Paul Szmal: We're happy to be joined once again by State Assemblyman Brian Manktelow. Good morning. How are you, sir?
Guest: I'm doing well, Bob. Good morning to you and your listeners. Thanks for having me on. It's gonna be an extremely busy week for you in Albany. We'll get to that in a minute, but after a couple of months, was it, we've finally gotten the state budget.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, it's unbelievable. It's the second longest one in, I think, state history as far as running over time. We finished it up last Wednesday night, I believe it was, to finalize the state budget. Now we have that in place and now we are full bore ahead with doing local bills and other bills to try to get done before the end of the year.
Guest: Yeah, and you and I were talking before we came on the air that there could be as many as really 600 bills that are going to pass through the Assembly this week.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, it could be. We typically do five to six hundred that last week of session. We, unlike the rest of the year where we start at two o'clock in the afternoon and go to four o'clock, we actually are going to try to start on time this week by 10 o'clock, 1030 and go. And this time of year, we probably go into the night sometimes. So not the way I would run it, Paul, but I don't control that part of it. I can only control what I can. So we will look at a lot of bills. It could be 600. It could be 700. It could be 500. But I'm guessing it's going to be around 600 bills this week.
Guest: Yeah, how does this happen where everything's just backloaded into the last, you know, six, seven days of the legislative session?
Paul Szmal: Well, Paul, to be honest with you, I shouldn't say that, not to be honest with you. This is how it works down here. You know, when we're going through the budget process, trying to get a budget in place, it seems like that's really all we can concentrate on instead of piggybacking and doing two things at once through the budget negotiations. And prior to that, you know, we could do a lot of these bills prior to to the end of the year. But they hold these bills to keep people here, I believe, a lot of local bills, a lot of state bills that could come forward and just not a great way of doing business. But like I said, unfortunately, the majority controls all that and we just got to follow suit and do the best that we can.
Guest: So we're talking about state, local bills. Are there any other like procedural elements that make up some of this procedural changes that get voted on here towards the end of a session?
Paul Szmal: No, any procedural changes we usually do at the beginning of session. So if we want to make a change there procedurally wise, that's when we usually do it. This is more typical. This is what we're going to do. As I think I've told you before, Paul, I sit on the Ways and Means Committee. So most of all these bills that come forward will go through Ways and Means. So I'm looking at a handout that my staff member just gave me while we were waiting. And so it's a whole bunch there right to start off the bat. So. Here we go. So, again, a crazy week. I can't imagine. I mean, obviously, your staff has to be immensely helpful in the process when you've got so much legislation to rifle through so that, you know, when it's brought to a vote on the floor at the assembly, you know what's going on and what your position is going to be on it.
Guest: Yeah, absolutely. Our staff being my office staff, but also our staff for the Minority Conference Ways and Means staff research, all of them play a huge part in prepping us for these bills. And like last week, Paul, when we finally finalized the budget, we had a chance we didn't have that budget bill for, you know, three hours. And we had to vote on it first time we got to see the final budget bill. And that's really no way of doing the work here for sure. We should wait the three days like it's called to. But the governor can do a needs of necessity for that bill to move it forward right away. And it's really hard. But our staff does an awesome job of going through those budget bills, making sure we're prepped on some of the really bad parts and the good parts and making sure we're ready to debate.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Assemblyman Brian Mangtelo here on FLX morning on Finger Lakes News Radio. Brian, are there any local bills that you have been advocating that are going to be rolled into this massive log that is going to be rolled through here in the final week of session?
Guest: Yeah, I believe I have two local bills. One is for the Massadin Center Fire Department. It's just a word change in their documents as incorporated fire department, and I haven't seen it yet. They have all the information. I hope they bring it forward. They don't have to, but they usually try to bring our local bills forward at the end of the session this last week. So I hope and pray that my bills will come forward. And as I said, I don't control that. All I can do is try to get it there. And the majority actually says, yeah, we're going to move it forward or not. So that's where we're at.
Paul Szmal: And a lot of those local bills obviously are based on feedback from constituents, from the respective assembly persons district.
Guest: Yeah, I mean, local bills being something like a town or a county or a building to want done a tax extender or renaming of a road or a bridge or something like this with the fire department. Plus, I have my own set of bills that I've brought forward every year to see if we can get past. It's pretty hard. I usually usually end up turning them over to a majority member, a Democrat, and they'll take my bill and run with it and then we'll get it passed. I don't like it, but at least it gets the bill passed. And I was part of that bill process.
Paul Szmal: So this is your last official week of legislative session, but your job does not end after that.
