Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Division of Budget Director Blake Washington Delivers a Technical Briefing on the FY 2027 New York State Executive Budget

Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Division of Budget Director Blake Washington Delivers a Technical Briefing on the FY 2027 New York State Executive Budget

Earlier today, Division of Budget Director Blake Washington delivered a technical briefing on the FY 2027 New York State Executive Budget.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Budget Director's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Budget Director's Flickr will have photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Budget Director's remarks is available below:

Budget Director Blake Washington:  Alright, so I guess we'll jump right in. Thank you everybody for joining us today. Of course my name is Blake Washington. I'm joined by Matt Howard and Mark Massaroni, two of my deputies down at the Division of Budget. In the audience, we also have a few of our team leaders, our unit chiefs. So if I need to phone a friend and you hear somebody yelling something out from the back, that would be us. But we welcome you here, we appreciate to have an opportunity to explain the Budget a little bit more and then field questions from you. So we'll just jump right in. Mr. Gronich, I'll regret this.

Marc Gronich, Statewide News Service: Just wanted to ask you about the [inaudible].

Budget Director Blake Washington: That's going to be a great question to ask in about 30 minutes. So here we go, so the Executive Budget overview is before us now. If you don't mind, we'll take questions later if that's cool. Unless you're on a schedule, but we'll still take them afterwards, if you don't mind.

Some of you were in the presentation with - or most of you were with - when we stood with Governor Hochul just a few minutes earlier. So some of this will sound familiar to you, so please bear with me. I'm assuming the story will remain the same between the two forms but joking of course, but again we'll just jump right in.

This year's Budget contemplates a $260 billion budget, which is a 0.7 percent increase on an all funds basis, or a 5.7 percent increase on a State operating funds basis. State operating funds, again is our State source to revenue and capital funding - exclusive of federal aid. Those are the big highlights of State operating funds. I'm trying to get used to my slides here, so please forgive me. This will be less crazy in a second. Okay, here we are - of the $157 billion in State operating funds, the major drivers of spending in the State of New York as ever remain school aid and Medicaid.

And of course, this year we have a nice investment in childcare, which we'll talk about in just a bit.

So a few over threshold issues for the Budget. Tax increases are not necessary to fund this Budget. In fact, we have receipts on hand, and we project more into next year to provide for the funding that's authorized in this year's Budget. We do have transformative investments in childcare, which we've talked about a lot.

Record amounts of school aid and investments in the health sector. And then of course, we continue on the Governor's affordability agenda and investments in housing and infrastructure, economic development - you name it. It's in this Budget and as the days go on, you'll see a lot more of the impact throughout the State of New York.

The fiscal overview, you saw this slide earlier, but when composing the Budget and in many ways these same variables remain in effect. But certainly when we were composing the Budget last April and May, we saw a lot of headwinds from federal policy largely. Shifting tax and immigration policy accelerating inflation and we had a federal shutdown of the government post-Budget. But those things were all negative. They all cast pall on the Budget and our revenue projections. And since then, we've defied gravity and we have a surge in high tech investment. Our stock market has made up for all the gains that were lost post liberation day. And it's fueling consumer spending throughout the State of New York.

We provide this chart just to give you a sense of when we compose a budget in the Division of Budget, we don't just look at current year spending and how the programs are being implemented. That's a number one of a part of our job. But we try to look at the economic underpinnings of what supports the spending itself.

So one of the variables, and there are many that go into our economic overview as we look at unemployment. And you can see the U.S. unemployment rate is roughly at 4.4 percent as of December '25. The rest of state unemployment is lower than that. But then New York City's unemployment rate is a bit higher. That is not out of the normal. You can see there's always a gap between the nation and New York City's unemployment rate. That's because people tend to move to New York City to look for a new job, being the economic and cultural capital of the world.

When we look at our State's workforce, I can't imagine - you can kind of read it I guess from where you are - but a couple of takeaways here that I would just bring to your attention. The top section of bars relate to education and health services. And if you look on the employment side, you can see that the preponderance of jobs in the State of New York are in that sector, 26.3 percent relative to 19.2 in the rest of the nation.

So eds and meds for a lot of states fuel job creation. And you can see on that same axis, but on the other side you can see that wages from that same sector comprise roughly 18 percent of New York State wages, 16 percent on the federal side. Go down just a little bit. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 items down to financial activities and the financial services sector. Employment here has 8.8 percent penetration in the State of New York, 6.6 nationwide. But if you look at the wages, you can see that small band of taxpayers provide for an outsized share of our relative wages in the State of New York.

Question: Is the $245 number [inaudiable]

DOB Staffer: Yeah, just median wage.

