JPS Finance and Budget Director Brittnay Spry presents proposed 2023-24 school budget at public hearing (May 9, 2023)

The Jamestown Public Schools District has made its final presentation on the proposed $101 million 2023-24 budget ahead of the budget vote on May 16.

The budget has no tax levy increase and a 16.5% increase in State Foundation Aid. Because the increase is over 10%, the district was required to submit a Foundation Aid Plan to the state for how that money would be spent. That plan can be viewed at jpsny.org.

Finance and Budget Director Brittnay Spry said Governor Kathy Hochul‘s proposed set aside in Foundation Aid for use for High Impact Tutoring was rejected by the State Legislature. Had that been passed the district would have been mandated to use $900,000 in foundation aid toward tutoring.

The budget does include the hiring of 18 new teachers, most of whom will staff new Student Support Centers. A new Assistant Principal for Fletcher Elementary School is proposed as well given that Fletcher has the second highest student enrollment in the district, only behind the High School.

Besides the budget, a proposition will also be on the ballot to fund a new Capital Improvement Reserve Fund with up to $5 million.

The vote on the budget, capital improvement reserve fund proposition, and school board candidates will take place Tuesday, May 16 between 12:00 and 9:00 p.m. People may go to Jefferson or Washington Middle Schools; or Lincoln Elementary School to vote.

For more information on the budget and school board candidates, visit jpsny.org

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.”

New York State Capitol

The New York State Legislature passed a third budget extender Monday.

The three-day extension is to ensure state operations continue undisrupted as negotiations over the spending plan continue.

The budget was originally due April 1.

Governor Kathy Hochul and lawmakers are still trying to reach an agreement on changes to the state’s bail law, a housing plan and other policy issues the governor had included in her budget proposal.

A key sticking point has been Hochul’s proposed changes that would give judges more discretion on setting bail for violent felonies. Liberal lawmakers have resisted further changes to the state’s bail law.

Lawmakers must pass another extender Thursday if a state budget isn’t finalized by then.

Governor Kathy Hochul signs abortion rights package (June 13, 2022)

Governor Kathy Hochul has announced that the State will stockpile an abortion medication as part of ongoing efforts to protect access to abortion.

At the Governor’s direction, the New York State Department of Health will immediately begin purchasing Misoprostol in order to stockpile 150,000 doses, a five-year supply, in order to meet anticipated needs.

A federal judge in Texas ruled on April 7 to reverse the U.S. Food and Drug Administration‘s approval of mifepristone, an oral medication typically taken with misoprostol to end a pregnancy.

Conservative Christian legal advocacy group, Alliance Defending Freedom, requested the reversal in a lawsuit that said mifepristone is unsafe and that the FDA didn’t study it closely enough before approving its use. The FDA and mainstream medical doctors insist this isn’t true, and that there have been no safety concerns during the 23 years the drug has been on the market.
An injunction by the federal judge to ban mifepristone starting April 14 may impact as many as 64 million women of childbearing age in the U.S.

Hocul issued a statement saying, “Anti-choice extremists have shown that they are not stopping at overturning Roe, and they are working to entirely dismantle our country’s reproductive health care system, including medication abortion and contraception. New York will always be a safe harbor for abortion care, and I am taking action to protect abortion access in our State and continue to lead the nation in defending the right to reproductive autonomy.”

Hochul also announced that if the abortion medication Mifepristone is taken off the market, the State will commit up to an additional $20 million to providers to support access to other methods of care.

To further safeguard access to abortion medication, Hochul is also currently working with the State Legislature on new legislation to require private insurers to cover Misoprostol when it’s prescribed off-label for abortion and to ensure that no provider is charged increased medical malpractice coverage rates or loses coverage due to prescribing Misoprostol off-label.

New York State Capitol

New York State is still without a budget as the State Legislature is expected to reconvene today to pass another budget extender.

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli sent a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday saying that a budget extender needed to be passed by noon today in order to meet payroll needs for State employees. Approximately 83,000 workers at state agencies are due to be paid later this week.

Meanwhile, state legislators’ pay is being withheld by law until a state budget is passed. Their next payroll date is April 12.

Assembly Minority leader Will Barclay released a statement Friday calling the budget process disappointing and expressing his concern over the closed-door negotiations between the Senate and Assembly Democratic Majority Leaders with Governor Hochul, referred to over the decades as “three men in a room.”

New York State Assembly Chambers

The New York State Budget won’t be finalized until at least April 10 after Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature agreed to an extension.

Hochul said in a statement, “New Yorkers are concerned about public safety, the rising cost of housing, and ensuring high-quality schools for all our kids, and any budget deal must make progress on these core issues. I have been negotiating in good faith with the legislature, but it is clear there is more work to be done before we reach an agreement.”

Issues holding up the budget from being passed includes Hochul’s proposals to further revise the state’s 2019 bail reform laws and to enact a plan to address the affordable housing crisis by building 800,000 new dwelling units over the next few years.

The bail reform revisement is the biggest issue with Hochul proposing to eliminate the requirement that judges use the “least restrictive means” when deciding whether to hold someone accused of a crime before they go on trial.

