State budget includes minimum wage hike, paid family leave, other perks; lawmakers around St. Lawrence County react
Friday, April 1, 2016 - 5:24 pm
The state budget includes a minimum wage hike, paid family leave and middle class tax cuts.
Minimum Wage
The minimum wage will go up to $12.50 increments by 2020. The state will do an economic analysis “to assess the impact of this increase on employers, jobs and the economy to determine if the minimum wage should be paused or suspended for any period of time.” Everyone who works full time should earn enough income to put food on their table and a stable roof over their head – and with a $15 minimum wage, we are taking a huge leap to make that goal a reality in this state.
Paid Family Leave
The paid family leave program will be phased in over the next four years. Employees first will be eligible for up to eight weeks of paid leave a year, followed by up to 10 weeks and then ultimately up to 12 weeks starting in 2021. It will be funded entirely by the employees through a small payroll deduction, businesses will not have to bear any additional costs.
Middle Class Tax Cuts
The middle class will save $6.6 billion over the next four years, with an annual saving of $4.2 billion once fully implemented.“A new addition to the budget is a middle-income tax break that will provide a savings to taxpayers of $4.2 billion annually when fully phased-in. The budget also provides nearly $3 billion in property tax relief through STAR and enhanced STAR.
School Aid
The budget will get rid of the little bit of Gap Elimination Adjustment that is left. The controversial spending tactic took money from school aid and used it to balance the budget....“ overall school funding will hike $1.5 billion over last year, or 6.5 percent. “This includes a substantial 4 percent increase of $627 million in Foundation Aid for the most high-need schools – more than the $266 million Governor Cuomo had proposed,” Griffo said. “The budget will also finally and fully restore all of the outstanding $434 million in funds that had been unfairly diverted from schools through the recession-era Gap Elimination Adjustment.”
Roads and Bridges
Griffo said the spending plan will grant “a record” $27 billion in statewide transportation investments for road and bridge repair... the budget includes a very large increase for transportation infrastructure and fairly balances the needs of upstate roads and bridges with downstate mass transit. The budget also funds $438 million for the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Programs (CHIPS) to local highway departments.
Farm-Fresh School Food
the budget includes a pilot program to give school districts reimbursements when they purchase local food grown in New York.That initiative would modify the state’s reimbursement formula for school lunches, by increasing reimbursement rates by 5 to 25 cents a meal from the current 6 cents.The rate would be dependent on the percentage of locally grown and produced products that school districts purchase each year, Russell said.
