In this special episode, we tune into the Delaware Engineering Government Series which explores governing in the time of COVID with regional government leadership to meet newly elected New York State Senators Michelle Hinchey, Mike Martucci, and Elijah Reichlin-Melnick. Each in their thirties, unfiltered and inspiring, these remarkable young State Senators ran and won their campaigns during the COVID-19 Pandemic, shifting from the traditional campaign playbook to all virtual campaigns focused on service. Hear what inspired them to run for office and all about their first few months on the job.
This week's episode features President & CEO Jonathan Drapkin joined by Vice President for Marketing & Communication, Michelle Pfeffer, to host newly elected New York State Senators Michelle Hinchey of the 46th Senate District, Mike Martucci of the 42nd State Senate District, and Elijah Reichlin-Melnick of the 38th State Senate District.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
We are experiencing a paradigm shift, a fundamental
change in the way we usually dothings.
We are intentionally choosing tosee the silver lining
opportunity arises.
We can shine a light on thethings that weren't working well
(00:25):
on those things that weren'treally working at all, we can
regroup reevaluate andre-engineer it's time to explore
new patterns and paradigms thosethat inspire us to rise above
the chaos and explore how theconditions of today can take us
(00:47):
to a better tomorrow
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Patterns and paradigms the pattern podcast
from Hudson Valley pattern forprogress.
Your listening to season twoepisode 18, newly elected to the
New York state Senate with yourhost pattern president and CEO,
Jonathan Dropkin.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Hi everyone.
And welcome to another episodeof patterns and paradigms on
Thursday, April 29th, patternfor progress air the third in
our series on governing duringthe time of COVID previous
episodes include sessions withmayors and County executives.
(01:34):
This session was with statesenators to the New York state
Senate representing differentparts of the Hudson Valley.
There are several aspects of thediscussion that made it so
unusual that we've decided toair it as part of the patterns
and paradigm podcast.
(01:55):
So what made it so unusual?
First of all, the three statesenators were all newly elected.
They were first timers.
The second thing is that for thefirst half hour of that
discussion, there was not asingle mention of a political
party.
Even though there were twoDemocrats and one Republican
(02:18):
third, their comments arecompletely unfiltered and
unguarded by having spent yearsin their elected position.
And finally there they're all intheir thirties and personally,
and for many of the people thatlisten to this panel discussion,
(02:40):
they found it inspiring.
They found the whole new set ofissues that needed to be focused
on and a sense that the up andcoming generation of elected
officials knew exactly wherethey wanted to go.
So let know what you think ofthis special episode of patterns
(03:03):
and paradigms.
We're very delighted thismorning to have Michelle Hinchey
from the 46 district MikeMartucci from the 42nd district
and Elijah Rachlin Melnick fromthe 38 district.
They're all in their thirtiesand they're all brand new to the
legislature.
(03:24):
And, you know, shout out to allof them for not just having the
desire to be engaged in adiscussion about how to make
life in the Hudson Valleybetter, but to then have the
guts and the desire to want toactually put themselves on the
line, run for office and beinvolved, which, you know, many
(03:50):
people have opinions they sharedon social media.
Very few get to do what thesethree people did joining me for
the first half of the discussionfrom pattern for progress is
Michelle Pfeffer.
Michelle is also a 30 somethingand we thought it would be
better and more fun to haveMichelle handled the first half
(04:10):
of the discussion about how itis that Mike Michelle analyze
you got here.
So Michelle, I'm going to turnit over to you.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Good morning, everyone.
We're so pleased.
You could join us today.
And before we get to questionson policy, we want to start off
with how you got here today.
Why did you decide to run foroffice and in such a period when
confidence in government hasbeen kind of low, so Elijah, you
want to start us off?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Sure.
Um, so I decided to run foroffice.
Um, well, first of all, becausethere was a, the seat was over,
uh, the incumbent had been therefor 10 years, decided not to run
for reelection and to had toattempt to head to Congress,
although he was unsuccessful inthat campaign.
But having worked for two yearsfor state Senator James Scopus,
who was another, a young 30something representing our
(05:00):
region, uh, as his legislativedirector and being able to see
the incredible progress that thelegislature made in 2019, uh,
with the first time that we hada democratic state Senate in a
generation or more, um, that wasreally an inspiration.
You know, Albany for most of mylife has been the butt of jokes.
It's a place where good ideas goto die.
(05:23):
It's a perpetual gridlock.
It was, you know, decades of thedemocratic assembly fighting the
Republican Senate, fightingvarious governors, and finally
to see an opportunity to dothings for people and not just
go up there and fight made it.
If phenomenal time, we have somany needs in our region, I
represent Rockland andWestchester.
(05:43):
Um, but throughout the HudsonValley, there are so many needs
from our schools to ourinfrastructure, um, our
business, community taxes, allof these things, which I think
we can now make some realprogress on.
And so to have this opportunityto in the state Senate
Speaker 4 (05:58):
At a time when all of these actually delivering for
people was something I couldn'tpossibly pass out that chance.
And, uh, that's why I threw myhat in the right.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
I'm glad to have you there.
How about you, Mike?
Speaker 4 (06:10):
So good morning, Michelle.
Um, you know, I, uh, I guess theexpression is I, I, I guess
really like, like both, uh,Senator hitchy and Senator rifle
Melnick, I'm born to the Senate,so I've never, I never ran for
public office before.
This is the first seat that Iheld, um, coming to Albany and
going directly in the Senate.
Uh, my experience is one ofhaving come out of business.
I started a school bus companyback when I was 22 with one
(06:32):
school bus.
I was the first driver of thecompany.
I drove a school bus and just assoon as I saved up enough money
to buy a second school bus, Idid that.
And my grandma was my very firstemployee.
And to over the 10 years tofollow was blessed to surround
myself with some of the mostphenomenal people, get support
from a business community in theHudson Valley at large, and
built the company from thatfirst school bus to a school, to
(06:53):
a company of just shy of 600employees.
So for me, I have the experienceof riding in the front seat of
the rollercoaster, uh, you know,in terms of job creation here in
the state of New York, in termsof, uh, you know, working with
our school districts and ourcommunities across the region.
So it's something that I alwayshad interest in.
I always wanted to run forpublic office.
I never thought it would be now,but in 2018 I had the
(07:15):
opportunity to sell my business.
And, um, you know, here I sit, I, I think that in my life, I
always, I always envisioned thisbeing much later.
So I didn't think I'd be part ofthe 30 something club here, but
sometimes things just worked outthat way.
And, um, that was certainly onereason.
I think the second is, you know,I'm, I'm blessed to have a
beautiful family at home.
I have a wonderful wife andthree children.
(07:36):
I have a five-year-old son, afour year old daughter and a one
and a half year old daughter athome.
So my three kids are a lot of myinspiration.
You know, I was so blessed to beable to grow up here in New York
and the region that I representand I want my kids to be able to
do the same.
I think that everyone has theability, uh, who has the ability
should consider stepping up andrunning for public office,
because it really is a very highcalling.
(07:58):
And, um, I guess finally, justto end with, and sort of
answering your question, why didI run at a time, uh, when, when,
you know, there's such low faithin government and politics are
so divisive, I think the realityhere, one of the things I've
learned in my first, roughly ahundred days on the job is that,
you know, same minds can come todifferent conclusions.
That's okay.
You know, I don't always agreewith my colleagues here on this
(08:19):
zoom.
We agree on a lot.
We disagree on some and that'sokay.
And that's what makes governmentso effective because it really
is, uh, our responsibility touse our collective wisdom, to
come to conclusions that are inthe best interest of all new
Yorkers.
And we can do that together.
And we do that well because wecome from different backgrounds
in different areas.
So, um, I feel really blessed toserve and I'm excited to be
here.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
That's a great answer, Michelle, how about you?
Hi, thank you.
I, I'm really excited to be heretoo.
Thank you so much for holdingthis forum and for inviting us
today.
You know, my, uh, pathway hereis a little bit different in the
sense that, uh, I grew upfundamentally and firsthand, the
kinds of positive impacts youcan have in your community
(09:01):
through public service.
Uh, you know, my, my father, mywhole life was either when I was
very young, he was in the NewYork state assembly.
And then for most of my, uh,childhood and adult life, he was
in Congress.
And, you know, we, the way wewould spend time together would
either to be jumping in the carand go travel the district to
different events and meetingdifferent people.
(09:21):
Or, you know, we'd go back toschool, shopping at the Hudson
Valley mall and a trip thatshould have taken, you know,
maybe an hour, maybe two wouldtake three, four, five hours
because we would stop and talkto him.
Everyone who approached him and,you know, so starting at a
really young age, starting atsix, you know, I heard
everything from, please help me.
(09:43):
I can't get my veteran'sbenefits to thank you so much.
You helped my mother be able tostay in her home, you know, and
that really shapes the way, butyou see the world and on the
flip side of that, you know, soit's all the negative sides to
being involved in publicservice, you know, the demands
on your time and that, you know,you can't make everybody happy
(10:03):
and you can have very hearty,good disagreements.
I agree with my colleagues,Senator Martucci, uh, but
sometimes it's hard to live inthat space all the time,
especially is as the child ofsomeone who is facing that every
time you go out together.
And, uh, you know, so I ran fromit for a long time.
I actually, you know, I'd beenasked when I was going to run
(10:23):
since I was seven.
Uh, so it was always in my mindis something that was in
opportunity and an option, whichI'm very blessed to have.
Uh, but I also saw thenegatives.
And so it was important for meto see what else was out in the
world.
And I spent the last 10 yearsworking in communications, uh,
in the private sector fortechnology companies and media
companies, and learned a lot anddid a lot of really incredible
(10:47):
and exciting things.
But at the end of the day, forme, I always felt like there was
a lot more to do and to giveback and to be involved.
And, you know, seeing firsthandthe kinds of positive impacts
you can have when you bringdifferent constituencies to the
table and you foster thatconversation and you have the
tough conversations, really howyou can change and make people's
lives better.
(11:08):
Uh, and similar to my colleaguesknew I grew up here born and
raised in Saugerties.
And, uh, I want to raise myfuture family here.
You know, this is where myfriends are raising their
families and much of my familystill lives.
And, uh, when I looked around tosee, you know, we need people in
office who are young and hungry,right?
Who are, who have the energy toshow up, especially when you
(11:29):
have a district like the 46 thatspans five counties across three
different regions.
You know, you have to make surethat that you're accessible and
that you're available and reallybeholden to the people who
elected you and sent you tooffice.
And, uh, I wanted to do that.
I wanted to show that that's thekind of representation that we
all deserve.
It's the kind that I grew upseeing.
(11:49):
Uh, we've seen some people arereally great at it.
There's in, you know, had kindof let that go a bit.
And I thought I saw anopportunity, uh, for me to, to
step up and try to shape theworld that, you know, we all
want to live in, especially asit pertains to climate change
and job development, uh, andhealthcare access, you know, and
infrastructure, uh, here inupstate New York communities
(12:12):
that often feel, and quitefrankly are left behind and left
out of the conversation.
And I think I agree with a lotof my, uh, again, my, my
colleagues comments where, youknow, this is, uh, it's always
important to run for office, butarguably it's never been more
important to run for office tobe able to try to build that
consensus and to work withpeople, both in your party and
(12:34):
across the aisle, uh, to bringus back to a place where we can
have meaningful conversations.
And, uh, I think that this is,uh, really one of the most
important times to do it.
And I thought that, uh, youknow, we might as well try it
similar to similarly to mycolleague, throw our hat in the
ring and see if we're able tobring people onto, onto our team
and show them what we can do.
So you all had to run a campaignin a really unique time during a
(12:58):
pandemic.
What was it like to run acampaign during COVID?
Speaker 6 (13:02):
Uh, it was a, it was a real challenge because it's
very hard as a new candidate.
I had been elected to thevillage board of trustees and
Nyack where I live, but that isan entirely different ball game
than running for state Senate.
And so I knew going into it thatthere would be an enormous
number of people who did notknow who I was.
I was not a household name.
And normally you get to meetpeople.
(13:24):
You go knock on doors, you go toevents, you go to local football
games.
You, you find ways to shakehands to get yourself
introduced.
None of that was possible afterthe first few months of the
campaign.
And so trying to retool andrealize this is going to become
about, uh, you know, doing thesevirtual events, trying to find a
way to communicate with votersthrough, you know, through the
(13:45):
mail, get volunteers to makephone calls for us and just try
to retool on the fly.
Um, I have some experience incampaigns, so I thought I had a
good idea of what it would taketo run for Senate, at least on
the campaign side.
And that was all out the window.
Uh, I announced in December,2019, so I had about three
months or so of a normalcampaign and then up into the
(14:06):
Apple cart, so to speak.
So, um, I think it was achallenge I'm sure for all of
us.
And, um, although in a way, Iguess for, uh, my two colleagues
here since their districts areso much bigger, perhaps in some
ways it was easier to be able toget to events on the, you know,
all the far corners.
It takes me about 45 minutes or50 minutes to get from
(14:26):
end-to-end to my district.
Uh, Michelle and Mike, I'm sureit takes a lot longer to get
from one end to the other.
So I would actually just addjust on the last question, which
I was thinking about, like, why,why now would we want to run?
Because one of the things I didnotice when I was in Albany and,
and Senator, Martucci kind ofalluded to this, you don't have
to wait.
There's a stereotype that, uh,state legislators, particularly
(14:50):
state senators should be wellinto
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Middle age before they do this.
And seeing what happened afterthe 2018 election, when there
were a number of new memberselected in their thirties and
even one or two in theirtwenties, um, you realize you
don't need to wait until you'rein your fifties or sixties to
run for high office.
Um, you know, I'm, I'm at 36,there's probably 10 senators now
(15:12):
who are younger than me, whichis kind of remarkable to think
about.
So, uh, we have a youth movementin the state Senate, probably
the largest, uh, you know, maybethe largest ever
Speaker 5 (15:24):
Senator Martucci.
How about you?
What was it like running acampaign during COVID?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Oh my gosh.
So, um, so look, I'll Elijah hitit right on the head.
