Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP,105 | Feat. NYS Senator Rachel May

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

Good News York Episode with New York State Senator Rachel May In this episode of Good News York, host Matt Masur welcomes New York State Senator Rachel May to discuss key developments in the region. Topics include a civics refresher about New York's state government, the new STEAM school in Syracuse, the impact of the Micron project, and the enhancement of local infrastructure and housing. Senator May also shares insights on efforts to foster collaboration between upstate and downstate New York and highlights upcoming events and resources for the community. 00:00 Introduction and Welcome 00:32 Meet New York State Senator Rachel May 01:19 Understanding New York State Government 03:43 Challenges and Changes in the District 06:26 The New STEAM School Initiative 14:21 Micron's Impact on the Region 18:59 Support for Small Businesses 22:18 Promoting Upstate New York 26:51 Conclusion and Upcoming Events

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and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey folks, I'm Matt Major from Growth Mode content. Welcome to another edition of Good News York. I'm very excited. We're kicking off our week. Usually Monday's kind of drags a little bit. We got an all-star guest. You'll notice that we threw Mike out of here.

we didn't want him throwing any left field questions out he's sitting in the back making faces at me joining us here in studio is our New York State Senator Rachel May she's so courteous to come and talk to us about everything happening here in the Great Empire State

thank you for joining us now oh it's a pleasure to be here thank you for inviting me I really appreciate it and you know as folks know if you've listened to this show seen this show at all we're an apolitical show right We're not taking any political sides.

We're not getting any controversies. But we're all talking to all kinds of different elected officials because you are the folks that know what's happening, right? And if anybody can share the good news about New York State, it's folk likes yourself. So I very much appreciate you joining us and hope that we can have some fun this morning and maybe a different type of interview than you deal with on most occasions. So thank you. Let's do it. Why don't we, if we could, just jump in a little bit. It's just a tiny little civics lesson, if you wouldn't mind, because I feel like folks around here could use a little bit of that.

You know, we say we're interviewing a senator and they're like, that doesn't look like Chuck Schumer. Folks, I think, need just a little bit of just a refreshment of kind of how our system works here in the state level, if you wouldn't mind, just giving us kind of that breakdown of our houses here. Sure. So like pretty much every state, we have a state government that reflects, it's similar to what the federal government is. is we have a, instead of a president, we have a governor, and we have a state senate, and then we have a state assembly, which is the equivalent of the House of Representatives. So it's pretty similar, except at the federal level,

every state has two senators, and they represent the whole state. But at the state level, the state is divided into 63 districts, and each senator represents a different district. So that does make it a little different in terms of what a state senator does as opposed to a federal one. I see. And then we also have the assembly members, right? And that's kind of like the comparative to Congress or the House representatives, right? There's more of them, so I'm guessing their districts are cut up differently, right?

Smaller. They're about a third. Yeah. So I represent about 330,000 people. and I don't know exactly what it is in the Assembly, but it's probably somewhere in the 150. I see. Yeah, that makes sense. That's great.

And then so you folks, again, just like at the federal level, you're the ones that come together and make things happen here in New York State. Is that sort of fair to say? Yeah, it is. I should mention one other thing that is really different because at the federal level senators are elected every six years at the state level, it's every two. Oh, wow.

So that's a lot. When you have a district this big, it means you're really trying to be out there all the time communicating with people in a very wide variety of communities. I can imagine. That's got to play a little toll on you, right? It's like, hey, we won, and now we got to worry about the future, right? Yeah.

But, you know, on that same tip, you've been reelected a few times, right? This is, you've served a few terms now. My fourth term. I love that. Must be you're doing something right. I will say, so I serve two terms in the 53rd Senate district, which was Syracuse and then points east. So it included all of Madison County, some of Oneida County.

Now, after redistricting, I serve Syracuse, Southern Onondaga County, and all of Kuyuga County. Oh, wow. way more than half of my district geographically is new in the last few years to me. Wow. Are you finding that there's, are there different challenges with those different folks, or is it pretty much folks around Central New York kind of have the same needs? It's pretty similar. I mean, I'm unusual in the Senate that I have a district that's got a city in it and also a lot of rural communities. I will say a big shift happened when I, I got four of the Finger Lakes in my district.

The people in those regions, you ask them, what's top of your mind? If you're knocking on doors, they say water quality. I see. Protecting the Finger Lakes. Like that's because it's important to their, to tourism, to their drinking water, to their quality of life. Like, it's really front of it. So that was a surprise to me, you know, that was a little different from Madison County.