Budget Director Blake Washington: Median wage. So it's kind of a different way. Again, these are some of the variables that feed our, that color, the prism when we're looking at different parts of the State where the economy is thriving and what are the leaders of any individual economy - the statewide - sort of statewide especially. But you can get these same data on a county level basis and you get to know what thrives in any county in the State of New York. But the takeaway again is that you have the financial services activity, relatively small amount of people, high amount of wages, and then everything in between

CPI for many of us that have been in this building for many years. In 2022, we had elevated CPI, eight percent, which was really a challenging time for consumers. That's since moderated in 2026, we have a CPI of 3.2. And we're coming into 2027 projecting that to moderate a bit downward to 2.8. So said earlier, that is still above the fed funds target rate. Were that to come down further, maybe below two percent or closer to two percent, that might allow for the fed to open up some of its policy to ease their rates to provoke lending and borrowing - or borrowing specifically - people always lend at a higher rate, right?

The economic forecast certainly [shows] U.S. personal income, state. Personal income moving into the future - we are forecasting as when we do these forecasts, we align with blue chip consensus throughout the nation. And generally speaking, these variables track to nationwide variables. As we always do, as I said earlier, we always project risks in the Division of Budget. We talk about those things that are beyond our control, that influence our fiscal. So obviously we have headwinds in 2026. Those headwinds relate to sort of irrational tariff policies or sort of policies done without proper notice. It relates to the market itself changing. It relates to geopolitical concerns that destabilize markets and people. We have GDP, as I said previously, growth is expected to decelerate over the plan period. People are in a - employers in a no hire, no fire phase. As I mentioned earlier, sort of like an armistice where people are working but they're not getting new colleagues. Everybody's sort of frozen and amber at a moment in time. Unemployment's to peak at approximately 4.6 percent. Inflation again is still above the fed target. And interest rates as I noted, probably won't come until mid 2026 until that moderates.

So on projected New York State revenues this is what we were talking about previously as well. Taking us back to the beginning of the fiscal year upon enactment in the month of May of 2025, we had an uncertain economic outlook. We had the first contraction of our economy in three years.

We had slow growth in elevated inflation, and we had a highly volatile financial markets. We had a federal reconciliation bill that was being developed as we were creating the budget. And as a result, we revised revenues downward significantly upon enactment by $4 billion.

At the mid-year, which is roughly six after the adoption of the Budget. In this case, October, we watched the data in real time. There had been market changes in the economic underpinnings, particularly as it related to Wall Street and the financial markets. And in the mid-year update, we increased both for 2026 the current year's Budget, and next year we increased projections for revenue on each. And that basically brought us back to base. So we went below the base and then we came back up. And then with this Budget, because of the continued performance of earners and just wage growth globally - you can see that 2026 and 2027 - we've now raised the boat between those two years by a cumulative of $17 billion.

$5.3 being cash on hand, $11.7 being our projections for the strength of our current economy. So the reason we lay this out is just so you can kind of see it chronologically, but it also kind of gives you a sense of the decision-making process when the Division of Budget is advising the Governor at a year where people are calling for taxes and calling for revenue enhancers. We are saying and the Governor has said earlier, "You have sufficient revenues on hand to pay for the very things that New Yorkers care about and make investments in new things - or expanded investments in childcare and have sufficient revenue to support that new investment in childcare into the following fiscal year as well."

So we're doing this with current law revenues. We do not raise taxes in this Budget and we do not take on more costly debt. Our fiscal health, we have our principal reserves at $14.6 billion. We have retiree Health Benefit Trust fund that has resources in it as well. We've pledged a lot of that surplus that I identified earlier, that 26 surplus toward childcare.

We use cash payments to avoid more costly debt and we maintain a debt level that is the debt to personal income level is the lowest since it's been since the 1960s. We have a AA+ credit rating, and our cumulative out out your gaps are lowered - have been lowered - and we perceive them as manageable.

Speaking of those gaps this will be before and after from perhaps what you might have seen in our mid-year report. In 2020, we have already solved for 2027. That's the Budget we're talking about now, we have zero gap. But looking forward into 2028, we were previously projecting a $10 billion gap, that's now moderated to $6. $12.6 in 2029 down to $9. And then for the first time - because this is the planning period - in 2030, we have a gap of $12.5 billion. And some of the revenue that we pledged in this year's Budget, as the Governor identified earlier, helped to bring down gaps in each one of those years - and they stack year over year. So this is good news at least from the Division of Budgets perspective. We see this as manageable.

