SENATOR BIAGGI AND SENATE MAJORITY PASS ONE-HOUSE BUDGET RESOLUTION TO INVEST IN NEW YORK’S COMMUNITIES

ALBANY, NY – Yesterday, Senator Alessandra Biaggi and the Senate Democratic Majority passed its one-house budget resolution that invests in our communities to galvanize New York’s economic development and continued recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Senate resolution includes a historic $3 billion investment in childcare, $1.1 billion for the CUNY and SUNY “New Deal,” fair pay for home care workers, and an expansion of the Essential Plan to provide healthcare to income-eligible undocumented New Yorkers. 

State Senator Alessandra Biaggi (D-Bronx/Westchester) issued the following statement:

“The Senate’s one-house budget resolution invests in our communities by supporting high quality education, economic development, healthcare and housing. We are strengthening education for New Yorkers of all ages by expanding universal Pre-K, investing $100 million in community schools, and providing $1.1 billion in funding for the CUNY and SUNY New Deal. I am proud that our Senate one-house resolution includes a first of its kind $3 billion investment in child care –– a sector that was one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Child care is economic development, and our state’s labor force and economic growth will suffer until every New Yorker has access to affordable and quality childcare. We are also making vital investments to support and retain home healthcare workers by finally guaranteeing fair pay, and expanding access to the state’s Essential Plan for undocumented New Yorkers. Our budget proposal also includes a $500 million investment in public housing and funding for the Housing Voucher Access program to help unhoused New Yorkers find long-term housing and those at risk of eviction stay in their homes. This funding represents only the beginning of needed investments in NYCHA and affordable housing around the state. In the final State Budget, we must also include S3593A, an initiative I sponsor to require internet access for all shelter residents in New York.

These investments will strengthen our communities –– and make them safer for all New Yorkers in the long-term. We are also investing $200 million in gun violence prevention, including support for community-based programs which are a vital tool to preventing violence now. And we increased funding for the Office of Victim Services to ensure victims receive the resources and support they need. 

While the proposal makes transformative investments, New York must go further in the final State Budget to address our climate crisis. The increase in the Environmental Bond Act from $4 to $6 billion falls short of the investment needed to meet the goals of the Climate Action Plan. 

Although omitted from the Senate one-house resolution, I want to highlight the ongoing need to reform our ethics laws and replace JCOPE with an effective and independent body. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the legislature and the Governor to pass ethics reform outside of the budget process this year, including my bill S6964A to improve the function of JCOPE in the near-term.”

To review the full Senate Majority one-house state budget resolution, please visit: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/resolutions/2021/r2081 

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