to me. It's derelict, really,
uh and other states have legislation andrules in place that would require it
every three to five years, andwe carry legislation that would do just that.
I believe it's making gains. Iwas disappointed to see that it wasn't
(49:28):
included in the budget. It wouldbe costly to implement right now, I
think it was right around that twoand a half billion dollar mark, which
seems to be a popular figure andmany other realms, right, but if
we if we took the time todo this and do it the right way,
the dividends would pay off exponentially overthe next couple decades. And we
(49:52):
had speakers Rebecca Prevy and Greg Olsentalking about the things that they're doing at
the State Office for Aging that arekeeping people off Medicaid and providing the care
at an ROI of four and fivex. So, how do we innovate.
We had a panel on innovation.We had about a minute and a
half left. What do you seeas kind of bright lights out there where
innovation might be able to help thisproblem? You know, I think the
(50:14):
bright lights are the people like BeckyPrivy and Greg Olsen. You know,
to have Greg in this position,I think it is great. But to
have Becky Privy some of these othernonprofits she rounds the area agency is not
aging all the all the county agencies. Yes, because when you have someone
in that position who's willing to recognizeinnovation and bring it in to the larger
(50:35):
infrastructure and demonstrate its capabilities, that'ssomething that doesn't often happen in state government
in any industry right, it's soover regulated, and in particular with this
population. When you do that,whether it's a pilot program, or whether
it's a policy idea, or whetherit's just something informal that's going on,
the impact that it can have istremendous. I mean, you can change
(50:59):
somebody's life and really an instant ina couple of minutes. So for Becky
and other leaders in this area tobe doing that, it's in start contrast
to what we've seen, you know, the aging, the master plan for
aging. We've been talking about thisfor a number of years. Where is
it? You know, where isthis master plan? Right? And then
you have somebody like Becky Prevy who'sjust doing it autonomously on her own,
(51:22):
implementing things and with public private partnership. Yes, which I think is the
way of the future. Last word, I'm gonna give it to you.
Well, Lou, it's been greatto be on your show. I want
to thank all of our veterans andtheir families, in particular those gold star
families out there who have paid theultimate sacrifice on our behalf and really provide
(51:45):
us with the freedoms that we enjoyeach and every day. I hope that
you have a meaningful Memorial Day andit is a privilege to serve you in
the New York State Senate. SenatorJacob Ashby, thank you for your service.
Lupiro, your host for Life HappensRadio. We hope to hear you
and see you back on the radionext week at eleven am here on Talk
(52:06):
radio WGY. Have a great restof the holiday weekend.