Democrats, who lead both houses, are firmly against this.

State Senator George Borrello called the budget process dysfunctional as a result of one-party rule in Albany, saying in a statement, “Nothing illustrates those failures more plainly than the inability to get a budget passed on time. While those in power regularly proclaim New York State to be a model for its peers, a corrupt, behind-closed-doors budget process and irresponsible, unsustainable $230 billion budget is hardly an example to follow. ”

Legislators will return to Albany the day after Easter to continue budget deliberations.

New York State Capitol

Housing and bail reform disputes are holding up the passage of the New York State Budget.

The April 1 deadline for the budget came and went with no bills being passed.

The Democrat controlled Legislature is taking issue with two proposals by Governor Kathy Hochul that would amend the state’s 2019 bail law and set mandates on localities to speed housing growth.

Hochul is seeking to change the state’s bail reforms to remove the requirement that judges use the “least restrictive means” to ensure defendants return to court while awaiting trial or plea deals. Legislative leaders are opposing this.

On the housing issue, Hochul has proposed a Housing Compact that would set mandatory growth targets for all roughly 1,500 municipalities and rezoning to allow dense housing around commuter train and subway stations in New York City and its suburbs.

The Assembly and Senate want to instead replace the mandates with state funding incentives that localities could reap by meeting their growth targets.

An extender is expected to be passed today for the budget, giving lawmakers more time. They are hoping to have an additional one to two weeks to work on the budget.

The above marker is affixed to a memorial bench on the Pennsy Tracks walking trail dedicated to Penny Brown.

State Senator George Borrello is urging the State Parole Board to reconsider the approval of the release of a man who killed a Salamanca woman.

Edward Kindt was convicted of the rape and murder of Penny Brown on Mother’s Day in 1999.

Because he was 15 at the time of the killing, he was spared a life term on his plea to second degree murder and sentenced to nine years to life in prison, the maximum sentence available for a juvenile at the time.

Following the conviction, the State Legislature closed the loophole in the law that prevented Kindt from being charged as an adult with the 2003 passage of “Penny’s Law.” That statute raised the sentence for 14- and 15-year-olds convicted of second-degree murder.

Senator Borrello stressed the harm of the decision to release Kindt and urged the Parole Board and state leaders to show more concern for victims and public safety, saying, “I’ve written to the Parole Board about this travesty and requested that they reverse this terrible decision in the name of justice and the safety of the community. Penny Brown’s family has suffered more than we can imagine and deserve better than to have to live with the knowledge that this dangerous killer is out in society, free to victimize others. He should never walk free again. The Parole Board and our state leaders need to get their priorities straight. There is an unreasonable concern for the rights and freedoms of violent criminals and none for crime victims and public safety.”

Daylight Saving Time

But a bill has been re-introduced in Congress that could eliminate that.

Last year, Florida Senator Marco Rubio introduced the Sunshine Protection Act. The bill unanimously passed through the Senate but stalled in the House amid questions over whether year-round daylight saving time was actually safe or healthy.

That included the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, who called for the U.S. to stay on permanent standard time.

However, a bipartisan group of Senators including Marco Rubio recently re-introduced the Act to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

At the state level, a pair of bills is in the New York State Assembly and Senate that seek to make DST permanent for New York. Both bills, which were filed in the current legislative session, are pending in committee.

Daylight Saving Time was first introduced in 1918 as an energy conservation effort, shifting more daylight to the end of the day and less at the start.

The new Sunshine Protection Act is similar to the bill introduced last year. If passed, the clocks would change for the final time this Sunday and not change again in November, or ever again.

Doing so would also mean we would lose an hour of daylight in the morning from November through February. For example, the sun typically rises around 7:15 a.m. and sets around 4:30 p.m. on the first day of winter in New York City. Permanent daylight saving time would change sunrise to 8:15 a.m. and sunset to 5:30 p.m.

With Sunday’s “spring forward,” it’s also recommended that people test and change batteries in their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System Executive Director Janice Dekoff said the current year’s budget had included a $5 million increase in aid for a total of $104.6 million and this would be a set-back.

She said library officials were surprised to see this cut by Governor Kathy Hochul, “Since she’s been very supportive of us. And knowing that there has been a surplus in New York State of $8.7 billion, to talk about a $3.5 million cut from where we currently are seems like such a small thing.”

Dekoff said the libraries’ delivery service, which provides delivery of books and materials between the 36 libraries in the system, could be impacted by this cut, “It makes funding go further for all of our libraries. We have libraries whose entire book budget is less than $5,000, sometimes much less, and they can’t afford to buy all of the books that they would want to do. So by having that delivery service and that connection with the other libraries what they’re able to offer their community has grown exponentially from what they have.”

Dekoff said the cut in construction funding will make it harder to make needed upgrades to old facilities, “They’re looking at libraries that are, on average, 80 years old plus. And getting those buildings to be ADA compliant, energy efficient, safe for the public, you know we have libraries that struggle tremendously. They have these old, wonderful buildings but with those old, wonderful buildings come a lot of expenses.”

Dekoff said she would be joining other library officials in Albany this next week to meet with State Senators and Assembly representatives to advocate for funding to be restored.