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News 12 Staff

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Welcome back. Making sure every voice is heard. One way some lawmakers believe that can be done at the polls is by merging our local, state, and national elections to even numbered years. A state law approved 2 years ago does just that. Suffolk legislature minority leader Jason Richburg says when election cycles are held in off cycle years, turnout plummets. That's an objective fact, he says this especially impacts historically marginalized groups like communities of color, working families that aligns races means more voters would show up if it was all the same year. People in favor. Of the law say it also saves taxpayers' money on election costs. New York City races though are not affected by that mandate. Legislator Richberg also released a statement saying in part, if we're serious about protecting democracy, we must remove barriers, not create them. Consolidating elections into even numbered years is a critical step toward that goal. But the law has received lots of pushback from lawmakers on the other side of the aisle. Last month, Republican Nassau and Suffolk County executives, town leaders, they joined together to oppose the state's law to mandate even your elections for local races. They argue the merge will cause local races to get overlooked by federal and state races. They should not be merged with our federal and state elections, so you have a ballot with 50, 60 people on it that no one knows and there's ballot fatigue. Governor Hochle says she supports a future Constitution amendment that aligns elections for all offices. Just last month, the panel of mid-level appeals court judges upheld the law after a lower court ruling last year struck it down. Let's talk more about this now with the minority leader in the Suffolk County legislature, Jason Richburg. Good to see you. Thanks for coming in. Thank you, Richard. Thank you for having me. So let's talk about this issue. Uh, it could have a very significant impact one way. Or the other, you support the idea of putting all the elections in these even years. Why do you think this makes sense? So you know, I'm struck, uh, you know, just looking at it from a, from a bird's eye view, 70% of folks, 75% of folks vote in even year elections. That goes down about 20-25% in odd year elections. That means you have about 50 or so of folks who are not participating in in the local elections. And let's be honest, where the bread and butter is done on in in our government, whether it's our roads and our schools and and any of those other funding is all in in local races and so we think it's important that we merge those races into, you know, one larger election cycle. What about those concerns that and we heard from uh some lawmakers, local leaders who are saying we're gonna be drowned out if we've got a campaign the same year where there's a presidential race and you're talking Congress and state lawmakers by the time people get down to our line in the ballot, uh, they may never have even heard of who we are. Well, I think that you know, and that's a, that's a valid concern, and I think that's one of the reasons why and I'll and I'll say this, you know, government doesn't do a good job telling telling people what we do, good, bad or indifferent, right? And I so I think that takes it upon us to make sure we're conveying our messages out there now. Does that mean that we could be you know, subjected to what's going on at a national state level politics? Yes, but I'm. I believe in local government and I believe in the work that we do and I believe that our work should stand on its own and I believe that you know the folks wanna see, you know, elected leaders who are standing up on their own and and asking them questions and maybe just maybe we'll see that there'll be more interest in what's going on in local government, you know I've had conversations with school districts and different um. History and economics and governmental uh government uh teachers and you know what they say they don't know what's going on in local government, right? And so that's not part of the curriculum either and so maybe 11 of the things that this does is that makes sure that people are more, you know, engaged in what's going on in local government number one because it's not the shadowed step child of the of the election process, you know, one thing we. See time and time again, especially in this, uh, era of politics, is people kind of picking a side either team R or team D and going right down the line and sometimes they switch back and forth depending on what the key issues are at that time. Uh, how much of that is a challenge for lawmakers whenever the elections are held to kind of be able to say, hey, listen, we're not Washington, we're not Albany, we're here in. Or in Babylon or wherever the race is, so I think it's a, it's a real struggle and I think you know sometimes folks identify us with with larger people, right, whether it's the governor or the president or you're you're a senator, right, they don't realize or maybe they just say well you're all part of the same team and I'm not in favor of that team today. Next year I might be part of that team, but today I'm not. And I think it's, you know, it's one of the hurdles that all local elected officials have to have to uh overcome. I also think that what's important is that this is why the ground game and having conversations with folks individually is so important. Right, people wanna know that you are fighting for their values, but they also wanna know that you'll be there to listen to them, and it is difficult when you have other things going on that are on a national level but what's more important is that you build that local ground game and that local connection with that with your constituents before we let you go, we wanna talk about another issue that you've been very passionate. about and we have a major update now on the potential of being able to electrify the LIRR further east. Tell us uh where you stand on it and and what's happening. So it's, you know, we know that the north shore north line of the Long Island Railroad is not electrified and it's, you know, it's diesel trains are running up and down that line and that causes first. Well that's diesel fuel into the air. If we wanna be a clean air society, we can't do that unless we electrify the that North rail. And so a great update, uh, you know, I wanna thank my colleagues in the Senate and the assembly, um, most importantly, I wanna thank, you know, Assemblyman Steve Stern and Senator Monica Martinez and and Assemblyman Quanny O'Farrell and, uh, Assemblywoman Rebecca Cassey because this is. Our area who who were able to fight to ensure that this uh area was added back into was was gonna be transferred back to the state and now they're gonna be able to have the next steps in electrifying the line and I think it's a humongous step for Long Island for Suffolk County. It's a great step for us to electrify our lines and a great step for clean air. Minority Leader Jason Richburg, thank you so much for the time. We appreciate it. Thank you. Good to see you. And still to come here on Power and Politics, paying for home repairs, especially an unexpected one, isn't just inconvenient, it's taxing. We'll introduce you to a nonprofit here to help you save in our taxing Long Island series.

