New York state lawmakers will return to Albany for the new legislative session Wednesday. While Democrats remain in control, Republicans buoyed by November’s elections are hoping to make their influence known, too. Now in her 5th term, 112th district State Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh is beginning the year with a new role: Assembly Minority Leader Pro Tem.
“I'm very excited to start in this role. I had been the assistant leader Pro Tem on the floor for the last couple of years. So when Andy Goodell, who's been floor leader for a while, and I'll just say floor leader because the Latin it'll trip us all up. But, you know, he decided to retire, I guess the drive back and forth from Jamestown, can you imagine it's like five and a half hours each way, and then staying in Albany? I mean, he just decided he served long enough. And I mean, I really, I feel like I've learned so much as the assistant to him that now to take the reins really feels good. I'm very excited to get started. So my job is to essentially help to run the floor for the minority conference, and make sure that the debates are being, you know, handled properly, that we're moving through our work, you know, efficiently, and talking with the majority and making sure that you know everything on the floor runs as smoothly as it can. So I'm very excited,”
As far as looking ahead to the legislative session, what are your priorities going to be?
“I think you know, in January, what we normally start with are a series of Chapter amendments to things that we passed the previous year, that the governor signed, but said, I will only sign this if the following changes are made. So one of the big ones that is going to come up in January will be the short term rental legislation that now soon to be Senator Pat Fahey and Michelle Hinchey both sponsored and that I supported at the very, very last few hours of session that bill passed, so the governor has indicated Yes, she will sign it, but she's requiring a chapter. I haven't seen the chapter yet to see exactly what it's going to be required, but that's how we'll really begin our work in January is going through all of those chapter amendments. Some will be as simple as a period of comma, a slight change in definition, and for chapter amendment, but something like short term rentals, it's going to be much more a comprehensive change. So, we'll get through those, and then we'll really start to work through our hearings for the budget and all of that advocacy that goes into hopefully having an on-time budget by April 1. And then we'll take up maybe a couple of 1000 bills during the session. And from what I you know, the Governor's message, her state of the state message, and then later her budget message that will be coming up, well, I think outline what her plans are, but from what I can tell, from what I've been seeing, I think that she wants to focus on affordability, which I think is great. I think that that's definitely something I heard a lot about as I was campaigning last year, and from the residents that and that I represent, but, but how we do it, how we choose to do it, we may have differences of opinion on that, so it'll be interesting to see how that all plays out.”
In addition to affordability, what do you want to hear from Governor Hochul’s state of the state?
Well, I would love to hear more about public safety. I think that that was another big, big issue that is on the minds of so many people that I represent. I think that there is a lot that can be done in that area. I don't know if she'll actually talk about it. It seems to me that, you know, even just in the last few weeks, when you think about some of the horrible things that were, are, happening in our subway system down in the city, but just throughout the state, you know, I think that there's a lot of room. People don't feel safe. And I think in the past, the governor sort of doubled down and cited a lot of statistics that have said that things are getting better, but I don't believe that they are. And certainly, I don't think that the people I represent feel that they are. So, I hope that she does address that in her state of the state message, and I think that there is, there is work to be done there for sure.”
Given that we are in this fast-growing area of Saratoga County, of nearby areas, you know, what do you want to see more specifically come from those conversations surrounding affordability?
I mean, I think that Saratoga County is kind of an outlier. If you look at upstate counties, there are upstate counties that are really suffering, and Saratoga County, at least, if you look at the big numbers, seems to be doing very well, relatively speaking, but I can tell you that there is still a lot of poverty, housing insecurity and hurt that's going on even in A county as prosperous as ours. So, I think that as we take a look at the issues of affordability, we can't skip over areas like Saratoga County, because, you know, we have towns. We have we have one town in Saratoga County that I think has per capita, the largest number of trailer parks and in the, you know, in the state, and you know, affordable housing shouldn't just be a trailer you know, you should be able to develop housing that works for middle class families. And there is a lot of building going on in Saratoga County, which, again, is different than in other parts of the state. But what is getting built? Are they multi-million-dollar condos that are going to be owned by people from Kentucky, or, you know, horse people that are going to be in for the Belmont or for the track season and not or, you know, how do we manage that? How do we have a diverse housing stock that's going to help, you know, the average person and make it affordable. You know, I've got young staffers here that are really trying to afford their first apartment, and it's, it's very difficult. They might be able to do it, but it's going to take a huge chunk out of their monthly paycheck. You know, what can we do? You know, when the state should at least be in a position where we're not going to continue to do more harm, whether it's regulatory or, you know, fiscal harm. So, I you know that's a conversation we have to have, we have to and so I look forward to that. I hope that the governor does address that in her state of the state message and in the legislation that she proposes.”
Local municipalities—Saratoga Springs passed its own local short term rental ordinance. Glens Falls is considering how to approach this issue. How important do you think it is for local municipalities to be able to work with the state and sort of have this one cohesive approach to it? Or is it a little more—it doesn't have to be a little more nuanced than that.
“I think that, well, like I said before, I think I need to take a look and see what the chapter amendment is going to say. But it seems to me that what the governor is saying is the original bill said that the Department of State at so at the state level, they were going to handle the registrations, they were going to handle the bulk of it, and that would not have put additional, as much additional burden on counties and on localities they which I think she's saying now is we don't want to put that on Department of State, because they're already overburdened. So what are you doing? Then you're basically doing what we're already doing, you know, Essex County, Franklin County. So there are counties around the state that have already enacted these registration rules. And you know, I keep thinking about, I just stepped off as town attorney for a very small town in Saratoga County, the town of Edinburgh, which is right on second doggo lake. And I myself have summer home on second doggo lake that has been in my family for over 50 years. But all around us, we see numerous short term rentals that are not just a situation where a family says, All right, for one or two weeks out of the summer or in the during snowmobiling season, we're going to rent it out, but are buying up camps and places, and specifically, they're going to be constantly in that loop. We have to somehow help a small town like Edinburgh to be able to navigate this. It could be a huge boon for them in terms of maybe a local tax that they may decide to assess. But if they have to hire four or five employees, which probably would double the number of employees that the town of Edinburgh already has, you know, they're probably not going to do it. So I was really kind of hoping that the state would step in and say, you know, it's important that short term rentals that are really being run as businesses pay their fair share, so that it becomes a more equal paying playing playing field with hotels and motels. The hospitality and tourism industry feels strongly that there needs to be a level playing field. So I don't know how it's going to work out with this chapter. We're going to have to take a look and see. But it seemed to me, on first reading of that it that the chapter amendment was going to largely, you know, kind of gut the bill that originally was rolled out is really going to take the state largely out of it, maybe provide some data to counties and localities that they might find useful to figure out if they want to develop, like if Saratoga County as a whole would want to develop its own registration protocol. But you know, it kind of remains to be seen.”