I mean, you know, I think thereality is for me, uh, you know,
at first it was a little bitlike, what did you do?
I mean, you're sitting aroundduring the day and you're
saying, Oh, I know I should bedoing something.
I know I should be talking topeople.
I know I should be doingsomething, but when you take out
like the campaign book, the whatto do, you can't do anything in
(15:48):
the book.
Right?
So for me, where we immediatelypivoted was just, how can we
help?
I think as part of my, my, myattitude in all of this was, you
know, I think we all certainlythought, at least initially that
COVID was going to happen a lotquicker, if that makes sense.
And we thought, Oh, you knowwhat, there'll be a couple of
weeks in a month.
We'll be back to regular life.
And when we get back to regularlife, we can do a week.
We've got to do.
(16:09):
Um, but, uh, but yeah, so Ithink the first thing was, and,
and by the way, I think itworked to our benefit,
potentially being all 30somethings that we got to throw
the old book away, because Ithink the way campaigns were run
is they take the old book out,they blow the dust off of it.
They'd open it up and say, well,here's how you run a campaign,
but the good news is we got theGenesis of the book and we got
to figure out a new way to doit.
And I think that, you know, whatI saw myself doing and telling
(16:30):
my colleagues through theircampaigns, they were all doing
the same thing.
What were we doing?
You know, we were deliveringmeals to seniors.
We were out in the community,helping folks, um, with, with
issues that frankly, we nevereven considered because of
COVID.
We were figuring out ways to getkids, Chromebooks and iPads, so
they could go to school.
So for me, it was just like,what do we do?
We just, we revert back to theold, you know, forget if you're
(16:52):
a state Senator or forget ifyou're a, a candidate or be a
good citizen.
And what is being a good citizenlook like right now.
And that's what it was.
So it, it, a lot of it, wasn'tvery glamorous.
We weren't doing big forums.
We weren't talking to groups of200 people.
You know, we were standing on astreet corner handing out
groceries, but guess what?
That's what needed to happen inthe moment.
It's what we did.
And, um, you know, I think atthe end of the day, what it
(17:14):
really meant was the people thatcame out to support us on
November 3rd, uh, saw that andunderstood that it's probably
the reason that we're heretoday.
So for me, I would say that acampaigning during COVID was
really just being a good citizenand it worked
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Senator, I think that's exactly right.
You know, we, we had the samementality, I think as soon as,
you know, when COVID kind ofovertook all of our lives right.
In, right towards the middle ofpetitioning.
Right.
And so we kind of shiftedeverything to, how do we keep
people safe and what do we doand all that.
It was just calling.
And I, again, I obviously, Iknow my colleagues did the same,
you know, how can you, where canyou show up?
(17:50):
I was just calling people'splace saying, hi, can I come
help you pack meals?
Right.
And unpack bags for people andsee, and try to do that all over
the district to also get a senseof what the needs were too,
right.
Because if we're running torepresent the district one it's
to help people and when betterto help people then in the
middle of a global pandemic, uh,but to, you know, you have to
(18:10):
know the problems to be able togo to Albany and try to solve
them.
And so, you know, we were at afood pantry in Amsterdam, in
Montgomery County, and, uh, theyusually served about 200
families a week.
Um, when I was there, we servedwell over 700, you know, that
was in the beginning of thepandemic.
And so to see that scale, Ithink really set the stage and
(18:30):
really set the tone for what wewere going through.
And then that just drove evenfurther.
Exactly like Mike was saying, Imean, how much more we can do,
whether it's, uh, you know,doing our own drives, our
hygiene drives and food drivesbeing in different places, uh,
sharing information, you know,we made a COVID resource guide.
We, we business suspended orcampaign and just made it a
information sharing.
(18:51):
So people knew where to go.
And we had seen COVID guidespopping up in different parts of
the state, and we didn't see onelocally.
And so we tried to compilesomething for all five counties.
It was like, if you need helphere, all the resources for food
here are the resources foronline education for kids.
You know, you could go to themet virtually, uh, you know, how
do you take a tour of this,other of the national parks,
(19:13):
right.
You know, what are these thingsthat people are looking for,
things to do?
Uh, and, and their hands aretied, you know, we're trying to
fill in those gaps as best aspossible.
And I think the other piece too,that was touched on is it really
allowed us to be creative.
And I think it's right.
I mean, with 20, I'm not thebest at technology.
I'll admit that, but I havesome, you know, understanding
and, uh, you know, like, uh,understanding with it.
(19:35):
And so, you know, we juststarted holding Facebook town
halls and forums, right.
And bringing people together,doing a real about a
conversation with one of ourfirst responders to talk about
what their experience had been,uh, through.
COVID what their life was likebefore, uh, during and in rural
communities, what people shouldbe thinking about and trying to
bring different leaders to thetable, just to help educate
(19:55):
people and let them know whatwas going on and the kinds of
things that, the priorities thatwe were seeing and trying to
bubble them up to the top.
And so, uh, you know, was a lotof phone calls, not a lot of
door knocking, but it actuallymade it to, to Elijah's point.
You know, it was a little bitnice in the fact that we could
do a couple of different virtualhouse parties.
(20:16):
Right.
And just get to know people, uh,in all over our district on the
same day, without having tofactor in travel time.
And so for a district like ours,where, you know, 140 miles top
to bottom, uh, that's reallyhelpful when you can get out to
green County and Ultima Canada,Joe, Harry, and Ulster all in an
afternoon.
Uh, so we made a point to, to dothat as, as much as possible
(20:38):
while also filling in thoseother gaps of, uh, helping
people and just being present.
Speaker 7 (20:43):
Um, so you, you survive the campaign and you
win.
And, um, what did that
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Moment feel like, obviously better than losing,
um, but was there, uh, well now,what kind of moment for you?
I can, I can jump in there too.
Uh, briefly, you know, our, wewent to teens, you know, we had
about 30,000 apps absentees.
And so we didn't know officiallythat we won until almost
(21:09):
December, right.
At the end of November.
And so, uh, there, wasn't kindof a long time to do the, now
what it was kind of a, okay,we're here kind of a thing.
I mean, we, it was, we won andthat afternoon, it was like,
okay, so what does our team looklike?
Where do we look for officespace?
Two days later, we're on aconference zoom with our
colleagues talking about theemergency session.
(21:31):
They call it in December, youknow, so we were immediately
into it.
So we didn't actually have, uh,kind of that, that grace period
to, uh, let it sink in to kindof reflect on the work that we
had done reflect on flippingthe, see what that meant for the
community and, uh, even bescared about it, right.
Or to be nervous about it.
Cause we had to go straight intoaction.
(21:53):
So what does that, you know,kind of beneficial because it
forced us to do everythingpretty quickly, uh, in a great
way and, uh, really get a tasteof the job pretty immediately
and instantaneously Elijah, howabout you?
Speaker 6 (22:07):
So, I mean, somewhat like Michelle, there was, first
of all, everything was remote.
So with this was not a year whenwe could have a big, you know,
election night party tocelebrate or anything like that.
And I also had a race that wentto absentees, uh, on election,
which I had suspected would beneeded because there was such a
wide partisan breakdown thisyear of, of who was voting
(22:29):
absentee versus who was votingin person, uh, really around the
country.
And so I finished election dayabout 3000 votes behind,
although I felt on election day,I think my race was not nearly
as close overall as, as the twoof my colleagues.
Um, I felt really good because Iknew that we had about 30,000
absentee ballots that I expectedto certainly trend in my
(22:51):
direction.
And so being very narrowlybehind, I was reasonably sure I
was going to win, but there'sthis sort of frustrating limbo.
And then when you finally win it, it's a couple of weeks after
the election, the energy'sdrained out.
So it was more a sense of myGod, you know, I'm so happy.
This is finally done.
We've been doing this for such along time and it is really
exciting.
(23:11):
It's an incredible feeling.
Um, but without that sort ofenergy of, of the room full of
people and, you know, friendsand family, and I think when it
was sort of confirmed was therewith, you know, with my campaign
manager basically.
And, um, but nevertheless, youknow, knowing how much there was
work to do incredibly excitingand, and honestly a bit surreal
(23:31):
for a long time to, to get overthis, this sense of, you know,
this actually happened.
And I'm sure that most peoplewho've been in this position,
um, you know, unless you comeinto it with an enormous ego
where you just assumed this wasowed to you, and
Speaker 4 (23:46):
I don't think too many of us do that, there's
always going to be a sense of,you know, incredulity that this
could actually have been real.
And you know that yes, in fact,I was honored to have won and be
in this position to help people.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Mike, how about for you?
What was that moment like?
Speaker 4 (24:04):
So, um, so Elijah, Michelle, he hit it right on the
head.
Right.
Um, you know, I was into thesame sort of situation or race
that was separated, that wasultimately decided by one person
.
Um, so, uh, we all lived throughan interesting November to say
the least, but, um, I thinkmaybe rather than kind of like
reiterate exactly what they justsaid, you know, one of my
experiences sort of aftereverything was final, you know,
(24:25):
they, you know, weeks and weeksafter her actually election
night, uh, what was really kindof a great experience for me, um
, was, you know, my phone beganto blow up and it was everyone
reaching out to me to say, howcan we help?
And when I say that, what I meanis even people who were on the
opposite side of this raceduring the campaign, um, I'm
talking about in my district,Democrat mayors, I'm talking
(24:46):
about our colleague, SenatorJames Goofus.
Who's a friend who reached outto me and said, how do I help
you, Mike?
You know?
So that, those sorts of things Ithink really are emblematic of
the approach that all of us taketo our job because there's a
campaign and then there's ourjob.
Right?
And ultimately our job is towork together for the good of
the people that we represent.
So I thought it was reallyawesome, frankly, to kind of,
(25:07):
you know, after things were setin stone and after things were
done, you know, not only to hear, you know, again, from my
friends, I say my friends duringthe campaign, but hear from new
friends, people that I'm goingto be working with, including
some of my colleagues right hereon, on the zoom, uh, who reach
out and say, look, we're lookingforward to working together.
Let's get to work.
So I think that, you know, forme, uh, you know, there, there
(25:28):
was sort of like that wowmoment, like, Oh my gosh, the
first time somebody calls youSaturday and you're like, are
you talking to me?
You're talking to me.
Um, but then right after that,where you say, okay, you know,
now it's time to depart from thecampaign and leave that behind
and move forward with doing ourwork.
So, um, I would say that thatwas really probably one of, one
of the most, I guess, really, Idon't want to say heartening,
(25:50):
but it was just, it shows youhow much promises here.
Right.
It was really like a reallypromising moment.
Like I said, to kinda wake upthat next morning after
everything was official, atleast I'll be it.
That was not November 4th.
It was significantly afterNovember 4th.
But, um, and to be reached outby so many people who not only
just set it by the way, but whoalso meant it in terms of, in
terms of helping me get off theground and being productive from
(26:10):
day one,
Speaker 2 (26:12):
It's really comforting to hear that.
So now that your state senatorsfor all of four months, you said
about a hundred days, right.
Um, what are some of the thingsthat have caused you to say,
well, I didn't know.
That was part of the job, youknow, have there been surprises
that are good or bad?
Um, Mike, we can start with you.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Sure.
Um, so liquid shall the answeris everything.
Th th I guess what, maybe what Ididn't realize was everything is
my job.
Now, everything I sayeverything, and I say it
jokingly, but it's sort of fun,right?
I mean, people call me aboutfederal.
They call me about theirneighbor's dog barking, too
loud.
They call me, you know, we havelovely people who we love, who
call us refrigerator breaks.
(26:50):
What do we do?
Right.
So I guess the answer sort of iswe hear from everyone across the
spectrum, Michelle was talkingabout this, going, going,
shopping at the mall with herdad, right.
When people would talk to himabout everything under the sun.
So I think that for me, youknow, I thought, well, you know,
there's kind of two componentsto the job is what we do in
Albany.
And then there's what we do inthe district.
But I guess I really didn'tunderstand that, you know, the
(27:12):
biggest thing and really for me,the part of the job that I enjoy
the most is just helping people.
And, and what does that helplook like?
Like I said, it could be helpingpeople with get a prescription
medication filled, cause theydon't know how to get health
insurance.
Uh, or like I said, it could beyour neighbor's dog barking too
loud, or your sidewalks that areuneven in front of your house.
I mean, you name it, we dealwith it here.
So, um, a day does not go bywhere I don't get a new issue
(27:35):
that gets thrown on our plate.
And frankly, I say like, Ididn't even know that was a
problem.
I didn't even know that issueexisted.
Um, so it's, uh, it certainlykeeps us on our toes that's for
sure.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
You know, any surprises.
Yeah.
You know, I think that that'sexactly right.
You know, I had, uh, I kind ofcame in with my eyes, very open
into having the spectrum ofthings, but, you know, it's
never boring.
Uh, the calls, we, again, that'swhat keeps it exciting, right?
Because you want, we're here tohelp people.
We're here to solve thoseproblems.
And I have the ability to dothat.
And you had to see the differentlives.
Everybody is living, uh, isreally great.
(28:08):
You know, one of the things thatkind of surprised me a little
bit in a great way was just howmuch, you know, access and
influence we would have as, asfreshmen senators.
You know, we, our, ourcolleagues are amazing, you
know, and are very welcoming andwant to hear our opinions.
And, you know, I have arguablythe most rural and largest
(28:32):
district in our majorityconference.
And so a lot of the issues thatwe face are some of them overlap
similarly with my colleagues,but many of them are very
different and there aredifferent ways of life and there
are different constituencies.
And so I often find myself beingone of the only if not the only
voice bringing up some of theissues and concerns that we
have, or thinking aboutsomething with an angle towards
(28:54):
more rural upstate and, uh, youknow, that's, I, that's why I
ran, I ran to be an upstatevoice in the majority conference
and to be able to do that and tohave my colleagues listen and
take what we're saying andreally implement that then into
either bills that they'reworking on or other things, you
know, specifically with theMRTA, you know, that was a bill
that's been around.
(29:14):
My colleagues have been workingon for nearly a decade.
And, uh, when we got here, wewere able to say, Hey, some of
this language doesn't actuallywork for small farmers, you
know, or what about this hemppiece that actually was left out
in regulations, but is criticalfor farmers to get into this
industry.