Our reserve levels, you saw this previously as well, and I'll try to stop saying that because I think I said it a few times. But 2021, when the Governor took office, our reserves were roughly four percent of overall State spending. They went up to nearly $22 billion. We drew off of it in 2026 to provide for an unemployment insurance trust fund deposit, and those reserves remained the same today. Those reserves are roughly 10 percent of overall State spending. And we think that's really good news over time. What we're doing, we signaled in last year's Budget. We're going to take a portion of the 14.6 billion and move it into the rainy day fund, which is one that is statutorily controlled.

We also call it a lockbox, but rainy day fund is just a colloquial statement. It's a statutory one, and you put the resources in there, it can only be withdrawn upon fiscal downturn and it must be replenished when it is. So we're going to secure more of those resources in the rainy day to make sure that bond holders can see that we're very serious about maintaining these reserves and and protecting our fiscal position

In our spending change, annual spending, our State operating spending's up 5.7 percent. Between state and federal funds, 19.3 percent. I'll just remind you that in that alone, we're in year five of a DOT and a housing program. Plus we have some - the Governor mentioned a couple of other items through a presentation earlier Federal operating dollars are down year over year. This relates to revisions to the essential plan, but it also relates to one-time FEMA aid that has gone away and one time pandemic aid that we planned as well to go away. And then all funds small across various sundry influenced that 0.7 percent increase.

The State operating funds growth before us here. State operating funds, I mentioned earlier, 5.7 percent. State operating funds and under the hood there are several components, Medicaid through SUNY on this chart and you can see what the rate of growth has been on each one of those. So, just looking through these things we talked earlier we will get into Medicaid a bit more about some of those cost drivers. Most of it's our demographic changes in the State of New York. Persons availing themselves to manage long-term care, especially older New Yorkers. Also relates to some federal aid changes and some other cost drivers such as pharmaceuticals and consumers that avail themselves of other waiver programs that are available to them.

School aid, 4.3 percent growth. Judiciary, 6.1 percent growth. In elected officials, 5.8. Those are budgets that come from those respective agencies. Those are things that we submit under the Constitution as is. And then SUNY, 7.2 percent growth. And this accommodates largely some of the collective bargaining costs. And of course we have a tuition freeze that we pay for as well. So, just kind of give you a sense of what we're spending on.

And so the Governor's been very prudent with the State's fiscal health, especially when it comes to financing capital projects. And this is one item that when we were able to brief the Governor in the fall, on capital, and was something that she wants the world to know because it's important.

We have a state credit rate of AA+, which is the best it's been since 1972. We put more cash towards capital programming, nearly $18 billion than any other administration. We've prepaid three, almost $14 billion in debt. Again, more than any other administration, our debt to personal income is the best level since the seventies. I think I said sixties early, so pardon me, Tom. So, it's the seventies and, and we make the critical investments in every corner of the state, and we're doing so without placing an additional financial burden on future taxpayers.

Our debt burden in the State of New York, going back to the sixties to today. This is debt to personal income. And you can see that just a steady, certainly from years '21 through now, you can just see a steady concentration, a steady attention to detail to pay for the things the debt that we're taking on to pay off costly long-term debt. And that's sort of the results we see here.

On revenue actions, this year's Budget, we're taking a few steps to shore up existing revenue streams. We are decoupling state business taxes from certain HR1 provisions. We're simplifying enhancing the child and dependent care credit, and we're extending the temporary franchise tax rate for large corporations through 2029. We're not increasing it, but we are extending that last item.

Childcare - at the risk of being too repetitive here, because I think you've heard a lot about this in the last couple of weeks. $4.5 billion in statewide investment in childcare and pre-K - that's $1.7 billion new this year. I would just say that when I began when I worked in the Legislature for many years before this job childcare vouchers hovered around $800 million annually for more than a decade.

Governor Hochul, since taking office until this current fiscal year, she's increased that 800 by 100 over 160 percent. So, we're up to $2.2 billion in vouchers. And then she's going even further in this budget by adding one point two or so in vouchers. The rest are for pre-K. For an aggregate of three billion in vouchers, there's a pilot program throughout the State of New York and three Upstate counties. And then of course, helping the city of New York on its two care program. U Pre-K again increased. We have childcare as being the childcare being the policy that so many families are calling for, and it can be delivered in many different ways.

Childcare, certainly in a home-based setting, for example, or in a congregate setting, but also through pre-K, pre-K itself. It's not just childcare, it's also educational services of course. But this, when you invest in pre-K, you shave off a year of childcare expenditures that would be otherwise paid through a voucher. The State of New York is well on its way for pre-K universally. We're at roughly 76 percent throughout the State of New York and this Budget, provides for new resources to make sure that every district in the State of New York, the 674 districts in the State of New York, all are providing pre-K for for families that wish to avail themselves of it by the 2028 school year, beginning in 2028 to '29 school year, I guess is what we call it.

