Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters on Monday he would take a “second look” at the proposal in his budget that would scrap direct aid to municipal governments that do not overly rely on the money for their revenue.
The cut amounts to about $14,000 on average for local governments that rely on the aid to municipalities funding for less than 2 percent of their revenue.
Still, the cuts have led to an outcry from mayors and local government officials who say taxes will be increased or services pared back due to the change.
“We’re going to be taking a second look at this in this budget,” Cuomo said. “But it’s all money and we have a $3.2 billion deficit to get back to the funding levels that I proposed.”
But Cuomo was also sympathetic to the concerns he’s said he’s heard from mayors, many of whom are in town today for a local government budget hearing.
Cuomo has not proposed budgets that actually increase AIM funding since he’s been in office.
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