Payroll Tax Credit In State Budget Will Make New York First State To Incenticize Hiring Local Journalists

Long Island Morning Edition

Long Island’s school districts will get an additional $205.6 million in state aid for the 2024-25 academic year — up 4.24% from the current year — as part of a state budget pieced together amid continued debate over future funding. John Hildebrand and Arielle Martinez report on Newsday.com that the financial package for Nassau and Suffolk counties, totaling more than $5 billion, represents a $64.9 million increase from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget in January. Hochul and legislative leaders agreed on increases last week, after determining state tax revenues were running higher than expected.

Albany's spending agreement comes 19 days late. NYS lawmakers voted final approval this past Saturday.

Bob Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association, voiced relief over the approval of an aid package, but said he remains concerned over what might happen in 2025-26 and beyond.

Lawmakers have agreed to a study, led by the Albany-based Rockefeller Institute, that could result in recalibration of the state's formula for distributing aid.

“We are grateful that the governor and the legislature have finally come to an agreement,” Vecchio said Friday. “While many school districts avoided steep reductions in aid this year, we are very concerned with looking ahead to next year and what changes to the formula will be made in the near future.”

Late approval of a statewide aid package has created headaches for many local school officials who had been drafting district budgets without knowing how much financial support they could expect from Albany.

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A payroll tax credit for local news outlets, modeled on the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, is included in the final state budget that Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature unveiled this past Saturday, making New York the first state in the nation to incentivize hiring and retaining local journalists.

New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Senate bill sponsor said, “A thriving local news industry is vital to the health of our democracy and it’s our responsibility to help ensure New Yorkers have access to independent and community-focused journalism.” Over 200 local publications of the Empire State Local News Coalition helped pass the bill.

“The passage of this bill, which is the first of its kind in America, is truly monumental for community journalism,” Express News Group publishers Gavin and Kathryn Menu said in a joint statement. “With the nation divided on so many important issues, we believe the work of community journalism, focusing on hyper-local issues that affect our readers’ everyday lives, is more important than ever.”

The program — $30 million per year for three years — allows each eligible newspaper and broadcast business to receive a 50 percent refundable tax credit against the first $50,000 of an employee's salary, up to a total of $300,000 per business.

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The MTA and law enforcement agencies seized 21 cars and issued nearly 800 summonses last week during a two-day operation targeting persistent toll violators and other traffic offenders. Darwin Yanes reports on Newsday.com that the targeted multiagency operation seized the vehicles for violations including unpaid tolls, unregistered and suspended licenses among other traffic infractions. The operation was conducted on Thursday, at the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, and on Friday, at the Throgs Neck Bridge, George Washington Bridge and Lincoln Tunnel, according to the MTA. “Amplified enforcement efforts have yielded big returns and hopefully sent a message to all scofflaws and aspiring scofflaws — if you try to skip out on the toll at any crossing in the metropolitan region, you will only end up paying more,” MTA Bridges and Tunnels President Catherine Sheridan said in a statement. The task force, which was launched last month, includes the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bridges and Tunnels, NYPD, Port Authority police, New York State Police, state Department of Motor Vehicles and New York City sheriff’s deputies. The MTA said the scofflaws caught in the operation had amassed more than $586,000 in unpaid tolls, fees, judgments and debts. The operation led to 21 arrests and 793 summonses issued.

