Senator Rob Rolison Statement on Fiscal Year 2023-24 State Budget

ALBANY, NY -- Senator Rob Rolison (39^th District) released the following statement today after the state legislature's upper chamber voted on the fiscal year 2023-2024 budget:

“The $230 billion state spending plan is over a month late and fails to effectively address the crises of public safety and affordability. For these reasons and more, I cannot support the damaged final product of a broken budget process.  

“The issues facing our state are too important to sequester in closed-door meetings decided by a small elite. We must move beyond partisan politics and offer commonsense solutions that lower the cost of living and keep people safe. We had an opportunity to make progress in a bipartisan fashion early in the budget cycle. In the last 30 or so days, however, as Albany's one-party leadership withdrew from public scrutiny, I became deeply troubled by the Capitol's return to a cynical, business-as-usual approach.  

“Despite these challenges, our office achieved several victories for the people of the 39th District. Thanks to a bipartisan effort, my colleagues and I were able to spare the Hudson Valley from the MTA payroll tax hike. We also secured a $134 million investment for free school meals in disadvantaged communities and increased funding for arts and cultural programs across the state.  

“In the end, though, Albany's $230 billion budget bill must be regarded as a failure. The plan failed to solicit much local input for its most ambitious provisions, relying instead on a select few in Albany and their network of special interests. It failed to include meaningful reforms to enhance public safety such as changes to discovery rules in courtrooms as well as upgrades to the shortsighted Raise the Age law. It largely ignores the hard work and sacrifice of helping professions such as home health aides by scaling back their overdue cost-of-living increase. The budget would also mandate the state to begin imposing a natural gas ban on new buildings of seven stories or fewer starting in just two years. Finally, the budget will likely raise property taxes between 7% and 14% across the Hudson Valley thanks to its plan to withhold critical Medicaid funding from counties. The cumulative result of these failures will be another exodus of people and businesses out of New York State. Albany can, and must, do better.”