Debate: Nick Paro and Chris Ryan on the Campbell Conversations

Campbell Conversations

Nick Paro / Chris Ryan

On this week's episode of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher holds a debate between two challengers vying for departing Senator John Mannion's 50th District seat in the New York State Senate, Republican Nick Paro and Democrat Chris Ryan.

Program transcript:

Grant Reeher: Welcome to the Campbell Conversations, I'm Grant Reeher. The departure of State Senator John Mannion, a Democrat, to challenge Republican Brandon Williams for Congress, has left open his 50th district seat in the New York State Senate. My guests today are the two candidates vying for that seat, Republican Nick Paro and Democrat Chris Ryan. Nick Paro has prior legislative and executive experience as a Town of Salina councilor and now as a Town Supervisor. Chris Ryan served on the Geddes town board and is now the minority leader in the Onondaga County Legislature. The 50^th Senate district forms a ring around the northern half the city of Syracuse and extends north into Oswego County all the way to Lake Ontario. Legislator Ryan, Supervisor Paro, welcome to the program. Thanks for making the time to be with me.

Nick Paro: Thank you for having us.

Chris Ryan: Thank you.

GR: You bet. So, Legislator Ryan, I'll start with you. If you could be brief on this, what is the most crucial thing that is at stake in the voter’s decision between you and Supervisor Paro as a senator for the 50th district?

CR: Can you repeat the question?

GR: Yeah. What's the most crucial thing that's at stake here for the voters and deciding between the two of you?

CR: Well, I think, crucial is, I believe that our candidacy, my campaign, I believe that I bring a depth of experience. I've been elected for serving the public for nearly 20 years as a Town of Geddes, Geddes town councilman, then deputy supervisor in the Town of Geddes, now on the county legislature, former chair of the Public Safety Committee and now as a fore leader for the minority caucus. I think I have worked hard to work across the aisle. I believe in working in bipartisan ways to try to do the best for our constituencies and do what's right for central New York, whether it's matters of public safety or taxation or economic development and on and on and on. Also, one of the focal points, I believe, is bringing access, greater access to health care. Far too many uninsured and underinsured, so I think experience matters and I think I bring over nearly 20 years of experience.

GR: Thank you. Supervisor Paro, same question. What's the most crucial thing that's at stake for the voters here in deciding between the two of you?

NP: Central New York is ready for a very aggressive and loud voice representing them in Albany. Politics in New York State have shifted to probably a larger voting bloc. And downstate, you look at New York City, the Hudson Valley, Long Island, central New York really is looking for somebody that will represent them when they get to Albany. And, you know, I don't have 20 years of experience, I have only six. But one of the things I have proven in that time is, I am somebody that has a lot of, I've been actionable and I've been able to accomplish my goals, and I have been a very loud voice for the folks in my constituency. It's been evidenced by what I've been able to accomplish as the supervisor for the town of Salina. It's been evidenced by the press conferences that I've had calling out the state on their bail reform and other criminal justice policies and it's been evidenced by the fact that I successfully sued to stop the transfer of migrants into my community taking over a hotel. I think that is what we need. We need somebody that's going to go to Albany, that will be an advocate for central New York and also somebody that (is) not just going to fight, but also is going to be able to get things done and cut through the muck and accomplish the goals for central New Yorkers and I've proven I'm able to do that.

GR: All right, thank you. So, Legislator Ryan, I'll go back to you. You mentioned access to health care and you mentioned I think it was taxes and a couple of other issues. I did want to ask you, if you're elected, are there certain areas of policy that you would be specializing in and prioritizing in your first term? For example, you know, Senator May has a couple areas of specialization. She focuses on the environment, she also focuses on aging issues. Are there things that you would be specializing in when you got there?

CR: Yeah, absolutely. Number one, health care, it's certainly expands to many, many, many people in the district. Many whether you're in health care or you just have suffered from a lack of insurance, lack of uninsured, underinsured. We have far too many hospitals that are underwater because of Medicaid reimbursement. We have far too many underinsured. We have lack of access to primary care, we have lack of access to specialized care. We have seen a trend of nursing homes closing across the state. I think that we're heading in a bad spot. And, you know, we need to do better as a state we need to do better. And we need to expand that. We can't leave the central New Yorkers behind with limited access to health care or access to health care that's too far away or primary care providers or specialized care, nursing homes, adult long term care, that's part of it. Number two is labor, a labor workforce. I come from labor I've had a broad, broad base of labor support, whether it's health care unions, public sector unions, private unions, but also skilled trades. We're going to have, we have a very, very big economic development project coming here to the tune of anywhere from 40 to 100 billion dollars.

