FROM THE MAYOR’S OFFICE: Albany Update

This past week I was in Albany for the New York Conference of Mayor’s Legislative Session. This is a moment when Mayor’s throughout New York can meet to review and discuss the upcoming State Budget. I also serve on a statewide Environmental Committee/Task Force, and we met to review any environmental proposals in the Budget.

Overall, the Budget is balanced. The environmental initiatives include a stronger bottle bill, an increase in funding for the Environmental Protection Fund from $300 million to $400 million, an increase of one billion dollars for the Clean Air Bond Act, the extension and enhancement of Brownfields Programs, and an Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging. It’s clear that NYS’s environment is of concern and a priority for this administration.

Of interest to Villages, Cities, and Towns is AIM funding, which communities receive as a state allocation. Sadly, this funding has not budged for many years, but the good news is that there is a proposal to end the intercept of local sales tax to pay for the program.

Under Transportation, CHIPS funding, which is a lifeline for communities to repair local roads and bridges, is at historic levels. That number is $538 million with an additional $100 million in Extreme Winter Recovery funding.

Under Water and Sewer Infrastructure Funding the Executive Budget includes an additional $500 million. This would raise the total clean water investment to $4.5 billion. I have been part of the lobbying effort for a direct infrastructure fund in the same way we receive allocations for local roads (CHIPS), if this were to be put into place, communities could spend money on preventative measures and upgrades instead of waiting for a disaster.

These are only a few highlights of a budget that will go through many forms before the final approval. It’s important to have a sense of what is happening in Albany because its ripple effects are often profound to us on a local level.

For more information regarding the NYS Budget, please visit:

https://www.budget.ny.gov/

For more information regarding Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging, please visit:

https://nerc.org/documents/EPR%20for%20Packaging%20&%20Paper%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

The next Village Board meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 22, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. and will be held through Zoom video conference and may be viewed live by the public on the Village of Warwick, NY YouTube Channel.