Today, host Brett Freeman is joined by a very special guest, Senator Pete Harckham of the 40th Senate district in the state of New York. The Senator is here to answer questions on topics ranging from bail reform to his bill on ADUs to redistricting in NYC. Joining Brett in asking the questions are Tom Walogorsky, editor of North Salem News and The Somers Record, Brian Marschhauser, editor of Yorktown News and The Katonah Lewisboro Times, and Bob Dumas, editor of Mahopac News. Our first question is on bail reform and the pushback it’s been getting. Senator Harckham responds that the bail reform bill does need to be revised—in fact, he was one of those leading the fight to revise it—but we also need to address the root causes of violence and help all communities to develop the determinants of safe communities, like access to employment and world-class healthcare. The discussion then turns to the Senator’s bill on Accessory Dwelling Units and his goal to use ADUs as a low-impact way of addressing the lack of affordable housing in areas like Northern Westchester. Walogorsky then asks about the rise in opioid overdoses during the pandemic and what the Senator, in his role as Chairman of the Committee of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, thinks about the legalization of marijuana in New York State. Senator Harckham responds that the opioid crisis is down to many factors, including the stress of the pandemic and the presence of fentanyl in the drug chain, and says that one of the key factors in dealing with the crisis is the regulation of recovery houses. He also speaks on the thinking behind the legalization of marijuana and where the revenue from it will go.

Next, Marschhauser has a question about the state of the New York economy and the spate of big-box retailers leaving vacancies when they go bust, and the Senator discusses the changes in retail as a result of the growth in delivery services and online stores, suggesting that while mom-and-pop stores will likely survive, the era of big-footprint retail may be over. The conversation then moves to the rise in energy prices, with the Senator outlining legislation he’s drafting to ensure energy customers aren’t hit with huge, unexpected bills, as well as the decommissioning of the Indian Point nuclear plant and the future for nuclear energy in New York State. Dumas then brings up the issue of redistricting in NYC, and Senator Harckham explains the reasons behind the changes and the impact they will have on his own district. And finally, the Senator addresses the controversial move to include race as one of the criteria for COVID therapeutics, stating that while there is a need to reassure the black and brown communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic that they will not be forgotten, there is no rationing being implemented and no shortage of therapeutics in New York State.

Episode Highlights:

