State budget funding disappoints community advocates

This year’s $254 billion state budget was exceptionally late, but Governor Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers finally voted on lingering items last week. Here are some of the areas that Black and Brown advocates were disappointed didn’t get more funding.

- By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

The deadline for the fiscal year (FY) 2026 state budget was April 1. Hochul and lawmakers spent about a month past that date in contentious negotiations over policy changes, such as invol-untary commitment laws, reforms to the state's discovery law, and a statewide mask ban. There was an additional 10 days’ delay after Hochul announced an “agreement” deal where lawmakers dragged voting through the budget bills.

Some strides were made when it came to the state’s Black Agenda, which was proposed earlier this year. This includes $30 million to New York Urban League and United Way of Greater New York, $1 million to socially and economically disadvantaged farmers, $8 million to support community behavioral health crisis response programs, $2.5 million to the Office of Gun Violence Preven-tion (OGVP), $3.1 million to the Correctional Association of New York (CANY) and $275,000 to the Fortune Society, $2.5 million for the statewide Afterschool Learn-ing and Enrichment After-School Program Supports (LEAPS) pro-gram, and $28 million to the My Brothers Keeper program.

“As we transition from budget to legislation,” said Assemblymem-ber Chantel Jackson, who chairs the Black legislative task force, “we remain committed to building our 2025 legislative agenda and up-holding our mission: securing fi-nancial resources and advancing policies that uplift Black commu-nities across New York State.”

There were also allocations to arts and cultural institutions: $60 million for the New York State Council on the Arts; $1 mil-lion to City University of New York (CUNY) Medgar Evers Col-lege, including support for the Dubois Bunche Center for Public Policy and Dr. John Flateau Chair in Election Data Analysis and Re-search; $250,000 to Weeksville Heritage Center and $100,000 to the Brooklyn Public Library Center for the Brooklyn History Society; $175,000 to the Boys and