From WXXI news.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Well, throughout this election season, Connections is hosting conversations with the candidates who appear on your ballot.

When possible, we want to bring opponents together for a conversation.

We do not think of it as a debate.

It's a conversation about the issues, animating voters and animating these campaigns.

And you've probably heard me say before that it is harder and harder to get opponents to sit down together.

That's just the way it goes these days.

But this afternoon, we're glad to have both of the candidates on the ballot in New York State Senate race for district number 56.

We're going to take your questions and comments for the candidates this hour.

You can send them to Connections at wxxi.org.

That's the email address.

You can call the program toll free 844295 talk.

You can join the chat if you're watching it on the news YouTube channel.

The incumbent in the race is New York State Senate.

Senator from district number 54, Democrat Jeremy Cooney.

Welcome back to the program.

Thank you for being here.

Well, thank you, Evan, just a clarification, 56.

I said 56 earlier.

Why is my brain turning a six into a four today?

Thank you.

It's 56.

And the Republican in the race for district number 56 is Orlando Rivera.

Welcome back to the program to you.

Thank you.

How are you doing today?

Very good.

Senator Cooney, you're looking for a fourth term and tell people what the district covers.

Sure.

So the 56 Senate district includes, parts of the city of Rochester.

Like to say from the 19th ward, all the way down to Charlotte and then all of downtown, where we are right now at KCI Studios, and then the towns of Grace and gates and the West Side.

Those are the complete towns and the complete towns of Brighton and Henrietta on the east side.

All right.

So little introductions from both of you.

Senator.

Why are you running for reelection?

Well, listen, I was raised in Rochester.

I grew up here in the city, single mom who raised me and put me through the Rochester State School District and very proud to be the first Ccsd graduate to serve in the Senate in over 40 years.

Got scholarships to college in law school, came back to Rochester and got my start working in public service for one of, I think, Rochester's, most beloved elected officials.

And that's the late Congresswoman Louise Slaughter.

And 25 years later, I've, I think we're working on some of those same issues that Louise championed, making sure people have access to affordable health care, making sure that our public schools are terrific and not dependent on what zip code you live in, and making sure that our streets are safe.

I think the biggest change in the last, two years since I was, up for reelection before, is that my wife and I have welcomed our first son.

We are living in the city of Rochester, raising our family and focused on making sure that Rochester remains a place for families in the future.

Again, it's Jeremycooney.com.

The website for Orlando Rivera is OrlandoJrivera.com.

A little introduction or reintroduction to the audience for you Orlando.

Yeah, sure.

Also, City of Rochester resident born and raised.

You know, also, was raised by a single mom in the city.

And, you know, my family supports me through this endeavor.

My son is the reason why I'm.

Why I'm running.

My background, I believe, is pretty diverse education, workforce development and also real estate.

And I believe I can take those things and, you know, be of use.

In Albany.

So let's let's start with some of the issues, and I'm going to take both of your platforms.

I'm going to choose one issue.

We'll talk about it with the candidate.

We'll let the other candidate also respond on that.

And then we'll kind of do vice versa.

So, Senator Cooney, I saw that you've unveiled legislation that would create universal health care for children in New York State through the existing Medicaid system.

You say it could eliminate premiums and co-pays regardless of a family's income level.

How are you going to do that?

Why is that a priority now?

July 1st of this year, about 450,000 New Yorkers lost their health insurance, under the Trump administration.

And I had a very, difficult and sad conversation, actually, right outside my office on parcel five when a mother came up to me and said, I lost my health insurance.

I have two jobs, I'm doing everything right, and I have three kids.

The youngest is struggling with diabetes.

I don't have health insurance.

I can't afford to get health insurance.

And, you know, health insurance is one of those things where it's, incredibly expensive.

You're often not able to fully utilize it because you have these high deductible plans.

And I just think that we owe it to our kids, to do a lot better.

My legislation would make New York the first state in the nation, to offer, free health care insurance for every child under the age of 19, regardless of their income.

And that's the key factor here, because, again, like I said in their opening comments, one zip code shouldn't determine your outcome.

And so the way that we can afford to do that is that we can use some of the Medicaid savings, that we see from long term chronic health conditions that often end up with adults going to the emergency department and having very expensive procedures.

Let's focus on preventative health.

Focus on preventative medicine.

Let's let kids see their, pediatricians, diagnose and do some early screening work.

But diagnoses chronic conditions and then hopefully healthy kids become healthy adults.

So this legislation would create universal health care for children all the way up until adulthood up to 19 age 1919.

So think about the Child Health Plus program, which is one of the few health programs that people recognize is one of the working and best serve programs.

This would open that up to all families, regardless of your income.

So if you're Medicaid eligible, you still stay Medicaid eligible and you go through your program, like normal.

The only changes we would add in some funding to remove the cost of copays and prescription drug costs for everyone else who is not Medicaid eligible.

They would also be able to be part of the Child Health Plus program, but and and therefore not have premiums.

