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Hornell Mayor Calls On Governor To Release Funding

January 13, 2021

Statement/Press Release, From Mayor John Buckley:

I call on Governor Cuomo to stop withholding State funding streams to cities and villages including AIM and CHIPS. Local governments are the tip of the sphere which provide essential services to residents such as water, sewer, DPW, police and fire protection. It is bad enough that sales tax revenue has sharply declined as a result of the economic shutdown. Cities and villages are under unbelievable fiscal stress and cannot afford any more loses. A 20% withholding or cut to Hornell’s AIM funding is roughly $300,000. Additionally, the State has withheld $67,000 in CHIPS, PAVE NY and Winter Recovery funds, all of which go to paving and road repair. The State has the funds, it is time to do the right thing and release those funds to the municipalities they were promised to.”

Mayor John Buckley

According to NYCOM President Richard C. David:

State Comptroller DiNapoli has reported that state tax receipts are $3.8 billion ahead of where they were budgeted to be back in April 2020;

· New York State has already received more than $10 billion in federal stimulus funding to provide critically important budgetary relief, and the Governor has expressed confidence in receiving additional federal funding from Washington since there is a new President and new Senate Majority Leader who both strongly support such assistance;
· The 20% withholding was deemed a “cash flow” device, yet the State has issued $3.5 billion in Revenue Anticipation Notes as a means of dealing with cash flow needs;
· It’s the right thing to do! The $250 million in aid owed to municipalities represents only 0.14% of the State budget and the Budget Division has stopped withholding school aid. It is time to end the use of municipalities as pawns in the effort to get more federal funding.

Pete Baynes statement: New York’s cities and villages are suffering through tremendous fiscal pain caused solely by the COVID-induced economic slowdown. NYCOM is happy to hear Governor Cuomo’s call in his State of the State address for additional transportation infrastructure funding and increased efforts to avoid urban decline. We also fully support his oft-stated belief that the federal government should not shift its burdens down to local and state governments. Nor, may we add, should state governments push their problems onto the government closest to the people. Therefore, we call on the Governor to release the more than $250 million in municipal aid the Division of the Budget has withheld from aid payments included in the 2020-21 state budget. Only by working together will New York State and its local governments be able to crush COVID and renew our economy.”


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