After 28 years, Assembly Member Bill Magnarelli says he's still the man for the job

Bill Magnarelli is in something of a love affair with the city of Syracuse. When asked what motivates him to continue to serve Assembly District 129 after 28 years, he had to pause to stop himself from getting choked up.

The moment also gave him an opportunity to differentiate himself from Maurice Brown, the DSA-backed Onondaga County legislator mounting a primary challenge against him. Magnarelli was born in Syracuse and lived there his whole life – unlike his opponent, he pointed out. 

“I have memories in every part of Syracuse and Onondaga County,” Magnarelli told City & State. “The way I feel about this community and its people is very hard to describe. I believe that if I thought I could not do the job for them, I would not be running. I feel very strongly that I'm continuing to do a good job.”

He’s not the only one who thinks so: a DoorDash-funded political group has committed over $150,000 on mail, print and digital ads in support of Magnarelli leading up to the June 23 election. The two candidates will participate in their first of two debates with Syracuse.com on Friday.

City & State spoke with Magnarelli last week about his legislative record, how his district has changed over his tenure and the latest data center moratorium legislation. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

When you speak to voters who haven’t kept up with your work in Albany, what would you point out to them as significant wins you’ve had?

I point to the things I’ve always pointed to from day one and things that I know my constituents need and call me about the most: healthcare, housing, education, infrastructure. Those are the things that I’ve worked very hard to help my community with over the past 28 years. Specifically, I think the school district in Syracuse, as far as facilities and actual operating money, is running like night and day compared to when I first took office. 

As far as infrastructure is concerned, I'm the transportation chair here in the Assembly, able to get hundreds of millions of dollars more since I took that chairmanship for not only our upstate cities and also all of our mass transit companies. I'm very proud of what I've done, but that's my job. People have put a lot of faith in what I can do, and for the most part I think they will agree that I've been able to deliver for them and do those things for them.

How have you seen your neighborhood and your district evolve throughout your tenure, and how do you stay up to date with the changing needs of your constituents?

I think that all of our communities are changing all the time, and the only way that you can deal with those changes is to make sure that you're available and out in the public. It's a matter of putting in the work to understand what your community is going through. 

The bottom line here is demographics have changed, but in another way they have not. I grew up on the north side of Syracuse. It was a very ethnic neighborhood: it was mostly Italian with German and some Irish. That same area now has many minorities – whether it be Congolese, Burmese, Vietnamese – all different types of immigrants, but really nothing's changed. It's still people trying to make their way in a new country with their families working hard to make that happen. I know what they're going through, I went through it too when I was young. 

Although this is a new set of people in the same areas and on the same streets that I walked years ago, they're trying to do the same things. What I'm trying to do is make sure that government does what it's supposed to do as far as they're concerned, and I go back to health care, education and infrastructure – those are the things that they keep looking for.

You’re a co-sponsor of the latest data center moratorium legislation, which was introduced June 1. What concerns does the latest bill address?

There was a bill that had been introduced that was looking for a three or a four-year moratorium on data centers, and what came out this past week is a bill that has the moratorium in place for one year. 

It established an independent classification of service for large data centers – in other words, they're going to be charged a different rate. The big thing that I'm concerned about is that residential rate-payers, for some reason, are going to be paying for the energy that's going to data centers. That's not right. If you're taking all that energy out of the system, there should be a premium for that. The energy itself is not there in the present time, so there has to be a way of generating that energy, and I think these data centers basically may be able – I use the word may –  to help us generate that additional energy and put that energy into the system. The bill also sets energy efficiency goals for the data centers, and makes sure that it provides benefits for the communities that they're in, and then it sets labor standards as well for construction. 

The one thing I definitely didn't want is to establish data centers, and then find out that our air conditioning or heat or lights go out for the residential public. That can't happen, so that's the number one concern.

The primary race that you're in the middle of is one of several throughout the state that sees an incumbent challenged by a younger progressive. What do you make of that trend, and why do you think you should continue serving your district in the state Assembly?

Well, I'm happy to see younger people get involved in politics. I'm not happy to see this opponent challenging me. But on the other hand, I think it's great that young people are getting involved in politics and want to do something for their community. Nothing wrong with that, and I'm never going to say that that's a bad thing. It's always a good thing. 

But on the other hand, I think that's why we have primaries and general elections: it's up to the people to really say whether or not somebody should be reelected again or elected for the first time. I think my record shows that I can do this job, and I don't think there's anybody in Onondaga County that can represent the 129th Assembly district better than I can.

If you think it's just a matter of age, I don't know how I convince you otherwise, but if you're looking at who can actually do the job and deliver the things that you’re looking for and need, I think I'm your fellow.