Three young Republican Assembly Members are taking a statewide road trip this summer.

Marc Molinaro (R-Dutchess), Jack Quinn (R-Erie) and Rob Walker (R-Nassau) are not out to party and hit the beaches, but to begin researching why their young professional peers are leaving the state. Walker said the three, who are all in their early 30s, plan on holding forums in several regions of the state to talk to young professionals and their parents about what can be done to make the state more friendly to young people.

While they have their own thoughts on what the state needs to do in each region, they said they want to listen to residents in order to build a legislative agenda to address these issues. The first forum will be held on July 17 in Elmira. Forums are also planned in Buffalo, Syracuse, the Hudson Valley, Long Island and the south shore of Staten Island. According to Walker, 19 Republican Assembly members have expressed an interest in hosting the trio during their trip.

Most of the trips will include multiple hearings, including on college campuses and at libraries. In addition to talking to young professionals, students and parents, the group plans to meet with non-profit groups around the state devoted to helping young professionals gauge their opinions. Several stops will take more than one day, including a planned three-day stop on Long Island in September.

The plan picks up on former First Lady Silda Wall Spitzer’s “I Live New York” initiative. Wall Spitzer had made the program, which was aimed at stimulating the upstate economic and cultural sectors to make the region more appealing to young professionals, a cornerstone of her husband’s administration. That initiative was one of the casualties of the Spitzer administration’s surprise collapse in March.

While Molinaro said that their program has many similarities to Wall Spitzer’s program, the idea was developed separately. He did, however, credit the former first lady for bringing statewide attention to the issue and helping young professional advocacy groups around the state.

The group has several ideas in mind to jumpstart the discussions. They note the differences in each region—from lack of employment opportunities upstate to high property taxes and expensive housing downstate—and have been formulating some of their own solutions. One of them is rebranding the SUNY system.

Quinn said that many alums of the SUNY system decline to say they graduated from a SUNY school, instead opting to use individual names like the University at Buffalo or Binghamton University. He said this shows a lack of pride in the SUNY schools. Molinaro said that many of the high school students he talks to in his districts believe that SUNY is where they go to if they cannot get into another college.

“We want to make SUNY and CUNY sexy and attractive,” Molinaro said.

Another area they want to address is promoting the various regions and the cultural centers and activities in those regions as anchors for providing good quality of life and recreational opportunities closer to home in new corners of the state.

This is a pet issue for Quinn, who despite representing rural Erie County talks passionately about many upstate cities, particularly nearby Buffalo.

Other ideas for the initiative include finding ways to address the lack of affordable housing in downstate areas, an issue Walker said is paramount to many of his constituents. In addition, the group plans on working with local businesses to develop internship programs for college students across the state to help them get directly connected to jobs in the state for after graduation.

At least one Democrat has already signed on to the idea behind the effort.

“It’s a broad problem that requires a broad solution,” Assembly Member Kenneth Zebrowski (D-Rockland) said, pointing out that his caucus has already been working on a variety of related issues, including using higher education to make the state more friendly to young professionals.

A statewide listening tour to collect various regional opinions on solutions is important, according to Zebrowski. With such a major problem retaining young professionals across the state, he said, “there is no one silver bullet.”