Not the water isn't important, but it wasn't number one for them. No, well, that's interesting. You know, we talk about even just a few miles down the road and how things are there and how you've got to serve all that. You know, it's one of the things that we like to celebrate is our state. And we've tried how, even though we're locally based and then probably 90% of what we talk about is kind of in our region. But we're really trying to celebrate the state and it's just so vast and there's so many different things here. And it's incredible.

people, one of my biggest fears in my job is that I'm going to get in a car crash because I drive all over my district and it is so beautiful and I want to stop. And I just want to look at that sunset or look at the colors of the trees or the finger lakes. You know, it's just gorgeous. Just to get an idea of Cayuga County. So the Renaissance Fair, if you've been to the Renaissance Fair, that's in my district. Oh, wow. And it goes all the way down, halfway down, Cayuga Lake. past Aurora, you know.

So it's a lot. Yeah. A lot of just gorgeous. Yeah, and I feel very lucky. That's great. Yeah. That's great. So, Senator, if you wouldn't mind, there's a number of good things to talk about happening in our area.

But one I'd love to jump into has gotten a little press. Is the new steam school? Is it steam or stem? I always feel like I'm saying the acronym wrong. So it's steam. which means STEM, so science, technology, engineering, mathematics, plus the arts. So the A is for the arts. And it's important in that school because that building, which was empty for 50 years, has a magnificent auditorium.

Oh, wow. Which is where the symphony used to perform, where, you know, great singers like Pavarotti would come and they would perform there because it was such a great auditorium. So the kids in that school, they're still renovating the auditorium. It's not open yet, but kids who want to do performing arts are going to have an amazing venue for doing that. That's incredible. I've got a young one who's just started in the Syracuse Children's Theater, and she's taken to it like a duck to water. That's great. Opportunities like that in the future sound great.

Well, we never had a school for the arts out here at all. And so having that school, it's not just performing. arts or visual arts, but they're doing a lot of tech stuff. Kids can learn about theater tech and production. I love that. I was the sound guy for all the, I was the Danny for all of our high school productions. I love that. If you could, let's rewind just a second and give folks just a little view of what is this school?

Why is this unique from any other school around town? It's unique in the whole state, actually, because it is a, school that takes kids from all over the county, in effect, beyond the county of the whole Boces District. I see. So Onondaga County, Madison County is included. And that was important to me because growing up, my grandparents were really involved in the issue of school equity and desegregation of schools after the Supreme Court decision in the

50s. And living here, you know, we have a really segregated school system, basically, like the city of Syracuse, people think of it as a completely different world from the rest of the county. And there are wonderful teachers, great schools, kids doing amazing things, but there shouldn't be this kind of separation, I think. And so when I was first running for office, I met someone who was on the school board and he said, look, the old Central Tech high school is a spectacular building. It's been empty for 50 years. Can we turn it into something? And his idea was exactly this, a countywide school of the arts. And I thought, if we're ever going to get kids sitting side by side from all these different communities and getting to know each other, this is the way to do it.

And it is so exciting to me that there's the ninth grade. They're going one grade at a time. So it started with ninth grade this year, but the ninth grade is in there, and it's, I think, 250 kids. Wow. I got to meet some of them a couple weeks ago because there was also a grand opening of the, it's called the Inspire Innovation Hub. Yeah, the old tech garden. Right, which I also got money for them to do that renovation. And so they brought the kids who are studying business entrepreneurship at the STEAM school.

they brought them, it's only a block, they came over to the Inspire hub, and they were touring around and learning about the drone flight deck and the maker space and all the different companies that are coming in there that are going to be doing entrepreneurship and the kids were so excited and they were excited about their school. Like when have you ever heard a ninth grade gush about how much he loves his school, you know? But this was kids. who were really excited. And I just felt like these two things I've worked on, the Steam School and the Inspire Innovation Hub coming together,

it was really moving to me. That's awesome. You know, those are the types of things I love to talk about because I feel like we get so bogged down in all the other nonsense that we gloss over some of these incredible things that are made possible by, public and private and members of the community and, you know, I'm sure, no doubt, members of the art community and, you know, everyone who has a passion, really. Right. So the STEAM school is close to the

Everson Museum and the Eury Canal Museum, and it's close to the performing arts venues like Syracuse Stage and the Red House. And those kids are going to be able to take advantage of all of that in addition to all the businesses that are down there. Sure. You know, it's just, and one of the kids I talked to was from Canastota. Oh, wow. So there are kids, you know, really interested in it coming from a long way away to be at that school, which is exactly what we were hoping for when we.

That's phenomenal. To me, that's what we need in education. It's more of these, you know, opportunities to really nurture what kids are inclined for. Just, you know, pick this. You got to either be good or this or that. I don't know either one. Well, it's a school built around career in technical education, so the kids kind of come in knowing what they want to study, which is, I didn't know at ninth grade what I wanted to do, but it's great that they've got these amazing opportunities. That's phenomenal.

