Hudson Valley voters largely sided with their incumbents in the state Senate on Election Day, but the region has new members in the Assembly. In the 96th District, Democrat Patrick Carroll was elected to fill the seat vacated by former Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski, who stepped down last year to take a job with a lobbying firm.
Carroll, a former Clarkstown town councilor, says he is ready to hit the ground running – and like a lot of his peers, he’s got one thing on his mind:
“Affordability, affordability, affordability," says Carroll.
Ahead of her State of the State address Tuesday, Governor Kathy Hochul has been hyping up her plans to address the rising cost of living in New York. The Democrat wants to roughly triple the child tax credit, provide free breakfast and lunch in public schools, and send residents “inflation refund checks.” Carroll says he is eager to hear more.
“Obviously safety is a huge option, we want to make sure our first responders and police have the funds and training they deserve," he adds. "And I’m looking [to hear] how we can kind of encourage more appropriate business into the state in order to ease the burden on all of us.”
Carroll considers the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s new congestion pricing plan in New York City to be a big burden on his constituents. The toll, which launched last week, charges most drivers $9 to enter lower Manhattan south of 60th Street, in a bid to raise money for the MTA and disincentivize traffic in one of the most hectic business districts in the world.
But it’s faced a lot of pushback from stakeholders in the Hudson Valley. Carroll says commuters in Rockland County don’t have direct train access that would help them avoid driving into Manhattan.
“People in Rockland don’t get the services back, but we pay a lot. And adding another $9 fee on top of it, it might sound small, but it adds up," he notes. "A lot of our workers, they're required to commute, and they’re first responders, they’re nurses, they’re doctors, whatever they may be — and it really just adds to the cost of living here in New York.”
Carroll says he has already re-filed a bill from Zebrowski’s term that would provide a discount on some of the other tolls leading into the city, to offset the congestion fee.
Over in the 100th District, Democratic Assemblymember Paula Elaine Kay says she also wants to hear what Hochul has to say on affordability and congestion pricing. But she’s also focused on bringing housing and development incentives to Sullivan County, and altering New York’s bail reform laws. Kay says she wants to see bail applied to more opioid and fentanyl-related offenses. She is currently working on a bill with the Sullivan County district attorney.
“Right now if someone were to even be recorded selling opioids to a police officer and be arrested, that same person will be out back on the street later that day without bail," says Kay. "The revolving door here makes our residents feel unsafe, and I agree with them. And it makes our law enforcement’s job much harder to do. We need to work on that.”
Kay is filling the seat vacated by longtime Assemblymember Aileen Gunther, a fellow Democrat who retired at the end of the year. Over the course of her first term, Kay says she wants to make pay for doctors and nurses in Sullivan County more competitive with that of neighboring counties.
“We need more, not less, healthcare services in Sullivan County," says Kay. "One means to that end is to work to increase the reimbursement rate."
Also in the Hudson Valley, Democrat Aron Wieder is heading into his first session representing the 97th District, after ousting former GOP Assemblyman John McGowan in November.
