Rokosz Most: This redistricting thing has really been a doozy. You’ve lost about 147,000 of your old constituents. But you gained Columbia and Greene counties.
State senator Sue Serino: So now it’s Hyde Park north. Putting Columbia and Greene counties together made a lot of sense because there’s so much that they share. But the way they chopped up Dutchess and Ulster makes no sense. I grew up in Wappingers. So I lost where I grew up. My mom lives in Poughkeepsie. And so does my mother-in-law. They can’t even vote for me.
Most: Do you see similarities between the business corridor from Wappingers falls to Fishkill on the 9 and over here in town of Ulster on the 9W or the 9W around Highland. I assume as a Republican you’ll be focusing your energies in the areas with the most active business communities but also away from the city centers which tend to vote democratic. Is that a fair assumption?
Serino: I’m going all over and talking to everybody. I think that that’s so important… I always say I govern by listening and I have never asked anybody what party they are. I think that that’s so important, especially today, with all the divisiveness that’s going on. And nobody can put me in a box. I have that reputation for standing up for our neighbors and never being afraid to do so. So that’s why it’s important for me to hear from everybody. I don’t care what party. Party doesn’t matter.
Most: There was a letter penned by Senators Gallivan and Ortt that you seemed to get behind very strongly, criticizing the state labor department for an interest assessment surcharge. Can you explain what that was about?
Serino: It’s about how the businesses struggled to survive during the pandemic. It felt like winners and losers with how businesses were picked on to be closed and it just extended way too long. And then it’s a slap in the face, to hit them with the surcharge. We should be doing everything we can to bolster our small businesses. They are the fabric of our communities.
They put a tax on unemployment insurance. It’s $27.60 per employee. Like other states we got money from the federal government, to pay it down. Other states chose to use that money. Our state who is not business friendly, decided to give the business owners basically a slap in the face and we had a conversation with NFIB [National Federation of Independent Business] and they said that this could last up to eight years for the businesses to have to pay this.
Most: Here’s an issue dear to my heart. You introduced a bill to clarify the amount of time an agency has to respond to a FOIL [Freedom of Information Law] request. I’d be interested to hear about that.
Serino: You see this all the time. You know, when people file a pull request they want to be able to get those answers back. And I think about governor Cuomo for the nursing home, resident data during Covid. That’s stuff that you need to know. The Department of Health, and the governor’s office, they just don’t answer you. Putting people with Covid that everybody was scared to death of, in with seniors and look at what happened, over 15,000 seniors. No answers and no investigations. You know, we sent a letter to governor Cuomo and to the Department of Health. Absolutely deplorable.
Most: It does seem like you’ve spent a little bit of energy being rather activist, introducing legislation providing for a mechanism to recall elected officials. You’ve called on Letitia James to investigate the local administration. You’ve introduced legislation to force recusal jurors appointed by the governor. I guess I have to ask, do you have it out for the governor?
Serino: No, this is about corruption. It’s all about transparency and good government for elected officials. I mean, we’re putting them there. Because we trust them. You know they’re working for us, really, for our taxpayer money. It’s so important to have that transparency.
I think some of the bills that you mentioned, it was about corrupt lawmakers actually. Look at what has happened with governor Hochul with the corporate tax scandal — $286 million extra dollars to buy from a political donor. That is absolutely deplorable, especially when you think about what’s going on.
We were talking earlier about going into the district and talking .… In every corner of this district, people are hurting. And they’re really worried about what’s going to happen this winter. With the rising cost and fuel oil, that money could have gone a long way to help the people in need in our state.
Most: If you add that to the amount of money she paid for the football stadium, that’s a billion dollars.
Serino: It’s a billion dollars. You are exactly right. That’s a lot of money. And you split that up between 62 counties.
Most: You also introduced a bill, I think it stalled in the Senate, the Finance Committee, but you wanted to establish a childcare and early-childhood education innovation program?
Serino: Sure. You know, when I was a single mom, I opened up a daycare through Dutchess County daycare provider service. So I was able to stay home with my son, who was then a year and a half at the time. And, and it was a great opportunity for me to be with my son and also take care of other children.
And I just think that it’s so important, because right now, especially after the pandemic, we’re seeing a lot of the daycares close. It’s really hard, very hard for people to find quality, affordable childcare. So my idea during the pandemic was to use the American rescue plan [ARPA] money to fund new slots for these daycare providers.
Most: You also introduced a bill to establish a tax credit for grocery donations to food pantries, more common sense. And, again, that stalled in the committee?
Serino: They’re vital for our communities. People of every income level are really hurting, because of the cost of everything. And the food pantry need help, because when the economy’s not doing so well, they’re not getting the donations that they normally would get to. So and I believe that version of that did pass in the budget. But you know, it’s a bigger conversation about how we get food at the place it’s needed most. A lot of common sense ideas, right?
Most: Yeah. That is needed. Okay. Yeah, that kind of pivots over to your opponent, senator [Michelle] Hinchey, because I interviewed her and we largely stuck to agriculture. I saw that you had three or four bills directly about that in the farming arena that I’m aware of. And for some reason, there seems to be this push and pull between renewable energy and agriculture. A bill you were trying to do involved agriculture districts to be converted over to solar use without a penalty?
Serino: Farmland should be the last option for solar. When you think about it look at all the buildings that we have. They can put solar on the buildings. We did something in Beacon in my district, they had an old trash compound dump. And what they did was that land could never be used again because that’s where all the garbage was.
We have to think outside of the box, and we need to really strike a balance when it comes to these things. And it needs to be local control. It shouldn’t be once again Albany telling everybody what they need to do. I am a firm believer in local control. And especially when it comes to solar, I think that’s really important for the local communities to be able to have a voice. So I think that’s the most important thing when it comes when we’re having that discussion about solar.
Most: When you when you say local control, are we talking county level? Is that where it gets done with the county executive? Or is it we are talking towns and villages?
Serino: We have local towns and villages that really worked well together, where they can have these roundtables, have these discussions and talk to people. The governor had an executive order, to overrule local control. That is not right. So that’s just to move an Albany agenda. Which, you know, doesn’t include the people that are here in our community. So when I say local control, I mean, like, what’s best for our community here.
Most: Okay. I was just trying to figure out what the borders of a community were. But you said, but you’ve been up there, seven years in Albany, so you know
Serino: What I have not just this experience but I have life experience, right? Starting a business, being on the town board, as a legislator, I really learned all different aspects of government. I’m always learning. It’s me spending time in the community, because so often, people do not think to call a senator’s office about it could be an array of ideas or if they have problems. And I think Covid taught us a lot about that.
And Covid showed, you know, especially our constituents, that we are here for them. We helped over 5000 people with unemployment. We were calling seniors every single day to check on them because seniors are the last ones that will ever ask for help. They grew up in a time when they didn’t, they just took care of themselves and now they need help more than ever.
So for me, this job is all about being in the community every day and it’s not just an election year for me. Every year people see me, and I want to be available to have those conversations with people because this job is about helping people.
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