ALBANY COUNTY — Although the state legislature is not in session, Assemblyman John McDonald said, “Demand for constituent services has never been higher.”

The legislature largely shut down in April after agreeing, in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, on a state budget.

“The anxiety among children and adults is through the roof,” said Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy.

The two local Democratic legislators spoke at a May 17 county press briefing.

Two days later, Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara (D - 111th District) said he was among a group of bipartisan legislators seeking to “re-establish the state legislature as a co-equal branch of government, as it should be.”

Santabarbara and Marianne Butteschon (D - 119th District) in the Assembly along with Joseph Griffo (R - 47th District) and Patrick Gallivan (R - 59th District) in the Senate have proposed legislation that would limit a state disaster declaration to 30 days and would require the governor to report weekly to the legislature during an emergency. Any continuation of the declaration and the suspension of laws would require legislative approval.

“We do believe we should be back in session remotely,” said McDonald. The challenge, he said, is to prioritize what to address with hundreds of different issues.

“The reality is the executive chamber is a little bit busy right now, dealing with the COVID-19 response,” McDonald said. “Until we can build consensus, I don’t see us being back in legislative session very soon.”

He speculated maybe in September or October.

McDonald noted though that joint hearings with both houses are underway, most recently on the impact of disparities on minority populations.

“The work will continue,” McDonald said, “but the ability to build a three-way agreement is limited now.”

Fahy noted that the Assembly is technically in session, with she and McDonald as Albany legislators gavelling in. “It’s just a matter of when we come back for legislative days,” Fahy said. “Three-hundred bills have been introduced in just the last couple of months so members are very much chomping at the bit.”

She also said of The Heroes Act passed by the Houses of Representatives but not yet the Senate, “If we do not get this stimulus aid — and it may take another couple of weeks — we have some serious budget issues to address.”

Fahy is introducing a few bills, she said, highlighting one modelled after the Works Project Administration created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

“A new short-term WPA-type program is needed to bolster the creative arts and cultural institutions and to build our clean-energy infrastructure,” Fahy wrote in an April 30 letter to the Enterprise editor.

Once the pandemic unemployment insurance ends at the end of July, Fahy said, “A lot of these jobs are not coming back. Thirty-nine percent of those who earn under $40,000 a year are unemployed right now. The unemployment is very much hitting hardest at low-wage workers as well as millennials so we have a lot of work to do.”

She concluded, “All eyes are on Congress right now.”

Asked about the governor’s earlier push to legalize recreational marijuana for adults, McDonald said that the tax revenue would not be immediate. Even if it were approved, he said, “You’re talking a good year, year-and-a-half before you start seeing that take effect.”

“We’ve got to focus on the businesses that have been on hold and need to reopen, but reopen responsibly, mind you,” said Fahy.

Fahy said she was “very concerned about the economic devastation here with small business.”

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy has been a proponent of small local businesses throughout the pandemic crisis. He said he had heard from a hotel owner that wouldn’t be reopening, having gone two months with less than 1-percent occupation.

“A lot of jobs will be lost,” said McCoy. Referring to the loss of small businesses, he said, “That’s what scares me when we open up.”

Target and Walmart are billionaire companies, McCoy said. “I have an issue that we’re not working for the backbone small businesses throughout our community.”

He went on, “They’re the ones that are vested in our community here in Albany County and throughout the state of New York.”

“There’s almost been a bias of trust, if you will, toward the big-box stores,” said Fahy, “yet it’s small business that keeps the economy going and that’s where the vast majority of jobs are generated.”