State Sen. Pete Harckham discussing the newly enacted FY2024-2025 State Budget with Peekskill Mayor Vivian McKenzie. Photo by James Persons
City of Peekskill to receive $2.4 million, a $257K increase from last year
On April 24, New York State Senator Pete Harckham announced today that the newly enacted FY2024-2025 State Budget includes $4,084,738 in Aid and Incentives to Municipalities (AIM) funding for Senate District 40 (SD40), an increase of $362,836—9.75%—from last year’s budget. Outstanding in the AIM funding is $2,477,102 for the City of Peekskill, a $257,718 increase—11.61%—from the prior budget.
“This increase in enacted AIM funding is a win for our local governments,” said Harckham. “It gives municipalities more spending power at a time when rising costs have been impacting programs, services and various initiatives. I think this record-high funding is a meaningful benchmark that will benefit our residents in many ways and ease some of the burden from our taxpayers.”
“The City of Peekskill is extremely grateful for the generous AIM support afforded to us by our partners in state government,” said Peekskill Mayor Vivian McKenzie. “As we move forward with a spectrum of civic improvements, having this source of unrestricted funding available will give us some flexibility in spending on important projects without having to raise taxes to do so.”
The FY2024-2025 state budget agreement includes $758.1 million for the AIM program statewide, a $43.4 million increase. The main source of unrestricted state aid for local governments, AIM funding has been frozen at about $715 million since the FY2011-2012 budget, and this year’s increase is the first since then.
In SD 40, the 13 towns and six villages all received 6.99% or 7% increases in their enacted AIM funding. Among recipients are the Town of Cortlandt, which is getting $202,702 in AIM, and the Town of Yorktown, which is getting $189,144. The Village of Ossining will be getting $216,573.
The Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM) program was instituted first in the FY2006-2007 State Budget, replacing a number of revenue sharing programs, each of which had targeted municipalities that often overlapped. Funded at $849 million (an increase of nearly $56 million, or 7 percent, from pre-AIM revenue sharing in the FY2005-2006 State Budget, AIM combined six revenue sharing programs into one program, representing the largest appropriation of unrestricted aid to local governments in a decade. The funding dropped to the $715 million level during the Great Recession.
Town of Cortlandt Supervisor Dr. Richard Becker said, “On behalf of the Town of Cortlandt, I would like to thank Senator Peter Harckham for his ongoing support of the Town of Cortlandt. Once again, he has been instrumental in securing additional financial resources for the Town via the Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIMs) funding program. This ongoing support will assist us in our efforts to provide vital services to residents.”
Pete Harckham represents the 40th Senate District, which includes the towns of Carmel, Kent, Patterson and Southeast, and the village of Brewster in Putnam County; the town of Stony Point in Rockland County; and the city of Peekskill, the towns of Bedford, Cortlandt, Lewisboro, New Castle, North Salem, Ossining, Somers and Yorktown, the town/village of Mount Kisco, and the villages of Briarcliff Manor, Buchanan, Croton-on-Hudson and Ossining in Westchester County. He is chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee.
