Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed her first state budget, a $216.3 billion spending plan for the 2023 fiscal year that includes $31.2 billion in school aid, an increase of more than $2 billion.
Hochul also wants a $2 billion pandemic relief fund to help small businesses and the economy recover from COVID-19, $1.2 billion in salary bonuses for health care workers and $2.2 billion dollars in property tax relief.
Hochul is riding a temporary surplus of cash caused by an increase last year in state sales tax revenues and federal COVID aid. She calls it a once in a lifetime chance to make investments in New York that will have big payoffs down the road. Part of that is a $32.8 billion state infrastructure plan to partner with Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill. It will make investments in roads and bridges, mass transit, modernize existing transit hubs and revitalize community streets.
Hochul is also pushing clean energy in her budget with a $4 billion environmental bond act and a $500 million investment in offshore wind energy.