So, on affordability, the word of the day on this budget, continues on those efforts. We, again, are enhancing the child independent care credit 230,000 filers with an average increase in the benefit of 576. This is just different than the child tax credit. I kept tripping over it in my own mind. So I know last year we talked about how the Governor tripled the child tax credit just last year. That's working itself out, but this is for the child independent care credit and because of some recent changes in HR1, and because of some base inequities in the phase out in this year's budget, my team came up with a strategy to to provide for an easier, a more gradual glide path for phase out. And the net effect is that family's, the 230,000 filers would have an increased benefit of nearly five over, $576.

We're protecting the deductibility of certain charitable organizations. And just to pause on this one, this relates to charitable organizations in the State of New York that have always been considered charitable organizations that have a nonprofit status in the State of New York. We're going to say to those organizations, you will continue to have your nonprofit status in the State of New York, regardless of what the federal government thinks about you. We're not lording over you. And to the extent that there's a more bellicose reaction from the federal government we're going to make sure that those major nonprofit institutions in the State of New York think higher ed institutions will remain free of a tax liability. It would allow for consumers to remit, excuse me, to allow consumers to provide for charitable contributions to those institutions regardless of the institution status on the federal side.

We're eliminating the State tax income tax on tips and we have some other common sense reforms in this budget that we think get at affordability because they would otherwise stifle development and create unnecessary cost to consumers.

One of the items that we've taken a really critical eye on is SEQR, State Environmental Quality Review Act, particularly as it relates to housing production and making sure that act, however well intended, doesn't get in the way of providing for housing in every part of the State of New York. Within means we're not - that act is very important to the Governor, but we've found that over time some of the restrictions have become outdated and don't reflect current realities. So, trying to get under the hood and figure out what those restrictions are, how they might prevent housing, those are sort of the things we're trying to get at in this year's Budget.

Also as I said before, one way of helping affordability isn't always a cash transfer to a consumer or a taxpayer. Sometimes it's just paying attention to the cost of drivers at home. And one of those items is through car insurance. I think that - one thing that the Governor, obviously she proposed this - we were talking about this over the summer, but even just two weeks ago, I don't know if Newsday is here. I remember reading a story in that paper that just was able to show. The average impact in premiums for persons on Long Island, and it was pretty shocking. I think by jurisdiction on Long Island, you can see 86 percent increases since 2019. But the average was probably somewhere near 65 percent or so. But that applies right here in the county of Albany, applies to the county of Sullivan and Erie. Those costs are very real for consumers. So the Governor has a few different interventions that try to target fraud, target bad actors, get the fraud outta the system, and limiting excessive payouts. Those are the things that drive up premiums. And to the extent that we get those things passed, we're optimistic that it'll give consumers in the State of New York a break.

So onto Medicaid. Medicaid, our plan continues to increase and our financial plan, continues to bear the brunt of that, but it bears the brunt for good reason. There's nearly seven million people in the State of New York that avail themselves of the Medicaid program. There's also 1,000,007 that avail themselves of the essential plan, and 550,000 of our kiddos are on CHIP. And so, there's deep penetration on public health insurance programs throughout the state, in every community. And when you have nearly nine people on some sort of publicly sponsored health plan you have to be really mindful before you overcorrect, you want to make sure that you continue to support those expenditures within your means.

Over the time since the Governor has been Governor, we have certainly invested even in the time of volatility. We've invested mightily in the Medicaid program. There are certainly, we have home care wages that have gone into the base and that they're tied to an inflationary index. We've put new resources, new and recurring resources into hospitals and nursing homes. We've come, we've put some different investments through State of the State initiatives. That's the executive investments' time. And then certainly we have 1115 waiver that we negotiated with the federal government just a couple of years ago and those resources are appended here as well. So I think the takeaway with this one is just in the last five years between all of these deposits or wrong word, between all of these different interventions $23.2 billion in new transfers for the health sector across the State of New York.

One thing that - this chart we like to show because it really highlights some of the stress that we have in the hospital sector, especially I think there's a lot of stress points in Medicaid, but the hospitals themselves are under a period of transformation and reform post pandemic sometimes because of consumer demand, sometimes because of shifting commitments from diminished commitments from Washington. But you can see since the pandemic the State of New York has had to step in on several occasions to help finance their bottom line. One of the items that we do is that we support our - we talk a lot about VAP APP, which is the vital access provider assistance program and a variety of other ways of driving resources to hospitals. These are negotiated with our partners in the federal government. But I think the one that I just want to mention is the dark green bar at the very top, toward the end of the axis that relates to safety net transformation. This is Governor Hochul's way of saying, "How do we get out of this cycle of just providing state funds to meet a payroll this week?" And then hope that we're not facing these problems next week. Some of these hospitals, they didn't get in this position overnight and they're not going to get out of it overnight. That safety net transformation program that was established two years ago has been a forcing mechanism for hospitals to look inside and say, "Can I survive in this current form, or do I need to partner with somebody else to grow myself out of this?"

