“After passing a dozen budget extenders, waiting for more than a month, negotiating behind closed doors and dumping policy issue after policy issue into the mix, Albany Majority are proud to deliver a bloated FY2025-26 Enacted Budget. This year’s $254 billion budget—$13 billion more than the FY2024-25 Enacted Budget and $77 billion more than the FY2019-20 Enacted Budget when I first took office—is the largest our state has ever passed, yet it does little to address the real needs of Upstate New York.

“While it is a victory that the FY2025-26 Enacted Budget will allow the New York state commissioner of education to grant an additional two-year extension to school districts that are unable to comply with the 2027 deadline to begin purchasing only zero-emission school buses, more must be done to address the significant issues associated with this mandate. This extension needs to be much longer to allow schools more time to transition their bus fleets, and there needs to be an option for school districts to officially opt out of this mandate to preserve their budgets for educational needs.

“I voted ‘no’ on this year’s budget—until the state delivers a budget that addresses the needs of the thousands of families throughout Upstate New York who depend on the Legislature to have their backs, out-of-touch, bloated budgets like this one will continue to drive hardworking New Yorkers out of state for good.”