The budget approved over the weekend by the State Legislature includes a $1.1 billion increase in school aid that boosts funding by more than 6 percent statewide. Long Island schools will get an extra $129 million in state financial aid for the 2017-18 academic year. Statewide, the budget includes $800 million to expand half-day and full-day prekindergarten in high-need school districts. The budget also allocates $35 million in new funding to create 22,000 more spots in after-school programs in communities with high rates of poverty. The state budget also includes $400,000 to award to at least 60 teachers, for use in their professional development training. The budget contains Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s “college affordability” proposal, which will mean families with income of under $125,000 will get the balance of public college tuition paid after federal student aid is factored in, and private college students will get more Tuition Assistance Plan money. The plan requires the colleges themselves to cover some costs, and doesn’t cover room, board and fees. Also, SUNY tuition was increased by $200 a year for 3 years from the current $6,470. — SCOTT EIDLER
The budget contains a provision to “raise the age” of criminal responsibility in New York from age 16 to 18 for all but the most violent crimes. New York and North Carolina had been the only two states that set it at 16, meaning suspects that young would be handled in adult criminal courts. Those who supported the change say that handling 16-year-olds in an adult court too often means they will wind up in adult prisons — such as Rikers Island — where they can be abused and be on their way to a life of crime, recidivism and neglect, without any real chance for rehabilitation and improving one’s life. Under the new provision, all misdemeanor cases involving 16- and 17-year-olds will start in Family Court. All nonviolent felonies will go to a newly created “youth court,” which will be a wing of criminal court. Unless a district attorney makes a motion to keep the case in youth court within 30 days, it will go to family court. Youth court will contain social-services representatives. Violent felonies will begin in youth court. But to stay in the criminal court system the case must involve either a deadly weapon, significant physical injury or criminal sexual conduct. Suspects in youth court can be sentenced as adults, although judges will be required to consider the age of the defendant in sentencing. — YANCEY ROY
The budget includes $2.5 billion for the Clean Water Infrastructure Act, which will help local governments pay for wastewater and drinking water infrastructure improvements, including treatment systems to remove contaminants. The investment includes a $75 million rebate program to update and replace septic systems and cesspools, which contribute to nitrogen-loading and damage area waterways. The act also includes $110 million for land preservation aimed at protecting water quality, $130 million for hazardous waste cleanup and $20 million to replace lead pipes. The budget also gives $300 million to the Environmental Protection Fund, which pays for solid waste, parks, recreation and open space programs. It also funds climate change mitigation and resiliency programs. On Long Island, $1 million will go to the Center for Clean Water Technology at Stony Brook University to research methods to remove 1,4-dioxane from water supplies, $2 million to Long Island’s central pine barrens, $1.5 million for Suffolk County sewer improvements, $5 million to Nassau County for the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant and $250,000 for the Long Island Commission for Aquifer Protection. — EMILY DOOLEY
The budget provides for $15 million in additional funding into an existing $30 million fund for communities statewide affected by power-plant closings, said Amy Paulin (D-Scarsdale), chair of the Assembly energy committee. The so-called electric generation facility cessation mitigation program is designed for communities facing closure of plants that pay millions in payments in lieu of taxes. The budget also includes a $500,000 plan backed by Assemb. Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) to bring green-energy funds to public housing to encourage a level of independence from the grid. The budget also includes an additional $2.1 million for a federal-state program to maintain a former nuclear-fuel processing plant in upstate West Valley, said Morris Peters, a state budget office spokesman. The budget includes $23 million for clean-energy tax credits to “encourage progress toward our energy goals,” said Assemb. Fred Thiele (I-Sag Harbor), while extending an Alternative Fuels and Electric Vehicle Recharging Property Tax credit for an additional five years. The budget also provides for establishment of an Indian Point Closure Task Force to “assess the various impacts of the plant’s closure . . . ,” Thiele’s office said. — MARK HARRINGTON
Efforts to expand Long Island’s biotechnology industry got a big boost in the 2017-18 state budget, executives said. The spending plan committed $620 million in tax breaks and grants over five years to biotech startups, drugmakers and producers of medical devices across the state. Area leaders have identified biotech as a sector deserving of state support because of its high-paying jobs and the potential to form startups based on research from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Stony Brook University, Northwell Health’s Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and others. Some executives also lauded changes in the budget to workers’ compensation, which they said would reduce the costs to employers by more than $350 million per year. The changes, the first major overhaul of the comp system since 2007, include limits on temporary benefits paid to injured workers, updated guidelines for medical impairment determinations and ways to reduce prescription drug costs. Despite their earlier criticism, state lawmakers agreed to $750 million in state tax credits and grants to be awarded through Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Councils process, now in its seventh year. An additional $100 million will be doled out in the second Downtown Revitalization Initiative. — JAMES T. MADORE