So when I talk to to parents about this, probably the best way to describe this is when you're looking at your health care bill, whomever your health insurance carrier may be, you no longer have to have a family plan.

You find out a plan that works for you and your partner or your spouse, and that's it.

Because your dependents, your children, would be covered underneath this proposal.

What's the annual price tag for this?

So we are doing, a fiscal analysis well before the legislative session begins, on January 1st.

But we actually believe it will be significantly less, because children are generally pretty health less than what?

I'm sorry.

Less than the cost of not offering health insurance to children and developing these chronic health conditions.

The other thing the factor is, remember, we just went through this affordability conversation with the RGA rebate checks or the utility rebate checks.

That cost to the state tax payers and the state of New York.

Was it $1 billion to send out those checks?

I believe, and some of the early, work that we have done with our team shows that the cost of insuring every child in New York is far less than that billion dollar cost for rebate checks and a couple of other things.

I'll let your opponent jump in on this here.

But if you get a price tag that's bigger than you expect, sometimes that analysis comes out.

We don't have the full price tag yet.

Do you have mechanisms to pay for this?

Well, I think a lot of it will be in terms of supplementing and complementing what we do with our federal dollars.

So as you know, the Medicaid program comes from our federal government.

So we'd be looking for a partnership with our federal government to make sure that we can cover all these children.

I think the again, the long term play here, and we've been working with groups like the Children's Agenda, who was their part of our, announcement yesterday with the legislation is to find cost savings in our existing state Medicaid program.

Okay.

And because you brought up the rebate checks, just as an aside, the Republican candidate for governor, Bruce Blakeman, on this program, said that those $200 rebate checks, those energy rebate checks are just an election year scam to try to buy votes.

What do you think about that?

I, I am very concerned by the rising cost of utilities in the state of New York.

I think people when I've, when I've gone out, whether I'm in Greece or whether I'm in the city of Rochester, and talk to people about a rebate check, they say, yeah, that's good.

It's not enough, but they're appreciative that we're doing something.

Okay.

Orlando Rivera so let's talk about, first of all, this legislation that, that Senator Cooney has for a universal health care system for children in New York.

What do you make of it?

Yeah.

So the first concern and obvious question to ask is, who's going to be footing the bill for all this?

Who's paying for it?

Then the next question I would have would be, actually statement would be, you know, as far as kids are concerned, you know, families that had multiple children.

And, you know, we like to think that kids are generally healthy.

But, you know, there's costs, there's kids that participate in sports.

You know, and some injury is going to happen.

It just kind of comes with the package deals.

I have two boys that play soccer and they've had several injuries.

My kids seemingly are at the doctor's offices multiple times.

You know, a week, if not every two weeks for whatever medical emergency and or a general checkup they might have.

And then also, are the providers going to accept, you know, this insurance, is that something that they're looking at?

Over the years, we've seen providers kind of pull back from certain insurers and not, utilize and say, we're no longer accepting that, you know, so that would be, you know, my concern when it comes to.

Okay.

And it sounds to me like you don't you're not hearing explanation I'm paying for it that you think is sufficient.

Right.

So far.

Okay.

Do you want to weigh in on.

And if doctor starts saying we're not going to take this insurance.

Yeah.

And that's a really, good point and I appreciate my opponent for raising it.

So one of the challenges that we face with our pediatric providers is that they are already, some of the lowest reimbursed providers in the health care system, which is crazy.

I mean, we should pay our teachers more.

We should pay our pediatricians more.

These are people taking care of our our future population.

The way that we have structured the legislation is that if you are currently a medicaid eligible based on income, household, then you would stay within the Medicaid system, the child health plus system and be the provider would be reimbursed.

In the same way, if you are not.

Then it would be a new rate set for that provider.

That would probably be higher than the Medicaid reimbursement rate.

We leave that to the Department of Financial Services, which sets a lot of these insurance rates.

They have the expertise.

So they would come up with a new standard rate.

So that way there can be a payer mix so that pediatricians, health care providers are not, being underpaid for servicing more children.

Do you want to see full universal health care in the state, a state model of that?

I absolutely do.

And I've I've come on your program before and shared my, support of single payer models like the New York Times.

So this doesn't change that.

You know, not putting forward a plan to cover all kids because you're backing away from the new York Health Act.

No, I, I truly believe that health care is a right and that health care should be more accessible to certainly every New Yorker.

What I do believe is that we have to start someplace, and I think the model is to start with our children.

Orlando Rivera I can I assume that you would not support New York State, running a single payer health care system for for everyone, right.

Okay.

And why is that?

I look at it this way.

From a taxpayer perspective, I think we have to be responsible.

You know, is is is those that would be, you know, charged with that in Albany.

I think it's him.

It's important, that we're looking out for our taxpayers.

That's where the money's coming from at the end of the day.

And we don't want to put more of an undue burden.

New York is already one of the the highest tax states.

You know, we're number one for individual tax burden.

Number two for property tax burden.

So people have been voting with their feet and leaving the state and to, you know, put more of an undue burden on them is something that I, I hesitate to support.

