“As the Chair of the State Senate Education Committee, one of my priorities is ensuring we provide increased funding in the state budget for public schools throughout the state. I am honored to work with colleagues who share a commitment to the children of New York State and to ensuring that school districts, regardless of who represents them, have the resources they need to provide a quality education for every child. The One-House Budget Resolution provides historic support for schools and higher education, including:

• Increasing School Aid by $1.62 billion or 6.0% over the 2018-2019 school year;
• Increasing Foundation Aid by $1.2 billion or 6.8% over last year;
• Reforming the tuition assistance program (TAP) by increasing the minimum TAP award, the maximum TAP award, and increasing eligibility by raising the TAP income threshold so more New York families can benefit;
• And, for the first time, providing a new pool of $25 million in additional grants to school districts to support English Language Learning students;
• Providing $20 million for expanded pre-kindergarten grants, $5 million
  above the Executive;
• Increasing funding for higher education, including an additional $5.8
  million for community college base aid.

In addition to investing in our students and families, the One-House Budget Resolution:

• Restores $60 million in Aid and Incentives to Municipalities (AIM) funding for towns and villages;
• Provides $10 million in funding for early voting and other voting reforms to ensure that local governments are not required to spend additional funding to implement voting reforms enacted by the state government; 
• Adds an additional $150 million to Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS) funding, for a total of $588 million, to ease the burden on local municipalities by providing state funding to repair local streets and highways; 
• Increases non-MTA Downstate transit systems funding, including Bee-Line, to $350 million, an additional $12.2 million over the Executive proposal, and $11 million for the Lower Hudson Transit Link bus service; 
• Restores millions in Medicaid cuts to our local hospitals; 
• Allocates an additional $2 billion, for a total of $2.5 billion, for clean water infrastructure projects; 
• Includes language which underscores the State Senate’s commitment to tenant protection in Westchester County; 
• Protects taxpayers by ensuring community benefits when projects are supported by public dollars. When development projects receive tax incentives from the state or a local Economic or Industrial Development Agency, those project should be required to pay prevailing wage, and every effort should be made to hire local workers. ”