Those were things that weren'treally included in the
legislation.
We brought it up work with asponsor and they are now law.
(29:35):
They are now part of it.
And to be able to have that kindof, you know, influence is the
wrong word, but to be at the, uh,
Speaker 6 (29:42):
So early, I mean, that was, you know, two months
in to being an office, uh, beingable to really affect change for
the community.
It's something, I didn't knowhow long that was going to take
or how accessible, you know, wewould be to kind of get into
those spaces, especially thosethat were here before us.
Uh, but it's been reallywonderful to be able to do that.
(30:02):
So actually some of whatMichelle said, definitely, uh, I
agree with that, that theability is a fresh, uh, you know
, freshman or a first-yearSenator to really, you know,
take, take a leadership role.
They, they majority had awonderful idea to give each of
us the chairmanship orchairperson of a committee.
So I'm honored to chair thecommittee on procurement and
(30:24):
contracts, which was a newlycreated committee focusing on
the, the, you know, very largeand influential state
procurement process that spendshundreds of millions of dollars
every year.
Um, but to be in that positionas somebody who's just taken
office is not something again,which when you think about
legislatures, we have thestereotype, I think based on the
(30:44):
us Senate, that it's all aboutseniority, it's all about, you
know, you have to have done yourtime and been there for a decade
before you can do anything.
And that's just not the case.
You know, we are all welcomed inas, as first-year senators to,
you know, to theseconversations.
Um, nobody's telling us to sitdown and shut up and wait our
turn.
Um, you know, which is, which isgreat.
And, you know, I haven't neededto reach out to the majority
(31:06):
leader for too much, but when Ido, she'll take the call, she'll
work, she'll try to help out inthe district.
I think the one other thing Ihave noticed is although I
certainly having observed myformer boss, uh, with the work
he was doing, I knew there was alot to come in, you know, emails
and phone calls and meetings andeverything else.
I could see how busy he was.
And somehow you don't quiterealize it until you're the one
(31:28):
doing that.
There is never an end to themeeting requests to the email.
I mean, I have four emailinboxes now I've got, you know,
Facebook to check and this tocheck and Twitter and all that
you could truly spend your lifejust responding to other people.
And so what I have found isreally important is to try to
set time aside to make sure thatI'm not just being responsive,
(31:49):
but being proactive about comingup with ideas and solutions and
doing what I want to do, notjust responding to what other
people want me to do.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
All right.
So, um, I'm going to jump inhere and, um, thanks Michelle
for moderating the first half.
So two things struck me sittingand getting to listen to the
three of you, which is oneinspiring.
That is a word that comes bylistening to all three of you.
And the second one is at anyyear Democrat or Republican
(32:20):
mentioned for 30 minutes.
And I just, you know, maybeMichelle got the closest being
in the, you know, in themajority party, but never
mentioned the labels.
It was just about the work thatyou knew that you would have to
do.
So let's turn to work and let'sstart with you get elected and,
(32:43):
you know, there's a traditionand you know, that Cuomo wanted
to have on time budgets April1st, only, you're now doing it
during COVID, you're now tryingto figure out how to communicate
with your colleagues.
What was your first budget like,and Michelle, let's start with
you.
What was your first budget?
(33:04):
Like,
Speaker 5 (33:06):
You know what I actually thought it was great,
but you know, I, people saybudget starts early.
I didn't realize budget startedweek two.
I didn't realize it was thatearly.
You know?
So that was kind of a shockwhere, you know, you have a
couple of meetings and all of asudden, the next week you get a
message that says, so you'representing on your budget and
bring it forward.
(33:26):
But I haven't even seen apresentation on a budget and I'm
supposed to be presenting onone, you know, it starts really
early.
Uh, but even with that, youknow, as, as we were saying
earlier and you know, ourcolleagues are so, uh, inclusive
and so welcoming that it'sactually much less of a scary
thing, uh, to head into evenknowing how important it is, uh,
and how much there is to do andhow we have to fight, you know,
(33:48):
for, for what we need, you know,the agriculture budgets, the
committee that I chair, uh, isso critically important, it's
important to our economy.
It's more of a job it'simportant to our food and our
sustainability.
It's more in the climate change.
Uh, but it's something that, youknow, for many reason, you know,
doesn't, isn't always front andcenter in a lot of people's
minds.
And so it was my job to make thecase for that and to talk about
(34:11):
why it was so important, whichwas again, a really early, uh,
kind of leadership place to takeas a freshmen, uh, in, in a
budget that is so large and allconsuming for our state, you
know, New York is an act state.
Uh, but so I think, you know, itdidn't realize it started so
early doing everything virtuallyand on zoom is just hard.
Uh, you know, it allows us tokind of do those meetings
(34:32):
anytime and anywhere.
However you miss the in-personconversations, you know, you
miss some of that informationsharing, you miss some of the
fate and the con like the thingsthat you need, uh, to be able to
, to really formulate youropinions and move forward,
unless you are actively seekingit.
Right.
And so we had, you know, formyself and my team, you know, we
(34:52):
had a checklist every day thatwas okay, here are our
priorities.
And let's make 20 phone calls aday to anyone who will answer
our call to find out, you know,where these things, Dan, outside
of your hour per view, and toput our voice in to say these
things are important.
And again, here's why, you know,so, uh, it was definitely not
the budget experience that Ithink any of us thought that we
(35:14):
would be, uh, heading into, youknow, being in the room, it'd be
able to really debated and talkit out and figure out strategy
would have been nice.
I look forward to that, uh, fornext year.
But I think even with that, youknow, we came out with a budget
that I know I'm really proud ofand I think will help a lot of
people.
And so we were still able tokind of overcome those
challenges and overcome, uh,being thrown into the fire, uh,
(35:38):
to be able to do something thatI think really helps,
especially, you know, incrediblesmall business funding, right?
I mean, unprecedented levels, uh, of things for people in
upstate New York and things thatwe need, uh, for the first time
ever.
So even with the challenges, Ithink we were all able to really
come to the table and have thosediscussions and, uh, move and
here are the priorities andmoving forward.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
So Mike experience NEC how are you?
Speaker 4 (36:09):
So, um, you know, certainly John is a little
different on the minority side.
Um, but, uh, so maybe I'll kindof, I'll take you kinda through,
I think, budget, you know, frommy end, a little different,
obviously, because I'm, so whenyou're in the minority, you play
a role in budget, but it'splayed a little differently.
Um, and, uh, you know, for me,what it's about at least
initially was getting to Albany,uh, as, as Michelle said, you
(36:31):
know, figuring out the lay ofthe land as quickly as you can.
And really from the minorityside, the key to being effective
is building relationships.
And, you know, I would tell youthat all the folks on this call,
including my colleagues, I don'thave the opportunity to serve on
either of their committees.
So I really can't speak to, um,you know, the work that they
were doing, but the process thatMichelle just outlined is the
process that many of thecommittee chairs follow as they
(36:52):
begin to prioritize budgets.
So just as an example, I serve,um, as the ranking member of
Senator Kaplan's committee onsmall business commerce and
economic development, I had anopportunity to forge a
relationship with her veryearly.
And Senator Capitan was veryopen to working with me, hearing
things, especially from myperspective as a business
person, someone who's run asmall business in our state
(37:13):
about the priorities thatshould, that should be included
in the budget.
Um, she had a total willingnessto do that, which is awesome.
Uh, because again, like I said,kind of at the beginning of this
call, it's our obligation to useour collective wisdom and
experiences to come up with thebest end product as possible.
So look, you know, while I am Ifrustrated with the budget
process itself, like the budgetPR proper, absolutely.
(37:34):
Right.
I mean, this is a leadershipdriven process that
unfortunately doesn't involve asmuch input as I would like to
see from rank and file senators.
Um, not only of the minority,but also of the majority.
Certainly a lot of the finalresponsibilities are delegated
to leadership, but we all haveopportunities to put our
fingerprints on this process.
And if you work hard enough, Icertainly, from my side, what
(37:56):
that oftentimes means quitefrankly, is you have to run a
mile, take to pick up a foot,but you have to be willing to do
that.
And you go, and you meet yourcolleagues, you talk to them
about things that are important,not only to your constituency,
because you know, you know, yourdistrict with anyone else, but
you talk to them about yourexperiences outside of
government, you know, and whatgood policy looks like from your
perspective and what bad policylooks like from your
(38:17):
perspective.
So there are tons ofopportunities to be effective,
uh, but from my end, it's allabout forging those
relationships, um, and beingwilling to work with others and
compromise because, uh, youknow, I would say certainly from
my experience, at least thesenators who I've built
relationships with in themajority, they've all been open
and willing to talk to me.
They've all been willing to, uh,you know, receive feedback and
(38:38):
input, which has been huge.
The other thing I think I'lljust mention about the budget
process, certainly I think thatwas different this year than
others, um, where the, um, the,the, the many issues surrounding
our governor, right, thegovernor is sort of CenterPoint
through the budget process.
And certainly, uh, besides justhaving to do it this way on zoom
and deal with working with ourcolleagues remotely and somehow
(38:58):
forging a relationship like wehave having a drink together
that stuff's all difficult, but,uh, you know, certainly the, the
scandals that surrounded thegovernor made this year even
more difficult.
Um, but nonetheless, thislegislature did its job in
forged through, uh, to work, to,um, to come up with a final
budget deal.
So I would say that'd be theonly other thing that I call
out, which was, I think thisyear was particularly
(39:20):
complicated, um, by a set ofissues surrounding the governor
and, and, you know, certainlymoving forward.
We hope that that's, um, that'snot an issue, but either case, I
think that, uh, much like the,uh, the folks that we represent,
it's our obligation toserpentine it adapt and figure
our way around challenges.
And we definitely did that,Elijah.
(39:40):
Yeah.
So
Speaker 6 (39:41):
I think there's certainly it was aware it was a
very weird budget year becauseof COVID and the fact that there
weren't the kind of in-personmeetings that there usually
would be.
I talked to colleagues who'vebeen in the legislature for
many, many years, and they said,this is by far the strangest
budget year.
They'd seen, it was the hardestto get information both because
of the lack of in-personmeetings and contacts also, uh,
(40:05):
I know we've had issues thathave been reported in the press,
uh, in the democratic conferenceand the majority conference
where discussions keep gettingleaked to the media.
And so that made it morechallenging.
I think for leadership to sharea lot of information proactively
with rank and file members,because there just seems to be
time after time, they would tellus something in our majority
(40:26):
conference, and then the dailynews would have a story about it
half an hour later.
And that is it's really toxic tothe ability to get work done.
I mean, you imagine any of yourprivate business meetings and
all of a sudden it's on thefront page of the newspaper.
That is a problem.
So we got to work to overcomethat as Michelle was sort of
saying, a lot of that took theplace of having to just reach
(40:46):
out ourselves, make phone callsto leadership, make phone calls
to people involved at thecentral level and figure out
what's going on.
But I felt like as a freshmanmember, my concerns really did
get incorporated and heard.
I went into the budget with twobig issues that we needed to
resolve.
Um, the governor had proposed,uh, completely closing and
cutting the Rockland children'spsychiatric center, which if he
(41:10):
had done that, this is the onlyinpatient facility that serves
children with mental healthneeds between the Bronx and
Utica.
And they serve a lot of, uh,children, not just from my
district in Rockland, but Ithink orange County has the
largest number of kids goingthere.
So these would have been kidswith no real options for what to
do.
We had to fight that and did,and put together a bipartisan
(41:31):
coalition and really made clearand leadership heard this, I
think from all members who wereimpacted, we can't allow this to
go through in the final budget.
Did it, kept it open?
Um, and then the school fundingwas another major issue, which I
had prioritized.
I know many others did and madethat really clear as we are
bringing a new revenue to NewYork, we have got to use it for
(41:54):
helping out local schooldistricts that are struggling
because of the pandemic.
And then not only does that helpthe district, hire teachers, you
know, pay for the services, payfor the building improvements
needed.
Cause it's, COVID, it's beenhelping taxpayers because in my,
in Senate district, at leastmore than half of the school
districts have now proposedbudgets with a 0% tax increase
this year because of all theadditional state aid that's
(42:17):
coming in, you know, and, andunlike the federal aid, which is
amazing.
I mean, it works what we canprovide at the state, but it's
a, one-shot nobody expectsWashington to send this level of
assistance to the schooldistricts year after year.
But we have put in placepermanent ongoing increases in
state funding for education,which I think bear fruit for
taxpayers too.
(42:38):
So let me use that as a jumpingoff point then to also ask
Michelle and Mike it's difficultas this year was being freshmen.
Michelle, did you, was theresomething that you were happy
about that you could bring backto the district?
Speaker 5 (42:55):
Yeah.
Th there was a lot, you know,I'll, I'll touch on them really
quickly.
You know, the first thing wasfunding for the catalyst park.
You know, when we think about,uh, environmental funding, we
always met the Adirondacks.
Uh, but the Catskills, uh, arehuge and so important.
And especially during COVIDwithin state tourism increasing,
you know, the first park you getto when you're traveling,
(43:15):
upstate from downstate is theCatskills.
And so we saw a major influx, uh, in tourism, which is great for
our economies and our localeconomies.
And we need that.
We want it, we love it, but atthe same time, our natural
resources, because we don't havethe regular funding, we don't
have the stewards, we don't havea forest Rangers, we don't have
the infrastructure, uh, youknow, we're really struggling.
(43:36):
And so what we fought for veryseriously and we're able to,
able to deliver this year forthe first time ever was funding
for the Catskills park on parwith the Adirondacks.
You know, we were able to in anover usage fund, uh, in the EPF,
we were able to get theCatskills included in that, just
split the money with theAdirondacks, which is huge.
And we were able to get anadditional funding line for the
(43:59):
Catskills, uh, to help withstewards and farm Rangers and
other things as, as I've said ininfrastructure.
And so that was critical, uh,and really excited about that.
You know, uh, another thing Ijoke in our conference that I've
become known as the broadbandlady, because at every chance I
get, I talk about the lack ofaccess to broadband.
