Paul Szmal: Good morning 815, FLX Morning, and we're joined each month at this time by our 48th District State Senator, Rachel May. Senator, welcome back.
Guest: Thank you, Ted. It's been a minute.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, always a pleasure to talk. I want to start with this because you are our one Democratic legislator, so we have heard the Republican perspective on the state budget and the just concluded legislative session. What are your thoughts in general on this year's budget and in the end of the session and what you were able to accomplish in this session?
Guest: Yeah, thanks for that question. It was a frustratingly late budget. We kept trying to get it done sooner, but I think we delivered for certainly for our upstate cities like Syracuse and Auburn. I was proud that we got some funding to really help them close budget gaps that they're very much struggling with. And we're seeing child care funding available in ways that it wasn't for a long time. And on a dog, a county, there was a waiting list for people to get the subsidized child care. And now there's not that can get right in there. So I do think a number of issues that were important to people in this region we dealt with. We also did a lot about housing, trying to make it easier to build more housing, and easier for people to stay in their housing, whether it's avoiding foreclosure or avoiding eviction. So I'm happy about all of that. But we had a lot of federal headwinds to deal with. And so it was a tough budget this year.
Paul Szmal: We went through a stretch, I was saying to Assemblyman Mangelo yesterday, when I first started doing this program 20 years ago, we had chronically late budgets, then we went through a period of kind of peace and quiet and on time budgets. And now we're back the other direction again, what do you attribute that to?
Guest: Well, honestly, I think the governor decided she was better off if we had a very short legislative session. And she wanted this to be late. So that, you know, because the longer the budget was delayed, the fewer days we had for our actual passing of bills, of our own bills. So I think that might have been an election year calculus for her, but we got pretty frustrated with it.
Paul Szmal: One other thing, we have a couple of topics that you wanted to discuss today. But I wanted to talk about this that I saw on your page. The New York State Legislative Commission on Rural Resources, of which you're the Senate Chair, just released its analysis of the budget and how it impacts rural communities. So how did the rural part of the district make out, you think, in this year's budget?
Guest: Well, we pushed very hard for rural health care, rural EMS, and rural housing initiatives that have been funded year after year, but we tried to put more money in for some of those. And I do think, you know, we are very much focused, the Rural Resources Commission works really hard to bring people together to find out what the gaps are and what the needs are. And I'm pleased with what we've done. We do this Rural Fair every year where we get dozens and dozens of rural advocacy organizations together in Albany, and they share with the legislature what they're doing, but they also share with each other what they're doing, and they build their capacity that way. So I'm very proud of what Rural Resources is doing.
Paul Szmal: You have an interesting district in that it covers some of the most rural parts of upstate New York, but it also covers the rapidly growing Syracuse suburbs. Is it difficult to manage affairs in a district like that?
Guest: It is. I mean, I wouldn't say difficult, but it's interesting. Like, almost every issue that comes up in the legislature has some bearing on my district, because it's either, you know, agriculture, or it's urban, or it's suburban issues. And so I have to be on my toes all the time. But I do think that it's good to have somebody in the majority whose district has a city, but also really has a major rural county so that I can be raising the issues at the table with the other Democrats about what affects a county like Cayuga.
Paul Szmal: We were talking about rural upstate New York and economic growth, and the two combined. You attended the open house for a company called Denkovit, an ag company that does a lot of feed for animals. Tell us about their new plant and that company and what it does.
Guest: Yeah, it was impressive. They're a Dutch company, but they are really investing here in Cayuga County, right near Cayuga Milk Products. They are, they produce a dried milk product that's a milk substitute for calves. And they have different formulas, whether it's going to be a dairy cow, or a beef cow, or that kind of thing. And they're very scientific about how they determine their formula, but it's really successful around the world. And it's exciting that they're expanding and in Cayuga County.
Paul Szmal: So how does a company like that find a place like Cayuga County, New York? I mean, first of all, Cayuga is the largest dairy producing county in the state of New York, and New York State is a state that companies from around the world want to have a presence in. So I think that's part of it.
Guest: I think Cayuga Milk Products is world renowned and was part of the attraction as well. Denkovit already had a footprint here, but they were expanding it. So I think they're seeing the opportunity here. We, you know, we have really good dairy production in Cayuga County.
Paul Szmal: Talking this morning with State Senator Rachel May, representing the 48th District, Cayuga County, and Points East. Let's talk about tick testing. There's a laboratory for that. And we seem to be in a real high tick period in upstate New York. Every time I see somebody, they say, you know, if you go for a hike, make sure you check.
Guest: Absolutely. There's a lab at SUNY Upstate run by Dr. Thingamani. We just call him Dr. T, but he has a number of pieces of equipment that my office helped him buy that will test for up to 16 different pathogens that ticks carry. So if you find a tick or you're bitten by a tick, you can put it in a Ziploc bag and get on their website at nyticks.org and they will test it for you and see which pathogens are present, which is really helpful for getting the kind of testing that people need. So and then what they do with that information is they map where the different pathogens are being found around the state or actually around the country, but mostly most of their ticks come from New York state. So and that's really helpful for people who are trying to prevent tick-borne illness, which really is spreading. And it isn't just Lyme disease. There are several other really key tick-borne illnesses. In fact, at the end of session, we passed a bill of mine about the alpha gal disease. I don't know if you've heard about this one.
Paul Szmal: No.
Guest: But it's a, there are ticks that get a certain sugar molecule in their saliva when they bite another mammal. And if they bite you, they could transfer that to you and it makes you allergic to animal products. So you can't eat meat or drink milk anymore. And my bill is just to require the DEC or the health department to report or gather reports about sightings and prevalence of that disease in New York state. But you can imagine for something like the dairy industry, they really, really want to keep this under control because if people suddenly become allergic to milk products, that's a real problem.
Paul Szmal: Wow. I want to circle back around to you. You talked about housing affordability and some of the provisions in this year's budget. Those were based on a bill that you introduced in the Senate last year. What are some of those obstacles to affordable home ownership for New Yorkers?
Guest: Well, there are quite a few of them, but one of the biggest ones right now is there just isn't enough supply. And so people can set the price as high as they want. And if you really want to buy a house, you got to pay that price. And especially young people can't afford it. A lot of young people are giving up on buying homes. So what we did in the budget, the governor included a bill of mine that streamlines the process of permitting new construction because that can drive up the cost by 11 or 12 percent. It can cause people to file lawsuits that just like eliminate construction projects altogether. We're trying to make it easier for the housing to get built so it's easier for people to buy housing. And I'm really proud that that was in the budget. And it's called State Environmental Quality Review Reform. And this was one of my big priorities for the last couple years. So yeah, I'm very pleased that we enacted that this year.
Paul Szmal: All right. State Senator Rachel May representing the 48th District, Points East and her listing area. Great to talk with you again. Look forward to our next chat.
Guest: Yeah, good to talk with you, Ted.
