ALBANY – Senator James Skoufis (D-Orange County) touted a roster of major wins for Orange County in the final state budget approved just last week.
Negotiations extended far beyond the expected budget deadline. The $269 billion budget is one of the largest in state history
Key Orange County highlights from the final budget include:
- Education & Universal Pre-K: Secured a minimum 2% state aid increase for every school district—double the Governor’s proposed increase—helping support students, teachers, and programs while reducing pressure on local property taxes. The budget also puts New York on track to provide free universal pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-olds by September 2028.
- School Bus Relief: Delays the electric school bus mandate, giving districts more time to manage costs by pushing purchase requirements from 2027 to 2032 and full electric fleet operation from 2035 to 2040.
- Auto Insurance Affordability: Cracks down on insurance fraud, requires regulatory approval for rate increases, and establishes safeguards against excessive profits.
- Utility Cost Relief: Requires utilities to submit constrained budgets, ties executive pay to customer affordability, and provides rebate checks of more than $200.
- Support for Farmers & Infrastructure: Provides $30 million in relief to help farmers offset rising costs and includes a record five-year investment in upgrading aging water infrastructure statewide.
- Online Safety for Children: Strengthens protections by applying default privacy settings for minors, limiting contact from strangers, restricting harmful AI chatbot features, and requiring parental approval for new connections on gaming platforms for children under 13.
“Budgets are about priorities, and my priority has always been the people and needs of Orange County,” said Senator Skoufis. “My mandate is to be the voice of the people of Orange County in Albany, and I take that very seriously. I fight to bring hard-earned tax dollars back where they belong – into Orange County communities. Though there is always more I wish we could have done, I’m proud of what was accomplished.”
Comments