1
1 BEFORE THE NEW YORK STATE SENATE FINANCE
AND ASSEMBLY WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEES
2 ----------------------------------------------------
3 JOINT LEGISLATIVE HEARING
In the Matter of the
4 2025-2026 EXECUTIVE BUDGET ON
AGRICULTURE & MARKETS/PARKS & RECREATION
5
----------------------------------------------------
6
Hearing Room B
7 Legislative Office Building
Albany, New York
8
January 27, 2025
9 1:05 p.m.
10
PRESIDING:
11
Senator Liz Krueger
12 Chair, Senate Finance Committee
13 Assemblyman Gary Pretlow
Chair, Assembly Ways & Means Committee
14
PRESENT:
15
Senator Thomas F. O'Mara
16 Senate Finance Committee (RM)
17 Assemblyman Edward P. Ra
Assembly Ways & Means Committee (RM)
18
Senator Michelle Hinchey
19 Chair, Senate Committee on Agriculture
20 Assemblywoman Donna A. Lupardo
Chair, Assembly Committee on Agriculture
21
Senator José M. Serrano
22 Chair, Senate Committee on Cultural
Affairs, Tourism, Arts and Recreation
23
24
2
1 2025-2026 Executive Budget
Agriculture/Parks
2 1-27-25
3 PRESENT: (Continued)
4 Assemblyman Ron Kim
Chair, Assembly Committee on
5 Tourism, Parks, Arts and
Sports Development
6
Senator Patricia Fahy
7
Assemblyman Steven Otis
8
Senator Chris Ryan
9
Assemblyman Brian Cunningham
10
Senator Peter Oberacker
11
Assemblyman Scott Gray
12
Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio
13
Senator Jim Tedisco
14
Assemblyman Brian D. Miller
15
Assemblywoman Rebecca A. Seawright
16
Assemblyman Steven Raga
17
Senator Nathalia Fernandez
18
Assemblyman Joe Angelino
19
Assemblyman Al Stirpe
20
Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh
21
Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni
22
Assemblywoman Paula Elaine Kay
23
Senator Pamela Helming
24
3
1 2025-2026 Executive Budget
Agriculture/Parks
2 1-27-25
3 PRESENT: (Continued)
4 Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner
5 Senator George M. Borrello
6 Assemblyman Chris Tague
7 Assemblyman John Lemondes
8 Assemblyman Matthew Simpson
9 Assemblywoman Dr. Anna R. Kelles
10 Assemblywoman Stefani Zinerman
11 Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
4
1 2025-2026 Executive Budget
Agriculture/Parks
2 1-27-25
3 LIST OF SPEAKERS
4 STATEMENT QUESTIONS
5 Richard A. Ball
Commissioner
6 NYS Department of Agriculture
and Markets
7 -and-
Randy Simons
8 Commissioner
NYS Office of Parks, Recreation
9 and Historic Preservation 15 32
10 Katie Baildon
Policy Coordinator
11 Northeast Organic Farming
Association of New York
12 (NOFA-NY)
-and-
13 Kyle Wallach
Associate Director of
14 Public Policy
New York Farm Bureau
15 -and-
Allyson Jones-Brimmer
16 VP of Regulatory and
Legislative Affairs
17 Northeast Dairy Producers
Association
18 -and-
Josh Stephani
19 Manager
Adirondack Food System Network 178 190
20
21
22
23
24
5
1 2025-2026 Executive Budget
Agriculture/Parks
2 1-27-25
3 LIST OF SPEAKERS, Cont.
4 STATEMENT QUESTIONS
5 Bill Ketzer
Senior Legislative Director
6 American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to
7 Animals
-and-
8 Brian Shapiro
New York State Director
9 Humane Society of the
United States
10 -and-
Libby Post
11 Executive Director
New York State Animal
12 Protection Federation 214 224
13 Will Coté
Senior Director, Public Lands
14 Parks & Trails New York
-and-
15 Julian Mangano
New York Policy Manager
16 American Farmland Trust
-and-
17 Carli Fraccarolli
Government Relations Manager
18 Scenic Hudson 234 244
19
20
21
22
23
24
6
1 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Hi. If everybody
2 would start to take their seats, we can get
3 the show rolling. One more second while the
4 Assembly gets one thing taken care of.
5 (Pause.) Okay, we have people seated.
6 Legislators have enough seats to sit in.
7 Great.
8 Well, welcome to the first budget
9 hearing for 2025. I'm Senator Liz Krueger,
10 chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and
11 next to me is the brand-new chair of Ways and
12 Means in the Assembly, Gary Pretlow.
13 Welcome. As he said, it's not his first
14 rodeo, but it's his first rodeo as the chair
15 of Ways and Means.
16 And I'm just going to do the opening
17 remarks -- no, I'm going to go over a few of
18 the rules of the road.
19 One, for all the legislators here,
20 when you want to speak, put your speaker on
21 the green. You can push the button. And if
22 you are talking and you accidentally turned
23 it on or you forgot, the people in the back,
24 in the room, might decide to turn it off for
7
1 you, but always keep your eye on whether your
2 mic is green or red.
3 For everyone, legislators and our
4 testifiers, there are clocks that you can see
5 in a variety of places when you're looking
6 this way (indicating), or when you're looking
7 this way. And that's the amount of time you
8 have available to you. So when you're
9 testifying, that's your amount of time to
10 testify.
11 When legislators are asking questions,
12 that clock is the amount of time you have to
13 ask questions and get answers. I have to go
14 over this every year in every hearing.
15 Sometimes you spend all three minutes asking
16 the question. That means you don't get an
17 answer. So try not to use all the minutes on
18 your clock to ask the question, because then
19 it's more of a speech. And some of us love
20 giving speeches, but then the testifiers will
21 only be able to say "I can get back to you at
22 a later date," because we're not going to
23 give them time to answer you. So just keep
24 your eye on the clocks.
8
1 And it's red and then it goes to
2 yellow when you're close -- I'm sorry, it's
3 green, then it goes to yellow when you're
4 close, and then it goes to red when you're
5 done. All right?
6 And just for keeping track, for the
7 time that people have, witnesses from
8 government have 10 minutes to testify.
9 Nongovernment witnesses have less time a
10 little later; they have only three minutes to
11 testify.
12 Then the chairs of the relevant
13 committees -- we have three of them today; we
14 have the Finance chair, the Ag chair, the
15 Cultural Affairs chair -- they get 10 minutes
16 to ask questions, and only they get a second
17 round for three minutes if they have
18 additional questions. The relevant
19 rankers -- again, three committees -- each
20 have five minutes, no second round. All
21 other members have three minutes, no second
22 round.
23 I know people always think that's too
24 little time, I get it, particularly
9
1 legislators. You're allowed to go find these
2 people and ask them questions any time you
3 want. And for nongovernmental people who
4 come to testify and got so little time to
5 talk, just remember, they're living for you
6 to call them and ask them more questions.
7 They will more than happily come to your
8 offices to talk to you about their testimony,
9 they will get on the phone to answer
10 questions. So this is not anybody's only
11 opportunity to ask questions and get
12 questions answered.
13 Okay, with that, before I make the
14 official opening to the hearing, I'm going to
15 introduce Democratic Senators who are here
16 already. And I see our chair, Michelle
17 Hinchey, of Agriculture and our chair of
18 Parks and Tourism and the rest of the name of
19 that committee -- I'm sorry -- Senator
20 Serrano.
21 Are there other Democrats up here? I
22 see Senator Fahy. Oh, and Senator Chris
23 Ryan, brand-new Senator Chris Ryan. We have
24 two Senator Ryans now in the Senate, so you
10
1 have to practice.
2 And I will turn it over to my ranker
3 to introduce -- Tom O'Mara, the ranker on
4 Finance, to introduce the Republicans.
5 SENATOR O'MARA: Thank you,
6 Chairwoman Krueger.
7 Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you
8 for being here.
9 We are joined on our side of the aisle
10 by Senators Jim Tedisco, George Borrello,
11 Pam Helming, and Pete Oberacker.
12 Thank you.
13 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Great. Okay, and
14 now I'm going to turn it over to my Assembly
15 colleagues to introduce their sides.
16 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: (Mic off.) Thank
17 you, Senator Krueger, and good afternoon,
18 everyone.
19 I won't make an opening statement.
20 It's good to be here. As I said earlier,
21 it's not my first rodeo, it's the first time
22 of riding 8 seconds on the bull.
23 (Laughter.)
24 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: So we have our
11
1 relevant chairs here. From Parks is
2 Senator -- that was a joke -- Assemblyman Ron
3 Kim, and on that committee we have
4 Carrie Woerner. And the Agriculture chair,
5 Donna Lupardo, and on that committee Dr. Anna
6 Kelles, Brian Cunningham, and Steven Raga are
7 here. We also have joining, as an observer,
8 Assemblywoman Seawright.
9 And Mr. Ra will introduce his
10 colleagues.
11 ASSEMBLYMAN RA: Good afternoon. We
12 are joined by Assemblyman Chris Tague, our
13 ranker on Agriculture; Assemblyman Scott
14 Gray, our ranker on Tourism and Parks; and
15 Members Giglio, Angelino, Miller and Simpson.
16 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Do you have any
17 more?
18 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: (Mic off.) And I
19 missed one individual. Assemblyman Steve
20 Otis is here.
21 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Great.
22 And also, for new legislators or
23 people who don't usually come to budget
24 hearings, if you want to ask questions, you
12
1 want to make sure you are telling -- if
2 you're a Senate Dem or an Assembly Dem, you
3 want to tell Assemblymember Pretlow or me
4 that you want to be on the list to ask
5 questions.
6 And if you are a Republican, you want
7 to let your two leaders know that you want to
8 ask questions, so that we make sure that we
9 have the list of who wants to ask the
10 questions.
11 With that, I will just take one --
12 30 seconds to say today is the
13 80th anniversary of Holocaust Memorial Day.
14 It was 80 years ago today that the
15 U.S. military went into Auschwitz and found
16 what they found. It was a Holocaust of
17 nearly 10 million people. When it was done,
18 two out of three Jews in Europe were killed,
19 many other non-Jews with us, and Russian
20 soldiers as well.
21 And I -- if I was on the floor of the
22 Senate today, I would be giving a resolution
23 which will go on without me today. But I
24 thought I would just take a moment for that.
13
1 And now we'll switch to the actual
2 hearing, which is on Agriculture and Parks
3 and Recreation. So again, I've already
4 introduced myself as Liz Krueger, cochairing
5 today's budget hearing.
6 Today is the first of 14 hearings
7 conducted by the joint fiscal committees of
8 the Legislature regarding the Governor's
9 proposed budget for state fiscal year
10 '25-'26. These hearings are conducted
11 pursuant to the New York State Constitution
12 and Legislative Law.
13 Today the Senate Finance Committee and
14 the Assembly Ways and Means Committee will
15 hear testimony concerning the Governor's
16 proposed budget for departments of
17 Agriculture and Markets and the Office of
18 Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
19 Following each testimony there will be
20 some time for questions from the chairs of
21 the fiscal committees and other legislators.
22 We've already introduced the members
23 from both houses, so I am going to remind
24 everyone that any testimony that is
14
1 submitted, whether or not you have a chance
2 to testify in person, will be on the
3 appropriate websites of both the Senate and
4 the Assembly so that everyone can read the
5 testimony submitted by anyone and everyone.
6 Because sometimes people get told that they
7 don't have time to testify.
8 And sometimes -- I don't think it will
9 be a problem today, but some of these
10 hearings run much longer than others, and by
11 late in the day people realize, If I don't
12 get on the train, I won't get home.
13 So if you are signed up to testify and
14 for some reason you know you're not going to
15 be able to stay to testify, just do us a
16 favor, come down to the front to any of these
17 people here and let them know so that we're
18 not looking for you when you've already
19 decided you have to leave town.
20 With that, I want to welcome our first
21 panel: Richard Ball, commissioner of the
22 Department of Agriculture and Markets, and
23 welcoming the Office of Parks, Recreation and
24 Historic Preservation. I will also be
15
1 introducing Randy Simons, commissioner
2 pro tem and chief of staff of the Office of
3 Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
4 But we'll be starting with Richard Ball.
5 And again, after the final
6 question-and-answer period there will be an
7 opportunity for members of the public to
8 briefly express their views. So everybody
9 should have gotten copies of the list of
10 testifiers.
11 And if you know you're on the next
12 panel, you might want to come down towards
13 the front as we're getting done with the
14 panel before you. This is all just to try to
15 get it to run as smoothly as possible.
16 And with that: Commissioner Ball,
17 welcome.
18 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: (Mic
19 off.)
20 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Yours is not
21 green. Press. Press again. I'm still
22 seeing red. Press a little harder. Ah,
23 there you go.
24 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Aha,
16
1 green.
2 Thank you, Senator. And thank you for
3 the thoughtful introduction to today's
4 activities. Appreciate that.
5 Good afternoon, Chair Krueger,
6 Chair Pretlow, Senator Hinchey,
7 Assemblymember Lupardo, members of the
8 agricultural committees, and elected
9 officials. I am pleased to offer my
10 testimony on the fiscal year '25-'26
11 Executive Budget for the Department of
12 Agriculture & Markets.
13 In this year's Executive Budget
14 Governor Hochul continues to demonstrate her
15 commitment to New York agriculture. Her
16 first two budgets increased funding for our
17 industry by 60 percent, and I'm happy to see
18 that this year's plan continues to build on
19 that commitment.
20 The Executive Budget recommends
21 $364 million for the department, which allows
22 us to maintain our core functions and carry
23 out initiatives to boost our sustainability
24 efforts and food systems, further our
17
1 workforce and agriculture education goals,
2 and invest in capital projects, marketing,
3 and research to grow the industry.
4 Agriculture is a cornerstone of the
5 economy in our state, with nearly
6 32,000 farms numbering among the nation's top
7 producers of more than 30 different
8 commodities. Our dairy industry is a big
9 part of that, with dairy farming making up
10 half of New York's agricultural economy.
11 Through the Dairy Think Tank, we know that we
12 share a goal with our dairy farmers, and that
13 is to make New York the most sustainable
14 dairy state in the country.
15 Building on last year's historic
16 investments in New York’s dairy community,
17 the Governor this year is proposing
18 $10 million for the second round of the
19 Dairy Modernization Grant Program to update
20 on-farm milk storage and improve dairy
21 supply-chain efficiencies. An additional
22 $1 million will support cutting-edge research
23 and further support the implementation of
24 climate-resilient practices on our dairy
18
1 farms.
2 These initiatives are vital to our
3 nation-leading fight against climate change.
4 With Governor Hochul's plan to maintain a
5 $400 million Environmental Protection Fund,
6 the department will see continued investment
7 in programs that reduce the effects of
8 climate change and protect our water and our
9 land.
