Senator Samra Brouk’s Advocacy Pays Off for Rochester Community in the NYS Senate One-House Budget

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 15, 2021

Media contact:
Jenna McDavid, Communications Manager
‪(585) 210-3343
mcdavid@nysenate.gov 

Albany, NY - Today, the Senate Majority passed its one-house budget resolution for FY 2021-22 (Senate Resolution No. 504). This budget invests in a brighter, more equitable future for New York State by fully funding essential services and putting more money in the pockets of working and middle-class families. Locally, the one-house budget provides much-needed support to get the 55th District through the COVID-19 pandemic and bolster education, economic development, healthcare access, and criminal justice reform.

“The need for investment in our communities is greater than ever, and the Senate’s proposed budget brings much-needed funding to the 55th District,” stated Senator Samra Brouk. “Within this resolution are some incredible wins for the Rochester region. I promised that I would be a strong and unifying voice in Albany, and I insisted that our residents’ voices be at the table when these decisions were being made. And today, with this resolution, I’m proud to claim that the Senate has delivered more to our district than has been delivered in many, many years. From meaningful investment in our schools, to retaining local control of the management of the Erie Canal, to historic funding for our Police Accountability Board, this is the commitment that our region needs to recover from this pandemic and ensure a brighter future.”

The Senate one-house budget proposes meaningful investment and important changes in the following areas of local interest:

Notable Local Adds

• The Senate budget provides additional education aid to the Rochester City School District in order to completely close projected deficits
• The Senate rejects the Executive proposal to create the Canal System Revitalization Act that dissolves the Canal Recreationway Commission and establishes a New York State Canal System Revitalization Trust
• Adds $1 million in additional funding for the Rochester Police Accountability Board
• Provides $200,000 for Rochester Building Trades Pre-Apprenticeship Program

Education

• Commits to a three-year phase-in of Foundation Aid by the 2023-24 school year for every school in the 55th Senate District
• Restores $175,000 for the Rochester City School District monitor
• Increases School Aid by $5.7 billion (20.5 percent), including a $1.37 billion (7.4 percent) Foundation Aid increase and $3.85 billion in federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act funding
• The Senate advances language to extend the authority of the Rochester Joint Schools Construction Board to modernize educational facilities in the Rochester City School District
• Provides $500 million to fully-fund full day prekindergarten statewide
• Adds $20 million for library construction and restores $7 million in aid to public libraries
• Provides free broadband access to every student and school in the State to ensure that all children have access to education for the duration of the pandemic
• Provides $6.9 million in additional funding to schools for the blind and deaf, for a total of $110.8 million

Health/Aging

• Restores $455 million in Medicaid cut contributions along with cuts to dozens of essential Public Health programs
• $624 million to increase the minimum wages for the lowest paid home health care workers, who have not seen raises in years and have kept working through the pandemic at great personal risk
• $328.5 million for residential health care for medically fragile children and young adults.
• $200 million for acute care facilities and nursing homes to increase nurse staffing levels to provide better quality of care for nursing home patients

Environment

• Authorizes a $3 billion Clean Water, Green Jobs, Green New York Environmental Bond Act that will fund projects related to restoration and flood risk reduction, open space land preservation and recreation, climate change mitigation, and water quality improvement and resilient infrastructure

Housing

• $400 million for additional rental assistance, in addition to available federal funds
• $200 million for homeowner assistance

The NYS 2021-22 budget will be negotiated and passed before the April 1st deadline.

To review the full Senate Majority One-house State Budget Resolution, please visit: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/resolutions/2021/r504

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New York State Senator Samra Brouk (pronounced Sah-mra Br-uuk) represents the incredibly diverse 55th Senate District, stretching from the southern shores of Lake Ontario, through Rochester’s Neighborhood of the Arts, and south to Finger Lakes wine country. It includes the towns of Victor, East Bloomfield, West Bloomfield, Richmond, Bristol, South Bristol, Canadice, and Naples in Ontario County and the towns of Rush, Mendon, Pittsford, Perinton, Penfield, East Rochester, and Irondequoit, plus the east side of the City of Rochester in Monroe County. Senator Brouk serves as the Chair of the Mental Health Committee and sits on Health, Education, Elections, Women’s Issues, Aging, and Alcoholism and Substance Abuse committees.