NY State Senate Passes 'One House Budget Resolution'

From NY State Senate: This week the New York State Senate passed its “one-house budget resolution” which outlines financial priorities and obligations for the coming year. Included in the resolution are two provisions introduced by State Senator Terrence Murphy that would benefit the Hendrick Hudson School District: one that would allow the district to establish a reserve fund to offset the fiscal impact of Indian Point’s closure on local taxpayers and another to expedite a comprehensive study regarding the reuse of the Indian Point property.

“Since the closure of Indian Point was announced, Senator Murphy has been in constant communication with me and been a fierce advocate,” said Hendrick Hudson Superintendent Joseph Hochreiter. “These proposals will provide the district with needed flexibility to ensure financial stability for our community as the Indian Point PILOT payments scale down due to its closure. We need these proposals enacted so our community has more assurances moving forward.

A transparent reserve fund would allow the district to essentially create a savings account for the sole purpose of offsetting future tax hikes due to the cessation of Entergy’s PILOT payments to the district. Indian Point is scheduled to close by 2021 and, according to the closure agreement, PILOT payments will decrease dramatically each year for four years, before ending completely in 2025.

This week, Mr. Hochreiter sent a letter imploring the community’s representatives in the State Assembly to get behind the budget proposal to “ensure that the residents and students in the Hendrick Hudson School District are not left out in the cold as the Indian Point closure moves forward.” Click here to read the letter of March 27, 2017: http://bit.ly/2ndU7Pj I am hopeful the Assembly will support the Senate's proposed language regarding Indian Point,” said Mr. Hochreiter. “While we remain shocked and stunned at the closure, we now need to move forward creating financial stability for our community. These proposals do just that - ensure financial stability so large potential tax hikes are mitigated in the future."

Click here for a link to Senator Murphy’s press release on the budget provisions: http://bit.ly/2o2rSry

Image Courtesy Of NY State Senate