(44:21):
Both affordability is somethingthat's critically important, but
access points that people don'teven realize that there are
communities that just don't havethe infrastructure for
broadband.
Uh, you know, and, and if youlive in one of those
communities, you knew it was aproblem before COVID, but it has
been elevated and exacerbatedduring this pandemic.
I mean, people are driving milesand miles and miles to sit in a
(44:44):
library, parking lot to getspotty, wifi.
I mean, the libraries have beensaviors, right?
I mean, and it's some of thetowns making parks.
I mean, in Saugerties, they makecanteen field, a public wifi
space, you know, that's great,but not everyone can do that,
nor should they have to, youknow, if you're a family with
one car and you have to choosebetween getting to work or
bringing your kid to the libraryto do their homework, I mean,
(45:05):
how do you make that choice?
It's an impossible choice tomake.
And, uh, you know, there was abill last year, uh, that was
vetoed by the governor.
Uh, and we made it a, a priorityfor us to get that included in
this budget.
It was vetoed because it had asuppose a fiscal.
Uh, so we knew the only way tobe able to do that was to get it
in the budget.
And, uh, you know, a number ofhave made a really concerted
(45:26):
effort and it is, and that billwill now for the first time ever
get us household level mappingdata so that we can understand
where the gaps are really.
I mean, again, if you live inone, you know, it's one, but we
don't have that formally.
Uh, and that's what we need toreally be able to, to move
forward and make sure that we'rebuilding out appropriately and
working with the providers tofigure out how to do that, you
(45:49):
know, in both an economical, uh,economic way.
That makes sense as well as theway that really works for people
in the communities.
Uh, another thing I'll touch ontoo, sorry, but I'm really
excited about is the smallbusiness funding.
You know, we have a billiondollars in small business
funding, and those are the, Imean, our small businesses are
the backbone of so many of ourcommunities, you know, I mean,
that's, we, they're the ones whostepped up during this pandemic
(46:11):
to their doors were closed andthey were still donating meals.
Many of our restaurants, youknow, they're the ones that
support the little leagues.
Uh, so to be able to, to fightfor that really strongly, uh,
and to see that deliver, uh, ina real way was a really big win.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
Um, and, um, and on broadband, I think it's really
important what you folks didbecause previously, I think it
had been measured by censustrack and, and that was just
completely wrong.
It gave such a, you know, a, thewrong perception of coverage and
(46:45):
, um, it really was veryimportant what you did there,
Mike, even harder for you yourfirst year, you're in the
minority party, but anythingthat, you know, you could start
to point to, it will, it willbuild, and I need you to be
successful because you're mysavior.
Speaker 4 (47:06):
So Jonathan, you know, I, I talked about approach
before, so let me tell you, Iran into a very similar issue as
, as Elijah.
So when the governor's executivebudget proposal, he proposed
closing the Goshen securecenter, which is an OCF secure
center, uh, right in the centerof my district and Goshen, uh,
many, many good paying CSCA andpuff union jobs at that
facility.
This is a budget that you'regoing to job's first budget and
(47:26):
here, our governor is outcutting jobs, this budget.
So what did I do?
Right?
We talk about understanding yourrole and being effective.
I picked up my phone and Icalled my friend James Goofus,
and I said, James, I need helphave an issue here.
And I know that this is going tobe something that you can help
me with.
And you already say said, Mike,I'm glad to help you.
Right.
And that's what I'm talkingabout when I say being effective
and working across the aisle onissues that are important so
(47:49):
much like Elijah did in Rocklin,where he set up a bipartisan
coalition, fight the closure ofa facility that provided a great
service to young people.
I was tasked with doing thesame, and I approached it
frankly, the same way thatElijah did in terms of putting
together the right group ofpeople on this issue.
Um, and we pushed back againstthat closure and successfully,
uh, made sure that that facilitystayed open.
(48:10):
You know, there were fourfacility closures that were
proposed in the governor'sexecutive budget proposal.
In fact, two facilities are ourstate workloads.
So what I would tell you aboutmy approach is that the approach
was effective if it worked, itwas about collaboration.
So I think that there areexamples that you can point to
certainly, uh, even being amember of the, of the, of the
minority conference to say, yes,there are ways that we can be
(48:33):
effective.
There are ways that we can win.
And it's all about workingtogether.
It's about sharing priorities.
It's about working together.
It's about putting people first,you do all of those things.
You can still be effective.
Um, you know, the other piece, Iwould tell you kind of a little
more broadly and globally asbeing part of a very small
conference, we have theopportunity to serve in a lot of
committees, which is also ablessing sort of in disguise
(48:53):
because we get to wear a lot ofhats.
And so one of the hats that Iget to wear is, um, also as the
ranking member of the disabilitycommittee, and I worked with
Senator Mannion, who's from theSyracuse area on that committee.
And, uh, one of the big issuesthat we hit right out of the
gate was a$350 million fundingreduction that was made, uh,
midstream last year by thegovernor's budget director, who,
(49:16):
um, IDD providers around ourstate, which was absolutely
crippling to them.
And, uh, one of the very firstthings I did when I got to
Albany was, um, I entered abill, which thankfully today is
not necessary any longer.
That said, if we receive federalaid, the first thing we should
do is restore$350 million ofcuts to the IDD community.
And look, you know, I enteredthat bill knowing that the bill
(49:36):
probably wouldn't pass, but it'sa tool that I can use to make
sure that we prioritize animportant piece of the budget.
My colleagues, Senator Mannionshared, uh, the, the, uh, my
sentiment on that issue and madesure that that issue was brought
to the table and we successfullywere able to push back against
those cuts, making sure thatthey were fully restored, uh,
with even more resources goingto that important piece.
(49:56):
So look again for me, Jonathan,I, again, I would tell you a lot
of it is about running a mile topick up a foot, but I come with
a lot of energy willing to runhard.
And, um, I think that even herefor the 42nd district, well, I
didn't agree with a largeportions of this budget.
Uh, I am one of a fewRepublicans that voted for
portions of this budget, uh,because there are certainly were
good things in this budget and,um, I was glad to support
(50:18):
components of it for sure.
And that was just one example.
I think, of using the approachthat I intend to take moving
forward to make sure we deliver
Speaker 8 (50:24):
For people who live here.
Thanks.
Look
Speaker 3 (50:28):
At one of my concerns is that as fortunately we move
past COVID the pandemic, thereis some people that will say
let's get back to normal,whatever that is, but COVID, I
think as Michelle was talkingabout at least one really good
(50:48):
example is broadband.
We needed improved broadband forremote work.
We needed it for virtuallearning tele-health especially
in rural areas.
So are there examples of thingsthat you got to observe in the
last, you know, 14 months thatare, you know, either
(51:10):
deficiencies or innovations thatyou as state senators would
either take to the budgetprocess or to the legislative
process and Michelle, let let'sbuild on, let's start with you
and we'll build on broadband orwherever else you want to go.
Speaker 5 (51:31):
I'll talk about broadband all day, but I think
that's, uh, you know, I thinkthat, I mean the first step for
us there is this mapping studybecause you're right, it was
done by census tracks, which forrural communities does not work.
Uh, and so this is the firststep to change that.
And I do think there has been afull conscious shift to
understanding that we need is nolonger a luxury.
(51:53):
Uh, broadband is necessity.
It's a, basically a utility atthis point, right?
Like every everyone's expectedto have it, we gotta have it.
So this is the first step indoing that.
And we are closely monitoringthat timeline and all the things
we need to do after we get thatdata back to make sure that we,
we, uh, we drive that out.
One thing I think was a reallybeautiful thing to come out of
COVID, uh, that we're workingon.
(52:15):
And I was hopeful that it wouldbe in the budget, but we aren't,
we pass it as a, uh, one house.
And we're hoping that it will be, uh, that the assembly will
pass two is the nourish New Yorkprogram.
Uh, you know, what we saw duringCOVID, as we all know, and, and,
uh, you know, president Bidentouched on this, uh, in his
remarks last night, you know, nomatter where you lived, there
were lines of cars or people onsidewalks looking for food.
(52:40):
Uh, food insecurity is real.
And as I said earlier, New Yorkis an ag state.
The fact that we have such highfood insecurity in this state is
atrocious.
Uh, and that's because of lackof investment in agriculture and
lack of real understanding thatwe have to have locally sourced,
healthy food here in our state.
We can't be dependent on biggerfarms in the Midwest because
(53:00):
when those supply chains break,as they do, they're highly
fragile, you know, what are weleft with?
You know, and we saw thatfirsthand during this pandemic
and what the nourish New Yorkprogram, uh, did, was it
connected, upstate farms withfood banks and food pantries
across the state, especially inNew York city and downstate in
the boroughs, because that'swhere the food insecurity is the
(53:22):
highest, uh, and it basicallypaid, we all saw the pictures of
farmers dumping milk.
I'll say it was day 55 when wefinally addressed that, uh, in
the comments, which day 55.
But, uh, finally we were ableto, as a state purchased surplus
food from our farmers and bringthat healthy food to people in
(53:43):
need.
Uh, that's a program that is anincredible program.
It shows how much stronger weare as a state.
When we all work together, it'sa bipartisan program.
Uh, it brings upstate anddownstate together.
It shows that our needs arecomplimentary to each other and
we can really work to strengthenthem.
Uh, and so we had a, we have abill, uh, that with, uh, copra,
(54:04):
my Senator Borello, uh, by theranking member on agriculture
and, uh, carried by assemblywoman, Catalina Cruz in New York
city, uh, to make that programpermanent, you know, and, uh, we
think that that would be abeautiful thing.
And to make it even outside ofjust surplus foods, to purchase
food from farmers and to deliverthem regularly to food banks and
food pantries.
Uh, and so we are hopeful.
(54:25):
We pass that in the Senate.
We are hopeful that the assemblywill pass it as well and make
that a permanent program.
And that's something that cameout of COVID.
Um, a lot of Asia, somethingthat you've observed that you'd
like to translate into eitherlegislation or program,
Speaker 6 (54:39):
I think, well, it talks a little bit about
education and, and the need,especially, COVID kind of
underlying just how we're weirdand ineffective.
Our education funding system hasbeen where we ask local property
tax payers to just pick up ahuge share of it, rather than
having the state kick in what Ithink we want to be doing to
help equalize that andparticularly help out higher tax
(54:59):
regions like knots and Valley.
So certainly ongoing state levelsupport for education, um, which
can I think, spread the burdenmuch more, fairly across New
York, rather than asking ourregion to pay such a
disproportionate cost is key,but the other area is in the
healthcare realm.
One of the things COVIDunderlined is we have a huge
(55:20):
shortage of healthcare providersin many of our communities.
We have a nursing shortage, bothin hospitals and a nursing
homes.
Um, you know, there's, there's,you know, COVID has driven
people out of that business too.
You know, I've heard so manystories of nurses who have just
been so burnt out by the last 15months that after this is, you
(55:40):
know, pandemic ends, they'reretiring, they're getting out.
And I think there are not asmany people seeing what the
medical profession went throughand this unending year plus of
nonstop, you know, emergencyshifts, they're not going to
want to get into the field.
So I actually have a legislationwhich I'm sponsoring with your
assembly woman, uh, alienGunther, a former nurse, uh, the
(56:03):
nursing shortage correction actto really, uh, work with schools
of nursing and figure out waysthat the state can encourage, uh
, nursing schools couldencourage more people to get
into the field and incentivizethat to happen because otherwise
we're going to have an absolutecrisis a few years out.
And some of our more seniornurses retire and particularly
rural areas,
Speaker 4 (56:24):
Um, you know, people aren't there to take up the
Slack.
Speaker 3 (56:27):
All right, Mike, what, what may you have observed
that you want to say, we've gotto fix this.
Speaker 4 (56:35):
So, Jonathan, I think, you know, there are a
couple of things certainly that,uh, COVID has magnified and
really put in the forefront andput on our table to address, um,
you know, like Michelle, Irepresented a very rural
district and I think that someof the, the technology pieces,
um, you know, I certainlyMichelle addressed the broadband
piece.
Um, so I think I'm going topoint to some other things that
I think that we, as alegislature in general have a
(56:56):
ripeness to address.
I mean, certainly we've seen, uh, the importance of tele-health
in the video health in terms ofaccessing very rural
communities, folks that don'thave good access to healthcare
for a lot of the reasons thatElijah just talked about, um,
you know, a lot of rural schoolsdon't have the ability to have
STEM or AP engineering typeprograms in their schools
because there are schooldistricts, like where you're
(57:17):
from in Sullivan County of 800students K-12, or, you know,
1200 students K-12, uh, not, notthe larger schools like
religious from.
So, you know, when you look attechnology's ability to bring
programming to rural students,not something that we have to be
pushing moving forward pre-K wasa huge portion of this year as a
state budget was made a hugepriority.
(57:38):
Uh, but when you look at a lotof early intervention services
that are provided to kids, youknow, our speech therapists when
online for the first time, youknow, to provide services to
kids.
And while I completelyunderstand that it's not the
same as providing in personservices, we have families that
don't have access to reliabletransportation to drive a child
30 miles one way to get speechtherapy or OT.
(58:00):
So these are opportunities as wemove forward.
From my perspective, especiallyfor regions, like I represent
where those services are notregularly available to go and
pick some of the good thingsthat have come out of COVID.
I look, I'm not a big fan of alot of the executive orders.
I'm not a big fan of most ofthem, but there are some, um,
that allow like forreimbursement, for example, for
a lot of our providers in thesesorts of environments, that
(58:23):
should need to be preservedbecause it does provide
services.
Folks who ordinarily wouldn'thave access to them or easily
wouldn't have access to them.
So there are certainly goodthings that we can point to.
And I feel good that thislegislature has a, again, a
right this to really addressthese things now, uh, for the
good of all new Yorkers.
And I guess a little selfishly,especially for Michelle and I,
the good of rural new Yorkers,which I think a lot of these
(58:45):
will provide a specific benefit.
Speaker 3 (58:47):
So we're out of time and I want to thank Michelle and
Mike and Elijah, your energy isinfectious.