GR: You're talking about Micron there, you're talking about the Micron… yeah.

CR: We need to make sure that those people that are building that make sure that that's done on time, under budget, we meet that moment. And it's going to take a tremendous amount of state resources to do that, to help in that. So I look forward to tackling those two issues and also education as well. Thank you.

GR: All right, great. Supervisor Ryan, excuse me, Supervisor Paro, the same question there. You mentioned the bail reform. You mentioned being a loud voice for this particular area. So tell us a bit of specificity, loud voice for what? What would you be focusing on?

NP: Well, on my website, we have pretty in-depth policy positions on different things, affordability, education, health care. I listened to just Chris, obviously, his points regarding health care currently, you know, some of the things that I would like to see is increased telehealth opportunities for folks in the 50th Senate district. But one of the biggest things specifically for the 50 Senate district is the fact that Micron is coming. This is the Micron District, and there's going to be extraordinary economic growth as well as population growth in this region and making sure that we are positioning central New York to handle that growth while at the same time stewarding the growth so it's representative of how we here currently would like to see happen, is important. And that's kind of how I would represent something New York when I get to Albany is, look, we're recognizing that we're going to have these economic developments take place, but this is the vision that central New York wants for itself. How are we going to make sure that the state's investing in supporting that vision while at the same time allowing Micron and the other businesses that are coming here to flourish? So I don't know exactly specifically to the question of maybe what committees we’ll be on, I'm not sure yet. What I do know is I have a history of what I've been able to accomplish in Salina. And economic growth, commercial investment is something that we've been able to do very well. We have four different commercial corridors in Salina since I've been supervisor. Two of them are under construction right now to be enhanced. One of them will be done next year. And the fourth one along Seventh North Street is going to take a little bit of extra work because of the I-81 project. But we're looking at ways to make sure that we develop that out. So that's a little bit of experience that I have that will be transferred over into Albany when I get there, as well as transportation. I mean, I was on the losing end of the I-81 argument, and that's fair. I was an advocate for Salina, that was my job. But I think at the same time, I was able to leverage some of the points where Salina was going to be impacted to try to have conversations to offset some of those impacts. I think I can have that same voice on transportation needs because transportation needs are going to be extremely important as we have the investments from Micron and other companies. I know, Chris, you've mentioned it a few times, but if you look at the 31 corridor and if you go a little north a bit, a little bit of south of it, there's going to be some transportation investment that's going to be necessary. I would love to be part of those conversations and making sure that it, again, is a vision that central New York wants for itself.

GR: Yes, go ahead, Legislator Ryan, go ahead, jump in.

CR: Right. So I talk about that a lot also, meeting the needs, you know, that 81 and 31 right now, corridor, it's tough. And those residents in around that area are worried that's only going to get worse and I don't think it can get any better. So with that said, and we talked about this a lot, right, so we we're going to need some serious infrastructure needs and some, it's going to take some planning and we're going to have to ease that burden of traffic congestion when that project comes. You just have to, it's going to be too many people going into one little intersection, got to fix that, got to work on it.

GR: So, Legislator Ryan, let me stick with you. And you mentioned bipartisanship at the outset of our conversation. I wanted to ask you, what's the most important thing on which you broke from your party on and went with Republicans rather than what the Democrats would have liked to have seen?

CR: Well, I think there were, I don't know about breaking with the caucus and the Democrats. I just, when I say bipartisanship, I mean working with a certain degree of pragmatism. I understand that's how I approach government. That's how I approach government in the state. I've always been willing and able to, I guess, work across the aisle, whether it was working with then county executive Joanie Mahoney to enact a law limiting the take home pay for full time electeds. Working with some of my colleagues across the aisle on the on the redistricting, but also with matters also of public safety. I believe that, you know, and also some issues with taxation. Then former chairman of legislature and county legislator Jim Rowley, we made a budget amendment to return some of the surplus, the county surplus dollars back to taxpayers by way of tax break. You know, I guess that's the way, and I'm proud to have…

GR: …Okay. No, I have a good sense. So quick follow up to you though. And very specifically, is there any important vote that Senator Mannion took where you would have voted differently from Senator Mannion.

