State Budget Update
Following the holiday weekend, the legislature returned to Albany on Tuesday to continue their work on finalizing the state budget. While the main education budget bill was approved by the legislature this past Thursday, two additional budget bills have since been released. However, the remaining budget bills that have not yet been released include all four appropriation (funding) bills, so plenty of work throughout the week remains. The legislature passed another budget extender today, their 15th, which funds state government operations through Thursday.
Enacted State Budget Webinar
We will be delivering our enacted budget webinar this Thursday, May 28th, from 12pm-1:30pm. While we generally wait until full completion of the entire state budget before hosting this webinar, the bulk of the education portion of the budget has been passed and we recognize that end of school year activities and obligations are quickly approaching – so we want to make sure you have the state budget information that’s important to you and your schools sooner rather than later. We hope you can join us to hear what’s in the budget, what was left out and answer any questions you may have.
Legislative Update
As state budget work continues, the legislature has also been moving a number of bills that NYSSBA supports and has advocated for. Some of those notable bills, and their progress, are listed below:
- S.3245-A, Cooney / A.10860, McDonald (Approved by Assembly Local Governments Committee) - Would include properties under a PILOT agreement as part of the property tax cap calculation.
- S.8174-A, Martinez / A.10065, Kassay (Approved by Senate Education Committee) - Would authorize the New York Liquidation Bureau to disburse funds for certain Child Victim Act claims
- S.9272-A, Fernandez / A.8814-A, McDonald (Approved by Assembly Education Committee) - Would require schools to stock opioid antagonists and direct NYS DOH to supply districts with sufficient amounts.
- S.9670, Bynoe / A.10496, Griffin (Approved by Senate Local Government Committee) - Would authorize BOCES to establish workers’ compensation reserve funds.
- S.10075-A, Zellner / A.11162-A, Solages (Approved by both Senate and Assembly Local Government committees) - Would extend the authority for school districts to engage in shared purchasing (commonly referred to as piggybacking) for an additional year.
Many of these bills, and more, are part of our Final Legislative Priorities document that NYSSBA has been sharing with legislators and other state policy makers in recent weeks.
You can view that list below.