10 Funding will support farmland and
11 pollinator protection programs, Soil and
12 Water Conservation Districts, the Climate
13 Resilient Farming program, Cornell Soil
14 Health, and so much more. The Governor is
15 also proposing new investments to improve
16 tracking of lost farmland and increase
17 capacity within New York's network of
18 community-led land trusts.
19 In addition to climate, a top priority
20 for the state is supporting our local food
21 system and expanding access to food for all
22 New Yorkers. This year's Executive Budget
23 includes targeted support to continue this
24 work, including nearly $4 million for the
19
1 expanded FreshConnect program and a
2 $5 million increase for the Nourish New York
3 program. It also supports the
4 Farm-to-School, Farmers' Market Resiliency,
5 and Urban Farms and Community Gardens
6 programs.
7 In addition, Senior Farmers' Market
8 Nutrition Program benefits will be maintained
9 at its current level. The $50 million
10 Regional School Food Infrastructure Grant
11 Program will also see another $10 million to
12 encourage the use of fresh local farm
13 products in school meals and expand markets
14 for our New York producers.
15 I'm also excited to see support for
16 New York's fiber and maple industries. The
17 $10 million Food and Fiber Small-Scale
18 Processing Grant Program will fuel the supply
19 of diverse products for New York's local
20 purchasing initiatives such as Executive
21 Order 32. Additional investments in
22 marketing and research will help New York to
23 become the leading innovator in the maple
24 industry. The proposed $73 million local
20
1 assistance budget will also support research
2 and promotion for many commodities, including
3 craft beverages, apples, vegetables, honey,
4 hemp and more.
5 The Executive Budget also builds on
6 the state's One Health approach, proposing
7 funding to support animal and plant health.
8 Again, this year, $4.25 million is proposed
9 for Cornell University's Integrated Pest
10 Management Program. In support of companion
11 animal care, $5 million will continue the
12 Companion Animal Capital Fund, which provides
13 critical upgrades at animal shelters and
14 enhanced care for our dogs and our cats.
15 One Health also encompasses the health
16 and well-being of our workforce, who are
17 essential to the strength of the industry.
18 To support our farmworkers, I am pleased to
19 say that the Governor has proposed an
20 additional $5 million for the Farmworker
21 Housing Program. This program will help our
22 farmers provide safer housing for their
23 workforce while continuing to meet the
24 production goals on the farm.
21
1 In addition, $3.2 million will create
2 safer environments and greater capacity at
3 Agri-Business Child Development -- or ABCD --
4 centers. A total of $13.5 million will be
5 dedicated to these facilities overall. These
6 improvements will allow ABCD to expand
7 education, health, and nutrition services to
8 roughly 1,000 children whose families make up
9 New York's farm workforce.
10 To ensure the long-term success of the
11 agricultural industry, we are also working on
12 strengthening our agricultural education. We
13 have had many successes in this area,
14 especially this past year. This year's
15 budget will allow us to further those
16 efforts, investing $1 million for the
17 New York Agriculture in the Classroom
18 program. This is double the amount of last
19 year's investment. Additional funding
20 totaling $1.8 million is proposed for other
21 education programs like FFA, 4-H, the
22 National Society for Minorities in
23 Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related
24 Sciences -- or MANRRS -- and the Association
22
1 of Agricultural Educators. Together, these
2 programs help to grow agriculture education
3 and support our next generation. We will
4 join these organizations to kick off the
5 Governor's blue-ribbon panel to advance
6 agricultural education later this year.
7 Finally, the state is also focusing on
8 our county and local fairs, which are hubs
9 for agriculture education. The Executive
10 Budget includes $2 million to support these
11 fairs statewide, ensuring that they will
12 remain a critical avenue to connect
13 New Yorkers with local food and agriculture.
14 We are also excited that Governor Hochul has
15 proposed a nearly $51 million investment for
16 capital improvements to the Great New York
17 State Fair. We plan to upgrade our
18 entertainment areas to further position the
19 fairgrounds as a year-round attraction. This
20 will build on the fair's ongoing projects,
21 like new barns, upgrades to the Dairy Bar and
22 Youth Building, and more –- all of which help
23 the State Fair continue to spotlight our
24 vibrant, diverse agricultural industry.
23
1 Thanks to the investments that the
2 Governor and all of you have made in New York
3 agriculture over the years, we today have a
4 more resilient food system and a stronger
5 industry today. I look forward to seeing
6 that momentum continue as we work together to
7 further our shared goals in the coming year.
8 Thank you.
9 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you very
10 much. And you had two and a half minutes to
11 spare. And I'm sorry, Parks doesn't get the
12 two and a half minutes. You also get
13 10 minutes.
14 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
15 Thank you very much. It's such a pleasure to
16 be with each of you today.
17 Good afternoon, Chair Krueger.
18 Welcome, Chair Pretlow. Senator Serrano,
19 great to see you. We've spent a lot of time
20 in celebrating our centennial over the last
21 year, and appreciate you for helping build
22 the momentum. And welcome, Assemblymember
23 Kim. Thrilled to see you in the new role.
24 And members of the State Legislature, thank
24
1 you, truly, for inviting me here today.
2 I'm honored to represent
3 Governor Hochul on behalf of our state parks
4 system, which includes 250 state parks,
5 historic sites, golf courses, boat launches,
6 recreational trails, marinas and more. The
7 Legislature's enduring support for our
8 operational and capital funding has truly
9 benefited all New Yorkers and has been deeply
10 appreciative here at Parks.
11 Governor Hochul recognizes the park
12 system's importance to the physical and
13 mental wellness of our communities. Our
14 agency has proudly worked with the Governor
15 on major initiatives to expand access to
16 healthy recreation and looks forward to
17 building on those successes.
18 Last year we jumped in with both feet,
19 literally and figuratively, on the Governor's
20 NY SWIMS Capital Grant Program. The program
21 had two critical goals: helping
22 disadvantaged communities across our
23 neighborhoods to offer safe swimming in an
24 era of extreme heat, and reducing the number
25
1 of drownings, a leading cause of death in
2 young people. In the largest investment in
3 public swimming since the New Deal, we
4 awarded $150 million in grants to
5 municipalities to support 37 projects
6 statewide, and we're appreciative of our
7 partnership with DASNY as well to help make
8 that program such a success.
9 NY SWIMS led to another nation-leading
10 recreation program: Get Offline, Get
11 Outside. Prior to the July 4th weekend,
12 Governor Hochul removed swimming pool entry
13 fees at all state parks across our system for
14 the entire summer. Through Labor Day,
15 542,000 people came out to a state park pool.
16 That was a 36 percent increase -- remarkable.
17 Twenty-two facilities hosted free swimming
18 lessons, tripling the number of sites from
19 the prior year, and we were able to increase
20 the number of students we taught to swim by
21 400 percent, to more than 2,000 children.
22 And to further protect our patrons at
23 the pools and the spray grounds when it gets
24 hot, we gave out roughly 35 gallons of free
26
1 sunscreen.
2 Now, these programs didn’t just make
3 waves locally. They positioned our agency
4 and this state as the vanguard of public
5 health and recreation. Now Governor Hochul's
6 Unplug and Play initiative invests
7 $200 million in this very necessary work
8 through NY BRICKS -- Building Recreational
9 Infrastructure for Communities, Kids and
10 Seniors; NY PLAYS -- New York Places for
11 Learning, Activity, and Youth
12 Socialization -- a grant program to aid
13 municipalities with new and improved
14 playgrounds; and of course the next phases of
15 NY SWIMS and Get Offline, Get Outside.
16 It has been a pleasure and a privilege
17 to lead our park system during its centennial
18 year. In 2024, we honored influential
19 figures and milestone moments in our system’s
20 development. Our teams hosted one-of-a-kind
21 centennial events, many of which you were
22 alongside with us to help us celebrate, and
23 received hundreds of stories and memories
24 from our visitors.
27
1 Building on the success of the
2 centennial, public enthusiasm for our parks
3 and historic sites surged in 2024. We
4 welcomed a record-breaking 88 million
5 visitors to our state parks. That's a
6 4.5 percent increase over the prior year,
7 marking 12 consecutive record years here at
8 State Parks.
9 And our parks are doing what the
10 architects of this system intended -- serving
11 as affordable destinations for all
12 New Yorkers while also attracting visitors
13 from across the country and across the world.
14 The Governor's proposed budget
15 maintains the robust capital and operational
16 funding necessary and will enable us to shape
17 our system as we kick off the next 100 years
18 here in 2025.
19 But the work of building our system's
20 future never stops. Some of the highlights
21 from the more than 100 announcements and
22 events we held in 2024:
23 Adding more than 1,000 acres across
24 our system, from Fahnestock to Moreau Lake to
28
1 Treman to Taghkanic;
2 Renovated swim facilities at Riverbank
3 and Stony Brook to better serve our swimmers;
4 Forty-five miles of greenway trails
5 were developed, and we're advancing plans on
6 six key trail corridors across New York City
7 and the outer boroughs;
8 Work is underway across Selkirk Shores
9 State Park and our shorelines at Buffalo
10 Harbor State Park for a destination spray
11 area;
12 New visitor centers at Olana, Bayard
13 Cutting Arboretum, and Niagara Falls, and new
14 accessible park infrastructure all across our
15 system to provide recreational opportunities
16 for people with disabilities.
17 As New York's greatest public
18 recreation asset, we also are working to
19 remove financial barriers to those who need
20 it most. As of April 1st, I'm particularly
21 proud of New York State Veterans and our Gold
22 Star Families, who became eligible for a
23 Lifetime Liberty Pass. Since 2014, we issued
24 approximately 1,200 Lifetime Liberty Passes
29
1 annually. After the Governor's initiative,
2 we increased that number by 900 percent, to
3 over 12,000 passes issued. Remarkable.
4 And visitor safety is a top priority
5 at Parks -- always has been, always will be.
6 Fifty-three million, for the first time under
7 the Governor, was dedicated to improving
8 safety technology infrastructure, staff
9 training, and public awareness. I was
10 particularly proud of the Junior Ranger
11 program, which empowered our youngest
12 visitors to take charge of their personal
13 safety and built connections between the
14 public and our Park Rangers.
15 We significantly expanded our training
16 program to equip more staff with essential
17 skills in visitor engagement, missing person
18 response, and human trafficking awareness.
19 Additionally, we have bolstered our
20 law enforcement presence by recruiting nearly
21 50 new Park Police officers since last year,
22 and we remain steadfast in our commitment to
23 providing our officers with the necessary
24 resources to support and effectively fulfill
30
1 their critical duties to protect our park
2 visitors.
3 And in the next two years our system
4 will shine brightly at a national and
5 international stage. In September, the eyes
6 of the golf world will be upon Bethpage State
7 Park. Twenty-four of the top golfers in the
8 world, from Europe and the United States,
9 will compete in the 2025 Ryder Cup. More
10 than a quarter-million fans will attend.
11 And in 2026, we join the nation in
12 commemorating the 250th anniversary of the
13 American Revolution. As cochair of
14 New York's 250th Commemoration Commission, we
15 are committed to a commemorative experience
16 that is both educational and inspiring. And
17 we will do this by engaging all New Yorkers,
18 from students to community members, in this
19 exciting celebration.
20 And we will, most importantly, achieve
21 this by embracing the agency's Our Whole
22 History initiative, which ensures diverse
23 perspectives and inclusive storytelling are
24 at the forefront of our efforts.
31
1 In closing, throughout our agency's
2 history we've helped New Yorkers meet the
3 challenges of the day, whether supporting our
4 troops during World War II or creating
5 affordable recreational opportunities for the
6 Baby Boom generation. We are meeting today's
7 needs for connecting people in an age of
8 division and fragmentation, fortifying our
9 properties against climate change, and giving
10 New Yorkers affordable ways to improve their
11 physical and mental well-being.
12 I truly have valued the time that we
13 have spent together over the last year in
14 promoting and celebrating the benefits of our
15 great parks system to our communities. Our
16 centennial year was a time to certainly
17 reflect on our past, to concentrate on the
18 mission ahead, but more importantly grasp the
19 current moment, one which our successors, I
20 truly believe, will look at us -- maybe at
21 the bicentennial -- and really proclaim this
22 era as one of the most important eras in the
23 history of state parks.
24 So for this we are grateful. We are
32
1 grateful to the Governor, we are grateful to
2 each of you, we are grateful to the 88-plus
3 million and our partners. Thank you for the
4 opportunity today, and I most welcome
5 additional conversation to discuss this great
6 state park system.
7 Thank you.
8 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you very
9 much.
10 Our first questioner will be Michelle
11 Hinchey, chair of the Agriculture Committee.
12 Ten minutes.
13 SENATOR HINCHEY: Thank you very much,
14 Senator Krueger.
15 And thank you both so much for being
16 here and for your testimony. There's lots of
17 exciting things going on in both sectors, so
18 thank you for your leadership.
19 Commissioner Ball, no surprise, I'm
20 going to start with you. And I want to thank
21 you personally -- who knew -- I want to thank
22 you personally for your work as commissioner.
23 I think we in New York State are very lucky
24 to have you at the helm, and appreciate all
33
1 of the work that you do and your leadership
2 in our ag space. Because as you know better
3 than anyone, New York is an ag state. And so
4 we have to do everything we can to protect
5 our farmers and support farm businesses,
6 because this is the future of our food
7 production in our country. And so thank you
8 for your leadership in that.
9 I'd like to start with one of
10 everyone's favorite topics, which is school
11 food. And we're here to sing. We're very
12 excited to see in the Governor's budget her
13 inclusion of universal school meals. But of
14 course we would love to ensure that all of
15 the food that our students are eating is not
16 only healthy farm-fresh food but locally
17 grown New York farm-fresh food. We have the
18 school food program, but right now the
19 reimbursement really only covers lunch, the
20 30 percent threshold program.
21 I would love to hear from you, if we
22 were to include breakfast in that program and
23 expand the reimbursement rate to 25 cents,
24 what would that mean for our growers and
34
1 farmers across the state, and what would it
2 mean for access to healthy food?
3 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
4 thank you, Senator, for that question.
5 That's a big question. But certainly
6 universal school meals I think is a very
7 exciting opportunity for New York farmers and
8 for New York children.
9 You know, for so many years in our
10 schools we basically said to local school
11 boards and cafeteria nutrition people: Break
12 even on the school lunch program. Let's see
13 if we can feed our kids lunch at $1.74. And
14 I think we have to change that philosophy and
15 discussion to a value-based one. When you or
16 I buy a pair of shoes, buy a shirt, buy a
17 car, whatever, we make a value-based
18 decision. We look at the price, we look at
19 the quality, and we make a decision. But for
20 so many years, when it came to feeding our
21 children, we made an economic decision.