That's got to really sort of make you feel good. I imagine that, you know, in your job, to some degree, it's almost like you can't win. No matter what you do, there's going to be critics. And that's, I don't even necessarily want to get into that. I can't even imagine how folks in your position deal with that. Well, can I tell you the story about it? Because I was a new senator. I had never held elective office before.

I really didn't think I knew what I was doing. I was kind of like feeling my way around. And I had to go to the budget director and ask for $72 million to be put in the budget for this school. Wow. Yeah. And I was so nervous. And I sat there with him and I explained to him why I thought this. was such a great project and really worth doing. And he just was completely impassive the whole

time. Sat there was, like, did not move a muscle in his face for the whole time. And I was leaving, and I said, well, you know, I don't know if I convinced you, like, how exciting this project is, but I hope I at least got across how excited I am about it. And he said, what do you mean? This is my excited face. And I walked out of there having no idea, was he making fun of me? Was he taking me seriously? Was he like, were we in this together? I couldn't tell.

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I'm going to do what I know needs to be done. Right. I'm ignorant of some of the challenges can be helpful, I feel like, honestly. That could be, yeah. That's awesome. That's so awesome. If you wouldn't mind, let's talk about the big tech company in the room. Of course, the buzz in the area is Micron and everything that's happening.

Would you talk about just a little bit of kind of the state's role in that whole adventure? Oh, sure. Yeah, I mean, as you know, there was a huge negotiation that went on, and a lot of it was the state having to convince Micron that this is a good place to do this. And, you know, we hear about New York being maybe not the greatest place to start a business, but in fact, we have, you know, really smart people, really educated people, amazing environment, you know, in terms of water and land and, you know, all the resources. And I think a very supportive state government.

And so it was impressive how local, like city, county, and state government were able to all get on the same page and really make that case. And I think President Biden, just because of his connections to Syracuse and this region, probably helped, you know, in all that. So, yeah, it was, that was exciting. I think from my end of things, there are a lot of, like, Kale isn't in my district, but obviously people will live in my district who work there. there's a lot of impact on the district and we're trying to make sure that we're doing the supportive things. So one of the things we did was we got $450 million in the budget for upstate to put in a new emergency room and expand its ability to serve. Okay. For example, burn patients because one of the things you get in a factory like that

as you get burns. And upstate right now is the only burn center for the entire state north of New York City, basically. Yeah. So it's, but if you've ever been to the emergency room there, it's really cramped. That's for sure. You know, they have fabulous staff,

but the staff are working in very subal optimal conditions. Yeah. Yeah. And so being able to help them build that new facility, is good for the whole region. It was necessary anyway, but it's even that much more necessary because of the expectations of the new needs

that we're going to have with Micron. So, you know, we're trying to make the case or a lot of other sorts of improvements that will also help Micron. But, you know, the airport, for example, we also got some funding to increase airport parking because, you know, It's already inadequate, but it's going to be way more of a problem moving forward.

So there are a lot of things like that. My big focus is on housing, and I've been working very hard even before Micron started talking about coming here to try to figure out how to solve our housing crisis because it's a serious crisis. And I think something like a Micron project, clarifies the minds of people who might have been resistant to say the idea of more housing in the communities or something that people are finally starting to say, oh yeah, we do need to build more. We need to have apartment buildings, which a lot of people in the suburbs are kind of leery of.

We need to have different options and make sure that we're doing it in a way that isn't just going to make a traffic nightmare for everybody. Yeah. So from my perspective, as somebody who's been thinking along those lines for a really long time, it's kind of exciting now that the whole region is thinking the same way. Folks are finally paying attention. Yeah, we're really trying to make that a reality. That's wonderful.

Yeah. Senator, just a couple more questions, and I'll let you get back to your very busy schedule. You know, we've talked about a bunch of these things. When everybody talks about, that's a little bit down the road. We're already seeing the impacts of that. But take an example of a small business like ours. We're a local marketing company. We've got a dozen employees.

We're operating right now and we want to grow. Are there opportunities, things like that that we should look at in the state, different programs, things of that that might give us grants or credits or anything along those lines that folks should know about? Well, I guess it falls into a couple of different categories. So there are some ways that the state is really trying to help small businesses grow. And there are ESD, the state development. Yeah.

Empire State. I was trying to think about the E was. Empire State development. Yeah. They really do do a lot. I think less directly with a business as with, you know, making sure that there is the infrastructure in an area or the, you know, just the ability for people to grow. But there's also a lot that we're doing as a state to make it easier.

For example, I'm sure right now the I-81 project doesn't feel like that. Like everybody feels like they're sitting in traffic and all. all their traffic patterns are changing, but it's going to be transformative, I think, in a really good way for our whole region. DOT has done a great job of envisioning the whole picture of how traffic moves through the whole metro area. And people are already seeing a difference in terms of just that it's smarter. Like what we had before had was a patchwork of roads that happened to intersect with each other, but we're really effective in getting people where they wanted to be. And now I think we're going to have that.