CR: Hmm. I can't go into one right now, but that doesn't mean that I would have agreed them. I would have to…yeah.

GR: I understand. No, I understand. I just wanted to give our listeners a sense of how you might fit in with him. Well, Supervisor Paro, same question to you about, is there something important you can point to where you either broke with the Republican Party or, you know, again, dramatically reached out and worked with Democrats.

NP: Yeah. So my job as supervisor is to find whoever I need to work with, to collaborate with to accomplish the goals that we have set out. And I got many examples. Obviously, Assemblywoman Hunter represents Salina in Albany currently, her and I have worked on multiple different projects where she's been able to steward grant funds into the town, whether it was extending a sidewalk or whether it's now for a pool over in the electronics neighborhood, Electronics Park Meadows neighborhood. Senator May was the senator when I first took over as supervisor. We worked together on parks project in Duerr (park), and then Senator Mannion is currently the senator for our town and him and I have had conversations. And one of the things that I advocated for when they were deciding to tear down 81 was looking at the thruway and making the thruway free between the Syracuse exits. And in fact, not only did Senator Mannion carry the bill for us, Assemblyman Magnarelli carried it in the Assembly. So we were able to work with two Democrats at the state level to carry a bill that they knew was important to the district. Additionally, the mayor in the Village of Liverpool, she's a Democrat, she just got elected, her and I are working extremely closely together. We did a joint application, what's called the local waterfront redevelopment plan, a state program. We were joint applicants on it, and we're working very closely. Her and I are both on that together to see a redevelopment within Salina and the village Liverpool so there is cohesion with that plan. Additionally, I have two Democrats there on my town board and we work extremely close together. In fact, they came in, they had a list of priorities, and I said, this is how we're going to be able to get this done for you. And we've been able to slowly tick those boxes and accomplish their priorities while it fits into, again, the overall vision for Salina.

GR: So let me jump in, and those are good examples too, like Legislator Ryan’s. And this question could be a little bit out of right field, perhaps, but our listeners are going to be familiar with this person I'm going to invoke, so that's why I'm invoking it. Are there any significant, I want to ask you if you would have voted differently from Senator Mannion on things, because there's I'm sure a lot of things you would have voted differently from. But I do want to ask you, are there any positions of former President Trump that he's running on that you would take issue? People will be more familiar with that.

NP: So obviously, Trump is running at a national stage. I like to talk about the issues that are directly important to the 50th Senate district. I like to talk about the issues that are important to my constituents here in New York State. Donald Trump represents a different platform of ideas. And I think there are extreme differences that he has that I may have. Again, I come from an old school Republican train of thought more of the Reagan era, so I would like to say that I'm a classical, I have more free market, laissez faire tendencies than I think we see some of the Republican Party currently has today. I still subscribe to those ideas. So on that front, those are probably some of my more policy differences with former President Trump.

GR: Okay, well, let me stay with you. And I want to ask you, if you're elected, you are going to be obviously in the minority party. You know, I don't think there's anybody predicting the state Senate's going to flip. And the Assembly almost may be at this point poured in concrete as a Democrat institution. And then, of course, you'll have a Democratic governor. So you're coming in with facing a solid wall of Democrats. What's going to be your strategy for being effective? Because you're not going to be supervisor, you're going to be one senator. So how are you going to leverage that? What's your strategy?

NP: I think even though I'm not the supervisor anymore, I think it's the same type of advocacy that I've shown. It's having that willingness to say these are the problems, they're not partisan issues. These are the problems that are facing essential New York district and finding people within the majority party that I can work with to accomplish these goals. One thing that's extremely important is, yes, Democrats have the majority of both the Assembly and the Senate and hey have the governor's mansion, but they have a supermajority. And that kind of also dictates the priorities within the Democrat conference. You have more of the left wing part of that party with a lot more power when you have a supermajority. When we take away the supermajority and in the Senate, only one seat is necessary to flip the supermajority just to a normal majority, you then shift that power to probably more of the moderate wing within the Democrat Party, folks within the Hudson Valley that have similar concerns to us upstate and we can then collaborate and have these conversations, so that way I can find partners, so that way we are able to accomplish what we need to. I have a history of collaboration. I have a history of actually being able to have these important conversations and being actionable on them. And I think that will transcend into state politics as well.

