Siena College Poll released polling results which show Hochul’s job approval is at 56%, up from 49% in December. Her favorability rating is 48%, up a little from 45% last month.

The poll of registered New York State voters released Monday reports six of Hochul’s State of the State proposals have strong to overwhelming support – four of them bipartisan – while her proposal to allow SUNY to increase tuition is strongly opposed.

While a majority of voters think Hochul will make progress this year on her goal of creating more jobs and opportunities, a larger majority think she will not make progress on making New York more affordable, and pluralities think she will not be successful making the state safer or fixing its mental health system.

Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said the jump in approval ratings from last month is largely thanks to independent and downstate voters.

He said, “When it comes to not raising state income taxes this year, voters overwhelmingly agree with Hochul, with no difference among Democrats, Republicans and independents. And strong majorities of voters of every partisan persuasion support three of her other proposals: guaranteeing state employees up to 12 weeks of paid family leave, basing the minimum wage on the inflation rate, and giving judges more discretion to set bail for offenders accused of serious crimes.”

Paid family leave

New York’s Paid Family Leave program is employee-paid insurance that provides workers with job-protected, paid time off to spend with newborns, adopted or a fostered child; care for a family member with a serious health condition, or assist when a member of the family is deployed abroad on active military service. Paid Family Leave may also be available in some situations when an employee or their minor, dependent child is under an order of quarantine or isolation due to COVID-19. Eligible workers may take up to 12 weeks off at 67% of their pay (up to a cap) to care for family members in times of need.

Currently, Paid Family Leave family care covers caring for spouses, domestic partners, children and step-children, parents, parents-in-law, grandparents and grandchildren with a serious health condition. Through the new legislation, the definition of “family members” expands to include siblings. This includes biological siblings, adopted siblings, step-siblings and half-siblings. These family members can live outside of New York State, and even outside of the country.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand spoke on the Senate floor Wednesday and called on Congress to pass the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act.

According to New York’s Junior Senator, the United States is the only industrialized country in the world that does not guarantee access to some form of paid leave, forcing millions of American workers to choose between earning a paycheck and leaving their job to take care of their family.

Gillibrand’s FAMILY Act would create a paid family and medical leave program for all workers, which would provide up to 66 percent of wage-replacement for 12 weeks in the event of a serious personal or family medical emergency.

She said the paid family leave proposal announced by Senate Republicans does not apply to all workers, and would force workers to borrow from their Social Security to take paid time off.

“Congress should be working to strengthen Social Security, but this Senate Republican plan weakens it,” Gillibrand said in a statement released Wednesday. “Any plan that robs the Social Security trust fund will hurt low-income workers, seniors, and women the most. Women already receive less Social Security benefits than men, and this plan only exacerbates that problem. Our country desperately needs a paid family medical leave plan, but robbing Peter to pay Paul is shortsighted and wrong. No worker should have to borrow against their own Social Security benefits, which are already too low, to get paid family leave when they need it to take care of a new baby, a sick family member, or themselves. We need to pass a paid leave program that is comprehensive, affordable, gender-neutral, and covers all of life’s unexpected medical events. This bill fails that test. Congress should act now to pass the FAMILY Act, which is an earned benefit that would help all American workers take paid time off through shared responsibility of the employer and employee.”

The New Year brings New York State a higher minimum wage, which is now $10.40 an hour. Meanwhile the minimum wage for fast food workers is now $11.75 outside of New York City.

Both Upstate and New York City are following different schedules for when the minimum wage will increase. For Upstate, the wage will peak at $12.50 as of Dec. 31, 2020 and is supposed to increase to $15 after that based annual economic studies by the state Division of Budget.

The state paid family leave program officially began on Monday. Broadly, New Yorkers are eligible for paid leave benefits to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, to take care of an ailing family member, or if they are left in a lurch because a spouse, child or parent is called away to active military duty.

In 2018, New Yorkers can take up to eight weeks off at 50 percent of their average weekly wage. The length and pay will ramp up over time to 55 percent for 10 weeks in 2019, 60 percent for 10 weeks in 2020 and finally 67 percent in 2021. The program is employee-funded, with a percentage of the average weekly wage taken out of employee paychecks.