Okay.

And I should also ask you, would you have supported the $200 utility rebate checks that just went out?

So I it's something as a, as a give back, but it's not a solution.

And the timing of it is what I have an issue with more than anything else because people have been struggling with their utility bills for years.

This isn't new.

It's just come to light recently.

But, you know, is is is a, someone that has a family of five, I can tell you it is not it's not, a cheap endeavor, to have utilities running in your house.

Okay.

So here's what we're going to do with the candidates.

Orlando Rivera's running on a platform talking about public safety, school choice, jobs and development.

We're going to talk about those things.

Senator Cooney has been working, as, the transportation chair on transportation issues.

We're going to talk more about that.

And, we're going to welcome some of your feedback.

We've got some emails that we will read.

So a lot to cover with the candidates in Senate District number 56.

That's the incumbent.

The Democrat Jeremy Cooney is here.

The Republican in the race, Orlando Rivera is here.

We'll come right back after this short break.

Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Mary Carolla Center, supporting residents to become active members of the community, from developing life skills to gaining independence.

Mary Carey, Yola center transforming lives of people with disabilities.

More online at Mary Carey, ola.org.

Israelis are marking three years since the deadliest day in Israel's history.

What do I think about what Hamas did on the 7th of October?

I would say it was reckless, definitely.

However, I would also want to say that the Israeli reaction to it was unjustifiably criminal.

We bring you their voices on the next Morning Edition from NPR news.

This is tomorrow morning at five.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson so Orlando Rivera, number one on your list of issues that you have put out publicly is public safety.

Why and what does that mean to you?

Yeah.

So as a father, I want my family to be safe.

I want all families to be safe.

And right now, not everybody.

And it doesn't matter where you live, not everybody feels safe.

And whether that's, they're coming into the city, whether they're walking in their neighborhoods, there's always that opportunity, it seems, just based on what we've seen.

So I'll give you I'll give you an example.

So a couple of years ago, my kids were playing over, at the David Gant Center and playing a in a baseball league.

And quite often than not, there's issues there with young children that decide that, you know, they want to get into mischief and they have nothing else better to do.

So, they'll steal cars.

And this is in this instance, that's what that that's what happened.

They stole a car from a church.

They careened the car around it, jumped the bank and onto the field with all these kids that were right in the middle of practice.

My kids included.

When the, the car crash, it rolled.

The kids got out, walked out like nothing happened when the parents ran up to them, which is a natural instinct to chastise them.

The, young men in question pointed to their waistband.

You know, as a threat.

Indicated they were armed.

Yes.

Correct.

And my, both my son and my daughter asked me why are they allowed to do that?

And as a parent, that's an important question, like thinking about how you answer that.

And I almost didn't know what to say to them, because what do you tell someone at that age?

Because we tell them often that, you know, you're responsible.

We want you to be accountable for what you do on a daily basis.

That's what I try and teach my kids.

It's all by example.

And we hope that they follow that.

But unfortunately, you know, not every parent has that ability to do that.

And kids these days, for whatever reason, social media, you know, tablets, devices, you know, they see these things and they believe that, you know, they can manifest them, you know, in real life.

And life isn't Grand Theft Auto.

So what's the prescription for that if.

Because you're running for the New York State Senate, what is a state policy, law, etc.

that addresses this?

Yeah, I know you've heard this quite often.

I think we need to revisit the reforms.

You talked about bail reform, correct?

Yes.

And related.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yep.

I think we need to revisit those.

And I know everyone gets skeptical when you say that, but I do think that the reforms were necessary.

I'm not saying that they were mal intended, but at this point we need to understand that children model the behavior that they see.

And from adults especially.

And if adults are behaving that way, why are the kids going to fall in line and do this as well?

So we need to understand that.

And we need to look at these policies and say, hey, listen, maybe we made some hasty decisions.

It didn't work out well based on what we're seeing.

And maybe now it's time to roll it back and maybe take ego out of it.

And just say, hey, listen, we we really need to take a look at this.

You know, we have young children as young as 14, 15 committing, committing these crimes.

Some of them committing adult crimes.

You know, we have to get a handle on it because, over time, you don't want people to get used to seeing these things and get comfortable, and then it doesn't become a shock.

And kids have to understand that this is something that that isn't it's not permissible.

It isn't what we should be doing.

We need children to be productive.

And I think the way we do that is by, you know, some folks have said enacting a dangerousness standard might be it, some folks think that, you know, a change in the bail reform laws.

I personally think that we we need to hold people more accountable for their actions, on a daily basis, because if you do it in certain scenarios and then you do it in another scenario, they're not held accountable for it.

They think there's a loophole and they can get out.

Senator Cooney, what do you make of them?

Well, I certainly appreciate that things have changed.

We're seeing more and more of these violence and theft occur at younger ages.

I mean, I grew up here in the city of Rochester.

I don't remember carjacking or car theft, the way that we have seen in the post pandemic, I will note, that we have seen a significant reduction in violent crime, over the past year and a half.

