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North Country Officials Assess Budget Deliberations

NYS Capitol building in Albany

As details of the New York State budget filter out, different municipal and business sectors are reviewing it to determine its potential impact. WAMC’s North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley spoke with some North Country interests on their initial budget thoughts.

The Plattsburgh North Country Chamber of Commerce was among the first to praise the agreement that should lead to an on-time budget, the fifth straight.  President and CEO Garry Douglas notes that the state budget process was severely dysfunctional not so long ago.   “That’s what was undermining the business climate in the state of New York was spiraling finances, out-of-control.  So the achievement for the fifth year in a row now of an on-time budget, and even more importantly, of a budget that for the fifth time now contains the rate of growth in the operating spending of this state to 2 percent is pretty darned amazing.  We’re maintaining fiscal discipline and that’s the most important story of this budget.”

Beyond the basic fiscal discipline, Douglas, who is co-chair of the Regional Economic Development Council, is pleased with the decisions on how the state will spend the one-time court settlement funds that total between 5 and 6 billion dollars.  “That’s an amazing investment in upstate regions to really do some transformational work. The other historic commitment that’s in there particularly for the North Country is the $500 million in funding for matching funds to close all the remaining broadband gaps in the state of new York and those are particularly severe in many areas in the North Country and across the Adirondacks. That is historic. We can’t be a 21st century state until all parts of the state have 21st century communications technology.”

Though lawmakers and Governor Cuomo announced they had a deal Sunday night, details of the budget are coming out in dribs and drabs so it’s hard to determine some of the exact ramifications.
Plattsburgh Mayor Independent James Calnon agrees with the Chamber that the billion and a half dollars is the best part of the new budget. But he believes that the budget won’t have much overall  impact on the city.   “One of the things that I think will make a difference to the city taxpayers is the change in education aid. That’s good news for he taxpayers. But there’s no relief at all for the other municipalities and there hasn’t been in a number of years. If we had gotten the same 6.1 percent we wouldn’t have had to raise our tax levy at all. Cities and villages and counties have been held flat for years and years and so our only means of support is property taxes.  This is a budget that was expected to have some impact on property taxes. It will have an impact on school property taxes.  In this case the aid to cities is an area where it’s been frozen for years.”

45th District Republican Senator Betty Little represents the North Country and is a member of the Finance Committee. She says there were a number of policy issues removed from the budget, which she says will be dealt with by the end of session in June.   “In the beginning there were just way too many policy issues to try to come to a conclusion and a negotiation on.  Education and ethics were two of the major issues that we have dealt with in this budget. I think that’s why some of the other policy issues are just taken off the table and they will wait until the end of June. We’re still here and we can debate those. But there will be ethics reform in the budget and it’s more about more disclosure. And I think that’s good.”

By late morning Tuesday, Republican Assemblywoman Janet Duprey of the 115th district said her chamber had voted on five budget bills and was awaiting the printed versions of others — including the education funding bill. She reports that she had voted for four of the five so far, rejecting the revenue bill.   “I voted against the revenue bill.  There’s nothing in there to change our tax programs. There’s no mandate relief in there for our local municipalities, which we had really pushed hard for this year. We have extra money and this would have been the perfect year to give more mandate relief. That’s the one bill that I voted against, but the other four I supported. I think there’s more good in them than not. I hope I can say the same thing with the other bills that we’re waiting for. You know my huge support for our public education system and I’m anxious to see the bill and hopefully it’s something that we can fully support.”

New York’s budget is due April 1st.