So the Governor announced in the fall, I think it was six or eight different partnerships that - statewide partnerships and we're cautiously optimistic. We're supporting that, those transitions so that those hospitals can continue to thrive in each of the communities that they reside in.

Budget Director Blake Washington: We have increased spending in the Medicaid program. When we are spending in Medicaid, we want to make sure we're spending wisely. And the Governor talked about CDPAP briefly before, but we enacted a law a couple of years ago to transition to a single fiscal intermediary. We projected it would save about a half a billion dollars. It came in a little over one. We've significantly taken out a lot of the economic incentives for spinning up administrative load on a health service delivery program. We've provided for greater oversight. And I think just in general, we provided for greater solvency.

So as of the transition now, we have 280,000 consumers that have successfully gravitated from the old way, that maintain their care. And we're delighted to know that this transition is behind us. It didn't happen overnight. It wasn't easy. But it's one that we think was the right thing to do because it protected the State's fiscal position. And it also just for any program in the State of New York, whether it be Medicaid, school aid, or the Division of Budget - we've have to look at those expenditures and make sure that they're being advanced to the highest and best possible use. And if there's any, there's no room for fraud, waste, or abuse. And so when we tackle these programs, they're heady and you have to weather that storm and keep convincing people that we're doing the right thing. I think at the end of the day, we've preserved a program for people that want to remain in the community. And I think that's about it.

Vaughn Golden, New York Post: [inaudible] state share or state and federal share?

Budget Director Blake Washington: I think it's state share. I don't know that I need to re-litigate this, but 280,000 persons migrated in the new system. The transition ended in 2025 of August. There's a whole chronology here. We just want to make sure we're giving you an update of how we see it. Beginning the operations accepting referrals when the transition ended. How many people have been paid? PPLs provide nearly $5 billion in gross payroll to date. And more than anything else, the program itself, the solvency of the program has been solved for.

So Medicaid spending overall $38.2 billion on a State funds basis. 11.4 percent year to year increase. A lot of the increases are related. There's a couple different things that we're doing to increase spending in Medicaid. I noted before that we have increased enrollment for managed long-term care and an aging population, but we're also putting resources in for capital funds for that safety net transformation fund that I alluded to earlier, plus operating as well.

We provided one billion in MCO. We enacted MCO tax last year. We secured those resources. A little bit less than what we projected, but we're able to reinvest and then that spending appears this year. And then we have a $750 million in new resources this year's budget to help provide a better rate for hospitals and nursing homes.

Go back to that slide we were seeing before where the hospitals were in that sector of stress. This intervention is intended to give them some resources to meet the day-to-day problems, the challenges that they have of financing hospitals, but it's also meeting the new realities of a lot of the changes on the federal side.

I think the hospitals are going to see more and more uncompensated care as a result of actions out of H.R. 1. And then there's some different funding streams that were available to hospitals through that for time and memoriam that have now been foreclosed and hospitals don't have access to that any longer as a result of H.R. 1 and other federal actions.

The nursing home sector is one where perennially there have been a lot of challenges, but particularly post-COVID consumer choices has impacted some of that some of their census. But you need a thriving nursing home sector in the State of New York because it's a symbiotic relationship to hospitals. Hospitals need a place to discharge elderly people or people that need a rehabilitative stay. You need to have these two operating at their peak so that you're moving patients through the system and you're able to continue to treat new patients each and every day.

So not just putting money into Medicaid programs, but also in public health. One item that we'll draw your attention to is in the fall of 2025, November, the Governor provided $65 million in emergency food assistance for HIPNAP. And in response to a federal a cessation of a temporary cessation of federal funds. So this budget has $120 million between HIPNAP and nourish. New York HIPNAP is one way that we get resources to food pantries and soup kitchens. Nourish New York takes New York sourced agricultural products and gets it to those same vendors.

I would just say one takeaway that is more of a wonky one about this slide is that because the State was in a good fiscal position, we were able to respond to an exigent crisis in November where our friends and loved ones were callously stripped of their SNAP benefits. So the Governor stepped in, she pledged state resources in a one time manner to bolster purchase of food in advance of Thanksgiving. And long story short, as you're all aware, the federal government flipped the switch back on and SNAP benefits are back being delivered to consumers. But the big takeaway here is that the Governor intervened at a time when the federal government really let us down. We're back on a path now. That $65 million was a one-time item. We're coming into next year's budget and we're augmenting the base by $15 million.

