The Debrief Podcast

This week, The Debrief turns the show over to listeners. Josh Durso and Jackie Augustine answer questions about data centers and housing, the bills putting pressure on Finger Lakes households, and what local officials can do when the biggest costs seem beyond their control.

They also examine rural food access, whether economic development incentives deliver good jobs, the maze of local planning agencies, declining school enrollment, and access to maternity care after Newark-Wayne Community Hospital’s birthing unit closed. The episode ends with a discussion of federal student loan changes and the potential effect on fields already facing staffing shortages.

This week on The Debrief, Josh Durso and Jackie Augustine dig into a recurring problem across the Finger Lakes: Communities have the data, the plans and, in many cases, the solutions — but local governments still struggle to turn any of it into action.

The conversation starts in Canandaigua, where relatively modest zoning changes aimed at increasing housing options were pushed off until 2027. Josh and Jackie examine why resistance to change, concerns about public pushback and a reliance on decades-old arguments continue to slow housing policy even as affordability problems grow.

They also turn to Seneca Falls, where questions about municipal staffing, nearly $190,000 in spending on outside accounting services and Town Supervisor Frank Schmitter’s notice of claim against the town have added another layer of uncertainty to an already complicated local government picture.

In Geneva, the focus shifts to the city’s budget process, rising costs and questions about whether the current approach is financially sustainable. That discussion expands into public safety spending, the role of grants and whether police resources are increasingly being used to handle problems that could be addressed in other ways.

Finally, Josh shares takeaways from his recent conversation with United Way New York State President and CEO Therese Daly about the latest ALICE data and the growing number of working households that are struggling to afford housing, food, transportation and other basic needs. The discussion also connects those numbers to a sharp increase in demand at Harmony Food Pantry in Waterloo — including families who were getting by only months ago.

Today on The Debrief Jackie and Josh dive into four big issues impacting Upstate New York. The state’s data center moratorium has drawn a lot of applause from environmental advocates — but a lot of skepticism from others. Does it have teeth or is this lip service to those who have a range of concerns about data centers and artificial intelligence? The two also get into the Town of Seneca Falls’ finances, which have been heavily scrutinized by taxpayers in recent months — at public meetings and on social media. What’s the missing link in Seneca Falls and how should officials there proceed? Then, it’s all about municipal consolidation, which Jackie wrote about in her Doing the Write Thing column this week in the Finger Lakes Times, and humanoid robot teachers being proposed in the Salamanca Central School District.

New York’s electric grid is under growing pressure from aging infrastructure, rising demand, renewable energy targets and a wave of proposed data centers. In this episode of The Debrief, Josh Durso answers listener questions about why electric bills keep climbing, how utilities make money from grid upgrades, whether New York is at risk of running short on power and who should pay for the next generation of infrastructure.

The episode also examines the reliability challenges tied to retiring power plants, the limits of wind, solar and battery storage, the role of natural gas and hydrogen, transmission bottlenecks between upstate and downstate, renewable energy curtailment and the long-term cost of serving major new industrial users.

At the center of the discussion is one basic question: As New York rebuilds its electric system, how much of the financial risk should continue falling on ordinary ratepayers?

This week on The Debrief, Josh Durso and Jackie Augustine dig into the danger of trying to solve major problems with tiny fixes.From local budget pressure and code enforcement headaches to abandoned buildings, housing concerns, and New York’s increasingly fragile electric grid, the conversation centers on one big question: What happens when governments avoid hard decisions for too long?Josh and Jackie also break down the warning signs around New York’s power supply, including rising demand, transmission problems, electrification, data centers, manufacturing growth, and the real-world cost of outages for families and communities.

This week on episode #237 of The Debrief hosts Jackie Augustine and Josh Durso answer more of your questions, as submitted over the last two weeks. If you have a question you'd like answered in a future episode, email it to [email protected] or leave it here on Spotify.

On episode 236 of The Debrief, Jackie Augustine and Josh Durso talk two major stories taking shape around the Finger Lakes. The first comes from Ontario County, where debate over the functionality of IDAs was debated as officials in Geneva shared concerns with county economic development leaders that they weren't being focused on enough. Augustine wrote a column on the topic, which served as a jumping off point for the discussion. The two also talked about a story out of a small town in Cayuga County, where elected officials there required residents and media to sign-in, in order to attend public meetings.

The episode is available on YouTube, Spotify, as well as wherever you get podcasts. If you'd like to submit a question for their next Q&A episode, click here or send it to [email protected].

Episode 235 of The Debrief takes a different approach with an 'Ask Us Anything' edition built around listener questions, comments, and reactions from recent episodes. Hosts Josh Durso and Jackie Augustine dig into Geneva’s property reassessments, the city’s move to a new meeting structure, and why nearly every Finger Lakes school budget passed despite growing frustration over taxes, state spending, and local costs. The conversation also zooms out to talk about New York’s increasingly criticized budget process, the long-term challenges facing Upstate communities, and the growing disconnect between voters and the people tasked with managing complicated local governments and public systems.

This week on The Debrief, Josh Durso and Jackie Augustine connect the dots between political dysfunction, municipal budget pressure, dissolution debates, and New York’s growing energy infrastructure problem. The conversation starts in Seneca Falls following the arrest of Town Supervisor Frank Schmitter, but quickly expands into a broader discussion about leadership, governance, shrinking tax bases, and why so many local governments across Upstate New York appear stuck reacting instead of planning ahead. They also examine why dissolution is often oversold as a solution for struggling communities and why utilities may be making the strongest case yet against the for-profit energy model.

Josh and Jackie break down a packed week on The Debrief, starting with a sharp look at why local governments focus too much on outputs instead of real outcomes. They dive into Albany’s looming climate fight, the realities behind the “senior housing fix,” and growing frustration around property assessments fueled by misinformation. It’s a wide-ranging episode that connects policy decisions to the real pressures facing Upstate New York right now.