New York State Capitol

After a month and a day late, New York State finally has a 2024 budget.

The State Legislature finished passing budget bills late Tuesday night for the $229 billion spending plan.

Governor Kathy Hochul was successful in getting changes to bail reform that expands bail consideration for judges.

However, her Housing Compact plan was put on the back burner for further post-budget discussion.

The approved budget also includes more than $34 billion increase in school aid. Jamestown Public Schools will receive $9.5 million more in foundation aid, for total state aid funding of $83,706,514.

New York State of Polictics reports the budget will raise the minimum wage in Upstate New York to $16 in 2026 and index the base pay to the rate of inflation.

The budget does not raise the personal income tax.

A planned ban on natural gas hookups in new construction also passed.

State Senator George Borrello issued a statement calling the budget a “bad budget” that ignores affordability and public safety. On the bail reform change, Borrello said, “The promised changes are nothing but a shell game that will do nothing to reverse the tide of rising crime. Ninety percent of crimes are still not eligible for bail. Judges still do not have the discretion they need to hold dangerous individuals, despite rewording of the ‘least restrictive’ standard.”

Governor Kathy Hochul delivers 2023 State of the State (January 10, 2023)

Kathy Hochul delivered her first State of the State Tuesday as an elected Governor of New York.

She pledged to expand the number of available beds in psychiatric treatment facilities, address public safety concerns, and tie the minimum wage to the rate of inflation.

Hochul proposes a $1 billion investment in mental health that will include increasing the number of inpatient psychiatric treatment beds by 1,000, creating 3,500 units of housing for those with mental illness, increasing insurance coverage for mental health services, expanding outpatient services, and creating systemic accountability for hospital admissions and discharges to better address the needs of individuals suffering with mental illness.

Under public safety, Hochul plans to double funding for the Gun Involved Violence Elimination, or GIVE, program to $36 million. This will expand the use of evidence-based strategies – hot-spot policing, focused deterrence, crime prevention through environmental design, and street outreach – and result in the hiring of more than 150 police officers and prosecutors solely dedicated to combating gun violence within their communities.

She also said she will work with the State Legislature to clarify the State’s bail laws.

Hochul’s proposal for increasing the State’s minimum wage would be based on the growth in the year-over-year Consumer Price Index for Wage Earners (CPI-W) for the Northeast Region. To ensure that no single-year increase would threaten employment, annual increases would be capped. In addition, the proposal would also allow for an “off-ramp” in the event of certain economic or budget conditions.

Seventeen other states either currently tie their minimum wage to inflation or some other economic formula or are slated to do so, including three states which have minimum wages at or above $15 in 2023.

Hochul also introduced the New York Housing Compact’s plan to deal with housing shortages that will require all cities, towns, and villages to achieve new home creation targets on a three-year cycle. She said the proposals, if adopted by lawmakers, could spur the creation of 800,000 new homes over the next decade.

View Governor Hochul’s complete State of the State address here:

George Borrello, Andy Goodell

Chautauqua County’s representatives in the State Legislature hope to continue to address inflation and public safety following their re-election.

State Senator George Borrello defeated Democrat Dan Brown in Tuesday’s elections. He said he’s grateful for the support in the new 57th District, which now includes parts of Genesee and Wyoming Counties.

Borrello said crime is still the number one issue to tackle when the new legislative session starts in January, “If we don’t feel safe and if people don’t feel safe in New York State then really nothing else matters. You’ve got to address the affordability issue here in New York State, once again. We continue to lead the nation in out-migration. And, ultimately, New Yorkers have to feel that their government is serving them and we need a transparent government.”

Assemblyman Andy Goodell won his race against Democrat Sandra Lewis. He said his focus in his campaign and for his next term is to address high inflation in New York, including high energy costs, “And so I’ll be urging my Assembly colleagues to make more affordable energy available by opening up environmentally responsible natural gas development in the Southern Tier, which would be a huge benefit not only to the Southern Tier but to everyone that uses natural gas. I’ll also urge them to look at expanding our electrical capacity, especially as the state is looking to electrify more buildings and vehicles.”

Goodell said he has also worked with Senator Borrello to introduce legislation to restore judicial discretion when it comes to setting bail. He said he hopes to continue that work in regards to dealing with issues around bail reform in the new year.

United Way of Southern Chautauqua County Executive Director Amy Rohler kicks off annual campaign at the YWCA Lodge in Lakewood (September 22, 2022)

The United Way of Southern Chautauqua County has kicked off its campaign to raise $1.3 million to support local agencies.

United Way Executive Director Amy Rohler said there’s an energy she has not felt in a couple of years, “So much related to the Pandemic and people having to navigate those things in their workplaces and being able to come out of that, you can just feel it in the air. So, we’re just excited about this year. I think it’s going to be a great year even though the economy is a little up and down right now. Inflation is something we’re just waiting to see what happens with it, but we have a generous community and we really think that we’ll be able to raise the money and reach our goal.”

Rohler said one of the things they learned during the pandemic was the many tools that can be used for people to give, “We do a text-to-give campaign now. We use QR codes all over the place. On our brochure is a QR code. You can right now pull out your phone and text ‘United We Can’ to 9-1-9-9-9 and pull up our donation page but you can watch the video when you use that code. You’ll know that 100% (of donations) stays local when you use that code. And then you can donate right then and there.”

United Way donations benefit 42 programs located at 29 agencies in Chautauqua County. The campaign runs until the end of the year with the results announced in January 2023.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As a point of transparency and disclosure to our audience, the United Way of Southern Chautauqua County is a corporate underwriter for WRFA and has provided a financial contribution for the general operations of the station within the past year. Funding we receive for General Operations is not used to fund our coverage of local news in the community. That is only made possible through a Community Service Grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

Congressman Tom Reed says government needs to act to curb inflation that’s resulted in higher prices for consumers.

Reed, in his weekly media call, said wholesale inflation has increased 9.7% over last year. According to the January consumer price index, overall prices have increased 7.5% during the last year.

Reed said the pain of inflation is real for Americans, even for those whose wages are going up, “The reality is, is food prices, energy prices, and all of the indicators show that inflation in the foreseeable future, absent new leadership changes by the White House as well as members of Congress coming together to solve this problem, is going to continue.”

The Labor Department reports that overall wages fell an average of 2.4% for all workers when adjusted for inflation.

Reed said government needs to stop dumping money into the economy in a way that exacerbates inflation and instead adopt policies that increase the supply chain, “That are going to increase things like our micro-processors, our computer chips and the innovative and creative items that we need to domestically build and support here in America.”

Reed said dependency on other countries, such as China, are causing supply chains to be limited.