Is there more work to be done?

Absolutely.

The way I look at public safety is, I call it my three P's.

It's prevention, it's policy, and it's punishment.

Oftentimes we like to talk about prevention and policy.

We forget about the accountability aspect.

So I do support, from a prevention standpoint, investing more resources, and programs such as youth employment.

I just met with, teen empowerment earlier this week.

And, you know, they had a very successful summer with hiring youth organizers, but they don't have they have more applicants and they have positions.

I know Rochester Works and City of Rochester both have summer employment programs, but we need year round teen employment opportunities for positive adult role models to build and prevent kids from getting into trouble.

And those and those, afterschool hours, on the policy side, I've entered legislation such as the Car Theft Prevention Act to, to directly address what my opponent was referring to.

And on the, on the punishment side, I do support, strengthening punishment, holding people accountable.

For.

Does that mean rolling back any of bail reform?

Yeah.

Well, listen, I was not in the state legislature when bail reform was first voted on.

I have supported, reasonable changes, including what the governor had suggested.

I believe it was now two years ago.

You know, look, we have to make it work.

We have to work with our district attorneys, work with our law enforcement.

I will note that I'm proud to be supported for my reelection by state and local law enforcement in this race.

But again, it's about a partnership, right?

And making sure that our law enforcement officers feel supported just as much as our community feel safe in their homes.

How about a dangerous standard?

Dangerousness standard?

I do not support, putting a dangerousness standard into our state law.

As you know, we have that on the federal side.

The reason why is because when you add that level of discretion, we lose control over making sure that programs and policies that are meant to protect everyone, can go to the whims of one, particular judge.

And, you know, I'm not here to comment that there are, you know, judges that I agree with and disagree with.

But at the end of the day, it isn't that they're trying to have a system that works for everybody and the data and that the data showed prior and reason, reason why the state legislature looked at bail reform is that we saw that there was a disparate treatment, disparate treatment based on regionality, disparate treatment based on the color of one's skin.

And I think it was it was very well documented.

In nonpartisan sources.

So that's what we're trying to correct for.

Okay.

Do you feel like there is agreement or still distance between you and Senator Cooney on this Irlanda.

There's probably not as much distance as people might think.

But I certainly would like to see, you know, people held accountable for, for these crimes, especially when there's a rise in domestic violence, in our, in our city and in our county, we need to we need to make sure that the victims, you know, are, are being respected, by being folks being held accountable for their actions.

Senator Cooney, you've worked on transport as the transportation chair.

You've come on this program to talk about higher speed rail.

I'd say higher speed rail.

I mean, it's not a maglev, but it's, it's higher, higher speed than maybe people travel on Amtrak.

What's the status of that?

And what do you think is achievable in the future that you would support?

So I'll remind, your listeners and viewers that the average, miles per hour or speed traveled on passenger Amtrak in upstate New York is between 45 and 55mph.

We defined high speed rail as rail systems that can go 125mph or more.

What we have tried to do to advance the conversation is look at a new pathway or a corridor for which we could operate high speed rail.

So I'm very interested in connecting Buffalo to New York City by high speed rail.

Think about what's happening in Central New York with micron, all of the suppliers that are going to come around, our neck of the woods here and then in Buffalo and then to the east of Syracuse in that Mohawk Valley.

What a huge opportunity to move people to these economic opportunities, to these jobs, to support more faculty and students coming to our higher educational institutions.

It's a it is a giant win in terms of attracting population to upstate New York.

How do we do that?

The corridor that I'm interested in studying that I mentioned earlier is the New York State Thruway, the I-90 corridor.

And if you look at models in Florida and models out west between Southern California and Las Vegas, they're taking these large interstates and they're putting tracks down the median or on the sides.

So we were able to secure $500,000 in the state budget.

Not this, not this year, but the year before.

We're currently undergoing an evaluation.

We call it a corridor ID study that the New York State Department of Transportation is working on to see if that is feasible, if that is feasible.

This is how we differentiate our system from California, which often gets knocked as being crazy expensive and delayed.

We control, through the New York State Thruway Authority, the land associated with the roads of I-90.

So we will not have to get all of these, you know, permitting.

And, you know, kind of putting all these parcels of land together, which cost a lot of money and delay.

So if we already control the land and it's workable to connect high speed rail, at least from Buffalo to Schenectady.

Now, we're now we're cooking with gas.

Right.

And then we can look for a private sector partner to help build out that infrastructure so that does not fall on the back of taxpayers.

And what we've talked about on your show before is, you know, companies like Brightline and others who are looking at domestic rail services in the United States have found a way to operationalize this and make a profit.

So they're motivated to work with a state government in making this a reality.

Orlando Rivera, would you support something like that?

I would support anything that brings economic opportunity to our area, because we haven't replaced the jobs that we lost through Kodak, Xerox, you know, and Beau Shalom.

Those were our giants.

And it sounds like the ability to give residents, you know, more of a growth growth potential from that opportunity.

I would definitely support.

Okay.

Let's get a couple of emails.