There’s also changes to state tax policy that are separate and apart from the new federal tax laws. The state changes include an increased child care tax credit for those earning between $50,000 and $150,000 annually.  Also, unionized workers will be allowed to deduct their union dues from state taxes. The union dues deduction is disappearing from the federal tax code under the reform law signed in December.

A constitutional amendment approved by the voters now allows judges to reduce or strip the pension of public officials convicted of a felony related to their official duties. That includes any elected official, state official appointed by the governor, judge and certain employees involved in policy making.

The State Capitol, Albany NY.

ALBANY – New York State lawmakers have been able to reach an agreement on another on-time state budget.

On Thursday, Governor Andrew Cuomo joined Senate leader John Flanagan and Assembly leader Carl Heastie in announcing the agreement on the $154 billion spending plan, which covers the states’ fiscal year beginning today and continuing to March 31, 2017.

MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE

The budget includes a number of initiatives that the governor had pushed for and which he said would strengthen opportunity for working and middle class families. They including raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour in every region of the state, although at different time intervals.

While New York City would see the minimum raise increase to $15 by Dec. 31, 2018, it will take a longer time to be phased in in upstate, including Chautauqua County. There, the wage would increase to $9.70 at the end of 2016, then another .70 each year after until reaching $12.50 on Dec. 31, 2020. After that date, the minimum wage for Upstate New York will continue to increase to $15 on an indexed schedule to be set by the Director of the Division of Budget in consultation with the Department of Labor.

PAID FAMILY LEAVE AND OTHER INITIATIVES

The budget agreement also includes the longest and most comprehensive paid family leave program in the nation. When fully phased- in, employees will be eligible for 12 weeks of paid family leave when caring for an infant, a family member with a serious health condition or to relieve family pressures when someone is called to active military service. Benefits will be phased-in beginning in 2018 at 50 percent of an employee’s average weekly wage, capped to 50 percent of the statewide average weekly wage, and fully implemented in 2021 at 67 percent of their average weekly wage, capped to 67 percent of the statewide average weekly wage.

The budget also includes a record $24.8 billion in education aid, and also grows the economy with a $4.2 billion middle class tax cut over a five year period. And the spending plan includes critical statewide infrastructure investments – including a new $55 billion State Transportation Plan that commits $27.14 billion for Department of Transportation and Thruway programs and $27.98 billion for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

BIG WINS FOR DUNKIRK

A rendering of what the future Athenex facility in Dunkirk will look like once completed.

State Senator Cathy Young (R,C,I- 57th District), who represents Chautauqua County, says she’s ecstatic that the state has delivered on a promise to move the Athenex project forward.  The project, announced in February, will deliver $200 million in state funding for the proposed north county pharmaceutical manufacturing center, which will create 900 jobs in Chautauqua County.

Young said that the project wasn’t a done deal, with the some member of the Assembly trying to remove it from its  one-house budget resolution. However, Young said that both she and Assemblyman Andy Goodell (R-Chautauqua) fought to ensure the $200 million would be passed.

Senator Young joined Governor Cuomo and other officials in February to announce that an agreement had been reached between SUNY Polytechnic Institute and Athenex to build and staff a $1.5 billion, 300,000 square foot pharmacy oncology manufacturing facility in Dunkirk area.

Senator Young also announced that she successfully has led the charge to secure a $30 million power plant mitigation fund in the state budget to offset property tax losses in communities across the state, including Dunkirk.

NRG Power Plant in Dunkirk

She said the Senate ensured that the final budget language was changed so that mothballed plants such as NRG would qualify, and the county would be added as a recipient of funds.

The state power plant mitigation fund will cover 80 percent of the lost revenues from mothballing. In January, NRG notified the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency that its total PILOT payment of $8,197,474 would be reduced by 85 percent to $1,229,621.

As a result, the city, school and county would see nearly a $7 million loss of revenues this year.

April 1 is the deadline for the 2016-17 state budget. This week the process is focused on Assembly leader Carl Heastie and Senate leader John Flannigan meeting with Gov. Andrew Cuomo to hash out a final deal.