22 And I think, you know, the school food
23 program with the 30 percent initiative for
24 lunch really helped move the dime a little
35
1 bit, if you'll pardon the pun, and we allowed
2 schools to get reimbursed from 5.9 cents,
3 where it had been for probably 40 years, up
4 to 25 cents. That was a great effort, and
5 we're seeing great success there.
6 I think including breakfast, I think
7 we have to put our eye on the ball, which is
8 really let's figure out how to feed New York
9 kids New York food. It's going to be higher
10 nutrition, it's going to be better economic
11 outcomes. I know the Commissioner of Health
12 will say we're going to get better health
13 outcomes five years, 10 years, 15 years down
14 the road. As a farmer, I know we're going to
15 see better economic outcomes in our rural
16 communities when we feed kids with local
17 stuff.
18 You couple that with the Governor's
19 Executive Order 32 to get the state to do the
20 same thing. Let's make sure in New York
21 State that our -- as a state, across all our
22 agencies and our purchasers, that we're using
23 30 percent New York products that we buy.
24 We're off to a great start there.
36
1 So I think between, you know, thinking
2 about breakfast, between thinking about
3 universal school meals, I think this is a
4 tremendous opportunity for our farmers in
5 New York State.
6 SENATOR HINCHEY: Thank you. Yeah, we
7 know healthy food is a form of medicine,
8 right, and so we can actually -- it's a type
9 of preventative care if we can make sure that
10 we're eating good nutrients, and that is from
11 our New York farmers. We can also save a lot
12 of money on the back end, not to mention from
13 an administrative perspective, schools don't
14 buy apples for lunch and a different set of
15 apples for breakfast, right? You just buy
16 apples and you put them out. And so having
17 to track that closely is really difficult.
18 So expanding breakfast I think would be a
19 great thing to do.
20 Switching gears slightly, hemp
21 processing. You know, you and I have talked
22 about this. I think hemp is an incredible
23 opportunity in New York. Especially from a
24 building material, from a clothing material,
37
1 from a green perspective, there's so much
2 opportunity there. Last year, you know,
3 we've been advocating for funding,
4 specifically infrastructure funding, for hemp
5 processing. Because we have the growers who
6 have grown it, we know what it could be, but
7 that middle area of the manufacturing and
8 processing is really difficult and, quite
9 frankly, really expensive.
10 So it was great to see in the
11 Governor's budget last year $5 million for
12 hemp processing, I believe it was
13 specifically cited for Geneva. I don't see
14 it in the Governor's budget this year, so I'm
15 curious where that stands and what the
16 appetite is for an additional facility.
17 Because New York is a big state. We have
18 lots of growers, and one facility just in the
19 center may be difficult.
20 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL:
21 Right. Well, we're just, frankly, in the
22 process of getting that up and running, that
23 $5 million from last year. And that
24 appropriation went to Cornell University to
38
1 help with the equipment and the techniques,
2 the technical expertise that's going to be
3 needed to explode that business.
4 Hemp has about 2,000 uses, which is
5 mind-blowing. And New York -- the entire
6 United States -- has amnesia about what we
7 used to do with hemp. We used to be a
8 leading producer of hemp in the world. You
9 know, and we threw that out so many years
10 ago; we've got to relearn a lot of things.
11 But I'm happy to say that at Cornell
12 we now have New York varieties, we've got
13 this capacity coming on here. And I would
14 just add we have a very energetic Hemp and
15 Fiber Work Group. They're not shy. They're
16 full of ideas. We meet fairly regularly at
17 the Department of Ag. So I think we're still
18 getting ready to capitalize on that
19 investment from last year, which is why we
20 have the budget we have this year.
21 SENATOR HINCHEY: Great. Thank you so
22 much.
23 The Farm Overtime Tax Credit. We had
24 a bill last year that would have included
39
1 dairy farms, to make it easier for them to
2 utilize the tax credit that we have set up.
3 The Governor unfortunately vetoed our bill,
4 citing that it needed to be done in the
5 budget. I don't see that in this budget
6 proposal. Is there a work -- is there
7 something that we can work on for the budget
8 this year to make sure that we can get that
9 done for our dairy farmers?
10 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yes,
11 thank you. That was a -- there were some
12 challenges with the way the Overtime Tax
13 Credit had been written that affected
14 different farms in different ways. And the
15 Governor was hoping to get that done in the
16 budget.
17 We are still meeting with Tax and
18 Finance as a department, and we also are
19 meeting with the industry. We have sole
20 proprietors, we have partnerships, we have
21 LLCs, we have C Corps, S Corps. We have
22 management companies on our farms. And we
23 need to come up with the specific language
24 that will work. The Governor charged both of
40
1 us, the Tax and Finance and Department of Ag,
2 to come up with an answer here. We've been
3 working on that pretty hot and heavy
4 recently. Hopefully we're going to have
5 something for you very shortly, to just
6 fine-tune that language a little bit and get
7 it right so it works for all farmers.
8 SENATOR HINCHEY: Great. Thank you.
9 I would love to see that in the 30-day
10 amendments. It's something I think we need
11 to get done in the budget this year.
12 Grants for farmland preservation. As
13 we started with, New York is an ag state, and
14 it's incredibly important that we protect our
15 farmland. I see that there's new language
16 around planning for grants, but I haven't
17 seen necessarily additional dollars. As you
18 know, we're still having challenges
19 specifically with solar developments being
20 centered on farmland. I'd love to hear, do
21 you think we're doing enough in farmland
22 preservation, and can we do more?
23 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: I
24 think we're in a great place. We went over
41
1 100,000 acres preserved last year. I mean,
2 that still leaves a tremendous amount of
3 acres that's not protected. But we've had a
4 commitment of in the neighborhood between
5 18 and 21 million dollars a year for the last
6 almost 10 years, which really brought
7 New York kind of up to pace. Working through
8 the Regional Economic Development areas,
9 refining it from an RFP process to an RFA
10 process, we've been able to move much more
11 quickly in finding land, helping those
12 easements happen, and getting farm families
13 protected.
14 SENATOR HINCHEY: But more money for
15 farmland preservation would be helpful.
16 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL:
17 Excuse me?
18 SENATOR HINCHEY: More money for more
19 farmland preservation would be helpful.
20 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
21 I'm optimistic, yeah. And obviously we're
22 going to see some assistance there in the
23 bond act funding coming to fruition. You
24 know, we're involved in those conversations
42
1 as well.
2 So I feel pretty good about where we
3 are. I think where we see some needs is in
4 the capacity in local land trusts to be able
5 to handle the influx. We've gotten good as a
6 department at getting these programs in and
7 out of the door pretty quickly. We meet with
8 the partners on a regular basis. But now
9 we're seeing there's a little bit of a holdup
10 when it comes to the individual land trusts
11 around the state being able to handle the
12 workload. So you'll see some help in there.
13 SENATOR HINCHEY: Thank you. And I
14 know my time is short; I guess this is a
15 bigger question. But as shortly as you
16 possibly can, lots of changes happening at
17 the federal level. And we're going to see
18 some loss of dollars, we imagine specifically
19 in some of the programs you've seen. Can you
20 talk a little bit about what USDA funding
21 means for us?
22 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
23 I think it's fair to say we can expect some
24 changes. For the Department of Ag and
43
1 Markets, about $103 million flows from the
2 federal government to the Department of
3 Agriculture, mostly from USDA, some from FDA.
4 SENATOR HINCHEY: I'll come back to
5 you.
6 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Okay.
7 Thank you.
8 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
9 Assembly.
10 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: (Mic off.)
11 Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo.
12 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Thank you,
13 Chair. I can pick right back up where
14 Senator Hinchey left off.
15 But first, thank you all for being
16 here. As you know, we're looking at the
17 budget, very happy to see some new items.
18 Very pleased with the support for the Cornell
19 Ruminant Center, Cornell 4-H, the Senior
20 Farmers' Market Program. Of course
21 disappointed that more items weren't put
22 on-budget, but this is an ongoing discussion
23 we have year after year. We will do our best
24 to make as many restorations as we can. We
44
1 just want to make that very clear.
2 I'm concerned about the Climate-Smart
3 Commodities Program and what we're hearing
4 about climate-smart farming and marketing in
5 general. If you could speak on that, what we
6 can expect in terms of loss of funding -- I
7 know it's been put on pause -- but also the
8 effect on our soil health work. Because the
9 work that we are doing on soil health and
10 climate resiliency is very important, and it
11 has had widespread support across the board.
12 And I would hate to see our soil health work
13 be impacted by these cuts.
14 So if you could tell us a little bit
15 about what's happening on Climate-Smart. I
16 realize, you know, all things climate are
17 under the microscope, but some things are
18 just foundational to the work that we're
19 doing on -- for agriculture.
20 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah.
21 Well, thanks for that question.
22 Again, there's more unknown than known
23 at this point. You know, the new
24 administration is still filling out personnel
45
1 and hearings are happening for leadership at
2 USDA and FDA.
3 I will say that the Climate-Smart
4 Commodities Program, which was a project
5 between DEC, Ag & Markets, Cornell University
6 and SUNY ESF -- it's about a $60 million
7 project for New York State -- has been paused
8 by the government in Washington. That
9 doesn't mean it's canceled. I don't know
10 other than it's paused.
11 It's a concern because this was a good
12 effort. I will say --
13 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: I'm sorry,
14 Commissioner, could you repeat the name of
15 the program that's on pause?
16 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL:
17 Climate-Smart Commodities.
18 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Oh, you're
19 still on that, okay.
20 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah.
21 And we applied for that some three years ago
22 with our partners at DEC, SUNY ESF and
23 Cornell. Great program. Some funding has
24 been out there to research how better to
46
1 achieve that on our farms and in our
2 research.
3 So we know that's been paused. But
4 again, we're waiting to see, you know, who
5 are going to be the people we deal with in
6 Washington, who's going to occupy those posts
7 at USDA.
8 I will say that I'm encouraged. I
9 know three commissioners who are taking
10 under-secretary positions who are personal
11 friends, so I think we'll have an avenue
12 there. But we've got to let the dust settle
13 here and just figure out what will continue
14 to be funded and what may be cut or culled
15 back.
16 I am encouraged that in New York we
17 have decades of progress on environmental
18 issues. We've been looking at water quality
19 and air quality on our farms for decades.
20 And the programs we have, supported by this
21 Governor, supported -- the Climate-Resilient
22 Farming Program, which is a New York program
23 completely. Our work with NRDC and our work
24 with our Soil and Water Conservation
47
1 Districts is very strong. We've got a great
2 tradition, and it will be able to keep going
3 here in New York State.
4 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Thank you,
5 Commissioner.
6 A sensitive topic that I'm weighing
7 into carefully; you and I and most of us in
8 this room have discussed workforce shortages
9 on our farms. How concerned are you about
10 what we're beginning to see in the country at
11 the moment regarding New York farms and their
12 preparedness to keep their operations going?
13 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: You
14 know, probably if someone asked me what was
15 the most limiting factor to growing New York
16 agriculture, I would say labor supply. We've
17 seen that happening over a period of decades,
18 frankly, and we saw it really accelerate
19 after COVID-19. We'll be watching very
20 closely the concerns around immigration that
21 we're hearing.
22 In the prior administration, this
23 president took a strong stance on
24 immigration. I would say that for New York
48
1 as a farmer, as a farmworker when I was
2 20 years old, that limiting factor is pretty
3 strong. We know that somewheres in New York
4 between 40 and 50 percent of our farmworkers,
5 construction workers, restaurant workers,
6 daycare workers do not have proper
7 documentation, so this is a concern.
8 We saw back in that first
9 administration a 270 percent increase in
10 ICE activity and border patrol raids on
11 New York farms. And that was a very
12 difficult time for New York agriculture,
13 particularly dairy.
14 So we're watching this very closely;
15 you know, how does this play out? We know
16 that we have some raids happening over the
17 weekend in Western New York. I don't know
18 the facts yet, but we're going to watch this
19 very closely.
20 I would just say that this has been --
21 the availability of a legal guest worker
22 program has not been thoughtfully addressed
23 since Ronald Reagan was president. It's been
24 decades of being kicked down the road. We do
49
1 need an answer here. We do need to have a
2 legal workforce. Agriculture wants one. But
3 we know that a high percentage of the workers
4 that are currently here doing work on
5 agriculture and construction and restaurants
6 do not have proper documentation. That needs
7 to be addressed.
8 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Thank you.
9 It's somewhat frustrating when so many people
10 are unaware that these workers are by and
11 large law-abiding, tax-paying folks who are
12 supporting our communities in a very
13 important way.
14 And so I'm very worried about our
15 ability to maintain a strong agricultural
16 economy in New York State in light of this.
17 So hopefully we can stay in close contact
18 with all of us to figure out what we can do
19 in response.
20 I know that some of my colleagues here
21 are going to raise the issue of avian flu
22 because there's a serious concern right now
23 across the state, but certainly down in
24 Suffolk County as a result of this duck farm.
50
1 I don't want to take away from my colleagues,
2 but because I have probably a little more
3 time than they do, I was wondering if you
4 could give the big picture on avian flu. And
5 are we -- do we have enough resources in this
6 budget to address the concerns?
7 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
8 thank you for that.
9 Yeah, we've got two things around
10 avian flu that are worrisome. You know, one
11 is the dairy, you know, the fact that
12 high-path AI has jumped from poultry and
13 wildfowl to dairy animals. We do not have
14 that in New York State; it's confined
15 currently to 17 states. The only increases
16 that we've seen recently in the last 30 days
17 have been in Michigan and in California. So
18 we've successfully, through our emergency
19 order process and the USDA, been able to thus
20 far keep that out of New York. So that's one
21 issue.
22 The traditional high-path AI, if there
23 is such a thing, brought in by migratory
24 birds, the last time we saw it here was in
51
1 2022. But as you know, it has reared its
2 head across the country again. It's in the
3 migratory flyways, brought in by birds as
4 they migrate back to their summer grounds.
5 It's happening across the United States. It
6 has hit us in Long Island. We're looking at
7 two presumptives, one in the Hudson Valley
8 and another in Western New York.
9 It's something we take very seriously,
10 we identify very quickly. We work very
11 closely with USDA-APHIS on this. And we're
12 active on Long Island in dealing with the
13 issue there.
14 It's life or death for poultry. The
15 only solution is depopulation and sanitation.
16 There is indemnification in that from USDA,
17 but obviously taking somebody out of business
18 for a period of time is -- it's not a real
19 big solution there.
20 So we work very closely with our
21 partners at USDA. We have one of the best,
22 state bests in the country, Dr. Joy Bennett,
23 who works for us at the department. She's
24 got a great team, a great staff. And we have
52
1 a very positive working relationship with
2 USDA-APHIS on that.
3 So we're riding herd on it and paying
4 very close attention to it, but it is a
5 terrible situation for a poultry producer to
6 be in.