Under general government, we have a couple things that we view as necessary to provide greater predictability of cost. And these are kind of disparate in a way, but they're all a variation of a theme. Under state law, there are a couple of different items where much like CDPAP, we were sort of beholden to a lax regulatory scheme to a lax statutory construct or a permissive one. And I think in each one of these examples, we are trying to target those things that have taken the state out of the driver's seat of rate setting and made us rate takers instead of rate makers.

The surprise billing law in the Governor's Budget will be amended. This one is really important for state workers because the empire plan premiums went up by nearly 10 percent largely related to the surprise billing law. And this relates to the reimbursement that's provided for out-of-network coverage. IDR - also very similar to what I just said, but this allows for physician practices and specialty practices to dispute the rate of payment before an independent arbitrator. And those disputes have grown by nearly 500 percent in the last two years. So we've gone from paying from a well-intentioned proposal to a revenue perfection scheme. We're going to close those doors.

And then similarly on medical Indemnity Fund, an important program to provide for neurologically impaired folks in other related to medical malpractice. We're providing $75 million to make sure that fund remains solvent, but we're also providing reforms to make sure there's some greater predictability in the rate. We're going to make sure that those people that are in need of the care are going to get reimbursed at a Medicare rate, which is more generous than Medicaid.

But under current laws, it's whatever the bill is, that's something that's unsustainable. It's untenable. And when people in budget see that kind of stuff, that's sort of the doors we have to close quickly while still protecting the very care that we're trying to promote. So these things are a little bit disparate to each other. But the common theme is that we need to rationalize the rates of payment for certain programs because it's getting away from us.

On education, as the Governor underscored during our presentation earlier today, she was able to articulate her record investments in the education sector. Unmatched for all of us that have been in this building for 20 or more years, these numbers are unmatched between - among the Governor and any of her predecessors and I would dare say the nation as well.

School increases since 2017. They were hovering around a billion dollars each year. And the foundation aid formula, even though you're putting in a billion in those former years because there was such a gap between fulfilling foundation aid and the ad, you were coming into each and every year, like rinse and repeat, never getting ahead of the ball to pay off foundation aid.

But fast forward to, 2022, 2023 - 4, 5, 6 - you can see that the foundation aid formula has been, has been more adequately financed. And it was under Governor Hochul in 2024 when it was finally paid off. And now you can see in '25 and '26, moderation and spending still a lot of spending, but still moderation that reflects personal income growth. By and large, this year's personal income growth plus an add-on for pre-K.

School aid run is $39 billion - 1.6 billion over last year and $27 billion of foundation aid is on the school aid run for foundation aid. And foundation aid is the mechanism for driving state resources to the districts that need it most for high need districts. They get the preponderance of those dollars.

The school aid proposal includes a one percent due minimum for 461 school districts - many of who would've otherwise not received a year to year increase under Foundation Aid formula. There's no additional revisions to the formula. There's no data updates or anything of that nature, which we did a couple last year. We have 561 for pre-K.

We are extending New York City mayoral control for four years, a straight extender. And we provided this budget $240 million for state mandated services in non-public schools, mirroring the percentage increase for foundation aid - or for school aid.

One item that the Governor is very proud of is obviously - and beyond this child that was wearing a Bills shirt - is Universal Free Meals in school. This is a program that the Governor established three years ago or four years ago, I think, in her first budget. She got us on a path last year. We got to full universality, 2.8 million students participate in universal free school meals. This year we're including nearly $400 million. The program grows a little bit this year. I think it's $30 million just for program growth in child participation.

On higher education, the Governor invests here, she's not always thinking about our youngest New Yorkers, but she's thinking about our future and in this area of higher education, the Governor has invested heavily over her term. I think one of the big items we want to highlight for this year is the Opportunity Promise scholarship. This is free community college for persons that are a bit older, that want to come back and secure a career in a high demand field. 11,000 people enrolled just last year. And I think that this is something that's really, if you look at over time, the enrollment in our community college sector, it's really depressed, sort of statewide, wherever you are, with a few exceptions.

But our community colleges needed a hand, they needed bodies in the seats and they didn't want just another subsidy. They wanted to actually instruct pupils and created an ecosystem and the Opportunity Promise Scholarship did just that. So 11,000 new people throughout the State of New York availing themselves to that program and allowing for our community college sector to thrive

On colleges larger like SUNY and CUNY for our private sector colleges - $244 million in new operational support. A lot of this relates to collective bargaining changes, but it also includes that $90 million for our tuition freeze for resident undergraduate students at SUNY and CUNY four-year schools.

The last increase for this group of individuals was in 2019. Governor Hochul, has never authorized an increase in SUNY tuition. It also includes $100 million for operating aid for SUNY Downstate. We've done this for the last two years. We're adding a third.