GR: You're listening to the Campbell Conversations on WRVO Public Media. I'm Grant Reeher and I'm talking with the two candidates for the 50th district seat in the New York State Senate. Onondaga County Legislative Minority Leader Chris Ryan is the Democrat and town of Salina Supervisor, Nick Paro is the Republican. Legislator Ryan, I wanted to ask you this question about, in a sense being in the majority if you're elected in the Senate, and this picks up on what I was talking to Supervisor Paro before the break, but the Democrats have been in power or mostly in power in this state for many years. And every year the state is ranked as either the state with the highest taxes or among the top three states in terms of taxes. So for our listeners who are concerned about taxes, why should the Democrats have any credibility that they're going to be the ones to change this status? I mean, it just, it seems very hard for me to believe that Democrats are going to actually turn that battleship. What ideas will you bring, or do you do you have an interest in bringing ideas for that? Is it okay that the state continues to be the most taxed state in the country?

CR: No, no, the answer to the question is no. No, it's not okay. And I think to a certain extent, that needs to change. We need to grow business. We need to help business grow. We need economic development and we need to stop the exodus from our young people to leave, to go to other states. But I think that that's in the capacity, is I think that what you will find and what this district will have in me will be an advocate of everything that I've done on the county legislature in my previous experience, my 20 years experience, a mindset of less tax and spend. The mindset of a person who doesn't want to pay any more in taxes. I have four children, I have two in college, but, you know, I don't want to pay any more taxes than anybody. And more importantly, I don't want to have my daughter stay in the mid-Atlantic. I want her to come back this school year. I want her to come back to be a PA at SUNY Upstate, I want my sons to come back. So I think that we can do better, we should do better, we have to understand that. But there's also programs that need to be cut, those aren't easy. And so spending, where do you cut where do you fund? But those are good conversations. But I think it will serve this district very, very well to have a person in the majority who understands (unintelligible), who's been working like in the county for 13 years now. We have one of the lowest tax rates, if not the lowest tax rate in the history of Onondaga County. I'll continue to do that. I'm not going to change my policies from what I've been doing for 20 years, when I get down to it.

GR: Okay. And I did want to follow up because I wanted to join that answer to something you mentioned earlier about access to health care. And you were talking about uninsured and the underinsured. And I did want to ask you about Medicaid in particular in the state. The Medicaid program in the state is just simply incredibly expensive by comparison to any other state in the country. I mean, it's way more expensive per capita than California, for example, not exactly a super conservative state. So I just wanted to know and I'll put this to you, Supervisor Paro as well, but let Legislator Ryan answer it first. Are you willing to take a hard look at that program? Like, look at what services are provided? Because it's really just, when you look at it in comparison to other states, it it's the one thing that just stands out.

CR: Yes, yes. That's your question, yes, I am. Number two, because if you look at the concept, I guess the saying is, I guess something's got to give, right? So you have, like our hospitals, you have to treat people on Medicaid, but then they don't get the full Medicaid reimbursement. That's not a good business model and it's the same for our nursing homes, right? Or for, somebody an older, an elderly resident or elderly citizen goes into the nursing home and that nursing home that’s providing that care is literally getting, I think, don’t quote me, but like less than forty cents on the dollar, it's been decades. So we have to have a conversation because if those rates don't change, how can those institutions continue to survive? It's not a good business model. Or you just give them money at the back end and then there it goes. So let's have a real conversation about how we can really fix the problem, how we can have greater access to health care, greater access to nursing care, greater access to uninsured, greater access to specialized medicine.

GR: What I don't hear in that, though, is a device to lower the cost. Those sound like costs increasing changes to make.

CR: No, in the beginning, you said would you look to make changes? And I think that, yes, I think I said. Whether the services are provided, comprehensively, what services are being provided. Listen, I don’t have all of the answers. And I'm just saying that I just go knock on doors and it's on the minds of many people in central New York. And I'm saying this is a problem and this is an issue that we have to tackle.