7 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Yes, it is.
8 Thank you.
9 I just have -- I'll have a couple of
10 questions in a second, but a quick question
11 for the Parks commissioner. To what extent
12 is your agency striving to meet our goal to
13 have more New York-based, New York-sourced
14 products available in your parks? I have
15 heard some concerns from some of our beverage
16 producers on Long Island, for example, about
17 their desire to have more access to the
18 parks. But I was just curious what your
19 overall approach has been.
20 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
21 Yes, so certainly New York products are
22 available in select state parks. We've had
23 active conversations to improve that at
24 various destinations. But also working with
53
1 our concessionaires to mandate some level of
2 New York products in our parks. Very
3 important to us. And many conversations have
4 been had, at least certainly in the last
5 year, many years, as we increase the number
6 of parks that are holding New York products,
7 certainly.
8 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Thank you.
9 Hopefully we can continue talking about this.
10 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
11 Looking forward to that, absolutely.
12 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Thank you.
13 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
14 Senator Serrano, chair of Parks and --
15 sorry, Historic Districts. I always get that
16 wrong, I apologize. Say your full name here.
17 SENATOR SERRANO: Thank you. Senator
18 Jose M. Serrano here.
19 As chair of Parks, I will direct my
20 questions to Commissioner Pro Tem Randy
21 Simons. It's good to see you. It's good to
22 be here with all of my colleagues talking
23 about the importance of our state parks
24 system. I really enjoyed our meetings over
54
1 the summer during -- and actually throughout
2 the 2024 centennial for our state parks
3 system.
4 And it really, I think, gave us a
5 moment to pause and think about how important
6 our parks and green spaces are to our
7 everyday lives. I myself, as a user of state
8 parks, believe wholeheartedly that they are
9 transformational, that they provide things
10 that are important for our mental health, our
11 physical well-being, and for society as a
12 whole. It makes us less stratified as a
13 community.
14 Over the years, my wife and I raising
15 two children, as you know, we try whenever we
16 can to be in a state park. And I did teach
17 my son, who's in college now, but I remember
18 teaching him how to swim at Bear Mountain
19 Pool, which is indeed one of the most
20 historic pools in your system.
21 And, you know, when you visit a state
22 park, you see how important they are, but you
23 also notice that they've been around for a
24 while and that there's always need for work,
55
1 infrastructure, what you can see, what you
2 can't see.
3 But again, I always turn back to the
4 importance and the necessity of connecting
5 more and more communities to parks, giving
6 folks throughout New York an understanding
7 that the parks are for them -- that hiking is
8 for them, that camping is for them, trying
9 new things like that, all of the facilities
10 that are available.
11 So in your testimony you mentioned
12 NY BRICKS and NY PLAYS, which I'm assuming
13 are geared towards expanding folks'
14 interactions with parks. So can you talk a
15 little bit more about the efforts that you
16 have to connect more people to parks?
17 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
18 And that's the very mission of this
19 initiative, right? You know, in a digital
20 world, the more we are connected to each
21 other, the more we are really disconnected in
22 many cases from relationships with one
23 another.
24 Under Unplug and Play, NY SWIMS
56
1 certainly, you know, last year we did
2 $150 million, our grant program, and it was
3 grants to municipalities to improve swim
4 infrastructure, elevate the idea of perhaps
5 building new or repair or refurbishing swim
6 infrastructure, for the very important reason
7 of a sense of pride and accomplishment among
8 particularly our youth.
9 Mindful -- we celebrated Graduation
10 Day at one of those programs in the Bronx --
11 you were with us at Bear Mountain -- and a
12 7-year-old little girl came up to me and
13 said, "I didn't think I would ever learn how
14 to swim. I thought that was for other
15 people." And it was this program that
16 brought that opportunity to her community.
17 And very much like NY PLAYS, right,
18 it's now the very same thing, but we are
19 giving grants to municipalities to invest in
20 playgrounds, giving families, giving parents
21 and children opportunities to say, You know
22 what, life is not on a device, life is, you
23 know, outdoors.
24 And BRICKS the same way: Community
57
1 centers, true community engagement, true
2 community connection.
3 And, you know, our parks, we're
4 expansive, we're all across New York State,
5 more than 250 properties. But by providing
6 grants to municipalities, this almost assures
7 the opportunity that no matter where you
8 live, within a stone's throw there's an
9 opportunity to take advantage of this
10 historic investment into the outdoors, into
11 parks.
12 We're particularly proud of the
13 successes of NY SWIMS, and in the second
14 round -- we're looking forward to the second
15 round -- we'll open up also to
16 not-for-profits. And we think PLAYS and
17 BRICKS will do the very same thing.
18 SENATOR SERRANO: Thank you,
19 Commissioner Pro Tem.
20 Next I want to talk a little bit about
21 the flagship parks throughout the State of
22 New York. You mentioned 88 million visitors
23 in 2024. Year over year, we're seeing
24 increased visitorship, and that's wonderful.
58
1 But the parks then take a lot of use. During
2 the pandemic we saw that our parks were our
3 refuge, they were -- and brilliant that Parks
4 kept them open. During the darkest days of
5 the pandemic, the parks became the place that
6 we went to to recreate, to be with our
7 families, to still build memories in a very
8 dark time.
9 So when I think about -- as a
10 New Yorker, born and raised in the
11 South Bronx, going to Lake Welch was a
12 wonderful afternoon on a Sunday if you could
13 do it. Getting up to Harriman State Park,
14 the hiking trails and so on and so forth.
15 What are we doing to keep up with the
16 capital projects in these places, with
17 Sebago, to ensure that Lake Welch is not
18 overpacked? Do you have Sebago up and
19 running? And also ensuring that we're
20 teaching our park patrons to be stewards of
21 the parks. Because with increased usership,
22 we want to make sure they remain clean and
23 accessible for all. What are we doing to
24 increase stewardship?
59
1 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
2 You know, I think the centennial was -- came
3 at just the right time, a historic investment
4 in our parks. It is truly great to see. It
5 is much-needed. We sort of -- and I don't
6 know if it's returning, but it's more of a
7 focus on the core needs of our parks, right?
8 You know, the safety of the public,
9 projects that you come to expect are just
10 going to be done, right? You know, the roads
11 and the parking lots and, you know, the parks
12 are taken care of. At 200 million, we think
13 that we can properly provide the TLC to these
14 parks.
15 But put the investment aside, and we
16 need -- we need people, right? Our people
17 truly -- you know, you hear the old adage
18 that some might be, you know, a Jack or Jill
19 of all trades but a master of none. Our team
20 is truly a master of many trades in our
21 system. But they can't do it alone. It
22 takes, you know, incredible partnerships.
23 We're fortunate to have incredible
24 partnerships across the state, from the OSIs
60
1 and the Parks & Trails and the Scenic
2 Hudsons -- but our volunteer groups, 85
3 strong. We just welcomed them all out
4 together in October to get them together to
5 really advocate and talk about more where the
6 shared mission can align.
7 And I think, you know, from
8 post-pandemic, I think no longer it is a
9 talking point of what parks mean in their
10 communities to the physical and mental
11 wellness. I think many just now wake up and
12 say, They mean a lot in my community and I
13 need to now find time on my own personal
14 calendar to ensure that I'm doing my part to
15 help maintain them. I Love My Park Day,
16 first Saturday every May, is a good start to
17 that. And we've incorporated sort of those
18 mini I Love My Park Days in different regions
19 to further improve the stewardship across our
20 system.
21 SENATOR SERRANO: Thank you,
22 Commissioner Pro Tem.
23 My final question has to do with the
24 state of our lakes. I love swimming in
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1 lakes, I think it's a wonderful thing if we
2 could do it. But I know over the last couple
3 of years you've been dealing with algal
4 blooms in a number of lakes. A lot of
5 conditions probably out of your control,
6 climate change and other things.
7 But I just wanted to know, have we
8 started to get a good handle on these? Will
9 we see all of our lakes open this summer
10 despite the potential for algal blooms?
11 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
12 And Lake Welch is the perfect example of
13 that. You know, two years ago we had a
14 harmful algal bloom that basically shut down
15 swim season at our largest public bathing
16 beach in our state for a community that
17 didn't have many other options to cool in the
18 summer.
19 So we're looking at different projects
20 and we're looking at new technologies. I'm
21 particularly proud of the technology that we
22 instituted at Lake Welch, we're pioneering
23 some technology to see if this is, if not a
24 solution, it can be part of a solution to,
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1 you know, lessening the impact of these
2 blooms that are showing up in many cases in
3 spaces that they never showed up before. We
4 pioneered some solar technology at Lake
5 Welch, and we went from being closed for
6 almost the entire summer to being closed just
7 two days the following year.
8 Is that the solution? More data is
9 needed. But we're working with DEC and our
10 partners, you know, at ESF to formalize, you
11 know, some of the data to see if these are
12 solutions. And when you look at, you know,
13 the Sebagos, looking at projects that will
14 lessen the burden on a Lake Welch -- which,
15 believe it or not, you know, closes as soon
16 as 8 a.m. on a summer weekend or weekday
17 morning -- and be the other alternative to
18 not be turned away but have another
19 opportunity to seek a recreational experience
20 nearby.
21 SENATOR SERRANO: Thank you so much,
22 Commissioner Pro Tem. Always a pleasure
23 speaking with you. And thank you for your
24 responses.
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1 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
2 Thank you.
3 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
4 Assembly.
5 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: (Mic off.)
6 Assemblymember Ron Kim.
7 Before I go, I just want to say that
8 we've been joined by Assemblymembers Stefani
9 Zinerman, Al Stirpe, and Tommy John
10 Schiavoni.
11 Mr. Kim?
12 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: Thank you, Chairman.
13 And congratulations on your new role as chair
14 of the Ways and Means Committee. We look
15 forward to a successful budget season.
16 And Commissioner, thank you so much
17 for your testimony today. I look forward to
18 your partnership, as well as with
19 Senator Serrano in the coming months as well.
20 Thank you.
21 Let me start off by just focusing on
22 some of the capacity issues at the state
23 parks. And with the tremendous demand, I
24 would imagine we have capacity issues to
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1 continue to protect and strengthen our parks.
2 Last year there were 79 additional
3 staff positions, full-time positions, in the
4 enacted budget. Have you been able to fill
5 all those 79 positions?
6 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
7 Yes. And on the record here, even more so.
8 I mean, we're very fortunate that people want
9 to work at Parks and we can find the people
10 for these positions.
11 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: Great. And you
12 mentioned the 50 Parks Police officers. Last
13 year I believe we added -- we added 30 for
14 State Police, so I'm assuming you hired more
15 than 30. What is the current size of the
16 Parks Police right now?
17 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
18 The current size of the Park Police -- so we
19 were very fortunate for the first time ever,
20 under the Governor, we held two academies.
21 We just graduated the second one, and in a
22 year's span, on January 3rd.
23 The current size is 243. And we
24 expect, you know, the attrition rate by
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1 October of this year will probably drop us to
2 235, which is still a pretty confident
3 number.
4 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: And is it
5 sufficient, or do we need to continue to
6 grow?
7 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS: We
8 continue to assess the public safety,
9 obviously, between Park Police -- we think at
10 this moment it is a sufficient size. But
11 certainly working toward what is a number,
12 we're trying to gather data to identify that
13 force strength that is suitable for the
14 Park Police.
15 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: And you also
16 mentioned in your testimony the Ryder Cup. I
17 think that's on a lot of people's minds. You
18 know, the golf course at Bethpage State Park
19 will host the Ryder Cup in 2025. What's the
20 status of the projects to prepare for the
21 Ryder Cup? And how much have you spent on
22 this effort so far?
23 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
24 You know, we're already marketing and
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1 promoting the Ryder Cup, and the PGA of
2 America has already touted this as what will
3 be the most significant golf event in the
4 history of golf, which is a pretty heavy
5 statement, and one we're prepared -- mass
6 gatherings are no stranger to us. We excel
7 in this manner, from the air shows and, you
8 know, the concert venues that we have.
9 A lot of -- a majority of the projects
10 will kick off in August of this year to start
11 building out that infrastructure. And it was
12 a partnership, an agreement with the PGA.
13 But we invested only a couple of million into
14 these efforts, with the PGA picking up a lot
15 of the other costs.
16 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: Got it.
17 And is New York being compensated for
18 hosting the Ryder Cup?
19 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS: We
20 have a deal with the Ryder Cup. We take a
21 percentage of like hospitality profits, and
22 we get sort of base fee for hosting the
23 Ryder Cup.
24 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: What's the base fee?
67
1 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
2 The base fee I want to say is two and a half
3 -- or 4 million, somewhere in that range. I
4 can get that accurate number for you, though.
5 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: Okay, great, thank
6 you.
7 So according to New York Parks &
8 Trails -- and this kind of continues on in my
9 line of questioning about the Ryder Cup --
10 for every $1 million we invest in New York
11 State's parks system, we generate up to
12 $21 million in economic benefits in sales,
13 labor income, state GDP. That's a
14 2100 percent return, or 21X, on ROI. That's
15 crazy. That's insane how much money we get
16 back.
17 Do you have a rough breakdown, a rough
18 estimate on how much of the return in
19 revenues is based on in-state consumers and
20 visitors versus out-of-state visitors?
21 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS: A
22 majority of our visitation is in-state. I
23 can work with the team to identify like a
24 closer breakdown to those numbers.
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1 When we look at the breakdown
2 certainly, you know, look at our top revenue
3 generators, VUF, as we call it, which is
4 really the entry fee, the vehicle use fee, is
5 really our top revenue generator. Camping,
6 concessions and golf all round out like the
7 top four. But certainly we can score some of
8 the information you're looking for,
9 particularly amongst the top four revenue
10 generators where that data might be
11 accessible, yes.
12 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: Great, got it.
13 Do you have any qualitative data on
14 what drives out-of-state visitors to spend
15 time and money at our state parks? You kind
16 of touched on it, but based on things like do
17 you do any feedback, any surveys of people
18 who visit to get a sense of why they're
19 driven to come drive so many hours to come to
20 our state?
21 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
22 Yeah, we -- you know, working with our
23 partners last year we actually did a number
24 of studies within our parks to learn more.
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1 You know, because one of the things that we
2 want to do is not only, A, identify some of
3 the data why people are coming to our parks,
4 but once we acquire that data, what are we
5 going to do with that data? You know, you
6 just don't want it to sit off to the side and
7 just be there. We want to be able to take it
8 and provide value and shape sort of the
9 direction we want to go.
10 We launched our biggest marketing
11 campaign in the agency's history last year
12 with the centennial. And when you look at
13 parks, in many ways they're personal. Some
14 are local destinations, some are regional
15 destinations, and some are international --
16 you know, national and international
17 destinations. You know, for instance, like
18 Niagara Falls, right? What drives that is
19 the grandeur of Niagara Falls.
