Paul Szmal: And good morning everybody, welcome to another edition of FLX Morning here on Finger Lakes News Radio. It is 7.39 on this Tuesday, June the 3rd, 2025. Beautiful day on tap according to meteorologist Ken McKinley, looking forward to it. Let's get right into it. We have State Senator Rachel May joining us via Zoom this morning. Senator, good morning. How are you?
Rachel May: Good morning, Paul. I'm great. Looking forward to a warm day.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, warm and sunshine two days in a row. What do we do to deserve this?
Rachel May: Yeah, we should have a lot more of them actually.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, tell me about it, especially on the weekends. But let's get down to business here. It took a little while, but the state budget is finally in place.
Rachel May: It is, yeah. It was a slog this year, but I think we had some good outcomes. We had some good outcomes for Cayuga County and the state in general. I think the school funding situation is pretty good this year. We took some steps to address child poverty. We are working on getting more housing built, which is such a need everywhere in the state.
Paul Szmal: Can you expand a little bit on some of the benefits that Cayuga County is going to see from the budget? Because I know you worked pretty hard on those.
Rachel May: I did. I worked especially hard. I know Auburn was struggling, and we were able to get the room occupancy tax in there, which is for people staying in hotels. That's a way for Auburn to raise some money without having to raise property taxes on the people who live there. I think it's going to make a difference in the budget this year. Also, the Equal Rights Heritage Center, I got some funding for, which the state built and then kind of abandoned to the city to run. I think the state should be carrying more of that burden. We got some funding for that, too.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with State Senator Rachel May here this morning on FLX Morning. You've also been working on a couple of bills basically centered around the freedom to read. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Rachel May: Yeah, I can. I mean, all across the country, we've been seeing efforts to ban books in libraries and school libraries. They're based on if they're about LGBTQ issues or if they're about racial violence, the racial history of the country, that kind of thing. And I believe that people should be able to read what they want to read. And so these bills, one of them is about school libraries, one of them is about public libraries. But it's really just saying that the librarians should have discretion picking age-appropriate material that is what the community wants and not just being told by some outside organization what they can or can't put on their shelves.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and this is basically broken down into what, two separate bills?
Rachel May: Yeah, the Freedom to Read Act is about school libraries, and that goes through the education committees. And then the Open Shelves Act is about public libraries, and that goes through the libraries committees.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and what are the status of those two bills right now? Are they in committee right now?
Rachel May: We passed them both in the Senate, and now it's up to the Assembly. I think Open Shelves is probably going to get across the finish line. It needs a couple of amendments at this point, so we may have to recall an amendment. But I think we can do that. The Freedom to Read hasn't gone through the education committee yet in the Assembly, so I'm still kind of prodding the Assembly sponsor to try to get that done.
Paul Szmal: And this is part of the work that will be done before the session wraps up over the course of the next couple of weeks, correct?
Rachel May: Right. We're supposed to finish up next Thursday, so yeah.
Paul Szmal: Right, supposed to, but I was talking to Assemblyman Mangtalo yesterday, and he had a feeling that maybe another week might be tacked on. We don't plan that in the Senate, but the Assembly is talking about having an extra week. It always takes them much longer, because there are more people, they have longer debates, they have a different system for getting things through committee at the end of the year. And so I'm glad they're extending their year, because last year a lot of things passed the Senate and never got through the Assembly.
Paul Szmal: On a scale of 1 to 10, if you were to look at these sessions going back to January, going through the budget process and up to the work that needs to be done here over the next couple of weeks, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate this session in terms of you feel success for Cuyahoga County?
Rachel May: I think for Cuyahoga County, we've done a pretty good job. I would say in general, it's been a frustrating session for those of us in the legislature, because when the budget goes late, that shortens our legislative calendar a lot. But in terms of some of the things, we had a hearing about harmful algal blooms two weeks ago, and it was really helpful. I learned a huge amount, and the same day that we had the hearing, the governor announced I think $42 million for the Eastern Finger Lakes Coalition. So she was listening, her team was listening to the hearing, I think, and taking it seriously that we really need action on the lakes. This is one of the major things I hear from people in Cuyahoga County, is about lake health and making sure we're protecting the water.
Paul Szmal: And will there be additional legislation following up after that hearing that will be introduced?
Rachel May: Yeah, we'll be working on that this summer, but I know we learned a huge amount. There were some experts who've been working on this issue for decades, and I hadn't known about some of their research into things like road salt, like I didn't understand that road salt played much of a part in this issue, or that the way people manage their lawns, the kinds of fertilizers and pesticides you might put on your lawn could have an impact on the health of the lake, which makes perfect sense, but I hadn't thought about it before. So I do think we're going to be delving into some of those and seeing if there are policies we can put together.
Paul Szmal: And with a couple of weeks left in the session, do you have any particular goals outside of obviously the freedom to read and open shelves that we've already discussed? Any other legislative goals that you're looking to achieve before the sessions wrap up for the summer?
Rachel May: Oh yeah, I have a bill to get arts and music education as a basic part of the curriculum statewide. And I think we're going to be able to pass that. It's been blocked for a very long time by the Department of Education, but they're okay with it now. I'm working on a lot of legislation to try to promote more housing and especially to build housing where people can walk and shop and work and catch public transportation, you know, creating livable communities that are also affordable. And some things about, I just heard that news about the new park on Cayuga Lake. One of the things in New York is when the state tries to acquire land like that, it can take years and years and years for the transaction to happen because of the title search issue. And I've been pushing legislation to speed that process up so that we're not just leaving land on the table and leaving our land trusts holding the bag while they're trying to buy this property and it just can drag out for years and years.
Paul Szmal: And once the session wraps up, what are your plans short term for when you get to actually come back home and stay home for a little while?
Rachel May: Yeah, well, I haven't had a vacation in a very long time. So I've rented a house up in the Adirondacks and I'm going to go take my kayak and paddle around for a few days. But you know, our summers are still busy. It's a different kind of busy. So it's being in the district, traveling around the district, going to events and meeting with people who have, you know, specific issues. I'm looking forward to that because I feel like I've barely been in the district this winter and spring because we've been in Albany so much.
Paul Szmal: Well, it's a pleasure, as always, to speak to you, Senator May. Thank you for spending some time with us here this morning. We appreciate it.
Rachel May: My pleasure, too. Thanks, Paul. Enjoy this day.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely. It is 749 on FLX Morning.
