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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Here's a look at the most prominent parts of New York state's new $156 billion state budget, approved by lawmakers on Friday.
—MINIMUM WAGE: The state's minimum hourly wage will go from $9 to $15 by the end of 2018 in New York City — though businesses with fewer than 10 employees will get an extra year — and by the end of 2021 on Long Island and in Westchester County. In the upstate, the timeline is more complicated, with the wage increasing to $12.50 at the end of 2020, and then increasing to $15 based on a schedule to be worked out by state labor and budget officials, and based on economic indicators.
—TAX CUT: In an effort to offset the wage hike, Cuomo and lawmakers agreed to a middle-class tax cut for New Yorkers with an income between $40,000 and $300,000. The cut, starting in 2018, will gradually reduce income tax rates for those brackets, reducing taxes by $4.2 billion when it's fully phased in in 2025.
—PAID FAMILY LEAVE: Starting in 2018 New York workers will become eligible to take paid time off to care for a new child or sick relative. The benefit, which will top out at 12 weeks, will be funded by worker payroll contributions that will cost from 70 cents a week up to $1.40. Benefits will start at 50 percent of an employee's average weekly wage, capped at half the statewide average weekly wage, rising to 67 percent in 2021.
—EDUCATION: The budget contains $24.8 billion for public schools, an increase of $1.5 billion. It also eliminates a recession-era clawback of some aid that hit suburban districts the hardest and provides greater help for schools in poor districts. Spending on charter schools will go up $430 per pupil. There's no tuition hike in the budget for the State University of New York or the City University of New York.
—ENVIRONMENT: The budget contains $123 million in new money for environmental protection, bringing the total of the state's environmental protection fund to $300 million. The fund pays for land acquisition, conservation easements, farmland preservation and efforts to fight invasive species and revive waterfronts.
—TRANSPORTATION: More than $21 billion will be set aside for highways, bridges and airport upgrades and another $2 billion will go toward the Thruway and the construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge.
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