20 But I think when you look at, you
21 know, the Long Island parks, it's the
22 beaches. Thousand Islands, it's that lake
23 experience. Just some of the things that
24 drive people to take -- and I think people
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1 are certainly looking for affordability, and
2 I think when you look at affordability you
3 look at a three- or four-day weekend, you
4 know, in a trek through New York State, and
5 it really is incredible the diverse
6 experience and landscapes that we have going
7 from one region to another, some of which
8 we've heard back that, you know, I can't
9 believe I'm still in the same state, based on
10 this three-day trip I took from perhaps
11 Long Island out to Western New York.
12 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: You know, I mean, so
13 state parks have an impact on hospitality --
14 hotels, restaurants and all those concessions
15 and vendors. But do we -- do state parks
16 generate revenue directly from fees and sales
17 that they charge inside the parks? Like is
18 there -- about how much do we generate a year
19 based on fees?
20 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS: On
21 revenue generation? About 136 million, you
22 know, based on certainly the top four revenue
23 generators. And we have some minor revenue
24 generators under there. But that's sort of
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1 about the amount that we pull in.
2 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: And is the Governor
3 planning to continue to waive fees on state
4 swimming pools for the next cycle or season
5 as well?
6 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
7 You know, and that's a discussion that is
8 soon to be had. I think you certainly -- you
9 have to -- I'd be most interested in looking
10 at the balance of revenue generation. But
11 also accessibility, particularly for
12 communities that are typically underserved or
13 disadvantaged communities.
14 So, you know, we are proud that we
15 partnered and we received that revenue back
16 in this year's budget for the fee waiver at
17 the swimming pools next year. But with the
18 double down on NY SWIMS, it's a discussion
19 that I'm happy to have with you, but we
20 expect to have to determine, you know, when
21 and where is the right time to waive, you
22 know, revenue generators, fees, but for the
23 benefit of the physical and mental wellness
24 of our communities.
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1 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: None of this is
2 financed based on those fees. So in other
3 words, it's not bonded out based on those
4 fees, right?
5 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
6 Correct.
7 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: So this is something
8 that we can -- we have discretion over for
9 future --
10 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
11 Correct, we do.
12 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: The 50 million for
13 NY SWIMS that's been proposed this year, is
14 this new round of funding identical to the --
15 to last in terms of the parameters, the
16 program parameters?
17 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
18 Right, so last year it was a $150 million
19 program. This year it's 50. It's the same
20 parameters, although this year we're
21 including not-for-profits as eligible
22 candidates to come in, maybe work with a
23 municipality. But opening up to those
24 organizations as well.
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1 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: Got it.
2 And did the first round of NY SWIMS
3 award any floating pools? And what are,
4 exactly, floating pools?
5 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS: We
6 have a -- we call it a crib pool, but it's a
7 floating-type pool that we're installing at
8 Sojourner Truth State Park.
9 No, not to my knowledge in the first
10 round were there any floating pools that
11 municipalities had requested the funding for.
12 I'll double confirm that. But it was -- that
13 was sort of an outlier.
14 And I think what you saw with the
15 first round of 150 million, and likely you'll
16 see again, is many municipalities just needed
17 a repair or refurbishment on existing
18 infrastructure. You heard a lot of stories
19 of leaking X amount of thousands of gallons
20 or hundreds of gallons a day in their local
21 pools, and this aimed to repair that for
22 them.
23 ASSEMBLYMAN KIM: Great. Thank you so
24 much for your testimony today. Just like the
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1 Senator, I'm raising my young three girls in
2 the state parks, and I've spent a lot of time
3 in upstate in the summertime, James Baird
4 State Park, one of our favorite places to go
5 and play some golf as well while the kids
6 play on the side. So I know the economic --
7 I've seen firsthand the economic impact these
8 facilities have in their community and
9 beyond.
10 So I look forward to working with you
11 in the future.
12 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
13 Absolutely. Thank you.
14 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
15 Before we call the next Senator, I
16 want to let people know that we were joined
17 by Senator Nathalia Fernandez and
18 Senator Shelley Mayer. And I think we have
19 some additional Assemblymembers.
20 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Yes, we do. We've
21 been joined by Assemblymembers Billy Jones
22 and Paula Kay.
23 ASSEMBLYMAN RA: And if I can
24 acknowledge, Chair --
75
1 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Yes.
2 ASSEMBLYMAN RA: We've also been
3 joined by Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh.
4 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Okay. So now
5 we're going to turn it to Senator Borrello,
6 five minutes, ranker on Agriculture.
7 SENATOR BORRELLO: Thank you,
8 Madam Chair.
9 Thank you both for being here. I
10 appreciate it. I want to direct my
11 questions, as ranker on Ag, to
12 Commissioner Ball. And if I have any time
13 left -- so ...
14 But Commissioner, first of all, thank
15 you for being here. I particularly
16 appreciate your experience as a farmer and an
17 agribusiness owner and the impact that that
18 has had, the positive impact that has had on
19 your ability to oversee Ag & Markets. I
20 truly appreciate that. And it's been a great
21 help to the farmers that I represent in my
22 district.
23 My concerns -- I have a few, but my
24 first concern is we have a lot of regulations
76
1 that have a negative impact on farmers and
2 other small businesses. Particularly right
3 now we're wrangling with these new wetland
4 regulations. Now, wetland regulations have
5 been essentially redefining what is
6 considered a wetland, and that has had -- I'm
7 hearing this a lot from property owners
8 around our recreational lakes like
9 Chautauqua Lake.
10 I guess my question is, how do we
11 balance those new I guess expanded wetland
12 regulations against the needs of our farmers
13 and our ability to have productive farmland.
14 Because we're talking about, you know, new --
15 having to do new permits and potentially have
16 an impact on the ability to build new
17 structures within, you know, now newly
18 designated wetland areas.
19 So just curious if you had any
20 thoughts on that.
21 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
22 sure. You know, we work in the environment
23 as farmers every day. You know, so wetlands
24 is a big concern. In most cases in New York
77
1 it's a national, a federal concern. And
2 what's coming out of Washington with regards
3 to those regulations kind of moves and
4 changes, ebbs and flows, if you'll forgive
5 the pun there.
6 But I think that, you know, today I'm
7 happy to say that at the Department of
8 Agriculture we've never had a better
9 relationship with DEC in my history of
10 farming in New York State. So if we have a
11 question, an issue about a wetlands and a
12 delineation or anything of that sort, we're
13 able to sit down and talk through it and
14 figure out what the best outcome is for the
15 farmer.
16 Having said that, in our work again
17 together with DEC when we look at those
18 regulations and water and -- we've got
19 decades of history working together on that,
20 both with our CAFOs, our large dairy
21 operations, nutrient management, et cetera.
22 So we're actually in a pretty good place
23 right now in New York with that regard.
24 We'll wait to see if we'll see any big
78
1 changes coming out of EPA in the near future.
2 I expect some changes.
3 SENATOR BORRELLO: Okay, thank you.
4 Yes, so I -- and I agree with the --
5 your relationship with DEC has been
6 beneficial, particularly when we're looking
7 at, you know, the expansion of things like
8 Great Lakes Cheese, you know. So I
9 appreciate the relationship that you have and
10 the partnership so we can balance the
11 environmental needs with the needs to
12 maintain agribusinesses.
13 So that being said, moving on to solar
14 proliferation, I know we -- the chairwoman
15 touched on that. But, you know, I have many
16 concerns still. We have in Chautauqua
17 County, in the Town of Ripley, 3,000 acres of
18 farmland that is now going to be solar
19 fields. I'm concerned about, you know,
20 runoff from those solar fields, as well as
21 the fact that it's taking up valuable
22 farmland.
23 You know, we've got plenty of
24 brownfields in New York State. We've got
79
1 closed landfill cells and everything else. I
2 don't know why we have to take up, you know,
3 good farmland -- other than I know it's
4 easier and they make more money doing that,
5 more profit from that.
6 So with being said, agrivoltaics is
7 something that people keep talking about.
8 Right now, from what I can tell, all it is
9 is, you know, letting sheep graze under solar
10 panels. Can you tell me where we really are
11 with agrivoltaics, and how we can use that as
12 a complement, hopefully?
13 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah.
14 Obviously we'd like to try to solve this and
15 figure out how to make it work for everybody.
16 I think the -- we farm about 7 million
17 acres of land in New York State. And having
18 just experienced a pandemic, I think we all
19 recognize that New York better have a food
20 system right here in the state; let's not
21 depend on another country, another region for
22 our food. And so that farmland is even more
23 important to us today than it's ever been.
24 So I think with that in mind, we need
80
1 to look very carefully at solar. We've been
2 able to work with our partners in energy at
3 NYSERDA, and we talk with the PSC and we've
4 been able to extract -- I shouldn't say
5 extract, but come to an agreement with an MOU
6 with NYSERDA to look at how do we avoid,
7 minimize or mitigate the impact of solar on
8 actively farmed land, in particular our top
9 four tiers of soil.
10 So we're pursuing that. We refine
11 that on a regular basis. But so many times
12 it would be just as good to look down the
13 road at that hundred acres that's not being
14 actively farmed, that has rocks on it. You
15 know, not the actively farmed land. So we'll
16 continue to do that.
17 SENATOR BORRELLO: Great, thank you.
18 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
19 Assembly.
20 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: The ranker on
21 Agriculture, Assemblymember Tague.
22 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: Thank you,
23 Chairman.
24 And thank you, everybody. And our
81
1 guests that are here this morning, thank you
2 very much.
3 My questions are going to be towards
4 the Commissioner of Agriculture, my neighbor,
5 Richard Ball.
6 First of all, I just wanted to say
7 happy to see that we raised the Nourish NY
8 program. We're not at 75 million yet,
9 Commissioner, but we're getting there. And I
10 appreciate that.
11 One question I had, you mentioned
12 during your statement some of the money
13 that's being invested at the State
14 Fairgrounds. You had mentioned something
15 about the dairy buildings. But I was just
16 wondering, are we revamping the sheep and
17 goat barns as well at the State Fair?
18 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yes.
19 Actually we've got -- the plans are at OGS
20 right now. They've been approved. We're
21 going to be acting on the Sheep and Wool
22 Center at the fairgrounds.
23 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: Okay. That's
24 great. Because they were in some pretty
82
1 rough shape over the last few years, and it's
2 one of the complaints I get from mothers and
3 fathers of some of the young folks that show
4 at the fair.
5 The other thing I want to touch on,
6 and Senator Hinchey did as well, but I want
7 to talk about the Farm Laborers Fair Labor
8 Practices Act. Has the department undertaken
9 any effort to study and/or alleviate some of
10 the economic difficulties that this has
11 caused?
12 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
13 we have the overtime tax credit that the
14 Governor proposed a year ago now.
15 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: Well, that's kind
16 of my reasoning for asking that question,
17 because all I hear from our farmers is that
18 it's very confusing, it's not exactly what
19 they thought it was going to be.
20 So although the tax credit has been
21 enacted to help offset the cost of this act,
22 the big problem that I see is that it does
23 not solve the front end. You know, the cash
24 flow issues increased, the increased labor
83
1 and payroll costs. So what else can we do?
2 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
3 I think we're looking forward to a solution
4 that's going to make it work for all farms
5 across the state regardless of their
6 management entity.
7 I would point out that we did have an
8 early release, farmers could apply to get an
9 early return on that in July. And we put
10 together a website that was very easy for a
11 farm to access that, sign up for it. I have
12 to tell you, 63 farms took advantage of that,
13 63 farms. And they got their money within
14 two weeks of it being approved by us and by
15 Tax and Finance. And about $1 million went
16 out the door in September for those farms.
17 It looks to me as though most farms
18 are waiting till the end of the year, at tax
19 time, to actually get their accounting in and
20 get the overtime tax credit, the refundable
21 tax credit back to them. So I think we're
22 still too early in the process to know the
23 right answer to dial that in. Initially we
24 heard farms wanted to do it four times out of
84
1 the year, they wanted it sooner. But the
2 fact is, the middle of summer, we only had
3 63 farms ask for that.
4 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: Well, I can
5 alleviate the whole problem. We should have
6 just kept it the way it was. That's -- you
7 and I can agree to disagree about that, but
8 we should have left it -- 73 percent of the
9 farmers in the State of New York were against
10 moving to this new practice as well.
11 But I'll move on. I want to touch
12 on -- how many farmers have come to you
13 expressing a specific desire to install solar
14 or wind energy products on their farmland?
15 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: About
16 a handful. The majority are not farmers who
17 come to us with a proposal.
18 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: How many
19 developers would you say are aggressively
20 pushing such products on our farmland owners?
21 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: I
22 would say that of the notice of intent that
23 we get at the Department of Agriculture about
24 proposed solar projects, I would say
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1 95 percent or more are coming from solar
2 developers.
3 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: And are the
4 farmers that are coming to your agency
5 looking for some advice, are they given
6 adequate support and resources to make sure
7 that they can make informed decisions with
8 these situations?
9 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: They
10 do. Our Land and Water people are very good
11 at this subject.
12 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: All right. And
13 then I got a little bit of time left before
14 the buzzer rings. But, you know, we've
15 talked about this before, but do we know how
16 much farmland in terms of acreage has been
17 lost to wind or solar energy development
18 within the last five years?
19 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
20 we're going to accurately look at that in
21 this budget here, looking at the loss of
22 farmland from a variety of sources. There's
23 no doubt there has been some Tier 1 through 4
24 actively lost farmland, actively farmed land
86
1 that has been lost to solar development.
2 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: That's my biggest
3 concern, Commissioner, is that the left hand
4 doesn't know what the right hand is doing.
5 And we talk about food security throughout
6 this state. We can sustain ourselves here,
7 but we surely can't if we have no farms. As
8 Farm Bureau says: No farms, no food.
9 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: We
10 share that concern.
11 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: Thank you.
12 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
13 Our second ranker -- for Parks,
14 Cultural Affairs, et cetera -- Jim Tedisco,
15 five minutes.
16 SENATOR TEDISCO: Thank you,
17 Commissioners, for being here today, for your
18 testimony and so often coming to visit me and
19 my constituents in the 44th Senatorial
20 District. And inviting me to be there with
21 you and bringing good news, usually. So I
22 really appreciate that.
23 You know, you're probably aware of the
24 fact, because we are here if we've been to
87
1 these budget hearings often, that when we
2 start the year and we have the budget, a lot
3 of words start to emanate around the Capitol
4 here. And usually they give you an
5 indication of the direction we're going. And
6 sometimes one word rises to the top here at
7 the budget. And you probably can guess what
8 that one word has become here in the Capitol
9 and in New York State. I say tongue in cheek
10 and probably not that seriously, but if I had
11 a dollar for every time I heard the word
12 "affordability" in New York State this year,
13 we wouldn't have these hearings because we
14 could balance this budget and budgets into
15 the future.