Ray in gates says, do your guests support a wealth tax on what Ray calls the morbidly wealthy of New York State in order to fund Snap and Medicaid programs?

So we talk about a wealth tax.

There's a lot of flavors of it super wealth tax, or sometimes you hear it described in different ways, but it's essentially it's a, I think he's asking about a super wealth tax.

That's Ray in gates.

Orlando Rivera, what do you think?

I can't support that now.

A lot of those folks are the ones that are funding them currently with the with the taxes that they pay because they make so much money, they pay the most in taxes.

Okay.

Senator Cooney, I would support, making sure that those who have the most are contributing to everyone else in this society.

We have, huge expenses and needs and a huge gap in income.

When you look at, how the wealth gap has grown even over the last 5 or 6 years with the growth of the tech industries and in particular, we have got to make sure that those who choose to make New York their home are contributing to the benefit of all.

I just wrote an op ed piece in the Albany Times Union about public transportation.

I'm very concerned that we see cuts to our service right here with arts, but the same cuts to upstate transit that we're seeing in Rochester are also happening in Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany.

And so my op ed piece says that if we can't find the state resources in the state budget process to help restore those cuts and to help make transportation work better in upstate cities, then we have to make those who who have the most and have resources to contribute to that because they're benefiting from it.

These are the workers who are using our busses to get to their jobs, and that helps pay their bottom line, right?

So this is about a system of making sure that everyone can drive a can can rise and thrive in New York.

All right.

Another issue that Orlando Rivera, the Republican in this race for district number 56 in the New York State Senate, another issue that you've talked about is school choice.

Tell me about that and tell me about what you want to do.

Yeah.

So, for for education wise, the city of Rochester and not just the city of Rochester schools.

We're talking about districts also, we're looking at the literacy rates, across the board.

And they're not great.

19% in the Rochester City School District is not great at all.

And it's been it seems like we're spending more and more money, and spending doesn't seem to be the problem.

When do we start holding the school, district accountable for not achieving the results?

Because you couldn't do that at a fortune 500 company.

You couldn't lose millions of dollars and then be given more if that's the case.

So I believe that as someone that went to, a private school and as someone who supports options for parents because maybe public school doesn't work for their children, maybe it's the classroom environment.

There's too many students.

Maybe they need a smaller class size.

Maybe they need more one on one attention.

You know, I think the the charter schools have done a great job of putting mentorship into action and helping these kids graduate.

If you look at, so we'll say, Hannibal Madeira, Hostos Charter School, it's the longest running charter school in Rochester at 20 plus.

And they have they have been graduating kids at, it was around about 90 plus percent.

It slipped back down into, I would say, the higher 80 range as of late, but that's still at a higher clip than the Rochester City School District.

They're whatever the ingredients they have in there in that recipe is working for them.

And I believe the Ccsd needs to learn from that.

So what would your proposal effectively do for people and parents?

It would give them a choice.

The parents right now do not have as much of a choice as as we would think.

We need more options.

So I would propose more charter schools being opened to allow for that.

Okay, Senator Cooney, more charter schools, more choice.

What do you think?

I am a product of the Rochester City School District I mentioned before.

Proud, public school, graduate.

My mom taught at Monroe Community College for over 30 years.

And it was a proud, you know, public school teacher.

Look, I believe that the promise of education, whether you live in the suburbs where they live in the city, should be equal.

We want to make sure that we're investing in our public schools, our traditional district schools in a way that's meaningful.

I've supported, of course, the resources that my opponent, has spoken about.

We've been able to deliver some, some resources, including, the largest investment in the capital facilities in the city school district in decades, which will modernize our facilities so that our students can have a 21st century classroom.

What concerns me, and actually, you had on your program a few weeks ago, even, that children's agenda who talked about the chronic absenteeism.

Yes.

So in addition to the literacy rate that my opponent raised, which is very alarming, the fact that both suburban and urban students are not showing up to the classroom, it should be sounding off alarms across Monroe County, across New York State, upwards of 70% of students in the city school district are considered to be chronically at high school.

In high school, which means removing or missing 10% or more of the school year.

How can we possibly expect graduation rates, to raise if you're not even in the classroom?

And one of the reasons and one of the opportunities I think, that we have is to make sure that our young people are getting prepared before they even start in kindergarten, so that they can get universal pre-K.

They can get access to that.

So, New York City made a big deal about universal pre-K to, for for a second or for a two year old.

Excuse me.

We have about universal pre-K for universal pre-K three here in Monroe County.

I'd like to see more opportunities in that space.

Okay.

But briefly, take a minute to explain why not more charter schools, as your opponent says.

Look, I think that the concept of a charter school, if you look historically, is interesting because it looks at different teaching methodologies and strategies to help engage students.

And for some people, that works, as you know, Rochester has a large percentage of its, parent population, who have chosen to send their students to a charter school.

And, you know, my role isn't here to pick winners and losers.

I respect that parents have to make their choices for what's best for them.

In some cases, that that school might offer, instruction, technology or instruction, methodology that works better for their student.

