Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 17
New York State lawmakers finished up the state budget over the weekend , nearly three week after it was due. The $237 billion spending plan includes restored funding for school aid, and a housing package to encourage the growth of affordable housing in New York.
The New York state Assembly voted on the final budget bill over the weekend, nearly three weeks after the April 1 deadline. The Senate finished one day earlier.
The spending plan reverses Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposal to change the ways schools are funded. It would have resulted in half of the state’s school districts receiving less money than they had expected to. Hochul dropped an unpopular plan to eliminate a provision known as “hold harmless,” which guaranteed that no school would receive less money than it did the previous year, after both majority party Democrats and minority party Republicans objected.
Hochul also convinced lawmakers to include a provision sought by her ally, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, to allow the mayor to retain control over the administration of the New York City schools.
And she achieved a change in the how a popular consumer directed home health care program for the chronically ill and people with disabilities is administered. It will allow the health department to contract with an outside entity to administer the program, cutting out around 350 locally based fiscal intermediaries. The provision was opposed by disabled groups, and both Democrats and Republicans in the legislature.
The GOP, which holds minority party status in both houses of the legislature, criticized the Democrats’ budget.
The budget also includes $2.4 billion to help deal with the state’s migrant crisis, and a crackdown on illegal cannabis shops that have sprung up as the state has been slow to license legal retailers for adult recreational marijuana. Law enforcement will now have the power to immediately shutter illegal stores found to be in violation of the state’s cannabis laws, without having to wait for court action.
Lawmakers are now on break until May 6, when they return to finish the rest of the legislative session.
Source: wxxinews