16 I think my question to you is, because
17 I believe that if we're going to reach
18 affordability -- and this is coming down from
19 our leaders here, the Governor of New York
20 State and many of our colleagues, and all of
21 us know that's important, extremely
22 important -- we're going to have to have
23 spending priorities, serious spending
24 priorities. Not based on an election coming
88
1 up, but based on creating a better quality of
2 life for our constituents. And as has been
3 said by the leaders here, leaving more money
4 in taxpayers' pockets -- not maybe generating
5 that money from them directly and giving it
6 back to them, but talking about tax cuts,
7 which we're very supportive. We've been
8 talking about those from my conference, and
9 as ranker I think that's important
10 holistically.
11 But I would ask you, because I'm
12 probably believing that as commissioners,
13 your groups -- the Governor has reached down
14 to you and said, Help me with this goal of
15 affordability, help me to find out what we
16 can do through the great parks and recreation
17 we have, through the historic sites where
18 people come to visit -- because there's
19 restaurants and there's hotels where people
20 are staying, generating money from small
21 businesses and developing that, and the
22 farmers we have and the great products they
23 produce and the jobs they create. We had
24 some pretty good tax dollars that came in,
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1 sales tax money that came in this past year.
2 As you interact with the Governor, and
3 I'll ask you this question, what would be
4 your direction or top priority to help her
5 achieve those goals of affordability in
6 New York State, through your activity in
7 terms of keeping people in New York State,
8 attracting people to come to New York State?
9 We shouldn't be -- we're a beautiful state,
10 and I think you guys do a wonderful job in
11 many areas, and our commissioners do too with
12 what they have available to them.
13 Bu 101,000 people left the state last
14 year. So I do agree with the Governor --
15 better late than never -- we have an
16 affordability problem. What would be the
17 number-one priority you think you could do or
18 direction you could take as commissioners to
19 help her with that affordability problem and
20 us in New York State?
21 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
22 And I can start there. You know, for Parks,
23 Recreation and Historic Preservation,
24 accessibility. I think last year what you
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1 saw is when we waived fees at swimming pools
2 all across our system, we saw a 36 percent
3 increase. And mind you, that fee that we
4 waived was a dollar at some parks and upwards
5 of $5 at other parks.
6 When temperatures rose in that third
7 week of June to above 92, 95 degrees for four
8 straight days, we did also waive fees
9 throughout the parks system -- that VUF, that
10 vehicle use fee -- and we saw attendance jump
11 by 40 percent.
12 And I think parks can be a litmus test
13 for affordability. We are incredibly
14 affordable. And some of the biggest things
15 that we hear when we're out there with
16 communities -- you know, there's been times
17 where perhaps, you know, with inflation or
18 costs rising, we've had to consider maybe,
19 you know, jumping the costs on a base fee at
20 a campsite, it could be 50 cents, and we hear
21 about it. And it's good understanding that,
22 you know, what is affordable to perhaps me
23 may not be affordable to many of those who
24 live in New York State, and being conscious
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1 of that. And that's why we're incredibly
2 sort of, you know, dedicated to making sure
3 that parks remain affordable on many levels.
4 SENATOR TEDISCO: So about more people
5 being available to invest in our parks at
6 maybe lower income levels that some others
7 can't.
8 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
9 And then access our parks, you know, in a
10 number of different ways, yeah.
11 SENATOR TEDISCO: Thank you very much.
12 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: My
13 colleague said accessibility, and I would
14 have said connecting the dots between our
15 agricultural community and a community that
16 needs access to food in a bigger and better
17 way. So I think we're on the same page
18 there, yeah. Thanks for the thoughtful
19 question.
20 SENATOR TEDISCO: Thank you,
21 Commissioners. Appreciate it.
22 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
23 Assembly.
24 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblymember Mary
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1 Beth Walsh, for three minutes.
2 ASSEMBLYWOMAN WALSH: Thank you very
3 much.
4 Good afternoon. My question is for
5 Commissioner Simons, and it has to do with
6 the 250th anniversary of the
7 Revolutionary War and those events that are
8 starting to take place. And one of the
9 things that has come back to me is that
10 there's a lot of disappointment that the
11 Governor's budget has not made any investment
12 in the 250th celebrations that are being
13 planned for the area.
14 And that's in contrast to other
15 states. Like New Jersey has made an
16 investment of 25 million; Virginia,
17 20 million; South Carolina, 5 million. And
18 so really -- I'll ask the question and then
19 I'd really love your feedback.
20 You know, New York State was the site
21 of so many crucial events leading to the
22 creation of our nation, including the
23 Battles of Saratoga in 1777. You know,
24 military buffs, patriotic Americans, people
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1 from around the world are even expected to be
2 coming to Saratoga County and other places
3 around New York State to help mark these
4 events, including at the battlefield, to
5 learn, to celebrate.
6 And this won't only just be a point of
7 pride for New York State, but also, if we do
8 it well, it will generate tourism revenue.
9 So will you advocate for New York
10 State to invest in this important,
11 once-in-our-lifetime commemoration? You
12 know, it's just a little bit embarrassing
13 that New York State appears to be investing
14 nothing while other states who can't claim as
15 much history as we do are doing so much more.
16 So I'd love your feedback on that.
17 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
18 And thank you for that. I appreciate that,
19 as cochair of the 250th Commemoration
20 Commission. And, you know, we're confident,
21 we're confident New York State will deliver a
22 robust commemoration, certainly with
23 available resources.
24 I'll say we're just at the beginning
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1 of the budget process, and certainly, you
2 know, we'll of course be happy to continue to
3 discuss, you know, legislative priorities
4 along the coming weeks and coming months.
5 But, you know, you -- we -- half of
6 our historic sites are tied to the
7 American Revolution, you know, in many ways.
8 We are particularly proud of the launch of
9 our kiosk program. You know, we launched
10 this at Washington's Headquarters. We have
11 20 more that will debut at historic sites and
12 state parks across the state. And this
13 really is, you know, sort of the storytelling
14 of the 250th, but telling it from multiple
15 perspectives, that Our Whole History
16 initiative.
17 So certainly it is something that is
18 just the start of it. You know, I could get
19 a list of capital projects too at many of our
20 historic sites. But the commemoration
21 commission, we kicked off, we have our next
22 meeting in March. And we have a strategic
23 plan that is imminent. And I think that
24 you'll find many of the recommendations
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1 might, you know, cover some of the concerns
2 you raise here today in the lead-up to the
3 250th.
4 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
5 Senator Chris Ryan, three minutes.
6 SENATOR CHRIS RYAN: Thank you, Madam
7 Chair.
8 Good afternoon. A question to
9 Commissioner Ball.
10 We talked about the fair. I'm in the
11 50th District -- Chris Ryan, 50th Senate
12 District, thank you. Home of The Great
13 New York State Fair, I might add.
14 So with that said, very happy to hear
15 about, obviously, the capital improvements.
16 But I know that's a broad -- but hopefully we
17 can get a little bit more in the weeds.
18 Could you elaborate just a little bit
19 beyond -- I know we talked about the outdoor
20 concert venue, but can you get a little bit
21 more specific on it?
22 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Sure,
23 yes. Well, welcome aboard, first of all.
24 Thank you, look forward to working with you
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1 out in your county.
2 SENATOR CHRIS RYAN: Thank you.
3 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah,
4 we're looking at a variety of projects.
5 certainly I've heard it characterized that
6 we're looking to add more concerts at the
7 fair, which is not the case. We did put a
8 substantial investment in that area over the
9 last 10 years, pretty significant. For
10 example, the Expo Building, which prior to
11 COVID was booked for the entire year. And
12 we're now working on getting back up to
13 having that be a more year-round experience
14 for people.
15 So we're anxious to accelerate the
16 number of horse shows that we have at that
17 fair in that building. And I would say we
18 need -- we recognized over the last few years
19 some needs for upgrades to the building to
20 accomplish that goal around electrical
21 outlets and things like that. So we're
22 working with OGS on that.
23 But we're also looking at the whole
24 western end of the fair. We have the pond
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1 there now, we've got the villages. I don't
2 know if you've had an opportunity to visit
3 the villages. We have a central location for
4 them at the western end of the fair where we
5 had the Asian village, we have the Indian
6 village, and we had the Latino village there.
7 We've had the Black experience on the other
8 end of the fair. But tying together and
9 making that a more significant event and
10 having their own stage and place to recognize
11 that.
12 That's our youth end of the fair, in a
13 very big way -- the 4-H building, the FFA
14 proposed buildings. That's an opportunity to
15 invest in agriculture with our youth. Those
16 are some of the things that we're thinking
17 about, along with some capital improvements
18 that we need to do. We've got to finish that
19 sheep barn, and we've got those other
20 buildings up and running.
21 SENATOR CHRIS RYAN: Well, that's, you
22 know, good news. And I certainly -- I think
23 we really, really need to look at it in the
24 context of an economic driver.
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1 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Sure.
2 SENATOR CHRIS RYAN: We certainly need
3 to utilize that facility where the -- I mean,
4 the whole entire experience. Because I think
5 it can create tourism, I think it can be a
6 good economic development driver. I'd be
7 really -- really anxious to hear about some
8 priorities going forward, how we could best
9 utilize that for the region. So expect good
10 things to come.
11 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Sure.
12 Well, you know, we've made a very direct move
13 to make agriculture the centerpiece of the
14 fair again. And I tell all our ag groups,
15 all our commodity groups: If you had a
16 chance to talk to a million people -- which
17 is what we'll attract just in those 13
18 days -- what would you want to say to them?
19 So it's a great opportunity for that.
20 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
21 Assembly.
22 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblymember Otis
23 for three minutes.
24 ASSEMBLYMAN OTIS: Here we go. My
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1 clock did not start till the green light went
2 on.
3 Commissioner Ball, thank you always,
4 every year, for your thoughtful answers to
5 the questions that come your way and the
6 great job that you do. And for all of that,
7 I'm not going to ask you a question, I'm
8 going to ask a question of State Parks. But
9 I want to -- I've heard you over many years,
10 and the quality job you do is appreciated by
11 everybody. So thank you.
12 Commissioner Simons, a question about
13 the great program at state parks which is the
14 growing of EV charging access in state parks'
15 parking lots for visitors. And we've been
16 updated over the years on that program; if
17 you could update us on where we are today and
18 how that continues to grow at state parks.
19 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS: So
20 it's something certainly that we have been
21 drilling in on more heavily. Right now we
22 have really been -- concentrated on improving
23 our own fleet. I think we're upwards of
24 50 percent of our light-duty fleet is
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1 certainly electric in nature, renewable.
2 And we're looking at sort of the next
3 goal, is sort of those charging stations
4 within our parks. You know, there are a
5 select few where they do -- are housed. And
6 the next conversation is public versus, you
7 know, our own fleet and the needs for them.
8 But I think you see us around a
9 15 percent, you know, number right now, with
10 the idea that the number will continue to
11 grow because of the nature of where we need
12 to be, certainly, to do our part.
13 ASSEMBLYMAN OTIS: That's great. And
14 that's certainly, I think, an added
15 attraction for people to come to parks but
16 also with the growing adoption of EV
17 vehicles, it's something that we should be
18 doing -- not just at state parks, at every
19 state facility where there's parking, and
20 grow that. So thank you.
21 With that, we love our state park
22 system and your whole team at State Parks.
23 Keep up the good work, and I will yield back
24 the rest of my time.
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1 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: (Mic issue.) All
2 right. Sorry. Thank you very -- these are
3 tricky.
4 Senator Nathalia Fernandez.
5 SENATOR FERNANDEZ: It's supposed to
6 be green, okay.
7 Good morning -- good afternoon. Thank
8 you, Commissioners, for being here.
9 My question is to Commissioner Ball.
10 In the state fiscal year 2024-'25 enacted
11 budget, the Governor had given a million
12 dollars for beginning farmers and 1 million
13 appropriated for socially and economically
14 disadvantaged farmers. We see that that is
15 the 1.3 percent of Black, Indigenous and
16 people of color.
17 Now, this year she has discontinued
18 those programs. Can you provide any
19 information on how -- I'm sorry, on the
20 programs this funding has supported and the
21 status of projects funded through these
22 programs? And what organizations has the
23 department partnered with to distribute the
24 grant funding for socially and economically
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1 disadvantaged farmers?
2 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah,
3 thanks for that.
4 This has been a long effort. We
5 started this after the USDA NASS statistics
6 had come out in 2018, and we saw the numbers
7 of Black farmers, for example, Latino
8 farmers, we saw those numbers drastically
9 changing, and we sought to address that.
10 So the -- I'm happy to tell you that
11 it's not in her budget this year because we
12 have reappropriations of over $4 million
13 available to us. We had to go through a
14 fairly lengthy process of finding
15 administrators to put the program out. So
16 the initial funding a couple of years ago was
17 spent getting them up to speed, getting them
18 certified, getting them the 501(c)(3) status
19 that they needed to actually accept the
20 money.
21 I'm happy to tell you that the
22 Beginner Farmer Work Group money, that has
23 been -- it's out there. That program closed
24 I think a couple of weeks ago. We'll be
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1 released -- we'll have the grants released in
2 January. So we've got the funding there. We
3 didn't -- that was a legislative add that you
4 guys put in the last couple of years. It's
5 much appreciated. But it will finally be
6 able to get out the door here in the next
7 coming months. So we've got over $4 million
8 available to do that.
9 Along the way, we now have an
10 assistant commissioner in charge of this
11 subject area, we've got a website, outreach,
12 agriculture.ny.gov. We have open calling
13 hours -- office hours, I should say, not
14 calling hours -- office hours twice a month
15 for people that are interested. And we
16 expanded the scope of this program to --
17 SENATOR FERNANDEZ: How many farmers
18 have been awarded so far?
19 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: We're
20 just getting to that point now where farmers
21 are getting awarded.
22 But we worked with Black Farmers
23 United and Northeast Farmers of Color to get
24 that administrative work done.
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1 So the number of farmers that we've
2 served in the last couple of years has
3 been -- we have been all across the state
4 visiting farmers everywhere, including in the
5 city, in urban farms, community farms. And I
6 feel very good about this program. It is
7 finally moving. The biggest challenge we had
8 was the disconnect between, you know, the
9 lending institutions, between land, people,
10 between education, and between navigating all
11 the systems. All these socially
12 disadvantaged groups didn't have access to
13 that, and that has been solved.
14 SENATOR FERNANDEZ: Thank you.
15 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Thank
16 you for the question.
