Relates to establishing additional loan forgiveness benefits

1 Co-sponsor

• Timothy M. Kennedy

Title of bill

An act to amend the education law, in relation to establishing additional loan forgiveness benefits

Purpose

Establishes an additional twenty-four months of loan forgiveness benefits under the Get on Your Feet Loan Forgiveness program for applicants living in New York State counties experiencing net population loss to provide an incentive to college graduates to locate in these areas

Summary of provisions

Section 1 amends Section 679-g of the Education Law to extend the Get on Your Feet Loan Forgiveness Program for an additional twenty-four months for graduates residing in counties in New York State experiencing net population loss. The extension provides an additional twenty-four months (beyond the existing twenty-four months) of repayment eligibility for applicants to the Get on Your Feet Loan Forgiveness Program who reside in New York State counties that have suffered population loss from the 2000 decennial census to the present.

Section 2 establishes an effective date.

Existing law

Section 679-g.

Justification

Formerly industrial cities nationwide face higher residential vacancy rates and declining populations, even as other cities are seeing population increases.{1} With its history of industrial strength, the situation in upstate New York reflects this trend. Upstate localities are losing population, especially younger and working-age residents.{2}

Twenty-eight upstate counties have suffered population loss since the 2000 decennial census, ranging from Greene County in the Hudson Valley, which has seen a relatively small decline of .04%, to Hamilton County in the State's North Country, which has seen a decline of over 12% during the same period.{3}

This bill seeks to address this problem by providing extra loan forgiveness benefits to college graduates who elect to reside in counties experiencing net population loss. The Get on Your Feet Loan Forgiveness Program was established in 2015 to provide loan repayment assistance to New York college graduates.{4} Under this bill, applicants eligible for the Get on Your Feet Loan Forgiveness Program who reside in such a county that has experienced net population loss from 2010 to the present would be eligible for an additional twenty-four months of loan repayment assistance - double the what is offered under the existing program. This additional benefit is designed to provide an incentive to college graduates to stay in or move to these counties and provide extra support to these graduates who may be earning less than they would if they had chosen to locate in a different area.

Legislative history

New FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

To be determined.

Effective date

Immediately. {1} See Vey, J., The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, Restoring Prosperity: The State Role in Revitalizing America's Older Industrial Cities (2007) at 25. {2} McMahon, E.J. "The Graying of the Empire State." Empire Center. 8/16/2012; Ellis, K. "Panel examines New York's 'rural brain drain." 4/19/2011; Federal Reserve Bank of New York. "Upstate at a Glance." December 2007. {3} U.S. Bureau of the Census. {4} Education Law Section 679-g.