Um, and, and may that besomething that we can, um, uh,
pass on to other residents ofthe Hudson Valley to say, get
involved.
(59:07):
There's so much work that needsto be done.
And thank you all forparticipating this morning.
Speaker 9 (59:13):
Thank you for tuning in to patterns and paradigms the
pattern podcast.
For more information about thisepisode, visit our website
pattern for progress.org forwardslash podcast.
Speaker 1 (59:50):
[inaudible].
We are experiencing a paradigm shift, a fundamental
change in the way we usually dothings.
We are intentionally choosing tosee the silver lining
opportunity arises.
We can shine a light on thethings that weren't working well
(00:25):
on those things that weren'treally working at all, we can
regroup reevaluate andre-engineer it's time to explore
new patterns and paradigms thosethat inspire us to rise above
the chaos and explore how theconditions of today can take us
(00:47):
to a better tomorrow
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Patterns and paradigms the pattern podcast
from Hudson Valley pattern forprogress.
Your listening to season twoepisode 18, newly elected to the
New York state Senate with yourhost pattern president and CEO,
Jonathan Dropkin.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Hi everyone.
And welcome to another episodeof patterns and paradigms on
Thursday, April 29th, patternfor progress air the third in
our series on governing duringthe time of COVID previous
episodes include sessions withmayors and County executives.
(01:34):
This session was with statesenators to the New York state
Senate representing differentparts of the Hudson Valley.
There are several aspects of thediscussion that made it so
unusual that we've decided toair it as part of the patterns
and paradigm podcast.
(01:55):
So what made it so unusual?
First of all, the three statesenators were all newly elected.
They were first timers.
The second thing is that for thefirst half hour of that
discussion, there was not asingle mention of a political
party.
Even though there were twoDemocrats and one Republican
(02:18):
third, their comments arecompletely unfiltered and
unguarded by having spent yearsin their elected position.
And finally there they're all intheir thirties and personally,
and for many of the people thatlisten to this panel discussion,
(02:40):
they found it inspiring.
They found the whole new set ofissues that needed to be focused
on and a sense that the up andcoming generation of elected
officials knew exactly wherethey wanted to go.
So let know what you think ofthis special episode of patterns
(03:03):
and paradigms.
We're very delighted thismorning to have Michelle Hinchey
from the 46 district MikeMartucci from the 42nd district
and Elijah Rachlin Melnick fromthe 38 district.
They're all in their thirtiesand they're all brand new to the
legislature.
(03:24):
And, you know, shout out to allof them for not just having the
desire to be engaged in adiscussion about how to make
life in the Hudson Valleybetter, but to then have the
guts and the desire to want toactually put themselves on the
line, run for office and beinvolved, which, you know, many
(03:50):
people have opinions they sharedon social media.
Very few get to do what thesethree people did joining me for
the first half of the discussionfrom pattern for progress is
Michelle Pfeffer.
Michelle is also a 30 somethingand we thought it would be
better and more fun to haveMichelle handled the first half
(04:10):
of the discussion about how itis that Mike Michelle analyze
you got here.
So Michelle, I'm going to turnit over to you.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Good morning, everyone.
We're so pleased.
You could join us today.
And before we get to questionson policy, we want to start off
with how you got here today.
Why did you decide to run foroffice and in such a period when
confidence in government hasbeen kind of low, so Elijah, you
want to start us off?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Sure.
Um, so I decided to run foroffice.
Um, well, first of all, becausethere was a, the seat was over,
uh, the incumbent had been therefor 10 years, decided not to run
for reelection and to had toattempt to head to Congress,
although he was unsuccessful inthat campaign.
But having worked for two yearsfor state Senator James Scopus,
who was another, a young 30something representing our
(05:00):
region, uh, as his legislativedirector and being able to see
the incredible progress that thelegislature made in 2019, uh,
with the first time that we hada democratic state Senate in a
generation or more, um, that wasreally an inspiration.
You know, Albany for most of mylife has been the butt of jokes.
It's a place where good ideas goto die.
(05:23):
It's a perpetual gridlock.
It was, you know, decades of thedemocratic assembly fighting the
Republican Senate, fightingvarious governors, and finally
to see an opportunity to dothings for people and not just
go up there and fight made it.
If phenomenal time, we have somany needs in our region, I
represent Rockland andWestchester.
(05:43):
Um, but throughout the HudsonValley, there are so many needs
from our schools to ourinfrastructure, um, our
business, community taxes, allof these things, which I think
we can now make some realprogress on.
And so to have this opportunityto in the state Senate
Speaker 4 (05:58):
At a time when all of these actually delivering for
people was something I couldn'tpossibly pass out that chance.
And, uh, that's why I threw myhat in the right.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
I'm glad to have you there.
How about you, Mike?
Speaker 4 (06:10):
So good morning, Michelle.
Um, you know, I, uh, I guess theexpression is I, I, I guess
really like, like both, uh,Senator hitchy and Senator rifle
Melnick, I'm born to the Senate,so I've never, I never ran for
public office before.
This is the first seat that Iheld, um, coming to Albany and
going directly in the Senate.
Uh, my experience is one ofhaving come out of business.
I started a school bus companyback when I was 22 with one
(06:32):
school bus.
I was the first driver of thecompany.
I drove a school bus and just assoon as I saved up enough money
to buy a second school bus, Idid that.
And my grandma was my very firstemployee.
And to over the 10 years tofollow was blessed to surround
myself with some of the mostphenomenal people, get support
from a business community in theHudson Valley at large, and
built the company from thatfirst school bus to a school, to
(06:53):
a company of just shy of 600employees.
So for me, I have the experienceof riding in the front seat of
the rollercoaster, uh, you know,in terms of job creation here in
the state of New York, in termsof, uh, you know, working with
our school districts and ourcommunities across the region.
So it's something that I alwayshad interest in.
I always wanted to run forpublic office.
I never thought it would be now,but in 2018 I had the
(07:15):
opportunity to sell my business.
And, um, you know, here I sit, I, I think that in my life, I
always, I always envisioned thisbeing much later.
So I didn't think I'd be part ofthe 30 something club here, but
sometimes things just worked outthat way.
And, um, that was certainly onereason.
I think the second is, you know,I'm, I'm blessed to have a
beautiful family at home.
I have a wonderful wife andthree children.
(07:36):
I have a five-year-old son, afour year old daughter and a one
and a half year old daughter athome.
So my three kids are a lot of myinspiration.
You know, I was so blessed to beable to grow up here in New York
and the region that I representand I want my kids to be able to
do the same.
I think that everyone has theability, uh, who has the ability
should consider stepping up andrunning for public office,
because it really is a very highcalling.
(07:58):
And, um, I guess finally, justto end with, and sort of
answering your question, why didI run at a time, uh, when, when,
you know, there's such low faithin government and politics are
so divisive, I think the realityhere, one of the things I've
learned in my first, roughly ahundred days on the job is that,
you know, same minds can come todifferent conclusions.
That's okay.
You know, I don't always agreewith my colleagues here on this
(08:19):
zoom.
We agree on a lot.
We disagree on some and that'sokay.
And that's what makes governmentso effective because it really
is, uh, our responsibility touse our collective wisdom, to
come to conclusions that are inthe best interest of all new
Yorkers.
And we can do that together.
And we do that well because wecome from different backgrounds
in different areas.
So, um, I feel really blessed toserve and I'm excited to be
here.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
That's a great answer, Michelle, how about you?
Hi, thank you.
I, I'm really excited to be heretoo.
Thank you so much for holdingthis forum and for inviting us
today.
You know, my, uh, pathway hereis a little bit different in the
sense that, uh, I grew upfundamentally and firsthand, the
kinds of positive impacts youcan have in your community
(09:01):
through public service.
Uh, you know, my, my father, mywhole life was either when I was
very young, he was in the NewYork state assembly.
And then for most of my, uh,childhood and adult life, he was
in Congress.
And, you know, we, the way wewould spend time together would
either to be jumping in the carand go travel the district to
different events and meetingdifferent people.
(09:21):
Or, you know, we'd go back toschool, shopping at the Hudson
Valley mall and a trip thatshould have taken, you know,
maybe an hour, maybe two wouldtake three, four, five hours
because we would stop and talkto him.
Everyone who approached him and,you know, so starting at a
really young age, starting atsix, you know, I heard
everything from, please help me.
(09:43):
I can't get my veteran'sbenefits to thank you so much.
You helped my mother be able tostay in her home, you know, and
that really shapes the way, butyou see the world and on the
flip side of that, you know, soit's all the negative sides to
being involved in publicservice, you know, the demands
on your time and that, you know,you can't make everybody happy
(10:03):
and you can have very hearty,good disagreements.
I agree with my colleagues,Senator Martucci, uh, but
sometimes it's hard to live inthat space all the time,
especially is as the child ofsomeone who is facing that every
time you go out together.
And, uh, you know, so I ran fromit for a long time.
I actually, you know, I'd beenasked when I was going to run
(10:23):
since I was seven.
Uh, so it was always in my mindis something that was in
opportunity and an option, whichI'm very blessed to have.
Uh, but I also saw thenegatives.
And so it was important for meto see what else was out in the
world.
And I spent the last 10 yearsworking in communications, uh,
in the private sector fortechnology companies and media
companies, and learned a lot anddid a lot of really incredible
(10:47):
and exciting things.
But at the end of the day, forme, I always felt like there was
a lot more to do and to giveback and to be involved.
And, you know, seeing firsthandthe kinds of positive impacts
you can have when you bringdifferent constituencies to the
table and you foster thatconversation and you have the
tough conversations, really howyou can change and make people's
lives better.
(11:08):
Uh, and similar to my colleaguesknew I grew up here born and
raised in Saugerties.
And, uh, I want to raise myfuture family here.
You know, this is where myfriends are raising their
families and much of my familystill lives.
And, uh, when I looked around tosee, you know, we need people in
office who are young and hungry,right?
Who are, who have the energy toshow up, especially when you
(11:29):
have a district like the 46 thatspans five counties across three
different regions.
You know, you have to make surethat that you're accessible and
that you're available and reallybeholden to the people who
elected you and sent you tooffice.
And, uh, I wanted to do that.
I wanted to show that that's thekind of representation that we
all deserve.
It's the kind that I grew upseeing.
(11:49):
Uh, we've seen some people arereally great at it.
There's in, you know, had kindof let that go a bit.
And I thought I saw anopportunity, uh, for me to, to
step up and try to shape theworld that, you know, we all
want to live in, especially asit pertains to climate change
and job development, uh, andhealthcare access, you know, and
infrastructure, uh, here inupstate New York communities
(12:12):
that often feel, and quitefrankly are left behind and left
out of the conversation.
And I think I agree with a lotof my, uh, again, my, my
colleagues comments where, youknow, this is, uh, it's always
important to run for office, butarguably it's never been more
important to run for office tobe able to try to build that
consensus and to work withpeople, both in your party and
(12:34):
across the aisle, uh, to bringus back to a place where we can
have meaningful conversations.
And, uh, I think that this is,uh, really one of the most
important times to do it.
And I thought that, uh, youknow, we might as well try it
similar to similarly to mycolleague, throw our hat in the
ring and see if we're able tobring people onto, onto our team
and show them what we can do.
So you all had to run a campaignin a really unique time during a
(12:58):
pandemic.
What was it like to run acampaign during COVID?
Speaker 6 (13:02):
Uh, it was a, it was a real challenge because it's
very hard as a new candidate.
I had been elected to thevillage board of trustees and
Nyack where I live, but that isan entirely different ball game
than running for state Senate.
And so I knew going into it thatthere would be an enormous
number of people who did notknow who I was.
I was not a household name.
And normally you get to meetpeople.
(13:24):
You go knock on doors, you go toevents, you go to local football
games.
You, you find ways to shakehands to get yourself
introduced.
None of that was possible afterthe first few months of the
campaign.
And so trying to retool andrealize this is going to become
about, uh, you know, doing thesevirtual events, trying to find a
way to communicate with votersthrough, you know, through the
(13:45):
mail, get volunteers to makephone calls for us and just try
to retool on the fly.
Um, I have some experience incampaigns, so I thought I had a
good idea of what it would taketo run for Senate, at least on
the campaign side.
And that was all out the window.
Uh, I announced in December,2019, so I had about three
months or so of a normalcampaign and then up into the
(14:06):
Apple cart, so to speak.
So, um, I think it was achallenge I'm sure for all of
us.
And, um, although in a way, Iguess for, uh, my two colleagues
here since their districts areso much bigger, perhaps in some
ways it was easier to be able toget to events on the, you know,
all the far corners.
It takes me about 45 minutes or50 minutes to get from
(14:26):
end-to-end to my district.
Uh, Michelle and Mike, I'm sureit takes a lot longer to get
from one end to the other.
So I would actually just addjust on the last question, which
I was thinking about, like, why,why now would we want to run?
Because one of the things I didnotice when I was in Albany and,
and Senator, Martucci kind ofalluded to this, you don't have
to wait.
There's a stereotype that, uh,state legislators, particularly
(14:50):
state senators should be wellinto
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Middle age before they do this.
And seeing what happened afterthe 2018 election, when there
were a number of new memberselected in their thirties and
even one or two in theirtwenties, um, you realize you
don't need to wait until you'rein your fifties or sixties to
run for high office.
Um, you know, I'm, I'm at 36,there's probably 10 senators now
(15:12):
who are younger than me, whichis kind of remarkable to think
about.
So, uh, we have a youth movementin the state Senate, probably
the largest, uh, you know, maybethe largest ever
Speaker 5 (15:24):
Senator Martucci.
How about you?
What was it like running acampaign during COVID?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Oh my gosh.
So, um, so look, I'll Elijah hitit right on the head.
I mean, you know, I think thereality is for me, uh, you know,
at first it was a little bitlike, what did you do?
I mean, you're sitting aroundduring the day and you're
saying, Oh, I know I should bedoing something.
I know I should be talking topeople.
I know I should be doingsomething, but when you take out
like the campaign book, the whatto do, you can't do anything in
(15:48):
the book.
Right?
So for me, where we immediatelypivoted was just, how can we
help?
