ALBANY, N.Y. — Nearly five months since becoming New York's governor, Kathy Hochul unveiled her first state budget for fiscal year 2023, calling it 'socially responsible and fiscally prudent.'
The $216.3 billion proposed spending plan includes $31.2 billion in school aid, an increase of 7.1 percent. Other highlights include:
- $2.2 billion for property tax relief (FY 2023)
- $2 billion for pandemic recovery initiatives (reserve funded in FY 2022)
- $1 billion to enlarge the DOT capital plan (deployed over three years, FY 2023-FY 2025)
- $1 billion for health care transformation (reserve funded from FY 2023 and 2024 operations)
- $1.2 billion for bonuses for health care/frontline workers (FY 2023)
- $350 million for pandemic relief for businesses and theater/musical arts (FY 2023)
New York would boost state school aid, provide sweeping property tax relief and deliver bonuses to healthcare workers over the next year if lawmakers pass a $216.3 billion budget outlined by Gov. Kathy Hochul Tuesday.
Hochul is proposing a 3.1 percent spending increase in taxpayer dollars for her 2022 proposed budget, which would run from April through March 2023. The Democratic governor says that the spending increase is just below the rate of inflation.
"We have the means to immediately respond to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as embrace this once-in-a-generation opportunity for the future with a historic level of funding that is both socially responsible and fiscally prudent," Hochul said. "As I said in my State of the State speech: It's time for a better, fairer, and more inclusive version of the American Dream. I'm calling it the New York Dream. We will make that New York Dream real - and ensure that it can be realized by every single New Yorker."
Top legislative leaders are expected to keep negotiating with Hochul to finalize the budget, which must be in place by April 1.
You can watch the full announcement below: