The North Country Chamber recently hosted the region’s representatives in Albany for an update on activities and expectations at the New York state Capitol.
Business and community leaders gathered for the annual legislative breakfast, which came after Governor Kathy Hochul submitted her executive budget and the Senate and Assembly chambers were working on their versions of the state budget.
State Senator Dan Stec, a Republican from the 45th District, launched into a description of the budget process.
“The Assembly and Senate one-house budget resolutions will be prepared and then basically the remainder will be what’s been known as three people in a room, back and forth negotiation to try to take those three plans and meld them into one,” Stec explained. “And hopefully with a little effort we will deliver an on-time budget. Last year we were about a month late. I think this is going to be a challenging budget year and a lot of this is related to the post-COVID hangover that I think is just lingering over the entire country. That spigot has been turned off. Every state government handled that a little bit differently and I think New York handled it where there was like an expectation or an anticipation that this money would continue to flow. That reality is setting in now and so now you’re seeing a reaction to that.”
Stec says what’s most concerning across the district is the governor’s proposed changes to education foundation aid.
“Roughly half of the upstate school districts would see less money in that formula,” Stec said. “Whether or not the formula should be changed or not, that’s a worthy conversation to have. The way the Governor did it is she decided to go absolutely cold turkey, we’re going to make this change all at once. And again, it would be a reduction for about half of the school districts. I’ve got 48 school districts in my Senate district and exactly 24 of them would see less money under her proposal. I don’t expect that to be the final where we land but anytime an idea’s on the table you have to react to it and you have to be concerned about it.”
Assemblyman D. Billy Jones, the Democrat representing the 115th District, says he is confident both chambers can make up any education cuts. He also said health care costs need to be addressed.
“Our hospitals need support. They need help,” emphasized Jones. “We see the rising cost of not only health care staffing, we need to get more and proper Medicaid reimbursement for them. Housing as well. Housing is a huge issue. It took up a lot of the oxygen in the room last year. The Governor came out with 5 to 7 major initiatives that she wanted to see. She didn’t get very many of those initiatives through. So I think she is really going to push on that this year. And, as Dan had said, I don’t think it’s going to be an easy budget year. There’s nothing that really sticks out. But housing, believe me, is a major issue.”
Jones noted that the North Country region is keeping an eye on the fiscal status of the Metropolitan Transit Authority.
“The MTA is a big job creator here in the North Country,” noted Jones. “We make buses. We make transportation and so that’s very important to us. Also working on the Canadian-New York partnership. I’m the task force chair for New York – Canada Task Force relations. We had great talks about critical minerals and energy and very important infrastructure projects that we have from our friends and neighbors to the north. We can never forget about that relationship and how important it is to this region.”
A businessman asked about the lack of child care, noting it is impeding business development. Stec believes it’s not just funding such services that needs to be addressed.
“It’s the regulatory burden to get that single person that says I know how to take care of kids, I want to take care of kids,” said Stec. “But they’re not a businessperson. They’re not a lawyer. They don’t know how to get through all this. And one of the suggestions that had come up would be if there was funding, state funding, for like an ombudsman or someone that is an expert in the regulations, that their job is to bring the regulators together with the would-be provider, someone that knows the system and can walk them through it. I thought that was a good idea.”
The state budget is due April 1st.