Public safety. The Governor rounded out her press conference about this today, and I think it's just important. All the moves that we're making in the State Budget - the reason we're able to have a robust economy, the reason we're able to provide for all these needs that we've outlined - it all starts with having public safety in both real public safety and perceived.

And I think over time, the investments the Governor's put into our Budget, you could see the state's crime rate, certainly post pandemic, has plummeted, and it's a record that the Governor's extraordinarily proud of.

The reason it plummets isn't just by sheer luck, it's because you're actually, you're getting involved at the right moment, and intervening and interdicting as the case may be or preventing outright.

So $352 million in gun violence prevention funding largely maintained year-to-year - this goes to community-based groups. But this has roughly 15 or 20 different components to it, but all meaningful to get guns out of particularly young people's hands. The Budget includes $300 million for local district attorneys and defenders to promote a smooth process of criminal discovery. It also provides for resources for what was an increase in 18-B assigned council rates - that was authorized by the Governor three years ago, four years ago where the State of New York is helping to provide for the increase.

Subway safety efforts, that's baked in. We did it last year for the first time - that continues. We're going to work with the City of New York to implement that.

Law enforcement technology grants. We hear from law enforcement bodies throughout the state, emerging needs - and the Governor's been able to meet them where they need the help. And think about license plate readers or other critical technologies that might be more difficult to secure in municipalities, especially that might have a property tax cap and the like. And we have $35 million to prevent hate crimes. And, in this Budget, the Governor has a crackdown on 3D-printed firearms as well.

On transportation: Here's an area where the Governor's commitment to this area has been unmatched. In this year's Budget, we have $8.6 billion in total operating aid for the MTA. This is a lot of the revenue sources that we've secured in the last couple of years - a restatement of that, not new. $50 million for Jamaica Station, $25 [million] for Second Avenue. We have a billion for operating aid for non-MTA public transit systems - that would be like your CDTAs of the world, NFTA, et cetera. And then we have, in this year's Budget, $150 million for bridge engineering projects.

$1.4 billion for local roads and bridges. These are your programs. I think we'll all see in a couple of months here. We'll see the orange shirts here in Albany. The paved local roads. Guys, they come out in force, but those are the backbone of our community. So this is why they come out, because these dollars are absolutely essential to having not only the safe roads, but really great jobs for local communities, community members to particularly folks that want to be in the trades and work in these classical construction jobs. So $1.4 billion - there's a reason that folks come up here, because it's absolutely essential for that work to continue.

On economic development, we've done all sorts of investments in the last handful of years, securing wins in every region of the state. I think perhaps this was shown earlier, I can't remember what was on the slide, but in this year's Budget, we have an additional resource for our economic development fund. This is one of our principal resources for securing business in the State of New York.

Downtown Revitalization and New York Forward are being funded. Power Up Program for bringing power to shovel, ready to sites to promote business development. We have a $100 million for the Quantum Research Lab at Stony Brook. And then we have a new program called New York Space Saving Performing Arts and Cultural Experiences Program, which is trying to just help those non-profit institutions into the future.

The Budget includes $25 million for a downstate semiconductor chip design center. And this is really just to make one more star in the firmament to seal our state's position in this rapidly changing and, sort of, world class technology. As you all know, the Governor secured Micron in Central New York. We have several semiconductor initiatives here at SUNY Albany, or, excuse me, SUNY Poly. And then in Central New York out near Rome - and if you go throughout the State of New York - there's a whole bunch of different contributors to our semiconductor ecosystem. This is just another means to get startup firms and training chip designers to become part of that ecosystem.

On housing. We are in the fifth year of our housing program. I should have said before on transportation - fifth year of our DOT program, same for housing. Coming into this year, we have $250 million to accelerate the new construction of affordable housing units. This is one that we're excited about because on the page it looks kind of vanilla, but this is in direct response to H.R. 1.

There's very few things in H.R. 1 that were of great benefit, that I would write home about for the people of the State of New York. But this is actually a pretty cool provision that relates to the state's ability to leverage private activity bonds with the low income housing tax credit. And by a modest $250 million - I'll call that modest among friends - by that commitment, you'll be able to pull and accelerate a bunch of affordable housing projects forward sooner than it would've otherwise been led. So that's a good thing in partnership with a change in federal policy.

$50 million for Resilient and Ready - again, this is when floods happen. The Governor wants to be able to make sure that there's some level of response from the State of New York. So often, FEMA unfortunately takes a long time. And with a lot of the changes on the federal side, it's probably going to take even longer. So continuing that, those resources to meet homeowners, especially post flood and business owners are essential. And we have $50 million for our HHAP, a longstanding program in the State of New York.