GR: Okay. And Supervisor Paro, we're beginning to run out of time here. But if you could quickly jump in on that question and then I have a different question for you.

NP: I think it's something that could be reexamined, similar to what they've done with school aid, right? They're doing the Foundational Aid Study group to look at how that is calculated. I think the state needs to look at something similar. But at the same time, I’m going to tell you that the budget is so large in New York State, there's opportunities for us to find cuts elsewhere in the near term that will have a greater impact while we look at this issue.

GR: Okay, I wanted to ask you, Supervisor Paro, something that other folks in your party are emphasizing. You mentioned it I think at the beginning when you mentioned bail reform. The statistics now that are out about recent trends in crime don't fit the Republican Party's rhetoric regarding it. A lot of violent crime, including homicide, seems to be ticking downward. Yet crime is one of the central issues that Republicans are talking about. So if you could talk about this briefly, is it a fact that crime is a growing problem in the state of New York when the facts seem to indicate that it's heading in the other direction?

NP: Yeah, you talk about violent crime and that's fine. We're not talking about that. I'm not talking about violent crime. Where I'm talking about is quality of life crime, which is affecting neighborhoods which transcend, I think, the data that maybe some of the think tanks want to put out. These are anecdotal of my neighbor Susie and my neighbor John both had their vehicle stolen in the same week. And it's happened now four times in the last two years. This is my, Sue who runs the diner around the corner just had her diner broken into. And it's the same people that broke into it last year. Those type of quality of life crimes are where we're having the problems and it is directly tied to these criminal justice policies that allow those smaller crimes to perpetuate and repeat.

GR: Okay, thank you. And Legislator Ryan, I have one last question for you before I have a sort of a lightning round for both of you. And we've got about two and a half minutes left. So bear that in mind when you answer this one. Why should New Yorkers who are listening to those who are struggling to get by, why should they not be upset by the support that the state seems to have provided for people who have come into this country illegally? This has been a big issue that a lot of the Republicans have been talking about. But it does seem like a kind of a juxtaposition of two things there that are tough to rectify. Can you just in a few seconds help us out on this?

CR: They definitely should be upset, right? People work really, really hard. I work really hard, I pay my taxes. And now I want the services that are provided for, but if the Republicans were so upset about it then they should have done something about it, right? So, it's a federal issue. And if you mean the immigrant crisis or Border Patrol,

GR: Yes.

CR: You know, I say we go back five presidents on this issue at least, right? So it's a federal issue that something needs to be done about. There was a bipartisan bill that could have hopefully fixed the issue and Republicans voted against it. And that's a problem, that's a really, really big problem. You can't complain about a problem that you helped create, by not solving the problem.

GR: Well let me ask you this, though. Do you think Governor Hochul, perhaps Mayor Adams, have been too open to letting the state of New York sort of deal with this?

CR: Well, I don't think that they necessarily really, to a certain extent, had a choice. But, you know, I will say this, that certainly we have a human rights issue. We have a problem, human rights, and at the same time, listen, we have to take care of New Yorkers first. New Yorkers are residents here, they pay their taxes, they need some services and that's the first priority. But the second priority is we need to deal with the problem that was put upon us, right? And that the federal issue that is now a very, very big New York state issue. I'm going to represent central New York in the 50th district and do it to the best of my ability. But we need to do better at policies that take care of the problem from the beginning.

GR: Thank you. And now just really, almost one word answers here, one question for each of you. Legislator Ryan, is there one book that has taught you most about politics, what is it?

CR: “The Prince”.

GR: “The Prince”, okay, by Machiavelli. Supervisor Paro, what about you? One book that’s taught you most about politics.

NP: The, it's not the whole book. It's the end of it, but I just finished, “War and Peace”.

GR: Wow, okay, we've got some pretty heavy reading there! Machiavelli and Tolstoy, excellent. A great way to end. That was Town of Salina Supervisor Nick Paro and Onondaga County Legislative Minority Leader Chris Ryan. Again, they are the candidates for New York's 50th Senate district in this November's election. Legislative Ryan, Supervisor Paro, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me. Really appreciate it and I appreciated the civil conversation.

NP: Thank you.

GR: You've been listening to the Campbell Conversations on WRVO Public Media, conversations in the public interest.