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Thursday, May 16, 2002
Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno said today that the 2002-03 state budget achieves the priorities the Senate outlined at the start of the year for economic development, education, higher education, health care and other areas.
"I'm proud to say that this budget accomplished all the goals and priorities set by the Senate in January," Senator Bruno said. "It is balanced and fiscally sound, it includes a significant increase in school aid, major investments in economic development including Gen*NY*sis and new Empire Zones, it includes over a $1 billion in tax cuts, it maintains our commitment to higher education and invests additional funds in health care."
"The events of Sept. 11th and the national economic downturn caused the loss of more than 300,000 jobs and created an enormous budget deficit," Senator Ronald B. Stafford (R-C, Plattsburgh), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said. "This posed a tremendous challenge as we negotiated a new budget, but we were able to make prudent decisions, close the deficit and make important investments in critical areas such as education and economic development to keep our state moving forward."
The budget includes a $610 million increase in school aid over the proposed budget, which translates into a $420 million year to year increase in formula driven school aid.
The budget includes the top two Senate economic development priorities including $225 million in funding for our Gen*NY*sis plan, the state's largest commitment ever to encouraging growth in the biotechnology industry. These funds will leverage more than $1 billion in additional funds to support the construction of Gen*NY*sis centers of excellence, which will transform this research into economic development throughout the state.
The budget also expands the tremendously successful Empire Zone program by creating 10 new zones to attract new businesses and jobs.
New investments in health care, the restoration of the Tuition Assistance Program, expanding the STAR program to protect senior citizen property tax cuts and extending free tuition to help recruit volunteer emergency personnel were all initiatives that the Senate successfully fought to include in the budget.
"I always say it takes all three sides to work together and compromise to get a bill enacted into law," Senator Bruno said. "With that in mind, I want to thank Governor Pataki and Speaker Silver for their cooperation and hard work to achieve this budget."
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