ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – This week on Empire State Weekly, the New York State Budget was completed on May 2, over 30 days late. The final approved budget contained funding for multiple state programs and implemented policy changes.

Blair Horner the Executive Director for the New York Public Interest Research Group and Capitol Correspondent Jamie DeLine spoke on the biggest items on the budget. Blair Horner addressed the long delay with the budget debate process, which will likely impact the remainder of the session.

Horner explained the first half of the session “deals with the budget. The second half deals with non-budget issues. They just gobbled up a month of that. So it’s going to be a lot harder to get a lot of things done, but there’s a lot of pent-up demand from advocacy groups and lawmakers to deal with other issues.”

So far the session is scheduled to end on June 8. “At this point, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie says he’s not expecting it to go longer. But time will tell. It’s Albany. Anything can happen.” Jamie DeLine explained.

Also, this week, Brian Fessler the Director for Governmental Relations for the state school boards association spoke on the impact the now-completed budget will have on schools. The state allocating some $34.5 billion in total spending, including $24 billion to fully fund foundation aid, which allocates funding for schools based on need.

With items like fully funding Foundation Aid, Fessler explained that schools are in a “very strong position as we head into the new school year, due to the state budget.”

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