Indefatigable state rep Daniel Grossberg on Mayor-elect Mamdani, Democrat lessons learned

Kentucky state representative Daniel Grossberg (KY-30) shared his thoughts on Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York City, the shifting tides for Democrats, prepping with colleagues for next year's legislative session, JCPS challenges, more

Great to see Daniel and Erica Grossberg back in the WHAS studios.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know what News Radio eight forty whas Terry Miners here.
Welcome back to the studio. Daniel Grosberg, who is in
Kentucky's House of Representatives representing the thirtieth district, Welcome back.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Im seen you for a while. And I know it's
worth kind of an idle time right here, but still
life rolls on. Yes, wells forward.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yes, we're in the middle of an interim which is
when a lot of the work gets done in the
General Assembly. We have committee meetings, we meet with constituents,
and honestly, most of the policies that you'll see during
the session, which begins in January, we're already seen in
an interim committee and we're flushed out during the offseason.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
So there's a big huddle like in a football game.
The retal's going on. Do you feel positive about the Democrats?
Obviously you're up against the super majority. There's no election
in Kentucky this year, so there's no change in the numbers.
Do you feel like there's positive messaging that can come
out collaboration among the parties in the Yes Session.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Absolutely, and I think it's important as Democrats, that we
take the yes and approach, that we work with Republicans
on issues that we agree on, and we're willing to
fight and go to the mattresses on the issues that
we can't back down. And I think when you take
an either or approach, that's when we have a party
have failed in the past, as when we say we're
not willing to work with the Republicans on anything, or

(01:26):
when we give up on our fundamental values. And I
think that you see in the election results on Tuesday,
which was a historic rejection of the president's policies, that
the Democrats are now on strong footing to move forward.
And I can tell you as a wake up call
for those here in Kentucky because our elections are just
under a year away and the Republicans don't want to

(01:46):
have a repeat of what happened on the national scale
here in Kentucky, so they are reaching out to us.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
They are Okay, that's what I was going to crack
right into that right away. How do you feel as
a Jewish person, how do you feel about the election
in New York City? There's been a lot of turbulence
back and forth. Religion does come into play in this
and the blowback against Mondami's victory is interesting to me
on many fronts. But the excitement for Mendami from a

(02:13):
lot of young people, a lot more women. I was
reading the whole graphs about the demographics voting for him.
So I just want to get your take on Mondami's
victory as the incoming mayor of New York City.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Well, I've gotten a lot of people reaching out to me,
is this the end of Western civilization? Or rather they
just say it's the end of Western civilization, that we
now have an Islamic fundamentalist, democratic socialist, a Marxist, someone
who is going to unravel the fabric of Western civilization.
And I say hogwash. I mean, there are a lot
of issues that I don't agree on him with, in

(02:49):
fact anti semitism and support of Israel being core to that.
But he didn't win because of anti Semitism. He didn't
win because of a rejection of the United States and
its values. He won in spite of his prior statements,
because he stayed focused on kitchen table issues, and kitchen
table issues are what wins elections. Donald Trump, despite what

(03:12):
a lot of the people in the Democratic Party, myself
included had said in the past didn't win because of
racism and nationalism. He won in spite of statements and
support from racist and nationalists. So I'm not going to
deny that Mamdami is surrounded by people who are abjectly
anti Semitic, who are abjectively anti capitalist. He is, but
those aren't the people who got him to win. It's

(03:33):
the people who can't afford to put food on the table,
to pay their rent, to keep the lights on, can't
find a good job, are concerned that their kids aren't
going to get in good education and have a better
for future than they had. Those are the issues that
got him elected, and both parties need to focus on that.
And I'm predicting for twenty eight or twenty six, but
especially twenty eight, that you're going to see a populist

(03:55):
candidate for president from both parties, and it's going to
be left populism versus right populism, and the elitism is
going to become a twentieth century relic that you barely
see anymore.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Mandami, though, is selling like okay, free buses, government owned
grocery stores, bye blae blah blah blah blah blah, he
needs the state legislature. You're in the state legislature in Kentucky.
He doesn't. He can't make those laws in New York City.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
No, No, he can't. And he's going to fail the
same way that Trump on the other end of the
spectrum failed when he promised that as soon as he
comes in, he's gonna take care of the cost of
living and he's going to fix the prices and make
it affordable again. Everything's only gone up since Trump has
taken office, so talk is cheap and Trump paid the
consequences of that, and I'm predicting MOMDAMMI will as well.