• Three editors from the Halston Media team join today’s roundup: Tom Walogorsky, editor of North Salem News and The Somers Record; Brian Marschhauser, editor of Yorktown News and The Katonah Lewisboro Times; and Bob Dumas, editor of Mahopac News.
• Senator Harckham was elected to the New York State Senate in November 2018 and represents several different towns in Hudson Valley, including the towns of Beekman, Pawling, Carmel, Patterson, and Southeast.
• There’s been some pushback on bail reform from people in law enforcement, among others. Senator Harckham agrees that the first version of bail reform was not perfect—in fact, he was one of the people who led the fight to revise it—and points out that we really need to address the root causes of violence, including the easy proliferation of guns and the starvation of the behavioral and mental health systems.
• Senator Harckham also points out some of the determinants of safe communities, including great schools with robust after-school programs, access to employment, great transportation, and world-class healthcare.
• Senator Harckham’s bill regarding Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) was removed from Governor Kathy Hochul’s local budget, but the Senator tells us that’s a good thing because it removes the time-crunch and allows him to ensure the bill is done right.
• He says that the ADU bill is a low-impact way of addressing the situation where many people, including seniors, young people, and members of the workforce can’t afford to live in areas like Northern Westchester by creating affordable housing.
• One option is to grandfather in the good ADU laws from communities like Bedford, North Castle, and Lewisboro. Senator Harckham also says he’ll be looking at incentives for municipalities, as well as a minimum floor that they would need to meet.
• Senator Harckham is the Chairman of the Committee of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, and Walogorsky asks what’s next for his work in that role, including his thoughts on marijuana being legal in the state of New York and the rise in opioid overdoses during the pandemic.
• The Senator says several factors are to blame for the rise in overdoses, including the stress and isolation of the pandemic and the presence of fentanyl in the drug supply. He says that a big part of the response needs to be about harm reduction and getting people into treatment, which will be helped by increased budgets for harm reduction and workforce retention.
• Another big part of dealing with the drug crisis will be regulation for recovery houses. Senator Harckham points out that there are many very good recovery houses with peer and therapeutic support, but others are horrendous flophouses where drug use is rampant. So the aim is to set standards for existing recovery houses to get certified so that families and patients know that they’re somewhere with a minimum threshold of safety.
• Some data shows that states where cannabis has been legalized have seen a precipitous drop in opioid use and overdoses. Dumas asks the Senator if he’s hoping to see the same thing in New York and how far we are from the infrastructure for dispensaries and so on taking hold.
• In terms of dispensaries for adult personal use, the Senator thinks we’re a year or two away. He also points out that the thinking behind the legalization was not to create a new marketplace but to take an illegal one and make it legal, tax it, and use the revenue for public goods.
• The revenue from the legalization of marijuana will go to places like Oasis, economic redevelopment efforts and communities impacted by the war on drugs, and education in the general fund.
• Marschhauser turns to the local level, asking the Senator about the state of the economy in New York and particularly about the spate of big-box retailers going out of business or moving to new towns and leaving big vacancies behind them while building and planning officials struggle to find retailers to move into them.
• Senator Harckham mentions the $800 million direct grant program from New York State—based on his law—to support small businesses but also points out that mainstream businesses need foot traffic to survive, which has dropped in a world where you can get anything delivered. He speculates that while the mom-and-pop stores on Main Street can survive, our economy has changed in a way that may not support the kind of big retail we’ve been used to seeing.
• He also returns to the idea of affordable housing and points out that the lack of it is linked to the lack of foot traffic in brick-and-mortar stores.
• Senator Harckham will be at the food drive for St. Luke’s Food Pantry on Saturday the 26th, and he takes the opportunity to point out that the pandemic exposed the food insecurity in our communities.
• The Senator is drafting legislation to ensure that utility companies give their customers a thirty-day heads up that any commodities-related price spike is coming and give them an easy way to amortize that cost over twelve months, so they’re not hit with a huge, unexpected bill.
• On the subject of the closure of the Indian Point nuclear plant, the Senator explains that this was down to a combination of Entergy’s decision to close their entire nuclear portfolio and the plant’s request for a new water permit that would have sucked millions of gallons of water from the Hudson River.
• The decommissioning work is now being done by Holtec, watched over by a decommissioning oversight board of local elected officials, statewide elected officials, and relevant state agencies. This board has the ability to take action if something unsafe occurs, and it meets quarterly to discuss issues with the community.
• Regarding the future of nuclear power in New York State, Senator Harckham says that while he’s not opposed to it, the challenge is that there is no place to get rid of the fuel. This means that places like the village of Buchanan will be nuclear waste repositories in perpetuity, which may discourage developers from using the sites left behind after decommissioning.
• There are two proposals for cables to come down the Hudson, one for clean energy from upstate New York and the other for hydropower from Canada, both of which would help to take some of the dirtier power plants in NYC offline, providing clean energy and improving the air at the same time.
• Dumas asks about the redistricting in NYC, and the Senator points out that the reason behind it is that all districts have to be the same size, so two new Senate districts were required as a result of the shift in population from upstate to downstate. His district will be shifting from the 40th to the 42nd but will be kind of a wash in terms of demographics, losing some communities but picking up others.
• Regarding the controversial move to include race as one of the criteria for COVID therapeutics, Senator Harckham says that this came from a statement by the New York State Health Commissioner. Her point was to ensure that the black and brown communities disproportionately impacted by COVID would not be forgotten.
• However, he points out that there is no rationing going on and that there’s plenty of medication available to go around New York State.
• After the interview, the group discusses the Senator’s responses and goes into more detail on redistricting.

Quotes:

“You know, most people agree that people shouldn’t languish in jail today due to economic reasons. But I know there’s been some pushback from people in law enforcement and, you know, other government officials and just, you know, people in general in New York State.”