17 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
18 We've been joined by new Senator April
19 Baskin. Welcome.
20 Assembly.
21 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblywoman Anna
22 Kelles, three minutes.
23 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: So quick
24 question. This year there was funding for
105
1 $1 million for an agrivoltaics research
2 program, specifically to help us create best
3 practices to ensure that we do maximize the
4 agricultural production where we have solar.
5 That was not in this year's budget, and I'm
6 curious if that is ongoing and where that is
7 at right now and whether there is an interest
8 in adding that funding back in for the 30-day
9 amendments.
10 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah,
11 two things. One, that funding is ongoing at
12 Cornell, one aspect of it. I think that's
13 what you're referring to.
14 The other aspect of it is that
15 separate from that, is Ag & Markets and
16 NYSERDA with the technical working group are
17 looking at this subject very intently, trying
18 to decide what is, what isn't, what's
19 feasible, what doesn't work, what could work.
20 It's got --
21 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: But this is an
22 ongoing -- we've already put a million
23 dollars into it. And it was a three-year,
24 $3 million project, so I was curious.
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1 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah.
2 So I think what you're speaking about is the
3 Cornell project.
4 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Mm-hmm.
5 Specifically, yeah. For best practices.
6 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: It's
7 ongoing. That's ongoing.
8 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Okay. And I
9 know farmers depend heavily on agricultural
10 products research funded by the state, and
11 that's through Cornell CALS and their capital
12 Cornell program for tech research. That
13 funding has been flat since 2009. I know
14 that there's been a request by multiple
15 entities who will be testifying today for
16 $5 million for capital and $5 million for
17 operating. Is that something that would be
18 considered potentially for a 30-day
19 amendment?
20 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
21 you know, we'll cross that bridge. But we do
22 have funding in research at Cornell; it's
23 pretty extensive. I've got to sit on the
24 CALS advisory committee for the dean. We've
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1 invested some money in CURC -- you know, the
2 ruminant center on -- at Cornell this year.
3 That's in the budget.
4 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Right. I know
5 that if they just did an adjustment for an
6 inflational loan back to 2008, it would be
7 $46 million that they would need. So the
8 10 million, 5 million for each, is pretty
9 nominal compared to that. I know that's
10 something worth considering, I think.
11 Another quick question, to Parks.
12 Thank you so much. And thank you so much,
13 Commissioner Ball, I really appreciate it.
14 You talked about the Parks officers.
15 Is there an inclusion of the 20 million
16 pension parity in this budget?
17 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
18 Not in this budget, no.
19 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Okay. Because
20 I know that that has been causing huge issues
21 in disparity between the two groups.
22 And the 200 million that was put in
23 the budget for parks infrastructure, do we
24 know what the actual need is?
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1 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
2 Yeah, I think when you look at the 200
3 million you're looking at our core, right?
4 You're looking at, you know, the foundational
5 elements that sort of -- that lift the park
6 system up.
7 But we're currently putting together
8 that short list, and I think you're going to
9 see like a 90 percent return rate on the core
10 items, everything from -- the core
11 infrastructure within our system to improve
12 upon the expectations that visitors have.
13 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Thank you so
14 much to you both for all your great work.
15 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Thank
16 you.
17 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
18 Thank you.
19 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
20 We have Senator Oberacker.
21 SENATOR OBERACKER: There we go.
22 Green to go I guess is what it says.
23 So, Commissioners, thank you both for
24 taking the time to come up here to Albany.
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1 It's always good on a -- when it's not snowy
2 and having to deal with that.
3 So -- and Commissioner Ball, please
4 don't feel that I'm not addressing anything
5 with you, but I'm going to address my
6 questions to Parks & Rec, so you get a chance
7 to relax.
8 So, Commissioner Simons, thank you
9 again for coming up. You know, as somebody
10 who has a bunch of parks in their district --
11 in Otsego County, where I live, we have
12 Glimmerglass, Betty and Wilbur State Park,
13 Gilbert Lake, you know, and they're
14 absolutely amazing. And one of the things
15 you brought up was accessibility, which I
16 found was the key word to that.
17 We did a great job of a kayak boat
18 launch at Glimmerglass. It's being used
19 unbelievably -- you've made a lot of people
20 happy.
21 Being a sportsman and one who would
22 love to take my grandkids out onto
23 Glimmerglass Lake in a more traditional role
24 of taking them fishing, it would be really
110
1 interesting if we could look at accessibility
2 and getting a boat launch for those that are
3 in that realm, and opening up this absolute
4 jewel of a rec to those constituents.
5 And I will tell you this, I learned
6 more from my grandfather fishing in a boat
7 than I ever have anywhere else. So if you
8 could do that, that would be awesome.
9 One other question I do have, and this
10 is again for Parks -- and this pertains
11 particularly to safety. I know we had some
12 incidences at the state parks -- I believe
13 we've had a couple of deaths, which we've
14 never had. And so one of the things I was
15 concerned about with that, is there a
16 continued -- I'm sure there's a continued
17 focus, but is there anything more that we
18 could be doing at our state parks to kind of
19 ramp up security? I'm a first responder --
20 those type of things, you know, is there a
21 plan in place to address -- because we're
22 talking quite a few people coming hopefully
23 for the Ryder Cup and things of that nature.
24 Thank you.
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1 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
2 And thank you for your service as a first
3 responder. It's the partnerships that we
4 have with the emergency services, both from a
5 state and local perspective, that really sort
6 of help us all, you know, partner in
7 delivering, you know, utmost public safety to
8 our visitors.
9 You know, for the first time ever, you
10 know, we saw last year the Governor invested
11 53 million towards just, you know, improving
12 safety infrastructure in our parks. We
13 immediately got to work, we identified, you
14 know, 51 projects -- 51 parks, I should say,
15 that were in use of everything from maybe
16 license-plate readers to, you know, improved
17 security, fencing and lighting, security
18 cameras. And right now those projects are
19 everywhere from design to procurement to in
20 the construction phase.
21 And we are especially mindful of our
22 own personnel as well. I mean, it is -- we
23 painfully, you know, now and again get
24 reminders of the risks that are involved in
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1 providing for safe and enjoyable recreation.
2 So we are looking at training, enhanced
3 training across the board to make sure they
4 have the resources they do to to get the job
5 done.
6 SENATOR OBERACKER: Thank you.
7 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
8 Thank you.
9 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
10 Assembly.
11 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblymember
12 Scott Gray, the ranker on Parks.
13 ASSEMBLYMAN GRAY: Thank you very
14 much.
15 Thank you, Commissioners, for being
16 here today.
17 So first I want to address
18 Commissioner Simons. It says "investing in
19 parks," some of the language in the state --
20 in the Executive Budget, "200 million," and
21 it said "substantial level of funding that
22 will aid ongoing transformation of New York
23 State's flagship parks."
24 So first of all, I'd like to know
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1 where those parks are geographically, and
2 perhaps you want to name what the parks are.
3 But I'm looking for equity in terms of
4 distribution of that $200 million as well.
5 And then the other thing I want to
6 talk about a little bit, if you can, is
7 the -- some of the grant programs, NY BRICKS,
8 NY PLAYS, NY SWIMS. A lot of those have
9 language in there again that is targeting
10 where that money is going to be directed to.
11 And I'm really concerned that New York State
12 taxpayers believe that there's some sort of
13 expectation that they're going to have some
14 of the taxpayer money returned to their
15 communities, without parameters attached to
16 them where it's going to be directed to other
17 communities, so that everybody has a fair and
18 equal opportunity to address -- to get some
19 of those funds back.
20 And then once you get done with that,
21 Commissioner Ball, if you can just talk about
22 NDAs with developers and solar farms and
23 things like that. Should farmers be expected
24 to have an NDA in those agreements? Do you
114
1 support removing NDAs from those agreements
2 so farms know what they're being -- you know,
3 how they're being played against each other.
4 So now, Commissioner, thank you.
5 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
6 No, I appreciate those questions, very
7 important to us. Equity across the board,
8 from a personal/professional capacity,
9 certainly believe in equity. I think when it
10 comes to our capital funding, those are
11 extensive meetings with our regional teams.
12 You know, the regions get an allotted amount,
13 you know, set for their particular regions.
14 And they will raise up the priority projects,
15 and we'll discuss.
16 So certainly equity of our funding
17 does get spread out. Certainly flagships,
18 you know, obviously are prioritized in many
19 regions. But we have 250 properties, right,
20 and we have to make sure that they are not
21 only accessible, but they have the proper
22 funding so we can accommodate, you know, all
23 those who visit those parks as well.
24 And when you look at the Unplug and
115
1 Play -- you know, I think it's about
2 elevating. Parks can be on the main stage,
3 elevating New York State. And what we're
4 finding in the conversations with communities
5 is certainly, you know, the annual allotment
6 we have of our parks, you know, goes a long
7 way in repairing, refurbishing and, you know,
8 taking the TLC on our own parks.
9 But we're finding that in stressed
10 budgets in municipalities, oftentimes parks
11 and the arts are the first, you know,
12 programs to go. And this really is -- we are
13 at a time, because of the physical and mental
14 wellness, you know, benefits that parks
15 supply, we're in a time where the state can
16 step in and the state can aid our communities
17 in raising that profile.
18 For SWIMS -- you know, a swimming pool
19 is not at the top of a local budget. In
20 fact, that's why many of them were in
21 disrepair. That we can provide a little
22 assistance for them to say how can I miss out
23 on this funding coming to me, I will raise
24 that to the top. And we're looking at
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1 playgrounds, to get kids off their devices,
2 giving them other opportunities. And the
3 community centers, putting a great
4 concentration there as well.
5 ASSEMBLYMAN GRAY: Thank you very
6 much.
7 Commissioner?
8 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah,
9 thank you for the question. It's a hot topic
10 for certain. And frankly New York State
11 wasn't ready, the farm community wasn't
12 ready, and our municipalities and county
13 governments were not ready for the -- you
14 know, the onslaught of developers with solar
15 ideas.
16 So those are technical, legal
17 questions. I'll go back to our counsel on
18 that.
19 I think the best thing that we can do
20 to serve the agricultural community is an
21 educational one, and we've sent our Land and
22 Water people out across the state to educate
23 them on, you know, some of the language
24 that's in the agreement that's being put in
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1 front of them. There were all kinds of
2 language issues and rights that farmers were
3 giving up if they agreed to accept, you know,
4 $2,000 per acre per year for the next
5 20 years. That sounds pretty attractive, but
6 some of them were very poor deals.
7 So for us I think it's very much
8 continue to work with NYSERDA, continue to
9 work with the technical working groups there,
10 continue to educate our communities. Because
11 we can't achieve our solar goals just on the
12 back of farmland.
13 ASSEMBLYMAN GRAY: Thank you.
14 And so just in my remaining time, I'll
15 go back to Commissioner Simons. So I just
16 offer you or ask you to look at your boat
17 launches, especially your standalone boat
18 launches. I know we talked offline here.
19 You know, they're in a struggle to get
20 funding and get adequate attention from both
21 staff and financial resources. So we have a
22 lot of standalone boat launches, they're very
23 important to fishing and other activities.
24 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
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1 One hundred percent. Thank you.
2 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you. Sorry
3 to cut you off.
4 Our ranker for Finance, Tom O'Mara,
5 five minutes.
6 SENATOR O'MARA: Thank you,
7 Chairwoman.
8 Good afternoon, gentlemen. Thank you
9 both for being here. Commissioner Ball in
10 particular, thank you for your many years of
11 service to this great state, and your
12 continued service.
13 I want to thank you for your comments
14 earlier in regards to support for industrial
15 hemp. I'm still very hopeful on that
16 industry in New York and that we get some
17 traction on that in addition to the other
18 uses of hemp. But the industrial stuff is
19 extremely important and promising, I believe.
20 And also to your efforts on making
21 sure we protect farmland, in light of the
22 ever-expanding solar industry in New York
23 eating up farmland across the state. So look
24 forward to continued review and guidance on
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1 that, so thank you for that.
2 A couple of specific questions on some
3 line items. I see a 61 percent cut to the
4 New York State Apple Growers Association.
5 Now, last year was a devastating year to the
6 crop for the apple industry in New York
7 State. Can you explain to me why we're
8 cutting that association by $760,000, this
9 year's 61 percent cut?
10 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: I
11 believe that was, if I'm correct, your folks'
12 good work on adding that funding there. The
13 Governor came in at the same level this year
14 as she did last year. That reflected your
15 inputs.
16 And again, this budget is really --
17 the Governor's budget is the starting gun,
18 and we rely so much on your input in the
19 Senate and the Assembly for things that are
20 important to you.
21 But that was a legislative add and
22 worth considering again.
23 SENATOR O'MARA: You agree that the
24 apple crop in New York took a big hit last
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1 year because of some weather incidents of, I
2 think, hail and frost?
3 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: I
4 visited some farms in your area last year.
5 And we've had some challenging years
6 recently. You know, we set a record for the
7 number of tornados in New York State in one
8 single day last year. We set flooding
9 records. I was in your neighborhood looking
10 at some pretty big devastation there.
11 So absolutely. And I think it's not
12 just a state issue, it is a national issue.
13 You know, the national crop is also facing a
14 pretty significant surplus as a result of
15 some trade decisions that have been made over
16 the recent years.
17 SENATOR O'MARA: Thank you. And I was
18 going to get to commenting on your visit to
19 Canisteo in the post-flooding. I thank you
20 very much for that and your leadership in
21 that, and certainly our agriculture industry
22 aross -- and farmers across the
23 Southern Tier. Appreciate your work on this.
24 Another significant area that's seen a
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1 significant line-item cut is the New York
2 Farm Viability Institute, with over a
3 million-dollar cut, a 53 percent cut. Is
4 that the same thing, where we need to fight
5 to get that back in, the Legislature, one of
6 these fights we have every year?
7 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
8 at least at this level, yes. That was -- you
9 know, that was your legislative add last
10 year. We support the Farm Viability
11 Institute. And actually we fund them in some
12 alternative ways with small -- not small, but
13 specialty block grant funding on some
14 projects that they have subscribed to us.
15 So we believe in the viability of
16 farms in New York State.
17 SENATOR O'MARA: Thank you,
18 Commissioner. I'll move on in my remaining
19 time to Commissioner Simons.
20 Thank you, and it was great to see you
21 at Stony Brook this summer --
22 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
23 Yes.
24 SENATOR O'MARA: -- for that.
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1 A couple of questions on the funding
2 for ORDA, particularly in the ski resorts,
3 particularly focusing on recreational skiing,
4 cross-country, downhill.
5 There's an $85 million capital
6 appropriation, an increase of 15 million,
7 21 percent, to ORDA; another line of 25
8 million, an increase of 12.5 million, a
9 100 percent increase on that line for ORDA.
