Packaging Hearing in Albany on October 24 - Lawmakers held a joint legislative hearing in Albany on the proposed Packaging and Recycling Infrastructure Act, which would change how the state manages solid waste. The Senate and Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committees heard testimony on a bill to require companies selling, offering for sale, or distributing packaging materials and products to register with a packaging reduction organization to develop a packaging reduction and recycling plan.
Proponents say that the state must divert waste – especially plastic - from landfills and incentivize manufacturers to reduce their packaging. New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher raised concerns about the impacts a “extended producer responsibility” program might have on New York farms: “We are highly concerned that the current proposals, if passed, will result in many more farms closing their operations across the state.” Read his testimony here.
Election Day is November 7 - Election Day is quickly approaching. Local elections will be held across the state on November 7, and voters will also consider two proposed amendments to the state constitution. The first proposal would raise the debt limit of small city school districts, and the second would extend for ten years the current debt limit for the construction of sewage treatment facilities.
Information on where and how to vote and local ballots is available from the NYS Board of Elections.
Challenging 2024–25 State Budget Expected – On September 20, State Budget Director Blake Washington issued the annual “call letter,” seeking budget requests from every state agency. Agencies were requested to submit flat budgets with certain exceptions. State agencies had been permitted to request modest growth – up to 2% - in recent years. Governor Hochul will submit her proposed Executive Budget request in mid-January, and officials have announced a $9.1 billion deficit in 2024.
Congressional District Plan Heads to State’s Highest Court – The NYS Court of Appeals – the state’s high court – is scheduled to hear an appeal of a lower court decision in July that ordered a state panel to redraw new congressional districts. The lower court decision has been paused pending appeal, and the Court of Appeals has scheduled a hearing on the matter for November 15. Depending on the outcome of the appeal, newly approved district lines for New York’s 26 congressional districts will stand as written or sent back to the drawing board.