Governor Cuomo says approval of New York’s delayed state budget has hit another snag…and once again, it’s with his “Raise the Age” plan to stop prosecuting 16-and-17-year-old lawbreakers as adults.
Cuomo reached a compromise with the State Senate on Tuesday to continue treating violent teenage crime as adult crime, particularly if guns or sexual crimes are involved. The senate then approved the budget bills working through the night into this morning. The State Assembly then started approving bills, but according to the governor they hit another snag.
This time, Governor Cuomo says the question is over whether teen offenders should be supervised by the Department of Corrections or the Office of Family and Child Services when they get out of state custody.
Another snag is over a $1,500 per student aid increase to Charter Schools, which happens automatically if the legislature fails to change it. That would come at the expense of regular public school aid for Rochester and the other big city school districts.
These issues are likely to push budget approval back by another couple of days. The governor says his office will get temporary budget numbers to school districts which have to deliver their own budgets in May and need to know what they can expect in state aid.
It’s a roughly $142 billion budget. It extends the so-called “Millionaire’s Tax” by two years instead of three while keeping state income taxes flat for the rest of us. It raises state education aid slightly; we won’t know the actual breakdowns until the budget is approved and printed. It puts $2.5 billion into repairing rundown public water systems around the state and it allows ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft to operate outside of New York City.
There’s also a long-debated reform of New York’s Workers Compensation System senate leaders say will save businesses $700 million a year.