So I'm not here to kind of get in the way of a parent making that choice.

Well, I am here to support the majority of students.

And the majority of students, may not have an opportunity to go to a charter school or a private school.

And I believe that that opportunity, those opportunities should be available to them.

So that's why I've continued to invest in, our traditional district schools.

I will also say, though, for some of our charter schools that offer year round programing, which is something that our traditional district schools do not offer, we have found ways, through my role as a chair of transportation, to make sure that those students can get to their classroom even in the summer months.

Because that that, to me, is taking away from, traditional public schools because it's something that's unique to those schools.

And then you want to add here, Orlando.

Yeah, absolutely.

I, I just think that again, the, from that charter side of things, they have really put, programs together to allow for young men specifically because that is that is part of the concern is that these young men are being mentored by successful by successful, you know, minority males who have, either achieved great educational, achievements or from, from a sports standpoint which has garnered respect from young people.

And that's what we need.

We need young people to respect their elders.

So you need folks with influence, to bring that back.

And the charter schools have seemingly put together that, that, special sauce that, that is given, you know, them their, their success.

I would just say, though, and I appreciate that there are some, some good programs that are working.

Public schools can work really well.

I'm very proud to be a graduate.

I'm proud to be supported by New York State teachers.

But again, I think we have to make sure that the resources are going into the classrooms of where the majority of students are.

And I, you know, again, every dollar that goes to a charter school, you know, may help us, educate those students who are at those schools.

But it takes away from the greater.

The greater pie in the, in the and the bigger population that we have.

So we have to find, a balance here, and we want to make sure that our teachers and our students, most importantly, get that support no matter what school they choose.

All right, let's get this only other break in.

A real brief break.

We'll come right back to more your questions and more questions for the candidates in New York State Senate, district number 56, the incumbent, Jeremy Cooney.

The challenger, Orlando Rivera.

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Tom writes in to say bravo to two serious and respectful candidates for coming on the show together.

That is the goal.

We are appreciating this conversation.

We appreciate them being here.

Tom adds, get the governor.

I, I we're trying the governor turned us down in this election cycle.

That's all I can tell you.

Bruce Blakeman, the Republican, took us up on the offer.

The governor did not.

But we're going to keep offering the candidates who are appearing on the ballot.

The chance to come in.

Okay.

Angela says, I want to know what kinds of politicians your guests are.

For example, is Mr.

Rivera a Trump Republican?

Is Mr.

Cooney aligned with the DSA?

So, Mr.

Rivera, you get that part of it.

First, Angela wants to know if you're a Trump Republican.

So I'm a conservative, a Republican.

I consider myself to be a moderate.

Okay.

Did you do you support the president?

I support some of his policies.

I think the overall.

Does he do and say everything that you want?

Ideally, no.

I'll be upfront about that.

But how I would handle something and how he would handle something are completely two different things.

Okay.

Do you think overall, he's been a good president?

Initially at the start, yes.

And I believe that, not so much as we, as we've been moving forward, but, as he is our president and I think we have to remember that.

Okay.

What's one thing that you look at and say, this is exactly what I would have done?

I'm glad he did this.

What is it?

From an economic standpoint, the his support of, historically black colleges and universities giving them that money, I believe that is something that was beneficial.

Okay.

Senator Cooney, Angela wants to know if you're aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America.

I am not.

I was raised, as a Democrat.

I'm not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Certainly serve with a number of, DSA members in the state legislature.

Some of their ideas are interesting, and we can find consensus around, some of those concepts.

But I would not identify as a DSA member who is a political hero for you.

Louise Slaughter.

Look, Louise was what I consider to be an upstate Democrat.

She was a strong, progressive advocate for for families, certainly for women, for the arts.

A leader and a pioneer in the transportation space.

When she was talking about High-Speed rail.

And no one else was in this country.

But most importantly, Louise was the kind of person that you could talk to in the grocery store and across the aisle, you could, she was she could show up in all the different community events.

But she was super, and I got to see this firsthand virtually when I got to work for her in Washington.

She was so well respected across the aisle.

She used to say, you know, her her cousin, Aimo.

Aimo Houlton, a Republican from the Corning area.

I think they'd find ways to work together.

That's the kind of leader I want to be as a bipartisan, you know, thoughtful lawmaker.

Okay.

And then briefly, we're I'm curious to know DSA had a couple of co-chairs on this program last week, and they said that capitalism has failed, that you can't succeed in this country with the capitalistic system, that they even thought workers under the Soviet Union did better than workers in the West under capitalism.

I wonder if you think that that's I think 250 years we just celebrated this country.

We are a capitalist country.

We have opportunities to do things better.

Certainly.

I'm proud of the many businesses that have started right here in Rochester or in the shadow of Kodak.

Of course, right now, as we sit here in the studio.

There's opportunities to to better support workers.

I support that I'm a more, I guess, a progressive in terms of policies when it comes to our immigrants, and inclusion and, workforce training and all of those wonderful things that help strengthen our American workforce, our New York workforce.