Move-In New York. The team - I was glad to put this slide because it's something the Governor cares about because she's been to a lot of these developments that have occurred. Factory built starter homes are sort of taking flight throughout the nation as a means to put up homes for people that need them that don't cost as much as a stick built on site home.

And we've seen a couple of different examples, both in the state and throughout the nation where you're targeting certain communities to get families or specialized populations like veterans into a more secure housing structure. And these are not - I mean, you're very young in this audience, but they're not the same like mobile homes and double wides and things like that that I knew when I was younger. They're really wonderful homes and you can see in this picture. So it's something we're excited to support.

On energy and environment. Obviously we have all sorts of stuff under the hood to help on this score. The agencies on a regular basis help conserve and protect our natural resources, and they make sure that we have - they ensure the integrity of our fresh water resources and support our agricultural development that's so critical to New York State's farming industry. One of the big items for this year's Budget is a new commitment to clean water grants.

For many years, the State of New York has been adding on a year-by-year basis - $500 million for water. The Governor wants to provide more predictability to that, so she's saying, "I want to do $3.75 billion in water infrastructure over the next five years. I'll take the base. We'll put the $500 million in, but I want to add $250 [million] on top of that." So a total of $750 [million] per year for the next five years for infrastructure funding in the State of New York.

One component you'll see in this year's Budget is we - as part of the new $250 [million], so it's the $500 [million] that is also new, but sort of people are accustomed to. But then the $250 [million] on top, part of that is for $50 million just to promote - I'll just take a step back. The $250 [million] that we're doing is water grants specifically with a preference for communities that are trying to build housing, which is sort of an impediment.

One thing that the Governor modified this program is that we all watched, you probably did too, Susan Arbetter's show on the Adirondack Park. And one of the things that had come up - and I'm from a rural community, and Matt is as well and Mark - one of the things that was highlighted was that some of these rural communities don't have access to a taxing base that could actually support the installation of a sewer line or a water line to some other place where it might be more advantageous to build housing.

So of the $750 [million] that we have in this year's Budget for water, $50 [million] of it is just carved out for rural communities to meet that need. We think it's so important and we're hoping that helps to give rural communities a little bit more of an inside track to secure some of these dollars.

$425 for the EPF as was last year, we have 200 million for ongoing projects at New York Works. We support the BRICKS program, which is community centers, right? And there's BRICKS and -

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SWIMS, you're familiar of it. And then this year, we have NY Kicks, which is for soccer pitches, and PLATES, which is for resources at regional food banks. And there's something else I think too -

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And SPACE. So, we have lots of new things on the horizon, the common variable of each one of them is community development at the local level. A lot of these non-profit institutions don't have the capacity to take on capital debt. This is like competitive processes to lift up communities.

Canal systems and power plus for $50 million and then $15 million for dairy industry monitorization projects. We have $7 million in this year's Budget to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of the war of the revolution - the American Revolution.

On human services - lots of investments here. Note many of them you're familiar with, but in this year's Budget, we're providing extra resources to provide for CHIP-enabled EBT cards to crack down on fraud and to help consumers maintain their benefits without skimming and things that have come into the public domain in the last couple of years. This is a good win for taxpayers, but it's also a good win for public benefit, beneficiaries to make sure that the resources are on hand when they need the most.

On mental hygiene. No surprise to you all, the Governor - this is one of her areas of focus since she's been here. A billion dollar investment in capital and and you name it. $850 million in rate increases for the OPW sector. This year's Budget includes $17.5 million and a half million dollars to establish a teen mental health first aid training program for 10th graders.

And I'm a dad of a ninth grader so I can kind of see where this is going about the level of maturity of young people, and it's a tough time for all of our development in 10th grade - intervening early and making sure that young people know the signs of promoting mental wellness and leaning on each other to stop the worst of the outcomes that manifest themselves from that sort of situation. Intervening early is really important, so this is one we're really excited about.

Local governments. The Governor came from local government. She was a town council member well before she ever became Governor. So this partnership she takes seriously, it's something she spoke about earlier today. We're providing $50 million to make sure that what was once a two-year program is now a three-year program for temporary municipal assistance. This is akin to AIM program, if folks in the audience know what AIM is.

Statewide investments - we have several, you name it. But I think I went through them earlier so I won't bore you. But the one that, again, that I talked about previously was in rural New York. Just MOVE-IN NY, getting people into shovel-ready sites. NY Forward for smaller municipalities, making investments, helping them chart their course forward.

Water infrastructure; farmers. The Governor talked about the tariff program, trying to provide a $3,000 check for farmers, purveyors of specialty crops and dairy products. $21 million for the fairgrounds, resources for the dairy industry, modernization in our county fairs.

Contact the Governor's Press Office