Assembly Restores AIM Funding in One House Budget
Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (I, D, WF, REF-Sag Harbor) announced that the Assembly Budget Proposal released today includes a full restoration of the Aid and Incentive to Municipalities Program (AIM) funding for the 2019-2020 State Fiscal Year. This funding, totaling $59 million, had previously been eliminated under the Executive Budget Proposal released on January 15.
The Aid and Incentive to Municipalities Program (AIM) has provided state aid to towns, villages and cities outside of New York City since it was established in the 2005-2006 SFY Budget.[1] The Executive’s Proposal would have greatly reduced funding from last year’s level of $715 million to $656 million, as well as eliminated this essential funding for towns and villages where last year’s AIM award equaled two percent or less of the municipality’s total expenditure. This proposal would have resulted in over ninety percent of New York towns and villages losing their entire AIM funding, including all of the towns in Nassau and Suffolk counties. Subsequently, the Executive’s 30-day amendment proposal directed counties to disburse sales tax revenues to towns and villages as a means of backfilling this proposed $59 million cut to the AIM program.
As Chair of the Assembly Local Governments Committee, Assemblyman Thiele successfully called on Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to include a full restoration of AIM funding in the Assembly One-House Budget Proposal with the support of several colleagues. Thiele’s recommendation to reject the Executive proposal to cut AIM funding and require counties to offset these cuts with sales tax revenue is included in the Assembly one-house budget resolution. Â
“This reduction would have triggered tax increases for homeowners, cuts to services, and layoffs of town and village employees, and I am pleased that I have the backing of my colleagues in the Assembly to restore this critical funding,” said Assemblyman Fred Thiele. “However, our work is not done. I will continue to work on behalf of our local governments to ensure the full restoration of AIM funding is included in the final budget, and that their voices are heard in Albany.”
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