I voted for the Assembly’s 2017-18 budget proposals that invest in the greater Syracuse area’s infrastructure and provides municipalities with mandate relief to keep taxes down (E.179).

In response to the governor’s budget proposal, the NYS Assembly countered with its own budget proposal last week. The Assembly wants to make sure our cities, towns and counties have the funding they need to keep providing vital services to our families without pushing taxes higher.

Our budget proposal also funds much-needed road, bridge and water infrastructure repairs, so our residents can travel safely.

The Assembly’s budget proposal includes $715 million in aAid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM) — $50 million more than the executive’s proposal. AIM funding provides direct state aid to local governments.

In addition, the Assembly proposal strengthens the executive’s Clean Water Infrastructure Act of 2017. The Assembly wants to build upon the program in order to assist municipalities by providing grants to improve water quality, which include:

α$1.1 billion for the 2015 Water Infrastructure Improvement Act to help municipalities upgrade their drinking and wastewater infrastructure;

• $138 million for the replacement of lead drinking water service lines;
• $110 million for inter-municipal regional water infrastructure grants;
• $110 million for land acquisition projects for source water protection;
• $80 million for green infrastructure;
• $80 million to address the issue of emergent contaminants;
• $70 million for water quality improvement projects; and
• $50 million for upgrades to septic systems to reduce nitrogen loading.

Most of the roads and bridges throughout the state are maintained by dedicated local highway departments. However, despite their best efforts, many still need important repairs because the funding for them hasn’t kept pace. The Assembly is committed to helping the Greater Syracuse area repair roads and bridges so millions of New Yorkers can use our infrastructure safely.

The Assembly’s budget proposal increased funding for the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement program (CHIPS) to $488 million, a $50 million increase from the proposed executive budget.  We are a society and economy dependent on our roads and CHIPS is a smart investment — it helps fund much-needed repairs in our infrastructure while creating good-paying jobs for our area.

The budget process in New York State has budgets proposed by the governor, the Assembly and the Senate. Once the three budgets are on the table, the negotiation begins, with a final agreed upon budget due by April 1.  The agreement then becomes the FY2017-2018 spending plan.