May 3, 2023
Here is what we know so far about the New York State budget. From The Democrats: Governor Hochul signed legislation yesterday, to allow pharmacists to dispense contraception over the counter and ensures SUNY campuses offer students access to medication abortion. Assembly Speaker Democrat Carl Heastie says, there won’t be any tuition increases at SUNY Colleges in the coming school year. There will also be a lot of funding for infrastructure, according to Heastie. “The spending plan makes critical investments in New York State’s infrastructure, including funding the second year of the five-year state Department of Transportation capital plan at $5.5 billion for roads, bridges, rail, aviation and non-MTA transit systems,” Assembly Speaker Heastie stated. “This includes an additional $100 million for local road capital, $60 million of which is allocated for the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPs) and $40 million for the State Touring Routes program. Also included in the budget is $829.2 million in operating assistance for upstate and downstate non-MTA public transit systems.” The speaker also noted that hospitals will get funding in this year’s budget. “The SFY 2023-24 Budget includes an additional $500 million for distressed and safety-net hospitals, $800 million in additional Essential Plan rate increases, $318.8 million to increase Medicaid hospital inpatient rates by 7.5 percent, $76 million to increase Medicaid hospital outpatient rates by 6.5 percent and $71.6 million for additional Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) support for State University of New York (SUNY) hospitals. The plan also invests $216.5 million to increase nursing home and assisted living program reimbursement rates by up to 7.5 percent.”
From The Republicans: State Senator George Borrello maintains, this is the wrong budget. “New Yorkers have heard repeatedly over this last month that ‘the right budget is more important than an
on-time budget.’ Yet, the sad truth is all the extra time did not produce ‘the right budget.’ It produced another bad budget that, once again, ignores New Yorkers’ top concerns – affordability and public safety – and spends us into a fiscal death spiral. At $229 billion, this budget means we will be spending $627 million taxpayer dollars every single day.” State Senator Tom O’Mara’s criticism of the state budget, is that is opens the door to the Green New Deal. “Among many recommendations, the CAC’s plan currently calls for: No natural gas within newly constructed buildings, beginning in 2025; No new gas service to existing buildings, beginning in 2030; No replacement natural gas appliances for home heating, cooking, water heating, clothes drying beginning in 2035; and No gasoline-automobile sales by 2035.”
Assemblyman Joe Giglio did not like the state budget’s policy changes to OTB. “A significant restructuring of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting (OTB) Corporation Board of Directors is included in this year’s budget,” Giglio said. “Currently, the Western Regional OTB Board of Directors consists of 17 members, one member from each county in the region and one from the cities of Rochester and Buffalo. The budget proposal would terminate all 17 current members and create a completely new Board of Directors comprised of 17 members, but with each member given weighted votes assigned according to the population of the counties and municipalities within the region. This new board would effectively allow a select few municipalities to control the Western Regional OTB Corporation Board of Directors. The lion’s share of votes would go to Erie and Monroe counties and the cities of Buffalo and Rochester; smaller counties would have virtually no voice in the operation of the OTB in our region.
From Assemblyman Phil Palmesano: “When Governor Hochul released her budget, she claimed it would make New York safer and more affordable. The $229 Billion budget adopted by the legislature did neither. This budget, unfortunately, is full of missed opportunities, misplaced priorities and unsustainable for the future. The governor promised to use her executive authority to adopt the needed reforms to our bail and criminal justice laws in the budget to help New Yorkers be safe and feel safe. However, the resulting actions did little, if anything, to address public safety and the crime crisis plaguing communities all across our state. New York still remains the only state in the nation that does not allow judges to consider the dangerousness of an individual to a community when determining their pre-trial release. This budget does not provide the needed changes to bail and discovery laws, raise the age, and an unchecked parole board that continues to release dangerous and violent individuals back into our communities. New Yorker families and businesses already faced the highest taxes and worst business climate in the nation. Even as seniors, families, farmers and businesses still battle crippling inflation, this budget continues an unsustainable path of uncontrolled spending and increased debt, while extending businesses tax increases by nearly $3 Billion. This budget will increase taxes on county property taxpayers, It does not provide much needed relief to small businesses to address their increased unemployment insurance costs assessed on them by this administration to pay back funds borrowed from the federal government to pay for covid unemployment claims. Unemployment claims we know, according to an audit by the Comptroller amounted to over to $11 Billion in unemployment fraud. This budget does not provide the assistance needed to support the wages of our direct support professionals, who are tasked with providing the critical quality of care and quality of life services for our most vulnerable New Yorkers – the developmentally disabled. However, the governor and democrat majorities did make it a priority to provide $ 1 billion to NewYork City for the illegal migrant situation and to provide $700 million in tax credits to Hollywood millionaires for the Hollywood film tax credit.”