“There’s no question, in our major cities or urban centers, we have a spike in violent crime. And that’s all across the nation, whether it’s Democratically led, Republican-led, bail reform, no bail reform, that’s a national trend, dealing with the pandemic, the easy access to guns, unemployment of tens of thousands of young men with really no clear direction or path forward.”

“More people out on bail are reoffending than people out on their own recognizance, and part of that is because the people out on their own recognizance are accused of nonviolent offenses, and folks out on bail could be accused of violent offenses.”

“There’s discussion about whether judges should have a dangerousness standard. The problem with that is the courts in New York, unlike other places in the country, have ruled that they can’t use a dangerousness standard because that is racially biased.”

“Really, what we need to do is address the root causes of violence. It’s the easy proliferation of guns, it’s ten years of the former administration starving our behavioral health system and our mental health system, you know, these ghastly assaults on the subway. You know, those are folks who should be in hospitals, not roaming the subways, harming themselves or other folks.”

“We have great schools with robust after-school programs, we have access to employment, great transportation, great health care, world-class health care. So these are the determinants of safe communities. And these are the supports that we need to help other communities have so they can be safe as well.”

“Our seniors on fixed incomes can’t afford to stay in their homes. Our young people can’t afford to move back to the communities they grew up in. Our workforce cannot afford to live in the towns in which they work.”

“One death is too many, you know, and it’s a combination of factors. It’s the stressors of the pandemic, the isolation, the economic dislocation, the loss of loved ones, all those stressors and strains are having people medicate or go back to self-medication.”

“The last ten years, the human resources sector had been starved in New York State, and they can’t recruit and retain qualified staff because folks can make more working in fast food rather than dealing with our most vulnerable patients.”

“On the recovery side, we need more supports in terms of things like transportation, for folks to have a more holistic recovery experience. Not just getting to a treatment appointment, but to a job, grocery shopping, drop their kids at childcare, all these things that contribute, as well as safe and supportive housing,”

“What we would be looking to do is set standards for the recovery houses that exist. You know, what makes a safe and successful recovery house, if you meet these standards, you will be certified by New York State. So, therefore, families and patients will know that at least it’s met a minimal threshold of safety that they can feel confident sending their loved one there.”

“I’ve said before, I’m in long-term recovery myself. I don’t advocate people use any substance that’s mood-altering, but people choose to do that on their own. And so, legalizing marijuana wasn’t so much about creating a new marketplace. It was about taking an illegal marketplace, making it legal and taxing it and using that revenue for public goods.”

“I think as our economy changes, retail has fundamentally changed. You know, I think we can still stay in kind of our mom and pop shops on Main Streets and our local restaurants, but I think some of that big retail that we were used to seeing may be changing to a degree, and we’ve got to find a way to change with it.”

“One of the unfortunate byproducts of the pandemic was it exposed the great food insecurity in our communities. You know, we think of Northern Westchester as an affluent place, but food insecurity was always present. And the pandemic has really exacerbated that.”

“One of the things that we did last year is we negotiated with the former Governor to create a decommissioning oversight board of local elected officials, statewide elected officials, relevant state agencies to actually oversee the decommissioning. Because while its purview is in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, quite frankly, nobody really trusts the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.”

“Once Holtec decommissions the plant, what that means is all of the buildings will be gone. Essentially, they return that to a vacant lot, there are one or two buildings they are going to leave up, but if somebody wants to do economic development there, you know, you’ve got this pristine spot on the Hudson River. But you know, is a Hotel Marina complex going to go in there when you have 125 spent casks, you know, sitting on the property?”

“We needed to add two new senate districts in New York City because the population shifted from upstate to downstate. So we added two new districts in the city. So that pushed everything out.”

“I think these dialogues are important, and community newspapers are so important. Because you’re actually covering the news that really impacts folks’ lives. And we know just how much noise there is on social media coming from both sides of the spectrum. And so community newspapers letting folks know what’s going on in their communities is just so valuable and important.”

Links:

Halston Media Group website