After weeks of negotiations, Governor Cuomo and the State’s legislative leadership enacted the SFY 2015-16 Budget, a $150 billion spending plan that includes substantial increases in education funding and a renewed emphasis on upstate economic development while maintaining overall fiscal discipline.
Although the Budget contains some significant new policy components, many of the proposals incorporated in the budget debate were not included in the agreed-upon budget. On that list of proposals excluded from the Budget are the Dream Act, an educational tax credit, a minimum wage increase, and campus sexual assault legislation, among others. The Legislature’s inability to reach an agreement on many of the budget proposals leaves much on its agenda when it returns for the final eight to ten weeks of the legislative sessions.
To read the memo, please click here.