By Mark Hallum
After the state budget passed a week beyond its official deadline, state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing) held a roundtable to discuss the victories and disappointments of fiscal year 2017.
Among the highlights were education, immigration assistance, Raise the Age, affordable housing and senior support. The DREAM Act and campaign ethics reform were some aspects that Stavisky felt were missed opportunities.
“Not only was the budget late, but it was done by a really bad process,” Stavisky said. “I think it points out the dysfunction — the lack of direction that is going on in Albany. Having said that, there are things that are missing from the budget.”
Stavisky, a longtime champion of the DREAM Act, explained that the best chance of the tuition assistance program for undocumented immigrants to pass the Republican-held Senate was through the budget.
“To me, that’s wrong, because people with a college degree will earn more money and we will recover this in tax money,” she said. “They tend to shop right in the community where they live, and I think we have a moral responsibility to take care of all the young people who want to come to work here and live,” Stavisky said.
Campaign ethics reform was an issue Stavisky campaigned on in the 2016 Democratic primary, promoting new regulations to clean up Albany and calling on anyone running for elected office to give up their businesses and jobs to commit themselves to their positions as lawmakers. She also campaigned against the “LLC loophole,” which allows companies to contribute an unlimited amount of money to the candidate of their choosing. This was also left out of the budget.
Single-payer health reform was another missed opportunity in the budget, Stavisky said, and the hope was to assist Planned Parenthood, which was expected to be defunded in the federal budget.
But it was not all bad, according to Stavisky.
“As my husband said, ‘the perfect is the enemy of the good,’ and I think this is a good budget,” Stavisky said, referring to the late state Sen. Leonard Stavisky, whose seat she filled after his death.
Title XX funds to seniors, at first excluded in one of the budget proposals, to the frustration of many, was included in the final budget. Fears arose in February as $17 million in funding to senior centers was pulled from the budget, with elected officials, including Stavisky, calling on the restoration of those funds before 65 facilities would be forced to close their doors.
Up to $50 million will go toward the Expanded In-Home Services for the Elderly Program.
Students at SUNY and CUNY schools will have access to free tuition if their families make less than $125,000 a year starting this fall. Students must be enrolled full-time, earn 30 credits a year and maintain a 2.0 GPA, while being required to live in the state for an equal amount of time it takes to complete their degree following graduation.
The Liberty Defense Project will receive $10 million to ensure all immigrants have access to legal representation.
Raise the Age ups the age of criminal responsibility to 18 and ensures young people who commit non-violent crimes are given the evidence-based treatment. It was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on April 10.
“‘Progress is not the same as progressive,’” Stavisky said, attributing the quote to a conference leader at the end of budget session. “And we had a lot of progress in this budget.”
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
