STATE BUDGET UPDATE

On Monday, the Senate and Assembly both passed their one-house budget resolutions. This comes after the governor released his 30-day amendments to his budget priorities earlier this year in January and a series of Legislative Hearings on the budget. You can see the press release outlining the Assembly one-house here and the Senate one-house here. 

Below is the list of the one house bills in relation to:

• State Operations Assembly / Senate
• Debt Assembly / Senate
• Aid to Localities Assembly / Senate
• Capital Projects Assembly / Senate
• Public Protection and General Government Assembly / Senate
• Education, Labor and Family Assistance Assembly / Senate
• Health and Mental Hygiene Assembly / Senate
• Transportation, Economic Development and Environmental Conservation Assembly / Senate
• Revenue Assembly / Senate

After the one-house budgets are released, Governor Cuomo will enter into negotiations with the two legislative chambers’ leaders, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, to get a budget for the legislature to vote on by April 1. This year, the Senate and Assembly have Democratic supermajorities that would allow them to override any vetoes by the Governor. In the final weeks leading up to the adoption of the budget, advocates have the opportunity to push leadership in the Senate and Assembly to ensure that their budget priorities make it to the adopted budget. 

Other helpful links to resources and documents on the State budget:

• Governor’s Executive Budget Proposed in Jan
• Division of Budget website with 30-day amendments 
• Videos Recordings of past Legislative Budget Hearings
• Senate Majority One-house State Budget Resolution (Full Version)
• Assembly One-house Budget Proposal (Full Report)

(Thank you to the Advocacy Institute for the information above.)

AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN

American Rescue Plan Means $188M for Westchester, $250M for Municipalities

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which was signed into law by President Biden earlier this month, includes nearly $440 million in direct funding for Westchester County and our municipalities, to help our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Separately, the plan also includes money for local school districts; transportation, including our buses and airport; businesses; individuals; and COVID testing and vaccination; as well as for New York State.

• Westchester County will receive $187.64 million.
• Westchester's cities and towns together will receive more than $250 million.
• Towns will distribute a portion of the money allocated to them to their villages according to a formula still being finalized by the federal government.

To see a list of the funding for Westchester and its municipalities click here.

Regulations are still being determined, but generally the money for municipalities can be used:

• for costs associated with responding to the pandemic,
• to support essential workers,
• to cover revenue losses caused by COVID-19, and
• to make necessary infrastructure investments.

In addition, the Small Business Administration also has information about the relief for the nation's small businesses and hard-hit industries under the American Rescue Plan.

This includes additional money for the Paycheck Protection Program, Shuttered Venue Operators Grants, Targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance payments, a new Restaurant Revitalization Fund and more.

For information on these programs click here.

(Thank you to the Westchester County Board of Legislators for the information above.)

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