I think as part of my, my, myattitude in all of this was, you
know, I think we all certainlythought, at least initially that
COVID was going to happen a lotquicker, if that makes sense.
And we thought, Oh, you knowwhat, there'll be a couple of
weeks in a month.
We'll be back to regular life.
And when we get back to regularlife, we can do a week.
We've got to do.
(16:09):
Um, but, uh, but yeah, so Ithink the first thing was, and,
and by the way, I think itworked to our benefit,
potentially being all 30somethings that we got to throw
the old book away, because Ithink the way campaigns were run
is they take the old book out,they blow the dust off of it.
They'd open it up and say, well,here's how you run a campaign,
but the good news is we got theGenesis of the book and we got
to figure out a new way to doit.
And I think that, you know, whatI saw myself doing and telling
(16:30):
my colleagues through theircampaigns, they were all doing
the same thing.
What were we doing?
You know, we were deliveringmeals to seniors.
We were out in the community,helping folks, um, with, with
issues that frankly, we nevereven considered because of
COVID.
We were figuring out ways to getkids, Chromebooks and iPads, so
they could go to school.
So for me, it was just like,what do we do?
We just, we revert back to theold, you know, forget if you're
(16:52):
a state Senator or forget ifyou're a, a candidate or be a
good citizen.
And what is being a good citizenlook like right now.
And that's what it was.
So it, it, a lot of it, wasn'tvery glamorous.
We weren't doing big forums.
We weren't talking to groups of200 people.
You know, we were standing on astreet corner handing out
groceries, but guess what?
That's what needed to happen inthe moment.
It's what we did.
And, um, you know, I think atthe end of the day, what it
(17:14):
really meant was the people thatcame out to support us on
November 3rd, uh, saw that andunderstood that it's probably
the reason that we're heretoday.
So for me, I would say that acampaigning during COVID was
really just being a good citizenand it worked
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Senator, I think that's exactly right.
You know, we, we had the samementality, I think as soon as,
you know, when COVID kind ofovertook all of our lives right.
In, right towards the middle ofpetitioning.
Right.
And so we kind of shiftedeverything to, how do we keep
people safe and what do we doand all that.
It was just calling.
And I, again, I obviously, Iknow my colleagues did the same,
you know, how can you, where canyou show up?
(17:50):
I was just calling people'splace saying, hi, can I come
help you pack meals?
Right.
And unpack bags for people andsee, and try to do that all over
the district to also get a senseof what the needs were too,
right.
Because if we're running torepresent the district one it's
to help people and when betterto help people then in the
middle of a global pandemic, uh,but to, you know, you have to
(18:10):
know the problems to be able togo to Albany and try to solve
them.
And so, you know, we were at afood pantry in Amsterdam, in
Montgomery County, and, uh, theyusually served about 200
families a week.
Um, when I was there, we servedwell over 700, you know, that
was in the beginning of thepandemic.
And so to see that scale, Ithink really set the stage and
(18:30):
really set the tone for what wewere going through.
And then that just drove evenfurther.
Exactly like Mike was saying, Imean, how much more we can do,
whether it's, uh, you know,doing our own drives, our
hygiene drives and food drivesbeing in different places, uh,
sharing information, you know,we made a COVID resource guide.
We, we business suspended orcampaign and just made it a
information sharing.
(18:51):
So people knew where to go.
And we had seen COVID guidespopping up in different parts of
the state, and we didn't see onelocally.
And so we tried to compilesomething for all five counties.
It was like, if you need helphere, all the resources for food
here are the resources foronline education for kids.
You know, you could go to themet virtually, uh, you know, how
do you take a tour of this,other of the national parks,
(19:13):
right.
You know, what are these thingsthat people are looking for,
things to do?
Uh, and, and their hands aretied, you know, we're trying to
fill in those gaps as best aspossible.
And I think the other piece too,that was touched on is it really
allowed us to be creative.
And I think it's right.
I mean, with 20, I'm not thebest at technology.
I'll admit that, but I havesome, you know, understanding
and, uh, you know, like, uh,understanding with it.
(19:35):
And so, you know, we juststarted holding Facebook town
halls and forums, right.
And bringing people together,doing a real about a
conversation with one of ourfirst responders to talk about
what their experience had been,uh, through.
COVID what their life was likebefore, uh, during and in rural
communities, what people shouldbe thinking about and trying to
bring different leaders to thetable, just to help educate
(19:55):
people and let them know whatwas going on and the kinds of
things that, the priorities thatwe were seeing and trying to
bubble them up to the top.
And so, uh, you know, was a lotof phone calls, not a lot of
door knocking, but it actuallymade it to, to Elijah's point.
You know, it was a little bitnice in the fact that we could
do a couple of different virtualhouse parties.
(20:16):
Right.
And just get to know people, uh,in all over our district on the
same day, without having tofactor in travel time.
And so for a district like ours,where, you know, 140 miles top
to bottom, uh, that's reallyhelpful when you can get out to
green County and Ultima Canada,Joe, Harry, and Ulster all in an
afternoon.
Uh, so we made a point to, to dothat as, as much as possible
(20:38):
while also filling in thoseother gaps of, uh, helping
people and just being present.
Speaker 7 (20:43):
Um, so you, you survive the campaign and you
win.
And, um, what did that
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Moment feel like, obviously better than losing,
um, but was there, uh, well now,what kind of moment for you?
I can, I can jump in there too.
Uh, briefly, you know, our, wewent to teens, you know, we had
about 30,000 apps absentees.
And so we didn't know officiallythat we won until almost
(21:09):
December, right.
At the end of November.
And so, uh, there, wasn't kindof a long time to do the, now
what it was kind of a, okay,we're here kind of a thing.
I mean, we, it was, we won andthat afternoon, it was like,
okay, so what does our team looklike?
Where do we look for officespace?
Two days later, we're on aconference zoom with our
colleagues talking about theemergency session.
(21:31):
They call it in December, youknow, so we were immediately
into it.
So we didn't actually have, uh,kind of that, that grace period
to, uh, let it sink in to kindof reflect on the work that we
had done reflect on flippingthe, see what that meant for the
community and, uh, even bescared about it, right.
Or to be nervous about it.
Cause we had to go straight intoaction.
(21:53):
So what does that, you know,kind of beneficial because it
forced us to do everythingpretty quickly, uh, in a great
way and, uh, really get a tasteof the job pretty immediately
and instantaneously Elijah, howabout you?
Speaker 6 (22:07):
So, I mean, somewhat like Michelle, there was, first
of all, everything was remote.
So with this was not a year whenwe could have a big, you know,
election night party tocelebrate or anything like that.
And I also had a race that wentto absentees, uh, on election,
which I had suspected would beneeded because there was such a
wide partisan breakdown thisyear of, of who was voting
(22:29):
absentee versus who was votingin person, uh, really around the
country.
And so I finished election dayabout 3000 votes behind,
although I felt on election day,I think my race was not nearly
as close overall as, as the twoof my colleagues.
Um, I felt really good because Iknew that we had about 30,000
absentee ballots that I expectedto certainly trend in my
(22:51):
direction.
And so being very narrowlybehind, I was reasonably sure I
was going to win, but there'sthis sort of frustrating limbo.
And then when you finally win it, it's a couple of weeks after
the election, the energy'sdrained out.
So it was more a sense of myGod, you know, I'm so happy.
This is finally done.
We've been doing this for such along time and it is really
exciting.
(23:11):
It's an incredible feeling.
Um, but without that sort ofenergy of, of the room full of
people and, you know, friendsand family, and I think when it
was sort of confirmed was therewith, you know, with my campaign
manager basically.
And, um, but nevertheless, youknow, knowing how much there was
work to do incredibly excitingand, and honestly a bit surreal
(23:31):
for a long time to, to get overthis, this sense of, you know,
this actually happened.
And I'm sure that most peoplewho've been in this position,
um, you know, unless you comeinto it with an enormous ego
where you just assumed this wasowed to you, and
Speaker 4 (23:46):
I don't think too many of us do that, there's
always going to be a sense of,you know, incredulity that this
could actually have been real.
And you know that yes, in fact,I was honored to have won and be
in this position to help people.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Mike, how about for you?
What was that moment like?
Speaker 4 (24:04):
So, um, so Elijah, Michelle, he hit it right on the
head.
Right.
Um, you know, I was into thesame sort of situation or race
that was separated, that wasultimately decided by one person
.
Um, so, uh, we all lived throughan interesting November to say
the least, but, um, I thinkmaybe rather than kind of like
reiterate exactly what they justsaid, you know, one of my
experiences sort of aftereverything was final, you know,
(24:25):
they, you know, weeks and weeksafter her actually election
night, uh, what was really kindof a great experience for me, um
, was, you know, my phone beganto blow up and it was everyone
reaching out to me to say, howcan we help?
And when I say that, what I meanis even people who were on the
opposite side of this raceduring the campaign, um, I'm
talking about in my district,Democrat mayors, I'm talking
(24:46):
about our colleague, SenatorJames Goofus.
Who's a friend who reached outto me and said, how do I help
you, Mike?
You know?
So that, those sorts of things Ithink really are emblematic of
the approach that all of us taketo our job because there's a
campaign and then there's ourjob.
Right?
And ultimately our job is towork together for the good of
the people that we represent.
So I thought it was reallyawesome, frankly, to kind of,
(25:07):
you know, after things were setin stone and after things were
done, you know, not only to hear, you know, again, from my
friends, I say my friends duringthe campaign, but hear from new
friends, people that I'm goingto be working with, including
some of my colleagues right hereon, on the zoom, uh, who reach
out and say, look, we're lookingforward to working together.
Let's get to work.
So I think that, you know, forme, uh, you know, there, there
(25:28):
was sort of like that wowmoment, like, Oh my gosh, the
first time somebody calls youSaturday and you're like, are
you talking to me?
You're talking to me.
Um, but then right after that,where you say, okay, you know,
now it's time to depart from thecampaign and leave that behind
and move forward with doing ourwork.
So, um, I would say that thatwas really probably one of, one
of the most, I guess, really, Idon't want to say heartening,
(25:50):
but it was just, it shows youhow much promises here.
Right.
It was really like a reallypromising moment.
Like I said, to kinda wake upthat next morning after
everything was official, atleast I'll be it.
That was not November 4th.
It was significantly afterNovember 4th.
But, um, and to be reached outby so many people who not only
just set it by the way, but whoalso meant it in terms of, in
terms of helping me get off theground and being productive from
(26:10):
day one,
Speaker 2 (26:12):
It's really comforting to hear that.
So now that your state senatorsfor all of four months, you said
about a hundred days, right.
Um, what are some of the thingsthat have caused you to say,
well, I didn't know.
That was part of the job, youknow, have there been surprises
that are good or bad?
Um, Mike, we can start with you.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Sure.
Um, so liquid shall the answeris everything.
Th th I guess what, maybe what Ididn't realize was everything is
my job.
Now, everything I sayeverything, and I say it
jokingly, but it's sort of fun,right?
I mean, people call me aboutfederal.
They call me about theirneighbor's dog barking, too
loud.
They call me, you know, we havelovely people who we love, who
call us refrigerator breaks.
(26:50):
What do we do?
Right.
So I guess the answer sort of iswe hear from everyone across the
spectrum, Michelle was talkingabout this, going, going,
shopping at the mall with herdad, right.
When people would talk to himabout everything under the sun.
So I think that for me, youknow, I thought, well, you know,
there's kind of two componentsto the job is what we do in
Albany.
And then there's what we do inthe district.
But I guess I really didn'tunderstand that, you know, the
(27:12):
biggest thing and really for me,the part of the job that I enjoy
the most is just helping people.
And, and what does that helplook like?
Like I said, it could be helpingpeople with get a prescription
medication filled, cause theydon't know how to get health
insurance.
Uh, or like I said, it could beyour neighbor's dog barking too
loud, or your sidewalks that areuneven in front of your house.
I mean, you name it, we dealwith it here.
So, um, a day does not go bywhere I don't get a new issue
(27:35):
that gets thrown on our plate.
And frankly, I say like, Ididn't even know that was a
problem.
I didn't even know that issueexisted.
Um, so it's, uh, it certainlykeeps us on our toes that's for
sure.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
You know, any surprises.
Yeah.
You know, I think that that'sexactly right.
You know, I had, uh, I kind ofcame in with my eyes, very open
into having the spectrum ofthings, but, you know, it's
never boring.
Uh, the calls, we, again, that'swhat keeps it exciting, right?
Because you want, we're here tohelp people.
We're here to solve thoseproblems.
And I have the ability to dothat.
And you had to see the differentlives.
Everybody is living, uh, isreally great.
(28:08):
You know, one of the things thatkind of surprised me a little
bit in a great way was just howmuch, you know, access and
influence we would have as, asfreshmen senators.
You know, we, our, ourcolleagues are amazing, you
know, and are very welcoming andwant to hear our opinions.
And, you know, I have arguablythe most rural and largest
(28:32):
district in our majorityconference.
And so a lot of the issues thatwe face are some of them overlap
similarly with my colleagues,but many of them are very
different and there aredifferent ways of life and there
are different constituencies.
And so I often find myself beingone of the only if not the only
voice bringing up some of theissues and concerns that we
have, or thinking aboutsomething with an angle towards
(28:54):
more rural upstate and, uh, youknow, that's, I, that's why I
ran, I ran to be an upstatevoice in the majority conference
and to be able to do that and tohave my colleagues listen and
take what we're saying andreally implement that then into
either bills that they'reworking on or other things, you
know, specifically with theMRTA, you know, that was a bill
that's been around.
(29:14):
My colleagues have been workingon for nearly a decade.
And, uh, when we got here, wewere able to say, Hey, some of
this language doesn't actuallywork for small farmers, you
know, or what about this hemppiece that actually was left out
in regulations, but is criticalfor farmers to get into this
industry.
Those were things that weren'treally included in the
legislation.
We brought it up work with asponsor and they are now law.
(29:35):
They are now part of it.
And to be able to have that kindof, you know, influence is the
wrong word, but to be at the, uh,
Speaker 6 (29:42):
So early, I mean, that was, you know, two months
in to being an office, uh, beingable to really affect change for
the community.