Guest: No, my last day in office will be December 31st at midnight. Eleven fifty nine is my last official day in December. But many people have asked me if I'm going to back off a little bit. And I said, absolutely not. I I work for all of you and I will be 100 percent, 100 percent committed until that very last day, that very last minute. And also whoever gets the nod from my seat, getting them adjusted to come into office, making sure they have a little bit of background from the district area.
Paul Szmal: And that will that start the after the election is officially declared or does that process happen closer to that December 31st date?
Guest: Yeah, I would guess, Paul, that probably that last two weeks of of the year, I will probably sit down if if they choose to, they don't have to sit down with the individual coming in to my to take my seat. And like I said, gear them up with the the intricacies of a district office versus an office here in Albany versus what the constituents expect from all of us. They can or they don't have to do like I do, but I hope they do. And, you know, make it a mission to be part of the constituents lives that we represent. So that's my plan. Like I said, if it's a Republican or a Democrat, I will help gear them up because it doesn't matter which party we're from. We have to take care of our constituents. So that's my plan going out of office.
Paul Szmal: And one of the nice things that is going to happen, you were mentioning a farewell breakfast for people similar to you that are either retiring or electing not to run again.
Guest: Yeah, the governor invited us so we could go to come to the Red Room here in the Capitol. That's her her big Red Room that she does a lot of press conferences from to say goodbye to to all of us that are leaving. There's 26 members in the state assembly, and I'm not sure there's a few in the Senate. I don't know how many, but you can go or not go. But I chose to go, even though the governor and I don't see eye to eye on everything or probably a lot of things. She still is the governor. I respect that position, and I'm thankful that she invited me to go.
Paul Szmal: Now, with 26 people leaving, that would mean what? 26 seats are going to be up for grabs for the next term. Could that potentially shift the majority minority balance in the assembly?
Guest: It probably won't, because it's basically one third, two thirds. I think there's a hundred and three majority members and 47 minority members, Republicans, so we would have to pick up every one of those seats to even get close. That probably I wish it would happen, but that probably won't happen. But there's definitely going to be a shift because 26 seats just in the assembly, that's one one sixth of the assembly. There's 150 of us. So basically one sixth of the assembly is going to flip. We'll be new members.
Paul Szmal: So you've been always active, going to community events and dedications and things of that nature. Any that you've been to lately that you care to talk about?
Guest: Yeah, I mean, between me and my staff, because we've been in Albany so much the last several weeks, even this weekend, Saturday, I didn't get home till Friday night this week. And then I had Saturday and then back here yesterday. So my staff does as well as I do. And a lot of new businesses, a lot of like we did a cobblestone church up in Elton. We did that on Saturday. I could not make it, but my staff member went there. So we do all of that. And then once I'm back in district, we'll be full board with ribbon cuttings. And I'll be meeting with the Automobiles Association next week. And then also the refrigerant, some of the refrigerant companies I'll be meeting with up in the Rochester area as well as we get ready to change over refrigerants and all of our coolers, whether it's an ice cream cooler or a supermarket cooler, a flower cooler. We're trying to push that forward and it can't be done in the time frame that they want. So I'll be working with them to see if we can slow that process down because it's going to be detrimental to all of our businesses. So those are some of the things that I'll be doing once I get back home. And I try to squeeze in a few ribbon cuttings and a few get togethers when I'm home. But the last month has been really hard.
Paul Szmal: And I take it that a refrigerant bill that you're talking about and those regulations, it's similar to what we've discussed with some of the electric mandates where there's a time frame set. But from a logistical standpoint, it would be extremely difficult, nay impossible to meet that current time frame.
Guest: Yeah, absolutely. For that time frame cannot be met. The stuff that would be required to even switch over, there's none of it around right now. And if we're the only state that's doing it, it'll be detrimental to those businesses. And we need to slow that down.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I'm all for, you know, doing things for the environment and making things safer, of course. But you have to do it within a realistic time frame and an affordable time frame. And right now that's not going to happen. And I'm really concerned that, again, our businesses are going to take the brunt of some some meant to be good legislation, but really bad because of the time frame and the cost.
Guest: All right. We will check in with you next month and we can kind of get a postmortem on what this final week of the legislative session will be like. Certainly best of luck getting through 600 pieces of legislation this week. I would now want to be in your shoes with that.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, well, it's always part of the job. And let's just move forward and let's go accomplish the mission that's set forth. And let's just do it. So I'm excited that we're to the end of the session. But at the same time, we got a lot of work this week.
Guest: So that's Assemblyman Brian Mangtalo here with us on FLX Morning. Thank you, as always, Brian. We appreciate it.
Paul Szmal: Yes. Thank you, Paul, again, for having me on. And it's always a joy to talk with you. Thank you.
