Skoufis says state budget brings school aid, tax relief to Orange County

Orange County school districts, parents and utility customers will feel the clearest effects of New York’s roughly $268 billion budget in the classroom and on household bills, not in Albany talking points. State Sen. James Skoufis said the plan, approved nearly two months late after several deadline extensions, delivered direct local wins for Orange County on school aid, early education and tax relief.

The biggest school-finance item Skoufis highlighted was a minimum 2 percent increase in state aid for every district. For Orange County systems already wrestling with staffing costs, transportation expenses and contract pressure, that floor matters because it gives boards a little more room before they have to push harder on local property taxes. It is a statewide formula, but the effect lands in places like Middletown, Warwick, Goshen and Monroe-Woodbury when budgets are built for next year.

Families with young children stand to see a longer-range benefit as well. The budget pushes New York toward universal prekindergarten for all 4-year-olds by the start of the 2028-29 school year, backed by a statewide child-care and pre-K investment that rises by $1.7 billion to $4.5 billion in fiscal 2027. That expansion could matter most to working parents who have been paying for child care while waiting for a public seat to open.

School districts also got breathing room on electric buses. The budget delayed the mandate so districts must buy only zero-emission school buses by 2032, not 2027, and must run fully zero-emission fleets by 2040 instead of 2035. NYSERDA says the state’s 2022 Environmental Bond Act includes $500 million to help pay for the transition, but the revised timeline gives local districts more time to plan for the costs of charging equipment, fleet replacement and route changes.

Households should also watch for the POWER Checks rebate program. The budget sets aside $1 billion for direct utility payments to 8.2 million New Yorkers, with checks scheduled to be mailed between September and December based on 2024 state income tax returns. Joint filers under $150,000 are slated to receive $200, while those with incomes from $150,000 to $300,000 are slated to get $150. State leaders also paired the rebates with utility reforms and ratepayer protections aimed at limiting excessive profits.

Skoufis cast the budget as a way to bring tax dollars back into Orange County communities, and that is where the scorecard now lies: more school aid, a later bus mandate, broader pre-K access and utility relief that residents may feel before the year is out.