Among the sticking points is an effort to settle on a final minimum wage increase for the state, with the GOP controlled senate pushing for a lower increase than the $15 an hour supported by Gov. Cuomo and the Democratic controlled Assembly.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s initial proposal calls for a $15 minimum wage to be phased in by 2018 for New York City and 2021 for the rest of the state. But Republicans in Albany say the increase would create a hardship for small upstate businesses along with farmers.

In addition to the minimum wage issue, lawmakers are also trying to settle on final numbers for education funding, tax relief, and also seeing if a final paid family leave agreement can be worked into the budget. The latest reports say that the paid family leave will be in the budget, but details on how it will be phased in need to be ironed out.

MUNICIPAL AID STRONGEST IN ASSEMBLY BUDGET

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi

Another issue that differs between the Governor, Assembly and Senate budgets is municipal aid for local governments. Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi has been banging the drum for more municipal aid for the past several years, noting that the state funding the city receives now is actually lower than the aid it received in 2008, prior to the start of the great recession. Teresi says even though the state economy has since rebounded from the recession, that rebound hasn’t been reflected in the amount of aid earmarked for local government.

“the last I knew the governor had proposed no increase whatsoever in general purpose revenue sharing, freezing it at the same amount that its been at for cities and villages across the state, dating back to 2008. In 2009 and 2010 there was an actual cut for villages and some cities like Jamestown and there’s been no restoration with that, as there has been for school aid,” Teresi told WRFA on Monday.

Teresi said that this year, there has been an effort to increase state aid for local government in both the governor’s version of the budget and the Assembly’s version, but not in the Senate’s version.

“The Senate version of the budget does not give any increase whatsoever to cities, but does restore the funding for some villages in the state and, interestingly enough, the Senate actually gives funding to the five new villages that have been created in New York  State during the past five years or so. So in an era when it’s been the policy of the state government to reduce the number of small village units of government, the Senate’s budget actually rewards new villages that have been created elsewhere around the state,” Teresi said.

The mayor said that of the three budget versions, the Assembly’s would be the most favorable for Jamestown.

“The Assembly budget gives a 10 percent increase as a way to begin the corrective process of what has been taken away or frozen for local governments. That 10 percent increase for Jamestown would result in a much needed $460,000 increase in state revenue for Jamestown,” Teresi explained. “Had that happened in time for this year’s budget, we would have not only stayed within the 2 percent property tax cap, we would have had no property tax increase at all, had state revenue sharing kept pace over the past five or six years.”

Budget discussions between the three state will continue Wednesday in Albany, with a final budget compromise expected to be announced either Wednesday night or sometime on Thursday.

Originally airing on WRFA on Thursday, Oct. 17

New York Senator Catherine Young (R-Olean, 51st Senate District) was in Jamestown on March 10, 2016 as part of a meet and greet forum, sponsored by the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation and held at the Robert H. Jackson Center. Prior to the event, Young took time out to talk with local media representatives about various issues.

Senator Catherine Young (R-Olean)

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo

ALBANY – While the Senate and the Assembly have spent nearly the past two months working on their respective budgets, Governor Andrew Cuomo has spent much of his time stumping for legislation on two social issues that could come to fruition in coming weeks – a $15 minimum wage and a proposal to establish paid family leave.

Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan has indicated that the paid family leave issue is in play, though details are still being hashed out, including who would finance the benefit and how long such leave would last – The governor’s proposal is 12 weeks, a length of time that has been criticized by Republicans and the business community.

The $15 minimum wage seems less likely to be included as part of the budget process.

Governor Cuomo kicked off the “Strong Families, Strong New York” campaign to push for passage of the Governor’s paid family leave proposal in New York State.. (Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)

NEW YORK – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was joined by Vice President Joe Biden on Friday in New York City to kick off the “Strong Families, Strong New York” campaign to push for passage of the Governor’s paid family leave proposal in New York State.

The Governor has proposed that New York enact a 12 week paid family leave policy – which would be the longest benefits period in the nation for such a policy – to help working families care for a new child or seriously ill relative.

The Governor also launched a new website, www.ny.gov/paidfamilyleave, for New Yorkers to learn more about the need for paid family leave and the benefits of his proposal.