The Governor and the Legislature completed negotiating the state budget this weekend. All of the budget bills have now been printed and introduced. The Assembly returns to Albany on Thursday and the budget should be passed on time.
As we announced last week, the final agreement rejects the Governor’s proposed Article 27 Community Preservation Program and retains the Rural and Neighborhood Preservation programs.
RPC and NPCs received funding from two sources. The program was funded “off budget” in an Article 7 bill at $3,539,000 with funds swept from the Mortgage Insurance Fund. An additional $655,000 is found in the Aid to Localities bill and is therefore “on budget” These combined sources should allow RPCs/NPCs to be funded at about last year’s levels or about $66,000 per group. Having part of the program’s funding “on budget” is a good thing. Each Coalition was funded at last year’s levels as well
There is a new Article 27 but this one creates a new Urban and Rural Communities Fund. This new program provides funds for small rental projects, with a focus on mixed use and community revitalization projects. The Rural and Urban Community funds are initially funded at about $5.4 million.The new Article 27 fund requires 1/3 match and defines rural as under 25,000 in population. Rural areas have a forty percent set aside for for this program. This funds mixed use new construction or rehab with affordable housing at 90% of median, can be structured as a grant or loan and is available to for profits as well as non profits
The Mortgage Insurance Fund was also used to fund UI at $2million and RARP at $1.5 million. Rural Rental Assistance was funded at $20,400,000
NEW YORK STATE RURAL ADVOCATES 