It's something, I didn't knowhow long that was going to take
or how accessible, you know, wewould be to kind of get into
those spaces, especially thosethat were here before us.
Uh, but it's been reallywonderful to be able to do that.
(30:02):
So actually some of whatMichelle said, definitely, uh, I
agree with that, that theability is a fresh, uh, you know
, freshman or a first-yearSenator to really, you know,
take, take a leadership role.
They, they majority had awonderful idea to give each of
us the chairmanship orchairperson of a committee.
So I'm honored to chair thecommittee on procurement and
(30:24):
contracts, which was a newlycreated committee focusing on
the, the, you know, very largeand influential state
procurement process that spendshundreds of millions of dollars
every year.
Um, but to be in that positionas somebody who's just taken
office is not something again,which when you think about
legislatures, we have thestereotype, I think based on the
(30:44):
us Senate, that it's all aboutseniority, it's all about, you
know, you have to have done yourtime and been there for a decade
before you can do anything.
And that's just not the case.
You know, we are all welcomed inas, as first-year senators to,
you know, to theseconversations.
Um, nobody's telling us to sitdown and shut up and wait our
turn.
Um, you know, which is, which isgreat.
And, you know, I haven't neededto reach out to the majority
(31:06):
leader for too much, but when Ido, she'll take the call, she'll
work, she'll try to help out inthe district.
I think the one other thing Ihave noticed is although I
certainly having observed myformer boss, uh, with the work
he was doing, I knew there was alot to come in, you know, emails
and phone calls and meetings andeverything else.
I could see how busy he was.
And somehow you don't quiterealize it until you're the one
(31:28):
doing that.
There is never an end to themeeting requests to the email.
I mean, I have four emailinboxes now I've got, you know,
Facebook to check and this tocheck and Twitter and all that
you could truly spend your lifejust responding to other people.
And so what I have found isreally important is to try to
set time aside to make sure thatI'm not just being responsive,
(31:49):
but being proactive about comingup with ideas and solutions and
doing what I want to do, notjust responding to what other
people want me to do.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
All right.
So, um, I'm going to jump inhere and, um, thanks Michelle
for moderating the first half.
So two things struck me sittingand getting to listen to the
three of you, which is oneinspiring.
That is a word that comes bylistening to all three of you.
And the second one is at anyyear Democrat or Republican
(32:20):
mentioned for 30 minutes.
And I just, you know, maybeMichelle got the closest being
in the, you know, in themajority party, but never
mentioned the labels.
It was just about the work thatyou knew that you would have to
do.
So let's turn to work and let'sstart with you get elected and,
(32:43):
you know, there's a traditionand you know, that Cuomo wanted
to have on time budgets April1st, only, you're now doing it
during COVID, you're now tryingto figure out how to communicate
with your colleagues.
What was your first budget like,and Michelle, let's start with
you.
What was your first budget?
(33:04):
Like,
Speaker 5 (33:06):
You know what I actually thought it was great,
but you know, I, people saybudget starts early.
I didn't realize budget startedweek two.
I didn't realize it was thatearly.
You know?
So that was kind of a shockwhere, you know, you have a
couple of meetings and all of asudden, the next week you get a
message that says, so you'representing on your budget and
bring it forward.
(33:26):
But I haven't even seen apresentation on a budget and I'm
supposed to be presenting onone, you know, it starts really
early.
Uh, but even with that, youknow, as, as we were saying
earlier and you know, ourcolleagues are so, uh, inclusive
and so welcoming that it'sactually much less of a scary
thing, uh, to head into evenknowing how important it is, uh,
and how much there is to do andhow we have to fight, you know,
(33:48):
for, for what we need, you know,the agriculture budgets, the
committee that I chair, uh, isso critically important, it's
important to our economy.
It's more of a job it'simportant to our food and our
sustainability.
It's more in the climate change.
Uh, but it's something that, youknow, for many reason, you know,
doesn't, isn't always front andcenter in a lot of people's
minds.
And so it was my job to make thecase for that and to talk about
(34:11):
why it was so important, whichwas again, a really early, uh,
kind of leadership place to takeas a freshmen, uh, in, in a
budget that is so large and allconsuming for our state, you
know, New York is an act state.
Uh, but so I think, you know, itdidn't realize it started so
early doing everything virtuallyand on zoom is just hard.
Uh, you know, it allows us tokind of do those meetings
(34:32):
anytime and anywhere.
However you miss the in-personconversations, you know, you
miss some of that informationsharing, you miss some of the
fate and the con like the thingsthat you need, uh, to be able to
, to really formulate youropinions and move forward,
unless you are actively seekingit.
Right.
And so we had, you know, formyself and my team, you know, we
(34:52):
had a checklist every day thatwas okay, here are our
priorities.
And let's make 20 phone calls aday to anyone who will answer
our call to find out, you know,where these things, Dan, outside
of your hour per view, and toput our voice in to say these
things are important.
And again, here's why, you know,so, uh, it was definitely not
the budget experience that Ithink any of us thought that we
(35:14):
would be, uh, heading into, youknow, being in the room, it'd be
able to really debated and talkit out and figure out strategy
would have been nice.
I look forward to that, uh, fornext year.
But I think even with that, youknow, we came out with a budget
that I know I'm really proud ofand I think will help a lot of
people.
And so we were still able tokind of overcome those
challenges and overcome, uh,being thrown into the fire, uh,
(35:38):
to be able to do something thatI think really helps,
especially, you know, incrediblesmall business funding, right?
I mean, unprecedented levels, uh, of things for people in
upstate New York and things thatwe need, uh, for the first time
ever.
So even with the challenges, Ithink we were all able to really
come to the table and have thosediscussions and, uh, move and
here are the priorities andmoving forward.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
So Mike experience NEC how are you?
Speaker 4 (36:09):
So, um, you know, certainly John is a little
different on the minority side.
Um, but, uh, so maybe I'll kindof, I'll take you kinda through,
I think, budget, you know, frommy end, a little different,
obviously, because I'm, so whenyou're in the minority, you play
a role in budget, but it'splayed a little differently.
Um, and, uh, you know, for me,what it's about at least
initially was getting to Albany,uh, as, as Michelle said, you
(36:31):
know, figuring out the lay ofthe land as quickly as you can.
And really from the minorityside, the key to being effective
is building relationships.
And, you know, I would tell youthat all the folks on this call,
including my colleagues, I don'thave the opportunity to serve on
either of their committees.
So I really can't speak to, um,you know, the work that they
were doing, but the process thatMichelle just outlined is the
process that many of thecommittee chairs follow as they
(36:52):
begin to prioritize budgets.
So just as an example, I serve,um, as the ranking member of
Senator Kaplan's committee onsmall business commerce and
economic development, I had anopportunity to forge a
relationship with her veryearly.
And Senator Capitan was veryopen to working with me, hearing
things, especially from myperspective as a business
person, someone who's run asmall business in our state
(37:13):
about the priorities thatshould, that should be included
in the budget.
Um, she had a total willingnessto do that, which is awesome.
Uh, because again, like I said,kind of at the beginning of this
call, it's our obligation to useour collective wisdom and
experiences to come up with thebest end product as possible.
So look, you know, while I am Ifrustrated with the budget
process itself, like the budgetPR proper, absolutely.
(37:34):
Right.
I mean, this is a leadershipdriven process that
unfortunately doesn't involve asmuch input as I would like to
see from rank and file senators.
Um, not only of the minority,but also of the majority.
Certainly a lot of the finalresponsibilities are delegated
to leadership, but we all haveopportunities to put our
fingerprints on this process.
And if you work hard enough, Icertainly, from my side, what
(37:56):
that oftentimes means quitefrankly, is you have to run a
mile, take to pick up a foot,but you have to be willing to do
that.
And you go, and you meet yourcolleagues, you talk to them
about things that are important,not only to your constituency,
because you know, you know, yourdistrict with anyone else, but
you talk to them about yourexperiences outside of
government, you know, and whatgood policy looks like from your
perspective and what bad policylooks like from your
(38:17):
perspective.
So there are tons ofopportunities to be effective,
uh, but from my end, it's allabout forging those
relationships, um, and beingwilling to work with others and
compromise because, uh, youknow, I would say certainly from
my experience, at least thesenators who I've built
relationships with in themajority, they've all been open
and willing to talk to me.
They've all been willing to, uh,you know, receive feedback and
(38:38):
input, which has been huge.
The other thing I think I'lljust mention about the budget
process, certainly I think thatwas different this year than
others, um, where the, um, the,the, the many issues surrounding
our governor, right, thegovernor is sort of CenterPoint
through the budget process.
And certainly, uh, besides justhaving to do it this way on zoom
and deal with working with ourcolleagues remotely and somehow
(38:58):
forging a relationship like wehave having a drink together
that stuff's all difficult, but,uh, you know, certainly the, the
scandals that surrounded thegovernor made this year even
more difficult.
Um, but nonetheless, thislegislature did its job in
forged through, uh, to work, to,um, to come up with a final
budget deal.
So I would say that'd be theonly other thing that I call
out, which was, I think thisyear was particularly
(39:20):
complicated, um, by a set ofissues surrounding the governor
and, and, you know, certainlymoving forward.
We hope that that's, um, that'snot an issue, but either case, I
think that, uh, much like the,uh, the folks that we represent,
it's our obligation toserpentine it adapt and figure
our way around challenges.
And we definitely did that,Elijah.
(39:40):
Yeah.
So
Speaker 6 (39:41):
I think there's certainly it was aware it was a
very weird budget year becauseof COVID and the fact that there
weren't the kind of in-personmeetings that there usually
would be.
I talked to colleagues who'vebeen in the legislature for
many, many years, and they said,this is by far the strangest
budget year.
They'd seen, it was the hardestto get information both because
of the lack of in-personmeetings and contacts also, uh,
(40:05):
I know we've had issues thathave been reported in the press,
uh, in the democratic conferenceand the majority conference
where discussions keep gettingleaked to the media.
And so that made it morechallenging.
I think for leadership to sharea lot of information proactively
with rank and file members,because there just seems to be
time after time, they would tellus something in our majority
(40:26):
conference, and then the dailynews would have a story about it
half an hour later.
And that is it's really toxic tothe ability to get work done.
I mean, you imagine any of yourprivate business meetings and
all of a sudden it's on thefront page of the newspaper.
That is a problem.
So we got to work to overcomethat as Michelle was sort of
saying, a lot of that took theplace of having to just reach
(40:46):
out ourselves, make phone callsto leadership, make phone calls
to people involved at thecentral level and figure out
what's going on.
But I felt like as a freshmanmember, my concerns really did
get incorporated and heard.
I went into the budget with twobig issues that we needed to
resolve.
Um, the governor had proposed,uh, completely closing and
cutting the Rockland children'spsychiatric center, which if he
(41:10):
had done that, this is the onlyinpatient facility that serves
children with mental healthneeds between the Bronx and
Utica.
And they serve a lot of, uh,children, not just from my
district in Rockland, but Ithink orange County has the
largest number of kids goingthere.
So these would have been kidswith no real options for what to
do.
We had to fight that and did,and put together a bipartisan
(41:31):
coalition and really made clearand leadership heard this, I
think from all members who wereimpacted, we can't allow this to
go through in the final budget.
Did it, kept it open?
Um, and then the school fundingwas another major issue, which I
had prioritized.
I know many others did and madethat really clear as we are
bringing a new revenue to NewYork, we have got to use it for
(41:54):
helping out local schooldistricts that are struggling
because of the pandemic.
And then not only does that helpthe district, hire teachers, you
know, pay for the services, payfor the building improvements
needed.
Cause it's, COVID, it's beenhelping taxpayers because in my,
in Senate district, at leastmore than half of the school
districts have now proposedbudgets with a 0% tax increase
this year because of all theadditional state aid that's
(42:17):
coming in, you know, and, andunlike the federal aid, which is
amazing.
I mean, it works what we canprovide at the state, but it's
a, one-shot nobody expectsWashington to send this level of
assistance to the schooldistricts year after year.
But we have put in placepermanent ongoing increases in
state funding for education,which I think bear fruit for
taxpayers too.
(42:38):
So let me use that as a jumpingoff point then to also ask
Michelle and Mike it's difficultas this year was being freshmen.
Michelle, did you, was theresomething that you were happy
about that you could bring backto the district?
Speaker 5 (42:55):
Yeah.
Th there was a lot, you know,I'll, I'll touch on them really
quickly.
You know, the first thing wasfunding for the catalyst park.
You know, when we think about,uh, environmental funding, we
always met the Adirondacks.
Uh, but the Catskills, uh, arehuge and so important.
And especially during COVIDwithin state tourism increasing,
you know, the first park you getto when you're traveling,
(43:15):
upstate from downstate is theCatskills.
And so we saw a major influx, uh, in tourism, which is great for
our economies and our localeconomies.
And we need that.
We want it, we love it, but atthe same time, our natural
resources, because we don't havethe regular funding, we don't
have the stewards, we don't havea forest Rangers, we don't have
the infrastructure, uh, youknow, we're really struggling.
(43:36):
And so what we fought for veryseriously and we're able to,
able to deliver this year forthe first time ever was funding
for the Catskills park on parwith the Adirondacks.
You know, we were able to in anover usage fund, uh, in the EPF,
we were able to get theCatskills included in that, just
split the money with theAdirondacks, which is huge.
And we were able to get anadditional funding line for the
(43:59):
Catskills, uh, to help withstewards and farm Rangers and
other things as, as I've said ininfrastructure.
And so that was critical, uh,and really excited about that.
You know, uh, another thing Ijoke in our conference that I've
become known as the broadbandlady, because at every chance I
get, I talk about the lack ofaccess to broadband.
(44:21):
Both affordability is somethingthat's critically important, but
access points that people don'teven realize that there are
communities that just don't havethe infrastructure for
broadband.
Uh, you know, and, and if youlive in one of those
communities, you knew it was aproblem before COVID, but it has
been elevated and exacerbatedduring this pandemic.
I mean, people are driving milesand miles and miles to sit in a
(44:44):
library, parking lot to getspotty, wifi.
