On Friday, Assemblymember Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (I-Sag Harbor) issued the following statement on the improvements made to the Aid and Incentives to Municipalities (AIM) program enacted in the final state budget:

“As the Chair of the Local Governments Committee, I know how important unrestricted aid is for municipalities to overcome localized and unique challenges,” said Assemblymember Thiele. “As I have emphasized every year since 2019, it was a mistake to divert funding for this crucial program away from the state general fund and place its cost on the local entities themselves through a county sales tax intercept. This year’s budget is different. I am pleased to announce that AIM will now be wholly funded by the State General Fund in a move that restores the program’s original intention and better serves our local governments recovering from the financial impact of the pandemic. While I am disappointed that the total amount of AIM funding was held flat for yet another year, I believe that this budget makes great strides towards supporting our local communities and presents future opportunities to do better.”