North Country Assemblymen Ken Blankenbush and Marc W. Butler say the budget includes some positives but fails to help middle-class families.

“This year’s budget misses the mark on so many important matters like middle-class tax relief, school funding and economic development,” Butler said. “The biggest omission was the lack of any meaningful tax relief for families or small businesses. In fact, I was so troubled by this that I offered an amendment for tax relief that was shot down by Assembly Democrats, even though the budget bill included tax breaks for luxury items like yachts and private planes”.

Butler said the budget was a missed opportunity to aid the middle class.

“This year the state had the opportunity to close the school funding gap with the more than $5 billion cash windfall the state received. Worse yet, we saw a poorly-conceived ‘education’ reform plan and an ethics plan with no teeth. Overall, this budget didn’t support the people of this state, which is why I could not give it my full support.”

Blankenbush had similar feelings about the budget.

He said he supported landmark increases for Agriculture and Market programs but rejected the budget’s insufficient funding of schools and failure to include middle-class tax breaks.

“Although I am pleased by the significant increases for the agricultural programs that support family farms in my district, I do not think this budget went far enough to support middle-class working families, struggling school districts, and cash-strapped municipalities,” Blankenbush said. “This budget seems to have been slapped together in the eleventh hour without the care and attention it deserved. It’s clear that the ‘three men in the room’ approach isn’t working in the best interests of the people of our state.”

Blankenbush, ranking Republican on the Assembly Committee on Agriculture, voted for the Aid to Localities portion of the enacted budget, which includes a more than $4 million increase to state agricultural programs. The approved funding saves several programs, including Northern New York Agricultural Development, Maple Producers, the North Country Low Cost Rabies Vaccine, and Dairy Profit Teams, among others. Additionally, there was an increase in funding for the New York Farm Viability Institute.

Blankenbush, however, rejected portions of the budget, notably the Education, Labor and Family Assistance bill, which included the questionable Education Transformation Act and a watered-down version of ethics reform.

“When it comes to our children’s education this is where I am most disappointed in the budget – not only are our schools still being shortchanged, but we were presented with a regrettable version of education reform that would do little to support our students and educators. The governor and legislative leaders had a real opportunity to use the more than $5 billion cash windfall to fully fund our schools, but they didn’t,” Blankenbush said.

Blankenbush also expressed disappointment in the Capital Projects portion of the budget in relation to infrastructure investment, “While I am pleased to see that funding is there to repair bridges, I think more of it should have been used in cooperative partnership between the state and local governments, rather than just in the control of the governor and his agencies.”

Butler said the budget did have some positive aspects, including more aid to localities, which included a significant increase to Agriculture and Markets programs. The budget increased the funding by more than $4 million. This saves several programs from cuts, such as the New York Farm Viability Institute, Maple Producers and the Cornell Future Farmers of America.

“It is important that we continue to support our economy. Whether it is through our agricultural programs or community revitalization investments, job growth and economic development are critical to the people of my district,” Butler said.