Paul Szmal: Let's check in now with State Assemblyman Brian Manktalone joining us from his office in Albany. Brian, good morning. How are you this morning?
Guest: Doing well, Paul. Good morning to you and your listeners.
Paul Szmal: So, first item of business for you today, I guess on the legislative docket, is going to be another one of those budget extender things.
Guest: Yeah, that's correct, Paul. I think we'll be doing either our ninth or tenth budget extender. I don't know exactly which one it is, as we don't have a budget, which was due April 1st, Paul. We have to do the extender to at least pay the employees and some of the other costs that need to be paid right away. So, that's first on the docket this morning.
Paul Szmal: Any word on the inside as to whether or not we might get a budget here in the next week or two? I know I had heard one report, Governor Hochul was saying not until May 19th.
Guest: Well, that's still two weeks away. Yeah, we hear all sorts of rumors, Paul. We're going to have one in a week, two weeks, middle of May, towards the end of May. Nothing would surprise me, Paul. It's just, again, putting policy within the budget, and that really just slows that process down. And that's really being driven by the Governor's office, the policy side of it.
Paul Szmal: Now, you mentioned that these extenders are passed so that critical employees, their payroll is met, that sort of thing. Does that have any kind of negative impact once you do get a budget in place?
Guest: No, it does not have a negative impact. That money would be prorated away from the budget that we, whatever budget we finally approve of, that money would come out of that budget at this point. So, that's the way the whole thing works.
Paul Szmal: Now, one of the things that I know is going on in your district right now, along the Lake Ontario shoreline, it's a story we have at fingerlakesdailynews.com, is that Wayne County's Emergency Management Office, working with a couple of different agencies, they're flying drones along the Lake Ontario shoreline because, unfortunately, this time of year, we tend to see some lakeshore flooding. And I know that's something that I'm sure you've experienced either directly or through your constituency in the time that you've been serving.
Guest: Yeah, back in 2017, Paul, when I was a town supervisor, yeah, and served on the Wayne County Board of Supervisors, we dealt with that. And so, this point along the lake shore as well. And then in 19, again, when I was an assembly member, and now, right now, as we speak, along Wayne County, anything on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, northern side of our counties, including the town of Webster that I serve, we're seeing those high waters. But not just there, Paul, we're seeing them on the Erie Canal as well. I've had some calls from constituents that have homes on the Erie Canal, and they're having the high water too as well there.
Paul Szmal: Is that something that can be partially solved through maybe some infrastructure legislation?
Guest: It's really more to do with the IJC, the International Joint Commission that oversees both sides of the water in Canada here and in the United States, and letting the water out up north at the locks and through the power plant. That's part of it, but the canal is also tied into that. I'm not sure legislation would do any good at this point. I think just leadership and looking at the forecast and what we're seeing, it's a wet spring. We know that the farmers aren't planting yet, Paul, and it's been one of the wetter ones I've seen in quite a while.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Assemblyman Brian Mantelow here on FLX Morning on Finger Lakes Newsradio. Speaking of farmers, you mentioned, okay, they're obviously running a little bit behind with the wet spring. I have to think that some of the rising costs that they're dealing with, in particular, the rising prices of things like diesel fuel, are something that they're getting back to you about.
Guest: Yeah, they're getting a double whammy, Paul, right now. Diesel fuel, of course, fertilizer, and the cost of transporting all that stuff is one thing. We think about some of the farmers on the northern part of Wayne County, the fruit farmers, with the many frosts that we've already had here in the last two weeks. I know that some of the cherries, sweet cherries, are gone. Some of the peaches will be affected, some of the stone fruit, like prunes and plums. I'm not sure what damage will be done with the apples, but that's just the fruit side. If we look, Paul, at the farming side, the crop side, you know, onions, potatoes, corn, soybeans, that stuff should be in the ground or going in the ground pretty quick, and they're just not able to plant because it's so wet.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, it's one thing with Mother Nature. It's another thing when you're dealing with, you know, economics and prices and things of that nature. Is there really anything that the state can do about that sort of thing, or are we just kind of, you know, stuck riding out the storm, so to speak?
