The new state legislative session is underway in Albany.
Democratic Assemblymember Pat Fahy of the 109th district has been in office since 2013. She represents the entire City of Albany, Town of New Scotland, and part of the Town of Guilderland.
"We're off to the races," Fahy said. "It's always the somewhat ceremonial start, even though there was some business to finish 2023 and startup in 2024. And the speaker laid out some of his priorities, which I thought were well done. And we have a lot of challenges. For the first time in a few years, we are going into a serious budget deficit year with a $4 billion shortfall. That said, we have very serious needs in terms of housing, health care, and I'm the somewhat newer Higher Education Chair. So lots of needs for investments there. And I'm as committed as ever to making sure that we grow SUNY, CUNY and our independent colleges."
Fahy says the impending closure of the private College of Saint Rose in Albany weighs heavily on her mind.
"I am in almost daily conversations regarding UAlbany, St. Rose and related higher education, if not 20 conversations a day, regarding the future of these campuses and the strength of higher education here in the Capital Region, let alone throughout the state again as the now less than a year Chair of Higher Education. I am determined not to see any more closures, nor cutbacks," Fahy said.
New York's housing crisis is also on Fahy's radar.
"Probably the number one issue is housing, the affordability and the accessibility, right? We must, must, must grow our housing stock across the state. And we must strengthen tenant protections, right? We've heard way too many examples of tenants being gouged with rent increases as well as being displaced and more. Because of the growth of rental, the fact that so much money can be made by speculators by increasing rents," Fahy said.
As for the influx of migrants to New York, Fahy says the ball is in Washington's court.
"We are desperate for immigration reform at the national level, that can only be addressed at the national level," Fahy explained. "That has failed to happen for a couple of decades now because of the political partisanship and the political divisiveness on the issue. So the borders, we've got to address, we've got to get some reform there because the borders have become too open. We need more regulation there because there's no predictability. Right? There's no predictability when the buses are coming in now into New York City, into Chicago, into LA, it's, it's not sustainable."
Fahy says the focus in New York will be to help families that are already here, educating children and adults, to prepare them to one day enter the workforce.
Fahy is also vigilant on issues involving cryptocurrency, social media and artificial intelligence or AI.
"About two months ago I introduced a bill on artificial intelligence in general, the use of it in social media and in promotion of ads, that there has to be a watermark, if you will, or some type of disclaimer that says artificial intelligence is being used for that. This is a perfect example of technology getting ahead of all of us in government, you saw the feds just passed it where they have very little bipartisan support on anything. Just last month, the Biden administration launched a whole initiative with Congress to adopt a whole host of measures on fraud and abuse with artificial intelligence. The same will go with cryptocurrency, we've got a lot of work to do there," said Fahy.
Fahy says she'll continue to push her plans for reimagining Interstate 787, the state's trail system and climate change.