The state budget includes a limit on the growth of local Medicaid costs, along with an acceleration of the state takeover of the Family Health Plus program costs.

The Assembly originally proposed a hard cap on Medicaid growth - which would have provided $7.8 million more in savings for Westchester County. This compromise, which provides Westchester $23.5 million, is a step toward easing the burden Medicaid places on local taxpayers.

Other steps to ensure quality health care while protecting taxpayers include:

• scaling back the governor’s sick tax on nursing homes and cutting his tax on hospitals in half

• creating a Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century to determine the best way to protect services by eliminating costly excess capacity in the state’s health care facilities

• creating a preferred drug list with the strongest consumer protections in the nation

• reducing the out-of-pocket expenses that the governor sought to impose on Family Health Plus enrollees through significantly higher co-pays

The spending plan will provide schools in the 88th Assembly District with $32 million in operating aid, approximately $2 million more than last year.

The budget also restores the governor’s cuts for various expense-based aids, funds that local schools already spent in anticipation of state reimbursement for BOCES services, transportation costs and educating students with disabilities. The budget also provides:

• high-need school districts with 5 percent more in building aid reimbursements to ensure our children a safe, modern environment where they can focus on learning

• an additional $2.9 million for the state Comptroller’s office for additional audits to better ensure schools are spending tax dollars wisely

• $2.5 million in aid for Westchester’s library system - a restoration of $128,000

The budget rejects the governor’s tuition increase and his plan for automatic hikes each year, as well as restorations to the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) - a program that has helped countless children from working families achieve their goal of a college education. The budget also increases aid for local community colleges by $115 per student, which will mean more than $1 million for Weschester Community College.

The budget incorporated Paulin’s plan to increase funding for Aid to Municipalities (AIM). That means $10.6 million in aid for municipalities in the 88th Assembly District - nearly $1 million more than the governor proposed in his budget. This vital funding goes toward important services such as police and fire protection, garbage pickup and sanitation - helping preserve our families’ safety and quality of life, while keeping property taxes down.