(04:42):
The question is how willing is the state legislature to
work with him, and it seems like they're inclined to.
But at the same time, the president is working so
hard against him that there's a counterbalance. The President announced
just this morning, and it's not a coincidence. It is
a response to Mumdami's win that he's canceled all federal
funds for the new tunnel between New York and New Jersey,

(05:05):
and that's going to wind up costing the state of
New York and the state of New Jersey. And there's
no making up for that.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
No, And obviously it's a big springboard between now and
the twenty eight elections, but twenty six is what people
are getting focused on now. I think that Mandamie's going
to be the litmus test for a lot of change
that people think they can get by words. But you
still have to have the muscle of the state legislature
so here in Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
And he need specific policies, which he was very thin on.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
True that, but here in Kentucky we have again a
super majority. So the Democrats are still running up against
the wall, but you feel like there's collaboration, there's some change,
and that these Tuesday elections this week will give some
light to the notion of working across the aisle.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
I believe, so that anyone who's open minded can again
give you an example. One of the areas that I'm
most concerned about is housing affordability, and people's home prices
or the home values keep going up every few years,
which means that their taxes are going up. Meanwhile their incomes,
especially if they're retired, aren't going up. So just today

(06:18):
I spoke to Senator Mike Nemus, who last year proposed
Senate bill. I believe it was sixty seven, which would
fix the property taxes for any primary residence for people
over sixty five, who are typically on a fixed income,
they're retired, they've lived in this house a long time.
They're not doing things to make their house higher in value,

(06:39):
and yet when the taxes go up, they wind up
having to either allow their properties to go into disrepair
or sell it, and they become a burden on the
social system. So, whether you're concerned about their well being
as I am, or concerned about all of society as
well being, it only makes sense that people who can't
make more money shouldn't have to pay more taxes. So

(07:00):
I discussed with him my support for fixing the property taxes,
setting it at age sixty five, and it doesn't go
up now if they sell the property, that's a different story,
but it shouldn't go up just because the property value
goes up.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
JCPS needs money. You know about what's going on there.
Can you feel the voters saying, you know what, that's
a good idea, because there's a lot of people that
will illustrate the failure of grades to move forward that
you know, the test scores are just bad. Their anemic
in terms of people not being able to read at

(07:35):
grade level and so forth, when compared to other county
systems throughout the Commonwealth. Do you think the state legislature
somebody's going to move in and say, you know what,
JCPS needs a raise.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
I don't think that the state's going to come in
and say JCPS needs a raise. Now there is conversation
of JCPS raising its own taxes, which I oppose for
several reasons. First of all, we do have some bloat.
If we deny that we have bloat, we're being dishonest.
We are top heavy administration. I know that the new
superintendent agrees with me. But more importantly, the statistics on

(08:09):
our per pupil expenditure are misleading because it includes transportation costs,
and JCPS has far more expense per student and transportation
than other districts. And we shouldn't have it at all.
Because the statute states that the commonwealth is responsible for
funding the transportation. It hasn't been meeting those obligations because

(08:31):
there's a notwithstanding clause. If the state we're meeting those obligations,
JCPS would have more than enough money to take care
of the students to fund the teachers, to improve the schools,
to put technology in the classrooms. It's because the county
is footing the bill for the state that it appears
that we're spending too much and getting nothing out of it.

(08:51):
And I'm concerned that if we raise the taxes, not
only are we burdening regular people, working families, but we're
going to give the state another out so that next
time the state doesn't want to meet its obligation, it'll
be able to say we don't need to take care
of Jefferson County. They can afford to take care of themselves.
So enough's enough. We've got to put our feet down
and push back and say, where's the funding for transportation

(09:12):
that you are contractually and legally obligated to give us.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
All right, well, we're running out of time here. It's
good to see you and your wife, Erica here in
the studio today. You guys, let's talk again sometime before
the legislature meets again here in the next month or so,
if you have time, because I like to see what's
being teed up.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
All right, and I've got lots of things I'm teeing up.
I'm one of the most prolific legislators. I had a
list of things I wanted to talk about, but we'll
have to come back. I got thirty something of them
to go over. We'd time limiting all the time. I'm
always honored to be on this show. You're one of
my favorite people.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Terry Daniel GROSBERGI represents Kentucky's thirtieth district in the State
House of Representatives. Coming right back on news Radio eight
forty whas