On April 7, Westchester State Senator and Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie announced a record breaking $212 Billion dollar budget has something for almost everyone, with large increases in education aid, rent and mortgage relief, legalizing mobile sports better and a $2 Billion fund for excluded workers.
“New York State approached this year’s budget with many challenges and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said. “Working and middle-class taxpayers will receive the relief they desperately need, while the wealthiest New Yorkers will help their neighbors. This budget makes New York better for all. In the remaining months of session, the Senate Majority will continue to deliver results that are reflective of our progressive values and priorities.”
“New York was ambushed early and hit hardest by COVID, devastating our economy and requiring urgent and unprecedented emergency spending to manage the pandemic,” Cuomo said. “Thanks to the State’s strong fiscal management and relentless pursuit to secure the federal support that the pandemic demanded, we not only balanced our budget, we are also making historic investments to reimagine, rebuild and renew New York in the aftermath of the worst health and economic crisis in a century.”
Other parts of the budget deal include, $2.4 billion for child care, $1 billion for small business recovery, a $3 Billion increase in education aid, $15 per month hi-speed internet for qualifying low-income families. The State has also partnered with Schmidt Futures and the Ford Foundation to launch ConnectED NY, an emergency fund to provide approximately 50,000 students in economically disadvantaged school districts with free internet access through June 2022.
Tne 2022 NY State Budget also provides $2.4 Billion to Protect Renters through an Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) to ensure New Yorkers can make rent and remain stable in their homes. The program will support households in rental arrears that have experienced financial hardship, are at risk of homelessness or housing instability and that earn less than 80 percent of area median income. The program would prioritize those with the lowest incomes, the unemployed and other vulnerable populations, and is funded with $2.3 billion in Federal resources and $100 million from NYS.
$29.5 Billion in Education Aid to school districts for the 2021-22 school year, with the majority targeted to high need school districts, like Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, Port Chester and Peekskill in Westchester County.
The Excluded Workers fund was approved with a $2.1 Billion budget. Advocates for excluded workers, including Peekskill Councilmember Vanessa Agudelo, had gone on a hunger strike calling for passage of the fund, which will now provide for cash payments to workers who have suffered income loss due to COVID but who are ineligible for Unemployment Insurance or related Federal benefits due to their immigration status or other factors. Such workers must be low-income and provide sufficient documentation to establish work-related eligibility and residency in the state.
Taxes will go up for those New Yorkers earning more than $1.1 Million, to 9.65%, and for those making more than $5 Million, the rate goes up to 10.3%, and those earning over $25 Million, the new rate is 10.9%. The corporate tax rate will rise to 7.25% from 6.5%, except for those companies with earnings less than $5 Million; there rate will stay at 6.5%.
Mobile sports gamlbing was adopted, but a complicated formula to chose more than one operator in the state will have to be conducted and completed, hopefully before the start of football season in September, so that NY State can derive the revenues and so that New Yorkers can wager in their state. “This is a product that now New Yorkers can stop going to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or doing it illegally online,” said State Senator Joseph Addabbo.
Unfortunately, for Westchester County, the state budget does not include a full gaming license for MGM-Empire City Casino in Yonkers.