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Some Long Island Rail Road riders have been issued IOU invoices for unpaid train tickets more than 100 times within just six months and owe thousands of dollars for those trips, according to the MTA's list of fare beaters obtained by Newsday. Alfonso A. Castillo reports on Newsday.com that as the LIRR's list of “repeat offenders” grows, so too has the number of invoices issued to passengers who say they can't pay for their rides — up 60% last year, from about 100,000 in 2022 to nearly 160,000 in 2023, according to MTA figures. The LIRR’s most persistent evader, according to the data, received 155 invoices as of September, totaling $2,154 in unpaid tickets — the most owed by any person on the list. MTA officials said the list reflects six months of data, which means the individual skipped out on 155 fares in about 180 days. Even though Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have acknowledged that sending scofflaws home with bills that most never pay doesn’t work, the system remains in place — recently augmented with increased police enforcement. The 10 passengers who have skipped out on the most fares received 1,119 separate bills, totaling $17,108, according to MTA data. The top 10 fare beaters each have been issued between 87 and 155 invoices, and owe between $1,277 and $2,154. Gerard Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuter Council, an advocacy group, said he long had known about the list, which the railroad began compiling in 2014, but called it “shocking” that some riders had “actually cracked 100" unpaid invoices. “It’s not fare evasion. … That’s transit shoplifting,” said Bringmann, who also sits on the MTA Board as a nonvoting rider representative. “I would love, personally, to see some of these people get arrested.”

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Shoplifting incidents reported to county police departments on Long Island last year rose nearly 20% as retail experts and law enforcement officials say thieves have become more brazen. Tory N. Parrish reports on Newsday.com that to mitigate the losses, some retailers are locking up everything from skin care products to liquor to lawncare equipment to laundry detergent.

Law enforcement and retail experts cited several factors for the spike in thefts: organized retail crime rings selling more stolen merchandise online; fewer employees working on sales floors; more self-checkout lanes, making it easier to steal; and the rising cost of living on Long Island. Another factor, law enforcement officials said, is New York State's bail reform law, which ended cash bail in most cases that involved misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. Some criminal justice researchers, however, dispute that claim. Shoplifters have gotten bolder, retail experts said. In Suffolk County, reports of petit larceny shoplifting rose 23% between 2022 and 2023, while reports of grand larceny shoplifting fell 11.2% during that same period. Still, the numbers are significantly higher than in 2019.

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For the first time ever, the Shelter Island Friends of Music and the Perlman Music Program (PMP) are presenting a Works In Progress chamber concert at the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church. Featuring 21 gifted young musicians, including 14 from Israel, the event takes place this coming Thursday at 7pm.

Perlman Music Program has featured an Israel Residency for its young students since 1999. “This year, more than ever, we are focused on fulfilling our commitment to nurturing young Israeli string players by providing them with a much-needed safer space to hone their craft...” they said.

Shelter Island Friends of Music looks forward to hearing these PMP chamber groups in our own acoustically wonderful venue.

As always, admission is free. Donations are encouraged and will be shared by SIFM and PMP.

For more information, visit ShelterIslandFriendsofMusic.org

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The Town of East Hampton now has $4.2 million in its Community Housing Fund, and over the next several months the town’s Community Housing Advisory Board is asking the town to begin spending that money on two pilot programs — for first-time homebuyer loans and loans to create accessory dwelling units — and for larger projects that will be reviewed by the Housing Advisory Board.

Town Housing Director Eric Schantz gave the East Hampton Town Board an overview of the plan at the board’s work session last Tuesday. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that four of the five East End towns (except for Riverhead) created Community Housing Funds last year after voters approved referenda asking whether the towns should instate a .5 percent real estate transfer tax to be used for workforce housing, which would operate like the Community Preservation Fund for land preservation. Director Schantz said that, with the average price of a home in East Hampton standing at about $1 million, a $30,000 loan wouldn’t go far if it was applied to residents who plan to buy homes on the open market. His office is instead planning to offer the loans to people looking to buy homes in the town’s Whalebone and Green Hollow housing complexes, or at the 16-lot Cantwell Court subdivision currently under construction, where homes are expected to sell in the neighborhood of $500,000 because the town will still own the underlying land. Schantz said he anticipates the town could make 20 $30,000 loans this year on the 16 Cantwell Court properties and on the resale of other units on town land, spending a total of around $600,000. To be eligible for the loans, applicants must be first-time homebuyers, be residents of East Hampton Town, meet the maximum income restrictions and it must be their primary residence. They can also apply for the New York State SONYMA First Time Homebuyer loan. Schantz said he would like the town to open up the application process for the ADU loans on May 1, with a deadline of July 12, and to plan to give out 10 $100,000 awards this year.