Your three state legislators spent an hour and a half answering questions Friday night in a Town Hall organized by the 34th District Democrats. Not much of a turnout, but we recorded video so you could see and hear what they were asked and how they answered.

Many of the laws for which people tend to blame local officials are actually state laws, and these are the people who have the power to change them: State Senator Emily Alvarado and State House Representatives Joe Fitzgibbon and Brianna Thomas.

Moderator for the forum at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center was 34th DDs chair Jordan Crawley.

First segment featured Crawley asking questions submitted in advance; then came an open-mic Q&A period. Crawley first explained how the Legislature works, and that was addressed during some of the Q&A too – the fact that our state has a part-time Legislature, only in session a relatively short part of each year. And that doesn’t give them a ton of time to review and vote on proposals; Crawley noted that this past session featured introduction of 1,700 bills, and passage of 270.

Asked about the most-significant public-safety issues of the session, Sen. Alvarado mentioned immigration-related issues and others that left the state dealing with the federal government’s “cruelty and chaos.” Rep. Thomas mentioned her much-discussed employee-microchipping ban, observing that other states are tackling the issue too, saying ours is the 13th state to address it: “I’m very pro-bodily autonomy and anti-surveillance.” Rep. Fitzgibbon said legislation that “didn’t get done but should have” had to do with reforming juvenile sentencing laws to give offenders a better chance at rehabilitation.

The legislators also discussed what the state is doing to counter federal attacks on civil rights, reproductive rights, voting rights, and more. And they were frank about the contention that state government needs more revenue to deal with programs the current federal administration has punted back to the states. Rep. Thomas, having described herself earlier as unapologetically blunt, said her retort to critics is, “Yes, I’m a ‘tax-and-spend liberal’. What do you think government DOES?”

Other hot issues that were the subject of Q&A included housing, climate change, universal health care, universal child care (Rep. Fitzgibbon said he’s currently a stay-home dad because outside child care is unaffordable for his family), gun violence, alternative energy, and education. Listen to it all here:

Next event for the 34th District Democrats is their monthly meeting, also at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 7 pm Wednesday, after a 6 pm pre-program about ranked-choice voting