But at the end of the day, I do support finding ways to help bring businesses to places like upstate New York, because when you bring businesses, you bring workforce.

When you bring workforce, you bring families.

When you bring families, you have kids who go to our schools.

When you have kids who go to the schools, maybe they want to stay here and bring their own business idea, to the forefront.

So it's about growing our population here in upstate New York.

Issue number three on Orlando Rivera's website is Jobs and Development.

Now, there's no candidate alive who doesn't say jobs and development matter.

But let's talk about why you think it is lacking or what it's not happening that you want to change.

If you're elected to the New York State Senate, go ahead.

Yeah.

So I've I've watched and I've seen over the years that there's been this emphasis on going to college.

And you know, when, when I graduated high school, that was like the only thing we were pushed like, go to college, go to college, go to college.

You incur a lot of debt.

Obviously, in doing so.

And the idea is for you to be successful once you have that degree, which is great.

You know, my mom, you know, worked hard.

Cleaning people's houses to get me to that point where I could do that.

And, you know, I respect that.

But I also think there is a fair share of, young people, students, that that's not the best option for those kids, and at this point in time is somebody that works in real estate.

I've seen that, there is a lack of, you know, trained professional, tradesmen.

You know, whether that be electricians, plumbers, Hvac folks.

A lot of those folks are making really good money.

And I think that's should be an option for for young people to look at being their own business owner, being an entrepreneur.

I support entrepreneurism, obviously.

And, you know, as, as the chair of a business association and, I think it's important for us to steer kids down that pathway as well, because there's economic opportunity with those jobs.

You're going to you're going to do a lot better from, you know, a, an earnings standpoint if you, you know, have that, if you have that training and that licensing behind you.

Not every kid goes to school, gets a degree and then makes, you know, a ton of money.

Some of them are making $30,000 with a degree while, a plumber is making 90 to $100,000.

So I think we should take a look at partnerships.

You know, we'll more partnerships with our community colleges.

As pipelines to, you know, you know, apprentice programs, work experiences, job readiness trainings, those sorts of things to be able to get kids ready, to, for that, that, that entrepreneurial path.

Okay.

You want to respond to that, Senator?

A lot of agreement here.

Opportunities for young people to find their career path earlier on is really important to me.

That's why I sponsor the legislation to move, school districts to be reimbursed for career and technical education earlier.

We're starting too late.

We're starting at the, 10th grade.

Ninth grade timeframe.

We really should be talking about seventh grade so that students can feel motivated to continue to their educational program and can find ways to have a meaningful career.

I mean, the trades are a great way to do that.

We are bringing more money to this community to do, infrastructure work, whether we're talking about Inner Loop North, whether we're talking about work at the at the zoo or at, ESL ballpark, or whether we're talking about the renovation funds that I was able to secure for the city school district.

That requires skilled craftspeople.

And so we want to support programs that, like the Multi Craft Apprenticeship Program or the tracks program, which help to pre apprenticeship work, which allow young people to get into those jobs that are paying, the high salaries.

Look, I was also very proud to sponsor the Green Chips Act, which was the legislation that helped incentivize micron to make their investment the largest, investment in the history of New York State in terms of a job and workforce development program.

And, you know, they have broken ground.

And I'm very hopeful that Rochester will see the benefits of that by having lots of supply companies, come and locate in our neck of the woods, and folks who will go to work in there, look, at the end of the day, it is about making sure that people not only can access the jobs through their training, but also get to work.

And, public transportation has a big role to play in there.

When you look at what's happened, locally here in Webster, with the Cola Fair Life facility, huge win, huge win for our region, but not on a public bus route.

So how do we make sure that workers who are going to be employed at that facility can get access, no matter where they live in Monroe County?

We want to make sure that those good paying jobs are truly accessible, because that's where the equity component comes into place.

All right, back to some feedback.

Charlie says fabulous show.

This is what public radio does best.

Civilized discussion on the topics that matter.

Good luck to both gentlemen.

They give hope for the future.

Any chance to get Assembly Member Lunsford and her opponent on that's happening on the 21st?

Charlie.

So yes, that is coming up.

Thank you very much for that, Charlie.

And I'll get Greg, Phil, Lynn, we'll try to get all your comments in before the end here.

I've asked Mr.

Rivera for three planks.

We've talked about three planks.

We've talked about two of Senator Cooney sort of passion projects.

Give us a third issue that is motivating this campaign for you.

I think, that we have a real opportunity, as a, as a Democratic party to lead with big, bold ideas and, you know, whether we're talking about high speed rail or universal health care for children, I think that the Democratic Party needs to stop just being responsive to whatever they read in the newspaper that morning or whatever they see, and on the nightly news the night before, and come up with some new ideas to help attract and retain our population.

One of the things that I think we could do more, in New York, which I'm particularly passionate about, is in the public transportation space.

So high speed rail and more flights, direct flights out there.

Frederick Douglas International Airport, very popular.

Talk about, a little harder to accomplish, but we have an infrastructure with RTA here, here in Rochester.