I mean, the libraries have beensaviors, right?
I mean, and it's some of thetowns making parks.
I mean, in Saugerties, they makecanteen field, a public wifi
space, you know, that's great,but not everyone can do that,
nor should they have to, youknow, if you're a family with
one car and you have to choosebetween getting to work or
bringing your kid to the libraryto do their homework, I mean,
(45:05):
how do you make that choice?
It's an impossible choice tomake.
And, uh, you know, there was abill last year, uh, that was
vetoed by the governor.
Uh, and we made it a, a priorityfor us to get that included in
this budget.
It was vetoed because it had asuppose a fiscal.
Uh, so we knew the only way tobe able to do that was to get it
in the budget.
And, uh, you know, a number ofhave made a really concerted
(45:26):
effort and it is, and that billwill now for the first time ever
get us household level mappingdata so that we can understand
where the gaps are really.
I mean, again, if you live inone, you know, it's one, but we
don't have that formally.
Uh, and that's what we need toreally be able to, to move
forward and make sure that we'rebuilding out appropriately and
working with the providers tofigure out how to do that, you
(45:49):
know, in both an economical, uh,economic way.
That makes sense as well as theway that really works for people
in the communities.
Uh, another thing I'll touch ontoo, sorry, but I'm really
excited about is the smallbusiness funding.
You know, we have a billiondollars in small business
funding, and those are the, Imean, our small businesses are
the backbone of so many of ourcommunities, you know, I mean,
that's, we, they're the ones whostepped up during this pandemic
(46:11):
to their doors were closed andthey were still donating meals.
Many of our restaurants, youknow, they're the ones that
support the little leagues.
Uh, so to be able to, to fightfor that really strongly, uh,
and to see that deliver, uh, ina real way was a really big win.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
Um, and, um, and on broadband, I think it's really
important what you folks didbecause previously, I think it
had been measured by censustrack and, and that was just
completely wrong.
It gave such a, you know, a, thewrong perception of coverage and
(46:45):
, um, it really was veryimportant what you did there,
Mike, even harder for you yourfirst year, you're in the
minority party, but anythingthat, you know, you could start
to point to, it will, it willbuild, and I need you to be
successful because you're mysavior.
Speaker 4 (47:06):
So Jonathan, you know, I, I talked about approach
before, so let me tell you, Iran into a very similar issue as
, as Elijah.
So when the governor's executivebudget proposal, he proposed
closing the Goshen securecenter, which is an OCF secure
center, uh, right in the centerof my district and Goshen, uh,
many, many good paying CSCA andpuff union jobs at that
facility.
This is a budget that you'regoing to job's first budget and
(47:26):
here, our governor is outcutting jobs, this budget.
So what did I do?
Right?
We talk about understanding yourrole and being effective.
I picked up my phone and Icalled my friend James Goofus,
and I said, James, I need helphave an issue here.
And I know that this is going tobe something that you can help
me with.
And you already say said, Mike,I'm glad to help you.
Right.
And that's what I'm talkingabout when I say being effective
and working across the aisle onissues that are important so
(47:49):
much like Elijah did in Rocklin,where he set up a bipartisan
coalition, fight the closure ofa facility that provided a great
service to young people.
I was tasked with doing thesame, and I approached it
frankly, the same way thatElijah did in terms of putting
together the right group ofpeople on this issue.
Um, and we pushed back againstthat closure and successfully,
uh, made sure that that facilitystayed open.
(48:10):
You know, there were fourfacility closures that were
proposed in the governor'sexecutive budget proposal.
In fact, two facilities are ourstate workloads.
So what I would tell you aboutmy approach is that the approach
was effective if it worked, itwas about collaboration.
So I think that there areexamples that you can point to
certainly, uh, even being amember of the, of the, of the
minority conference to say, yes,there are ways that we can be
(48:33):
effective.
There are ways that we can win.
And it's all about workingtogether.
It's about sharing priorities.
It's about working together.
It's about putting people first,you do all of those things.
You can still be effective.
Um, you know, the other piece, Iwould tell you kind of a little
more broadly and globally asbeing part of a very small
conference, we have theopportunity to serve in a lot of
committees, which is also ablessing sort of in disguise
(48:53):
because we get to wear a lot ofhats.
And so one of the hats that Iget to wear is, um, also as the
ranking member of the disabilitycommittee, and I worked with
Senator Mannion, who's from theSyracuse area on that committee.
And, uh, one of the big issuesthat we hit right out of the
gate was a$350 million fundingreduction that was made, uh,
midstream last year by thegovernor's budget director, who,
(49:16):
um, IDD providers around ourstate, which was absolutely
crippling to them.
And, uh, one of the very firstthings I did when I got to
Albany was, um, I entered abill, which thankfully today is
not necessary any longer.
That said, if we receive federalaid, the first thing we should
do is restore$350 million ofcuts to the IDD community.
And look, you know, I enteredthat bill knowing that the bill
(49:36):
probably wouldn't pass, but it'sa tool that I can use to make
sure that we prioritize animportant piece of the budget.
My colleagues, Senator Mannionshared, uh, the, the, uh, my
sentiment on that issue and madesure that that issue was brought
to the table and we successfullywere able to push back against
those cuts, making sure thatthey were fully restored, uh,
with even more resources goingto that important piece.
(49:56):
So look again for me, Jonathan,I, again, I would tell you a lot
of it is about running a mile topick up a foot, but I come with
a lot of energy willing to runhard.
And, um, I think that even herefor the 42nd district, well, I
didn't agree with a largeportions of this budget.
Uh, I am one of a fewRepublicans that voted for
portions of this budget, uh,because there are certainly were
good things in this budget and,um, I was glad to support
(50:18):
components of it for sure.
And that was just one example.
I think, of using the approachthat I intend to take moving
forward to make sure we deliver
Speaker 8 (50:24):
For people who live here.
Thanks.
Look
Speaker 3 (50:28):
At one of my concerns is that as fortunately we move
past COVID the pandemic, thereis some people that will say
let's get back to normal,whatever that is, but COVID, I
think as Michelle was talkingabout at least one really good
(50:48):
example is broadband.
We needed improved broadband forremote work.
We needed it for virtuallearning tele-health especially
in rural areas.
So are there examples of thingsthat you got to observe in the
last, you know, 14 months thatare, you know, either
(51:10):
deficiencies or innovations thatyou as state senators would
either take to the budgetprocess or to the legislative
process and Michelle, let let'sbuild on, let's start with you
and we'll build on broadband orwherever else you want to go.
Speaker 5 (51:31):
I'll talk about broadband all day, but I think
that's, uh, you know, I thinkthat, I mean the first step for
us there is this mapping studybecause you're right, it was
done by census tracks, which forrural communities does not work.
Uh, and so this is the firststep to change that.
And I do think there has been afull conscious shift to
understanding that we need is nolonger a luxury.
(51:53):
Uh, broadband is necessity.
It's a, basically a utility atthis point, right?
Like every everyone's expectedto have it, we gotta have it.
So this is the first step indoing that.
And we are closely monitoringthat timeline and all the things
we need to do after we get thatdata back to make sure that we,
we, uh, we drive that out.
One thing I think was a reallybeautiful thing to come out of
COVID, uh, that we're workingon.
(52:15):
And I was hopeful that it wouldbe in the budget, but we aren't,
we pass it as a, uh, one house.
And we're hoping that it will be, uh, that the assembly will
pass two is the nourish New Yorkprogram.
Uh, you know, what we saw duringCOVID, as we all know, and, and,
uh, you know, president Bidentouched on this, uh, in his
remarks last night, you know, nomatter where you lived, there
were lines of cars or people onsidewalks looking for food.
(52:40):
Uh, food insecurity is real.
And as I said earlier, New Yorkis an ag state.
The fact that we have such highfood insecurity in this state is
atrocious.
Uh, and that's because of lackof investment in agriculture and
lack of real understanding thatwe have to have locally sourced,
healthy food here in our state.
We can't be dependent on biggerfarms in the Midwest because
(53:00):
when those supply chains break,as they do, they're highly
fragile, you know, what are weleft with?
You know, and we saw thatfirsthand during this pandemic
and what the nourish New Yorkprogram, uh, did, was it
connected, upstate farms withfood banks and food pantries
across the state, especially inNew York city and downstate in
the boroughs, because that'swhere the food insecurity is the
(53:22):
highest, uh, and it basicallypaid, we all saw the pictures of
farmers dumping milk.
I'll say it was day 55 when wefinally addressed that, uh, in
the comments, which day 55.
But, uh, finally we were ableto, as a state purchased surplus
food from our farmers and bringthat healthy food to people in
(53:43):
need.
Uh, that's a program that is anincredible program.
It shows how much stronger weare as a state.
When we all work together, it'sa bipartisan program.
Uh, it brings upstate anddownstate together.
It shows that our needs arecomplimentary to each other and
we can really work to strengthenthem.
Uh, and so we had a, we have abill, uh, that with, uh, copra,
(54:04):
my Senator Borello, uh, by theranking member on agriculture
and, uh, carried by assemblywoman, Catalina Cruz in New York
city, uh, to make that programpermanent, you know, and, uh, we
think that that would be abeautiful thing.
And to make it even outside ofjust surplus foods, to purchase
food from farmers and to deliverthem regularly to food banks and
food pantries.
Uh, and so we are hopeful.
(54:25):
We pass that in the Senate.
We are hopeful that the assemblywill pass it as well and make
that a permanent program.
And that's something that cameout of COVID.
Um, a lot of Asia, somethingthat you've observed that you'd
like to translate into eitherlegislation or program,
Speaker 6 (54:39):
I think, well, it talks a little bit about
education and, and the need,especially, COVID kind of
underlying just how we're weirdand ineffective.
Our education funding system hasbeen where we ask local property
tax payers to just pick up ahuge share of it, rather than
having the state kick in what Ithink we want to be doing to
help equalize that andparticularly help out higher tax
(54:59):
regions like knots and Valley.
So certainly ongoing state levelsupport for education, um, which
can I think, spread the burdenmuch more, fairly across New
York, rather than asking ourregion to pay such a
disproportionate cost is key,but the other area is in the
healthcare realm.
One of the things COVIDunderlined is we have a huge
(55:20):
shortage of healthcare providersin many of our communities.
We have a nursing shortage, bothin hospitals and a nursing
homes.
Um, you know, there's, there's,you know, COVID has driven
people out of that business too.
You know, I've heard so manystories of nurses who have just
been so burnt out by the last 15months that after this is, you
(55:40):
know, pandemic ends, they'reretiring, they're getting out.
And I think there are not asmany people seeing what the
medical profession went throughand this unending year plus of
nonstop, you know, emergencyshifts, they're not going to
want to get into the field.
So I actually have a legislationwhich I'm sponsoring with your
assembly woman, uh, alienGunther, a former nurse, uh, the
(56:03):
nursing shortage correction actto really, uh, work with schools
of nursing and figure out waysthat the state can encourage, uh
, nursing schools couldencourage more people to get
into the field and incentivizethat to happen because otherwise
we're going to have an absolutecrisis a few years out.
And some of our more seniornurses retire and particularly
rural areas,
Speaker 4 (56:24):
Um, you know, people aren't there to take up the
Slack.
Speaker 3 (56:27):
All right, Mike, what, what may you have observed
that you want to say, we've gotto fix this.
Speaker 4 (56:35):
So, Jonathan, I think, you know, there are a
couple of things certainly that,uh, COVID has magnified and
really put in the forefront andput on our table to address, um,
you know, like Michelle, Irepresented a very rural
district and I think that someof the, the technology pieces,
um, you know, I certainlyMichelle addressed the broadband
piece.
Um, so I think I'm going topoint to some other things that
I think that we, as alegislature in general have a
(56:56):
ripeness to address.
I mean, certainly we've seen, uh, the importance of tele-health
in the video health in terms ofaccessing very rural
communities, folks that don'thave good access to healthcare
for a lot of the reasons thatElijah just talked about, um,
you know, a lot of rural schoolsdon't have the ability to have
STEM or AP engineering typeprograms in their schools
because there are schooldistricts, like where you're
(57:17):
from in Sullivan County of 800students K-12, or, you know,
1200 students K-12, uh, not, notthe larger schools like
religious from.
So, you know, when you look attechnology's ability to bring
programming to rural students,not something that we have to be
pushing moving forward pre-K wasa huge portion of this year as a
state budget was made a hugepriority.
(57:38):
Uh, but when you look at a lotof early intervention services
that are provided to kids, youknow, our speech therapists when
online for the first time, youknow, to provide services to
kids.
And while I completelyunderstand that it's not the
same as providing in personservices, we have families that
don't have access to reliabletransportation to drive a child
30 miles one way to get speechtherapy or OT.
(58:00):
So these are opportunities as wemove forward.
From my perspective, especiallyfor regions, like I represent
where those services are notregularly available to go and
pick some of the good thingsthat have come out of COVID.
I look, I'm not a big fan of alot of the executive orders.
I'm not a big fan of most ofthem, but there are some, um,
that allow like forreimbursement, for example, for
a lot of our providers in thesesorts of environments, that
(58:23):
should need to be preservedbecause it does provide
services.
Folks who ordinarily wouldn'thave access to them or easily
wouldn't have access to them.
So there are certainly goodthings that we can point to.
And I feel good that thislegislature has a, again, a
right this to really addressthese things now, uh, for the
good of all new Yorkers.
And I guess a little selfishly,especially for Michelle and I,
the good of rural new Yorkers,which I think a lot of these
(58:45):
will provide a specific benefit.
Speaker 3 (58:47):
So we're out of time and I want to thank Michelle and
Mike and Elijah, your energy isinfectious.
Um, and, and may that besomething that we can, um, uh,
pass on to other residents ofthe Hudson Valley to say, get
involved.
(59:07):
There's so much work that needsto be done.
And thank you all forparticipating this morning.
Speaker 9 (59:13):
Thank you for tuning in to patterns and paradigms the
pattern podcast.
For more information about thisepisode, visit our website
pattern for progress.org forwardslash podcast.
Speaker 1 (59:50):
[inaudible].
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