State cuts to AIM

To the editor:

Dear Governor Cuomo:

Your proposed 2020 NYS budget includes unprecedented drastic cuts to the unrestricted state revenue sharing program known as Aid and Incentives to Municipalities (AIM), which will seriously impact the Town of Chatham by $16,181. The Town Board opposes this proposed reduction in the Executive Budget to save $59.2 million out of the Aid and Incentives to Municipalities Program (AIM) specifically aimed at upstate towns and villages. It has been our understanding that the purpose of AIM has always been to reallocate revenue received through “statewide taxation” on down to municipalities so as to offset the myriad of “state mandates” that must otherwise be paid through “local taxation.”

The proposed cuts in AIM will strip more than $1.3 million in funding from town’s 2019 Budgets and burden our local municipal government, making it necessary to either cut services, lay-off employees, and/or increase taxes.

The rationale used in making the decision to cut the AIM based on towns’ growth of reserve fund balances is flawed. Towns have not fully recovered from the Great Recession of 2008. In addition, reserve funds are not part of the operating expenses. It is critical for the State to provide reliable sources of aid for towns to accurately budget for ever increasing operating expenses.

In addition, your budget proposal to make the tax cap permanent and discontinue the $65 million in Extreme Winter Recovery Program and no increase to the CHIPS funding, further burdens towns and taxpayers. When the State proposes to cut these programs, the result is dangerous to towns which will have to cut services and programs and result in layoffs. When the State provides aid to local municipalities, the burden is shared and does not get totally levied on the backs of town and village taxpayers.

We oppose the elimination of state aid to Towns and Villages. State aid and AIM are extremely important to towns who depend upon reliable state funding. The flow of state aid impacts the daily lives of all New Yorkers who live in towns. Please do not further burden our hardworking citizens in upstate New York with additional cuts to our local economy.

Maria Lull

Town Supervisor

Chatham