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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed an executive budget Tuesday for Fiscal Year 2025 that will reach a record-breaking $233 billion funding plan if approved exceeding last years $229 billion package that includes funding for public safety, health care initiatives, education and affordability, as well as money to address the state's ongoing migrant crisis.

The big three are school aid, Medicaid and migrants, budget director Blake Washington told Spectrum News Monday.

He said spending increases in those three sectors, as well as a drop in federal pandemic aid, have driven up state operating funds by $5.9 billion.

We've committed $1.9 billion to the migrant crisis and what we're trying to do tonight is just figure out where that number lands in [2025], he said.

Hochul said she will be traveling to Washington, D.C. on Friday to ask the Biden administration for more money to deal with the migrant crisis but didn't say if she'd be meeting with the president directly. She also urged Congress, particularly the House of Representatives, to "remain at the negotiating table" for an immigration agreement.

Hochul's budget calls for $2.4 billion to help manage the migrant crisis, including $500 million from the state's reserves.

Despite the added costs of the migrant crisis, Washington said there are no recommendations calling for increased taxes on high earners or corporations.

He wants to scale back.

We've got to get back to a level where our spending meets our revenues and that certainly was not the case, he said.

We have to just reflect those new realities and we have to actually be responsible to the long term without raising taxes, without raiding reserves, without gimmicks we have to actually just do this budget and get back to a more sort of acceptable way of budgeting, where we provide for the needs that are out there.

The state wants to get control of rising Medicaid costs largely driven by increased overall enrollment and managed long-term care programs.

We cant spend like theres no tomorrow because tomorrow always comes," Hochul said.

School aid will also increase across the board by $825 million bringing total education funding to roughly $35 billion.

But Washington said the budget office is proposing a change in school aid funding that seeks to even out aid disbursement between wealthy and poorer districts an idea in the past that has been opposed by wealthier districts in the suburbs.

We have a proposal to modify that and to step down from a state support for the districts that are overfunded relative to their foundation aid level and to try to right size and drive the resources to the districts that are growing and high poverty, he said.

In higher education, Hochul is proposing $207 million to go to operations at the State University of New York and City University of New York, as well as $1.2 billion for capital projects at higher education institutions.

In regards to public safety, Hochul is also proposing investments of $40 million to combat retail theft, $40 million to combat domestic violence and $35 million to combat hate crimes.

Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is also on track to reveal his preliminary budget plans for the citys fiscal year, which ends on June 30.

He said last week that he shaved off 20% of the citys current migrant-related expenditures.

But the state is already on track to spend around $2 billion on housing, legal services and National Guard personnel, mainly concentrated on efforts within the five boroughs.

President Joe Bidens administration has awarded less than $200 million to help with costs, drawing constant criticism from Adams as more than 100,000 migrants have arrived in the city since spring of 2022.

Washington said the state would also love to slim down expenses and is eager to revise projections in coming years.

Buses are still arriving and still a big headache, he said.

The state is also paying for leases for emergency migrant shelters at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, Floyd Bennett Field and the Lincoln Correctional Facility.

Continued here:
Hochul reveals $233 billion budget proposal - Spectrum News NY1

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