We're going to have something where it's going to feel like a unified region. And I think that's going to make it easier for people to move here, for people to get to work here, for employers to recruit people. So my hope is that we're laying the groundwork, literally laying the groundwork on the road work. Yeah. Or precisely the kind of thing that you want to do. That's awesome. I love to hear that.

You know, for many years it seems like this region was sort of depressing for lack of a better term. You know, all we had was bad news and things leaving. and whatever. And I'm so cautiously optimistic that we're on the other side of that cycle. And we're in a boom. And I think we're only getting started, which is awesome. I agree. When I first came here in the late 90s, early 2000s, it felt like the can't-do city.

It was like, you know, every time somebody had a great idea, all you would hear were all the reasons why you can't do that here. And now it's exactly the opposite of that. Like, people are really jump all over it. Yeah. The last question I will ask you is sort of along those same lines. So as you're with your colleagues in Albany from all over the state, what are the conversations about our region? What are folks from out of the area? Are they asking you about our region or anything like that?

So when I first was elected, they were not. And part of that was I was part of the new Democratic majority in the Senate and the vast majority of the Democratic senators at that time, represented New York City, Long Island, Westchester. And they were pretty focused on that part of the state. But I made a real point of bringing them up here. I held a lot of hearings. I took people on tours. I brought people to the state fair.

Anything I could do to get my colleagues from downstate to come here and see what we were all about. And it has made a big difference. That's great. So, for example, there's now this wonderful program called the Timbuktu program. which is Medgar-Evers College in Brooklyn, combining with SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse,

has kids in the summer who are going to both of those campuses and also to the Adirondacks and in the Hudson Valley, and they're learning about environmental science and urban planning and all kinds of things that those colleges are in. interested in, but it's also bringing kids from that part of it, from the city, New York City, up here, and vice versa. And so it's creating connections. And that would never have happened if it hadn't been for the connections that I built with my colleagues and bringing them up here.

So I'm really proud of that. It's something, I don't think you knew this when you asked that question. No, not at all. I'm glad you asked that question because this is one of the things I'm most proud of in this job is how I've kind of put, at least for our. for our state legislature, I have worked really hard to put this area on the map. And I will say, since I was elected, we've now got in the Democratic majority, seven or eight more senators representing upstate or rural areas. And so the conversation, I think, has shifted completely in the seven years I've been in the Senate. So it's pretty cool. I didn't know that, and I very much appreciate you doing all that work, just as someone around here.

You know, that's one of the things we always talk about divides. There's always this New York City and upstate, like, we're all part of the same team, you know? And I just love that, that, you know, because I think once people get exposed to it, that's, that just becomes another asset to draw upon, you know. We've got this crazy, incredible urban world, and then we've got the Adirondacks where, yeah. You can breathe fresh and, you know, just enjoy life. And I love it. I couldn't be more excited to hear that you've done that work. Yeah.

That's so great to hear. Awesome. Awesome. Senator Rachel May, you mentioned a couple of your term. When is the, is it even, when's the next election year? 2026. Yeah. Every two years, yeah.

So. I love that. Again, we don't. I don't love it. I, well, and everybody, says, you know, you ought to have four-year terms or six-year terms. But there it is. I do understand why they did that kind of at the federal level and even members of Congress that have to do every two years seems a little excessive. But that's a whole other conversation.

That's a different conversation. Senator, where's the best place for folks to get information? You've got a website, you've got things of that nature? Yeah. So my office website is May at New York Senate.gov. And we have upcoming, I might have the information right here. We have a senior fair coming up. October 3rd at the Salt City Market from 11 to 4 in Syracuse.

I was the chair of the Aging Committee for four years, and we really have worked to bring together lots of resources for seniors in the area, and that's always a great event, so I hope people will show up. Awesome. That sounds great. Senator, anytime you want to come back and tell us about all the great things happening in New York, we would love to have you.

So this has been a true pleasure. I really appreciate you taking some time out of your day to join us. Absolutely. Thank you. And with that, guys, that's today's episode of Good News, York. Just a little programming note for anybody following along. This is going to be unique week for us at the end of the week. Is the Retro GameCon, our man, Danian team putting on at the Syracuse Unus.

Center. We are going to be there our all weekend recording sessions and doing some live episodes. So those, in addition to mowing the lawn, those may take the place of our end of the week episodes. So we got kind of a unique schedule, but it's going to be a blast. And you should stay tuned. And with that, we'll see you next time. Peace out. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley, Newman and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises L' Week Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been standing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy.

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