January 21 Update

This week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul released the executive budget for Fiscal Year 2023. The $216 billion dollar budget includes several positive proposals for New York state yeshivos and nonpublic schools.

$193 million for mandated services.

$45 million for health and safety projects. This is triple last year’s $15 million and was also expanded to allow use for certain capital improvements that enhance safety. The NPSE was a major item on the Agudah advocacy agenda.

$55 million for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) instruction

$25 million for Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes Grant,  

This is only a proposed budget which will be negotiated with the State Senate and State Assembly with final passage due before April 1st

We met personally with the Governor and NYS Budget Director Robert Mujica, as well as worked with our coalition partners, the NYS Catholic Conference and Teach NYS, to advocate for these programs. Agudath Israel is grateful that the Governor was receptive to these requests and appreciates her support to our community. For more details on the budget click here.

For a video summary click here or see below.

Last week, I made my first visit to Albany in almost two years. With parts of the capitol complex still closed, the corridors were mostly empty but I was still able to conduct a few meetings. Click here or see below for a behind the scenes look.

For now we are still doing most Albany meetings virtually but with Omicron numbers continuing to decline, we are hopeful to be able to resume in person visits and meetings in the near future

We have been informed by the New York office of the FBI about a program called Hate Crimes Community Engagement (HACCEN) which was created in order to spread awareness about hate crimes and bias incidents. Hate crimes are more common than people think, as most go unreported.

The purpose of this platform is to share incidents, trends, and inform members of effective methods in combatting risks associated with hate crimes.

This organization is led by volunteers representing their respective communities and organizations. Periodic webinars are held so members can share information in real-time. This organization was created for individuals, not organizations. click here to get more information. To register for their webinar on February 1st, please click here.