In a town hall meeting at the American Legion Botts-Fiorito Post #576 in Le Roy on Thursday, Sen. George Borrello drew a clear distinction between upstate interests, represented chiefly by Republicans, and downstate interests, represented mainly by progressive Democrats.
"These are not the Kennedy Democrats," Borrello said during an opening statement. "These are not like my father and my grandfather, who were Democrats because that was the party of the working class, right? This is no longer the party of the working class. These are folks who truly believe that we should be pushing toward socialism. And that's no joke. We have committed socialists in our New York State Legislature, people who are endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, the DSA. We have people who truly believe that, quite frankly, none of us are smart enough or enlightened enough to understand what's good for the greater good."
He covered a range of topics in the evening, from the push to ban natural gas, crime, the shortage of healthcare workers, Thruway revenue and MTA revenue, the safety of elections, climate change and solar farms.
The first question to Borrello was about assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. Borrello said he is against it because it represents a slippery slope toward a lack of respect for the sanctity of life.
The natural gas ban and climate change are examples, Borrello said, of radicals pushing an agenda that is unrealistic. He thinks the push for solar panels across the state isn't about climate change but about profits.
"They've become so desperate to try to virtue signal that we're going to cure climate change here in New York State that they've created so many lucrative incentives that have resulted in a glut of projects and an inability for those projects to really be fed into the system," Borrello said.
The revenue from these projects is the result of public support, he said.
"Unfortunately, the only profit comes from taxpayer subsidies," Borrello said. "If there weren't state and federal taxpayer subsidies of renewable energy, there would never be another industrial wind or solar installation ever built anywhere in the country, period."
While he disagreed with renewable energy subsidies, he expressed support for the Genesee County Economic Development Center.
"I believe those incentives are good when you're doing something like some of the great projects that have come to Genesee County under the great economic development organization you have here," Borrello said. "You want to give incentives to ensure that we get some some great new jobs and economic activity that's great, but not for a solar installation."
Helen Hanes asked about the shortage of healthcare workers, and Borrello tied part of the problem to the $2.5 billion New York is reportedly spending on migrants in New York City (Borrello called them "illegal immigrants" but the migrants in NYC are mostly asylum seekers in the country legally), and Hanes pushed back on that assertion.
Borrello made two points that he thinks directly tie into fewer healthcare workers -- nurses who lost their jobs because of their refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and the fact they haven't been hired back, and the need for more young people to be encouraged to seek out the medical field as a career option. He also suggested that poorly regulated Medicaid spending creates greater expense and burden on hospitals.
"One of the biggest challenges that (hospitals) face is that people on Medicaid using the emergency room as if it's the primary care physician for non-emergency situations," Borrello said. "Talk to any health care professional, they will tell you that that's the problem."
In response to a question, he said there is a longstanding problem -- not just with the current administration -- of governors taking money from the profitable Thruway Authority and giving it to the money-losing Transit Authority in NYC. He said one of the problems with the MTA is the city's unwillingness to deal with toll avoiders.
As for elections, Borrello said voters said citizens should have confidence in New York's elections and that there is very little fraud, certainly not enough to sway a presidential or statewide election, but there are areas of concern, such as "ballot harvesting," which he said allows third parties to pick up completed ballots from residents and deliver them to election commissioners. He's also concerned about a Democratic push to make voter registration automatic when people get a new driver's license, which has no check on citizenship.
On crime, he said progressive reforms are creating more crime, and it's hurting most of the people they say they most want to help -- marginalized populations in urban communities.
"It's unfortunate that the people that they say that they want to help the most, you know, the people that are low income, people that are who are members of minority communities, the people they claim to have in mind whenever they make these ridiculous laws and regulations, they are actually the ones that are probably hurt the most by spiraling crime," Borrello said.
An agenda of smaller government and greater freedom is what most New Yorkers want, Borrello said.
"New York needs to be safer, more affordable, and ultimately a better place to live because we need less government, not more government," Borrello said. "That's the fundamental difference between the way I think, and I think most of you think, and what my colleagues downstate think. They think the government is the answer for everything."
