As the new minority whip, Karl Brabenec said he would continue to advocate for Republican legislative priorities in the face of a Democratic supermajority in the state assembly.
Through the 2022 election, 13 new Republican members made it to Albany, bringing the party’s representation on the 150-seat assembly to just under 50.
As a result, Republican committee membership increased by about one per committee, Brabenec said.
Still, chances to push through Republican-sponsored legislation remain slim in 2023, but by putting reform ideas out there, Democratic colleagues might pick up when the public demands so, he added.
“We will still fight for the initiatives that we want to see. If we can chip away at the rock and get a diluted bill, it is better than nothing, and we are going to do that,” he told The Epoch Times on Jan. 12.
“It may take a while. But if you are persistent, hopefully, it will happen,” he said.
Brabenec’s top priorities are public safety, deregulation, and reducing property taxes.
He wants to keep pushing for fixes to the bail reform, with an end goal to repeal the entire law; he will advocate for legislation that will chip away at the regulations to give small business owners and small farmers a fair shot; he also will support bills to reduce the property tax burdens of New York residents, he said.
Brabenec said he would continue to advocate for his signature bill to reduce the September school tax bills to zero in five years and replace them with state funding.
Challenges of One-Party Rule
A Republican from the town of Deerpark in Orange County, Brabenec was first elected to represent the 98th district in 2013 after having served in the county government and as a town supervisor.The district encompasses western portions of Orange and Rockland counties, including Port Jervis, Warwick, and parts of Ramapo.
At the time, Democrats controlled the governorship and assembly but not the Senate, which was under a Republican majority and served as a meaningful check on Democratic legislative agendas, he said.
Then in 2018, Democrats flipped the Senate. In two years, they secured supermajorities at both houses.
“It became a one-party rule. They push through whatever they want to push through, and there is no accountability,” he said. “We will tell the majority that here are the problems with the bills, and let’s come to a compromise to fix them. But almost 100 percent of the time, they do not listen to us.”
Most Republican-sponsored bills die in committees and never make it to the floor, he said.
Exceptions are bills that have to do with local laws instead of statewide issues.
Or, on rare occasions, Democrats would pick up Republican ideas to appease voters, he said.
A classic example is the 2011 passage of the 2 percent property tax growth cap for local municipalities—an idea initially supported by Republicans but later gained Democratic support, he said.
And a more recent example is the legislative fix to the original bail reform law, he added.
After eliminating cash bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies in 2019, the state legislature passed two fixes to expand bail-eligible crimes.
“There is a lot of public pressure to change it, and members of the majority knew that they made mistakes, so they kind of watered it down a little bit,” Brabenec said.
“That’s why we present bills in the legislature because we want these ideas to get out. We want people, especially residents, to lobby the majority and the governor for these ideas.”
Local Constituent Services
Aside from the lawmaking work during the legislative sessions, Brabenec’s local office in the village of Florida offers services to district residents throughout the year.Ever since the pandemic, inquiries about unemployment benefits quadrupled and remain high today, according to his executive director Suzanne Edzenga.
Other common inquiries are about driver’s licenses, social services, and landlord and tenant issues.
Often, residents come here after failing to get through the red tape on their own and hope his office’s liaison can cut it through.
“Certainly, you get frustrated when things don’t happen in Albany, but when somebody who has a real issue comes to the office, crying and not knowing what to do, and we solve that problem for him—that’s what it is all about,” Brabenec said.
The newly drawn district map following the 2020 census encompasses some new areas, including a portion of Goshen.
As a result of a prolonged legal dispute over the constitutionality of the new map, the Independent Redistricting Commission is working on another new map for the 2024 state assembly elections.
