As we approach the final weeks of the legislative session, we have compiled a priority list of bills that we are sharing with legislators in person and electronically. While we continue to comment and advocate for or against numerous additional bills in various stages of the legislative process, we have prioritized the bills listed here for action in these final weeks.
NYSSBA 2025 Final Legislative Priorities
You can send this list directly to your state legislators via the Take Action tool below.
Two NYSSBA Priority Bills Pass Legislature
This past week, two pieces of legislation which the NYSSBA Governmental Relations team have been advocating for successfully passed both houses of the legislature. The first, S.3367 (Mayer) / A.2318 (McDonald), builds on the successful constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2023 to increase small city school districts’ debt limit to match that of all other districts. The bill would further effectuate those provisions by making consistent how state aid is factored into the debt limit calculation, and reflects a position statement adopted at a NYSSBA Annual Business Meeting by voting delegates, to more closely match legal requirements for small city school districts with other types of districts. The second, S.2589 (Mayer) / A.5301 (Woerner), drafted and introduced directly based on a separate position statement, updates the absentee ballot application for school board and budget elections to more closely match the application for all other types of elections. These bills have yet to be delivered to the Governor.
NYSSBA’s Enacted Budget Webinar video available
NYSSBA’s Governmental Relations team presented their review of the enacted state budget late last week. The webinar included answers to a number of member questions. You can watch the video here. As a reminder, you can review the NYSSBA 2025-26 Enacted Budget Analysis, which details the numerous provisions of the recently approved state budget that can have an impact – direct and indirect – on your school districts and BOCES.
Federal Update
The House Republicans passed a reconciliation bill early Thursday morning, coined “One, Big, Beautiful Bill”, that would make sweeping changes to Medicaid, SNAP, and current tax provisions, if signed into law. Budget reconciliation allows for expedited procedures to advance certain tax, spending, and debt limit legislation. Notably, much of the education funding school districts receive from the federal government cannot be considered under budget reconciliation, such as Title I and IDEA. Here is a brief summary of what was included in the bill that has passed the House of Representatives.
- SALT deduction cap lifted from $10,000 to $40,000 for household incomes up to $500,000 (NYSSBA has advocated for a full repeal of the cap on SALT deductions)
- $5 billion a year to support private school vouchers
- Changes to Medicaid benefits that the Congressional Budget Office estimates would cause 10.3 million people to lose Medicaid over 10 years
- Changes to SNAP benefits that could put 11 million people at risk of losing their nutrition assistance, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
The Senate is now expected to take up its own version of the reconciliation bill. Senate deliberations may produce a package that differs significantly from the House version. Ultimately, the House and Senate will have to pass the same version of the bill before it can go to President Trump for his signature. The president has stated that it’s his goal to sign a reconciliation bill into law by July 4.
2025 Resolutions Process
Last month, all NYSSBA members were sent our annual Resolutions Kit. The Kit contains results of the recent resolutions survey and detailed instructions on the resolution submission process for 2025. To review our current position statements, you can find them here. Please note, the Resolutions Kit linked to below includes two sunsetting positions that were inadvertently omitted from the version emailed out last month. As a reminder, all exisiting position statements can always be viewed in our position statement brochure. All 2020 positions will be sunsetting and must be resubmitted for a vote at the Annual Business Meeting if they are to remain as official NYSSBA positions. Questions that received at least a 2/3 ‘support’ or ‘oppose’ response in the resolutions survey will likely be submitted by the NYSSBA Board of Directors on behalf of the membership but can also be submitted by a member board.
Here are a few important dates for the process:
July 18, 2025 @ 5pm - Deadline for Submission of Proposed Bylaw Amendments and Resolutions
September 8, 2025 - Distribution of Proposed Bylaw Amendments and Resolutions Book
September 19, 2025 @ 5pm - Deadline for Submission of Amendments, Rebuttals, and Endorsements
September 29, 2025 - Distribution of Voting Delegates’ Guide
October 16, 2025 @ 4pm - Annual Business Meeting