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When it comes to necessary home repairs, many Long Islanders may struggle to afford them, as our Logan Crawford shows us, a nonprofit on the island may do some or all of the work for free. We're being crushed with taxes, absolutely crushed in this area. It's not just taxes, but also your monthly energy bill that can be sky high on Long Island. They're putting a new roof on my home. Which is a very costly thing. A new roof sealing up leaks around the house, insulation and a new water heater and boiler will reduce energy costs for Ronnie from Blue Point. These repairs can also be extremely pricey. They think you live that you're privileged that you live on Long Island, but I've worked my whole life. To be able to own this home. Enter Community Development Long Island. They do this weatherization work to hundreds of homes in Nassau and Suffolk every year. Depending on your income, the repairs could be free. Most of the work being done to the house, like the new installation and weatherization of the windows, will improve the home's energy efficiency and save the homeowners hundreds of dollars a year in utility bills. Rehab efforts within a property to help decrease the energy costs, whether those are energy costs related to an air conditioner or. Costs related to keeping your heat on during the winter. CDLI secures state and federal grants to fund the projects. This work can also be done for emergency repairs. So let's say we have a senior that has a boiler that's broken and they need an emergency repair. Our team can go in, make that assessment for a new a new boiler within 48 hours. The work on Ronnie's house should take a couple of weeks, and then it's on to the next home. In Blue Point, Suffolk County, Logan Crawford, News 12. And for more information about community development Long Island, head to our website, news twelve.com and click the link in this story. PSEG Long Island's household assistance program can also help you cool the cost of cooling your home. You can qualify if you're enrolled in federal benefits like HEA, Medicaid, or SNAP. If your air conditioners aren't working, PSEG will replace too for free. PSEG offers free home assessments, identifying ways to make your house more energy efficient. And Trager Home Services started a nonprofit last year called Fueling Kindness, where a homeowner can get up to 150 gallons of free heating oil. Every week we're tackling the issues that bother you most and help you look for solutions to what's making life on Long Island so taxing. Watch news 12 Tuesdays and Thursdays starting at 5 a.m. for more of our taxing Long Island series. That's all the time we have this week. We'll see you again right here next week for another edition of Newswells Power and Politics. I'm Rich Brae. Have a great rest of your day.

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Suffolk Legislature's Minority Leader Jason Richberg joins the show.

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Suffolk Legislature's Minority Leader Jason Richberg joins the show.

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