Guest: Well, there are certain things the state could do. You know, we don't have a lot, nothing over Mother Nature, of course, but one thing the state could do, not just for the farmers, for everybody, is we could put a pause on the taxes of the fuel right now in gas, the state portion of that, and give a little bit of a space for our constituents that use all of this gas. It's high. I paid, I think when I got to Albany last time, I paid $4.40 for 89, and that's the highest I've paid in a mighty long time.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I just saw gas just a few minutes down Route 96 from here in Geneva at 440 gallons, the highest I've seen it in this area. A lot of places are 429 to 439. Has there been any conversation about proposing legislation to pause the fuel taxes?
Guest: Yeah, I think many legislators across the state have contacted the governor's office to, you know, she controls that. She could do that with a stroke of a pen if she really wants to through an executive order, especially when it's an emergency situation like this. So she's been contacted. We've contacted her office as well. So it's ultimately up to her. She knows what's going on, and she's the one that controls that.
Paul Szmal: Is that fuel tax proposal getting any bipartisan support in the houses?
Guest: Yeah, I've talked to a few of the majority members of the Democrats on the other side of the aisle, Paul, and especially in the rural areas where we travel more than in the city. We drive. We drive every place we need to go. So there are legislators on both sides asking for that.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Assemblyman Brian Mantello here on FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio. Once we get the budget done, that's one thing that obviously the state house of government wants to get accomplished, but then there's still going to be time in the legislative session for other laws, amendments, changes, things of that nature. Anything that you're looking at on the docket that's of particular note to you?
Guest: Yeah, there's a couple that we're keeping an eye on. There's the bottle bill, which is Assemblywoman Glick's bill from downstate in the city, and that would possibly increase the bottle tax from five cents a bottle to 10 cents and add to recycling. It's not a good bill. It will really hurt businesses. It'll hurt our residents. So I'm kind of keeping an eye on that one. The other one I'm looking at is there's a bill out there to possibly do away with a herbicide that our farmers use, especially in the fruit area. I'm keeping an eye on that one as well. I'm ready to debate that bill if it does come to the floor because it will definitely hurt our fruit farmers not being able to use that product, and there's really not another product out there to use right now. So those are just a couple, but right now we're kind of waiting for the budget to come out to see what those numbers look like and see, you know, whether it's a veterans organization or homeschoolers or, I'm sorry, public school homeschools affects everyone, our hospitals. So until we see those numbers, I really just kind of sit and wait to see what they look like.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, related to the bottle bill that you talked about and the proposed legislation on that herbicide, do you find that as time has gone on that there's been more of a disconnect between, shall we say, the downstate portion of the legislative branch versus the upstate portion?
Guest: Oh yeah, absolutely, Bob. 100%. The downstairs, especially the ones that live within New York City or around, they really don't understand upstate New York. We've tried to bring some of those legislators up to our area. We'll try again this summer. There's definitely a disconnect because a lot of the younger legislators coming out of New York City, they have no idea. They don't have a clue on what upstate New York looks like or what it does or rural America, rural New York, and we constantly try to educate them on that. That's something I do, and when those bills come through, we talk about those, and having lived that most of my life, as most of our constituents back home, they understand what's important there. So we continue to try to educate them, whether it's even with our school systems. It's just totally different.
Paul Szmal: Do you think there's any kind of long-term solution to that particular issue, or is it just the ongoing effort of upstate-based legislators to get the downstate people to come up and maybe do the reverse as well, so that upstate legislators know some of the issues that are happening in the big metropolis areas?
Guest: Yeah, we go both ways. I've been in New York City with some of the legislators from the majority side in the past eight years. I think the quickest thing we can do, Paul, is we talk about splitting the state. Well, we don't have to physically split the state, but one of the things we could do is regionalize some of the bills that come across. You know, have a bill specifically for New York City or a city area instead of a suburban or rural area that really hurts some of the constituents or residents there. We could do that very simply, but they tend not to want to do that. They want to make one-size-fits-all, and that really hurts a lot of people in New York State.
Paul Szmal: And as always, you can reach out to Assemblyman Magtello. How can people get a hold of your office, Brian?
Guest: The easiest way is just call my office at 315-946-5166, and I have staff waiting there to pick up the phone, and we'll help anyone as quick as we can.
Paul Szmal: And hopefully the next time we talk next month, we'll be celebrating the fact that we actually have a budget.
Guest: I hope and pray, Paul, absolutely. The people of New York deserve it.