And yet we don't have busses that come every ten minutes like they do in New York City.

I'm very committed to making sure that we have a public transportation system that meets the needs of workers and families today.

If we want to grow population, then we know generationally we need to be investing in more public transportation.

And as people are dealing with the affordability crisis that we have, you know, we talked about the price of groceries or the price of gasoline, but also the cost of insurance.

We talked about that in the show before.

You know, public transportation becomes a much more essential part of how families can afford to, to live in upstate New York.

So I want to make sure that we are fighting for more resources so that whether you live in Buffalo or Syracuse or Rochester, you have access to good public areas in the same way that we have that in New York City, right?

Brief response if you want to Orlando, go ahead.

Yeah.

I can't, disagree that, you know, public transportation is a need.

And, in our city, especially given, you know, the, the locations of a lot of the different businesses and what we've seen, you know, I think we need to look at, you know, different, different modes to get people where they need to go.

So from that standpoint, I think it's, it's something that, definitely we can take a look at.

All right.

We got to try to go fast here.

I'm not gonna try to limit answers, but they're they're going to edit themselves appropriately.

I have Emily in Rochester on the phone.

Go ahead.

Emily.

Hi.

I heard both candidates, talk about valuing small business owners and entrepreneurship.

I'm a small business owner, and health care is extraordinarily expensive.

I've gone uninsured at times in recent years.

I am wondering about your support for the New York Health Act to have universal health care not just for children, but for all people.

I, I'd really like to hear more about how you might value, entrepreneurs when you're leaving us in the lurch when it comes to health care.

Emily.

Thank you.

And just to clarify, candidates did talk about a little about the New York Health Act earlier.

Senator Cooney supports it.

Would support it if it comes up again.

Orlando Rivera has reservations about cost and would not support it.

But briefly supporting small businesses struggling with health care.

Take about 30s.

What do you think?

Yeah, I think, figuring out a way to pay for it is the biggest challenge.

It's not that I don't support it because I understand what overhead, a business owner has.

It's just about figuring out creative ways to be able to do that.

Okay, Senator Cooney, in addition to supporting and co-sponsoring the New York Health Act, I will also sponsor my own legislation as it relates to small group, insurance opportunities.

So this is for those smaller employers.

Maybe you have 70 employees, you know, giving you more options to negotiate with large health care companies so that you can get a better rate.

So I have the I carry that legislation working with a number of not for profit and for profit entities that have smaller employees.

Not talking about the big companies here, talking about with a vast majority of small businesses are with a smaller employer base.

Emily.

Thank you.

Greg wants to know, what do the candidates think of how, the legalization of marijuana has gone?

Would you have supported that Orlando Rivera, if you were in the New York State Senate?

I would have not have I would not have supported it.

And and do you think it's not going well?

I personally don't think it's going well.

You know, first of all, it's it's something it's like alcohol in a sense, where, you know, if somebody smoke this before they get into a vehicle and they're operating the vehicle, you know, that can be an issue, obviously, from a safety standpoint.

And then folks can criminalize anything.

So even the legalization of it there, there's going to be an enterprise thereof that will arise from that.

Okay.

Senator Cooney, so, you know, from previous shows that I chair the subcommittee on cannabis, which means I've got to have kind of a front row seat, to kind of all the ins and outs of this new adult use, marijuana program.

Look, I choose not to partake.

That's my choice.

Other legal adults are finding this to be something that they are excited about.

You know, we've seen alcohol sales actually decrease, pretty dramatically in the last few years since the pandemic.

And we've seen, adult use, recreational cannabis sales increase.

I do think that, the reality is, is that cannabis or marijuana, however you refer to it, was already in our communities.

I voted for the legislation because I wanted to make sure that there wasn't disparate treatment.

I mean, we talked about this on the show before, 16 times more likely to be arrested for a Low-Level marijuana drug offense if you are black, than if you were white, right here in Monroe County.

We know that, marijuana was pervasive on the underground market, meaning it was not tested.

Meaning it was not taxed.

You know, meaning that was completely unregulated.

I wanted to bring that above ground.

We wanted to make sure that we prioritize and reinvested in communities.

So part of that tax revenue that gets collected by the state gets reinvested in communities like Rochester.

Has it been perfect?

Absolutely not.

Are we working to make it better?

You betcha.

We covered a lot of ground here, and I want to thank the listeners for sharing some of their questions for the candidates.

The two candidates in the New York State Senate, district number 56 on your ballot include the incumbent, the Democrat Jeremy Cooney, Jeremy Cooney, e-commerce, his website, the Republican Orlando Rivera OrlandoJRivera.com is his website.

Thank you to both of you for coming in and sharing your ideas with us.

Glad to be here and a great feedback from the audience.

They appreciate when they will do this together.

A lot of cheers for both of these gentlemen.

We've got a lot more political candidates coming on the program in the weeks to come, before your ballots are either received or in your hands, stay with us for that and we'll be back with you tomorrow on member supported public media.

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