Senator Phillips: Senate Budget Proposal Controls State Spending & Invests in the Right Priorities

     Senator Elaine Phillips (R-Manhasset) announced that the New York State Senate passed a budget resolution outlining its priorities for the final State Budget that is due April 1st. 

     “Tax relief, affordability, infrastructure and more state aid from Albany are priorities in every Long Island community.  This budget proposal delivers on them. It continues to restrain state spending while still delivering record aid for schools, tax relief for homeowners and businesses, tuition assistance for working families and increased investment to repair and improve roads, bridges and water infrastructure.  I will continue to fight for these priorities as the budget process moves forward,” said Senator Phillips.

     Highlights of the Senate’s budget resolution include:

• Enabling homeowners to continue receiving increases to their STAR benefits and reversing changes made last year to the STAR program from reimbursements back to an up-front exemption effective for the 2018-19 school year.
• Making the property tax cap permanent;
• Providing additional tax relief for small businesses to help them grow and create jobs;
• Delivering record state education aid to school districts and further increase aid beyond what Governor Cuomo proposed in his Executive Budget;
• Restoring the Governor’s proposed cuts to local libraries and increasing state aid to libraries to support the valuable programs, services and resources they provide to communities;
• Providing additional state aid for local governments to repair and improve their roads and bridges;
• Increasing state funding for NICE Bus and other non-MTA transit systems, which could be used to prevent service cuts;
• Enabling more Long Island families to qualify for college financial aid from New York State; and
• Allowing for a nearly $8 billion investment to repair and enhance water-related infrastructure, as well as deal with emerging contaminants, to ensure that we continue to have clean, safe drinking water.

     Additional information about the Senate’s budget resolution and the State Budget process can be found by clicking here.