10 I looked at facility things, but I think that
11 also encompasses recreational skiing
12 facilities as well. Can you break that out
13 on what of that is going towards traditional
14 recreational industry and what we're doing in
15 this study to help all the private industries
16 that we have?
17 And I support ORDA and these
18 facilities, but it's very unfair competition
19 when we send hundreds of millions of dollars
20 to these state-owned ski facilities -- which
21 are fantastic, and I'm a skiier -- but we've
22 got other great private facilities that we
23 can't even get tax breaks on energy for them
24 to make snow.
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1 So can you address the fairness of
2 that competition, so to speak, between these?
3 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
4 You know, and that's a -- it's a great
5 question, a very fair question. I'd like to
6 take some time to investigate that further.
7 We were discussing that very thing just the
8 other day.
9 You know, parks are communities,
10 right? Parks are partners in many aspects.
11 And we try to elevate, you know, our agency
12 to assisting communities in a number of
13 different ways. But I'm happy to drill in
14 very -- you know, much deeper on that very
15 idea, and I'll get back to you with a more
16 firm answer when we have some more time to
17 discuss.
18 SENATOR O'MARA: Thanks. Thank you.
19 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
20 Assembly.
21 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblymember
22 Carrie Woerner.
23 ASSEMBLYWOMAN WOERNER: Thank you,
24 Commissioners. It's always a pleasure to see
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1 you both.
2 Commissioner Ball, could you give us
3 an update on the meat processing plant
4 grants? Have they been -- were there
5 applications made? Are they moving forward?
6 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: On
7 the New York grants?
8 ASSEMBLYWOMAN WOERNER: Yeah.
9 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: They
10 are all out. They're all out the door.
11 And it was a $5 million program. I
12 think we were over subscribed. I think we
13 were able to award 26 different entities some
14 funding there. But we spent that money.
15 It's out the door and doing good work. So
16 that was a tremendous success.
17 ASSEMBLYWOMAN WOERNER: Great. Do we
18 need to do more of this? Do we -- where are
19 we on capacity for meat processing?
20 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
21 I'm going to make the Senator smile, but I
22 think it was a great program. And it
23 identified a real weakness in New York
24 State's supply management of, you know, meat
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1 products.
2 We saw on -- the federal side there
3 was over a billion dollars put forth to
4 advance processing around the country. Too
5 much of it is centered in one part of the
6 country. But we had very little takers.
7 Maybe it was because of the federal
8 government and the complexity of dealing with
9 them and the complexity of the grants, but we
10 did not have success with that, even though
11 we called every processor in the state, USDA
12 or custom, and tried to convince them to go
13 that way.
14 But the state monies went out very
15 quickly, in a rapid period of time, and made
16 a difference. It continues to make a
17 difference.
18 ASSEMBLYWOMAN WOERNER: So it has
19 expanded our capacity.
20 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah,
21 I think so.
22 ASSEMBLYWOMAN WOERNER: Terrific.
23 You talked about the state fairs, and
24 I know in the past we've done capital
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1 programs for county fairs to help them
2 upgrade their infrastructure. We didn't do
3 one last year because there was still money
4 that had not been -- had not been applied for
5 yet. Where are we on the need for an
6 additional fund for county fairs?
7 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: I
8 have mixed feelings about this one because we
9 still have funding available through the four
10 rounds that the Legislature approved for
11 funding there. And I have to say so much of
12 it is laying on the shoulders of both a
13 little bit of -- many of these smaller fairs
14 are volunteer organizations, may not have the
15 expertise to navigate New York's SFS system
16 or what used to be called Grant's Gateway.
17 So at the department we've dedicated a
18 group of people to helping hold the hands and
19 walk people through the process. That's been
20 the holdup, largely. But we still have
21 funding available to do that.
22 On the other side of the fence, we do
23 have funding also to help with transportation
24 of inner-city, generations of rural kids to
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1 get to county fairs, to help them with
2 marketing their fairs. And that's been very
3 successful, appreciated, and that will
4 continue. That we have additional funding
5 for.
6 ASSEMBLYWOMAN WOERNER: Thank you very
7 much.
8 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
9 Just looking through -- oh, hi,
10 Senator Fahy, you've joined us. Do you have
11 a question, since it's a Senator time?
12 SENATOR FAHY: Yes.
13 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Okay, three
14 minutes for Senator Fahy.
15 SENATOR FAHY: Thank you.
16 I stepped away for a while to head to
17 conference, and so I apologize if this was
18 already asked, and you can just tell me it
19 was.
20 But for Commissioner Ball, we've done
21 a little work on conservation easements here
22 in -- locally with Guilderland, Town of
23 Bethlehem, and I know a number of other areas
24 have done conservation easements. Does that
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1 help? And is there something more that
2 should be done with farmland protection and,
3 you know, smart-growth planning?
4 And if you could answer that in
5 relation to some of the debates that I know
6 you referenced earlier to Senator Hinchey
7 with regard to balancing and protecting
8 farmland while moving on solar energy
9 initiatives and more.
10 So how can we do this in a way that
11 makes it workable for all and is protecting
12 some of our best farmland while also growing
13 the land trusts and others, if you would.
14 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah.
15 So a great question. And in particular when
16 it comes to this area, everyone pretty easily
17 recognizes the encroachment of suburbia onto
18 farmlands and the need to protect that
19 farmland.
20 What's less understood is community
21 gardens, urban farms, they also have
22 conservation problems. And so we've expanded
23 our thinking to include those groups, which I
24 think is excellent. I think the use of
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1 easements has proven and will prove to be an
2 effective tool to help a beginner farmer, a
3 new farmer, or a farmer that wants to expand,
4 change their operation to invest in it again.
5 So those conversations are very live,
6 and I very much appreciate the opportunity to
7 look at it in this -- in your neighborhood in
8 particular.
9 SENATOR FAHY: Thank you. And I'd
10 love to pursue any of that a little further.
11 They have been helpful here with at least
12 giving options, particularly for every
13 high-desired land and developments. As you
14 said, there's encroachment from -- as the
15 Capital Region continues to grow.
16 And then switching gears in my last
17 few seconds, Commissioner Simons, just
18 your -- commend you on the veterans' Lifetime
19 Liberty Pass, which is just wonderful. Can
20 you just talk a little bit about
21 accessibility to state parks with those who
22 may not have cars? I know that we've -- your
23 numbers keep growing, but physical
24 accessibility remains a challenge, in all of
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1 20 seconds.
2 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
3 And so appreciate that question. It's
4 something we've talked extensively on. We
5 started piloting programs -- City of Albany,
6 Tompkins County, even down at Jones Beach,
7 partnering with local public transportation
8 units to increase visits to parks -- "Nature
9 Bus" in Tompkins and Albany County. We are
10 finally collecting data to see that success,
11 but we think we can implement it elsewhere
12 across the state.
13 SENATOR FAHY: Thank you.
14 Thank you, Chair. Thank you.
15 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
16 Assembly.
17 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblymember Ed
18 Ra, the ranker on Ways and Means.
19 ASSEMBLYMAN RA: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
20 So for Parks, you mentioned the Ryder
21 Cup, and I have a couple of questions both
22 pertaining to the Ryder Cup and to Bethpage
23 in general.
24 First, a lot of us downstate heard
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1 from constituents when the ticket prices came
2 out. Obviously there's a potential -- this
3 is a great international event, potentially
4 have a great home court advantage, so to
5 speak, for the USA in it, and people are
6 concerned they're being priced out. Is there
7 anything being done with regard to that?
8 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
9 Yeah, so we've had extensive conversations
10 with the PGA, and we expect to offer, you
11 know, days that are significantly reduced,
12 you know, at the cost to the public to
13 attend, you know, some or part of that event.
14 But it's something that is very much on our
15 mind, being affordability. But we're having
16 a lot of discussions and we'll have some news
17 on that shortly, sir.
18 ASSEMBLYMAN RA: Okay. And then with
19 regard to Bethpage Park in general and the
20 multiple golf courses there, I'm sure you're
21 aware of this, but I -- recently it was
22 brought to my attention that there's a lot of
23 concern that there are bots and computer
24 programs that are taking advantage of the
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1 booking system and making it very difficult
2 for people to get tee times. Somebody did a
3 very detailed analysis of this and basically
4 it was seeing that like on Bethpage Black, I
5 think in particular, there was a tremendous
6 amount of cancellations, which indicated
7 maybe people are booking them and then
8 cancelling them if they can't sell them. And
9 a lot of them were from out of state
10 accounts, which my understanding is they're
11 able only to book five days out as opposed to
12 seven.
13 So I'm wondering what the
14 Parks Department is doing with regard to that
15 issue.
16 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS: So
17 we have instituted sort of, you know, putting
18 tee times aside for walkups and also, you
19 know, spreading that across a number of
20 different courses, the five different courses
21 that we have.
22 We are investigating that and, you
23 know, any misuse of our system we're drilling
24 in on to identify if there is a misuse of
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1 bots. And we'll take the appropriate action
2 to reduce that opportunity.
3 ASSEMBLYMAN RA: Okay. And is there a
4 particular -- anything or maybe something we
5 should be looking at legislatively, in
6 particular, if somebody is not only using a
7 bot but selling those tee times? Which this
8 is something that is a publicly owned course,
9 taxpayers are paying for it.
10 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
11 Because of -- it's affectionately called the
12 People's Country Club. You know, certainly
13 I'd love to sit down with the team and
14 identify any, you know, concrete ideas. But
15 it's a real problem. It's a real problem
16 that we are looking into heavily.
17 You know, the People's Course, the
18 People's Country Club, it's -- we take great
19 pride in that. And being that the Ryder Cup,
20 we saw the PGA championship being held, the
21 U.S. Open, it is a great venue and it's a
22 great venue to host these events because of
23 the fans and the public that come out to it.
24 And we need to make sure that they have the
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1 same accessibility to the course that
2 everybody else has too.
3 ASSEMBLYMAN RA: Okay. Thank you, I
4 appreciate that. And I think we'll follow up
5 with you and your staff with regard to that
6 issue.
7 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
8 Absolutely.
9 ASSEMBLYMAN RA: One of my other Long
10 Island colleagues wanted to ask about that
11 there are trail projects within this budget,
12 and he was just wondering exactly how that
13 money is going to be doled out, how it's
14 going to be implemented and doing the trails
15 within our parks.
16 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
17 Yeah, and I appreciate that. We can -- once
18 finalized, we can share with some of the
19 projects coming out of our own 200 million
20 going towards trails.
21 Trails are important, right? I think
22 when you look at the Governor's NY PLAYS and
23 it's a focus on traditional playgrounds, you
24 know, we will further expand that definition
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1 of what a playground is, and we think in many
2 cases trails could fall into a category --
3 falls into a category within our own thinking
4 as we build out our capital programs.
5 Because of sort of that mental and physical
6 wellness, and particularly of our older
7 youth, our teenagers and all those who use
8 our parks, we find that trail usage goes up
9 each and every year.
10 ASSEMBLYMAN RA: Great.
11 Quickly for the ag side, I know, you
12 know, you're aware there was this piece of
13 legislation last year to try to make sure
14 that farms could take advantage of the tax
15 credit when they were I guess utilizing
16 different entities with regard to their
17 payroll, that the Governor ultimately vetoed.
18 What's being done to make sure that,
19 you know, these farms can take advantage of
20 that tax credit? Which I think is vital to
21 them with the new overtime rules.
22 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL:
23 Right. Well, discussions are ongoing, and
24 right now we're talking with the industry.
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1 It works pretty well for -- it works very
2 well for partnerships, sole proprietors. But
3 when you get into some of the complicated
4 management forms that we have on some of our
5 dairy farms, there's concerns about the exact
6 language.
7 We want to make sure that the entity
8 who is paying the payroll for their workers
9 on their farm is the entity that gets the tax
10 credits. And sometimes when there's
11 management corporations involved, et cetera,
12 it can get confusing. So that language is
13 being clarified.
14 ASSEMBLYMAN RA: Thank you.
15 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
16 I think I am next, 10 minutes as the
17 chair.
18 So I'm going to start asking every
19 government commissioner who comes here a
20 variation on this question, but I'll start
21 with you, with Parks.
22 So we have 22 federal parks in
23 New York State. If the federal government
24 starts to defund them, what is the impact on
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1 us and what are we going to do about it?
2 Because they're still parks in our state.
3 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
4 You know, and it's -- we faced similar
5 situations in the past with the State of
6 Liberty and Ellis Island, and we've been able
7 to be a partner in maintaining and keeping
8 them open.
9 I think when you look at the magnitude
10 of 22 parks, it's not a large number by any
11 respect when you consider the size of
12 New York, but it's an important number. And
13 always open and willing to having
14 conversations. Of course it comes at a great
15 cost, the operational capacity. But we have
16 many partnerships with our federal partners
17 at other parks as well that, you know, it's a
18 good relationship. And we like to think
19 we're the great unifier, right? So maybe
20 there's an outlier with parks and
21 understanding that most people can appreciate
22 the benefits of outdoors.
23 But we are watching and monitoring the
24 temperature in Washington very closely. I
138
1 think when we look at the history, parks --
2 New York State, you know, certainly has
3 always been willing to put itself at the
4 table as a partner and lead if need be. And
5 I think that doesn't change with -- depending
6 on the shift that may or may not happen.
7 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
8 I think the rest of mine are for the
9 Ag & Markets commissioner.
10 When I think -- you already partly
11 answered the question before about concerns
12 about workforce on the farms, given current
13 federal policy. Are there other concerns we
14 ought to have for our agricultural sector
15 because of changes in federal policy?
16 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
17 we're going to watch this very closely.
18 There's more to learn than we know today. We
19 do have some reputable partners coming in;
20 USDA, we're excited to see that, people that
21 I know that we have relationships with. And
22 largely it's relationships.
23 Concerns around the climate, some of
24 the programs that have been in place for the
139
1 last several years. We were able to get a --
2 advise Washington on a Nourish NY-style
3 program, it's called the LFPA. We were able
4 to distribute, you know, over $50 million
5 worth of funding like Nourish has done
6 through their funds in New York State, which
7 was great.
8 I think that we're in the relationship
9 business. And the funding that comes to us
10 from FDA is for food safety, for doing
11 testing, for inspections and things like
12 that. These aren't just fun projects, these
13 are actual work. We contract with the
14 federal government at FDA, at USDA, to be on
15 farms doing inspections for them, carrying
16 out the work that needs to be done. So it's
17 not all fun and, you know, here is extra
18 money kind of stuff, it's actual tasks that
19 we perform for them.
20 So the nature of those and what goes
21 around them, you know, we have more to learn.
22 Certainly Farm Bill -- you know, is this
23 administration going to be able to get the
24 Farm Bill done in a timely fashion? Which is
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1 probably the most far-reaching, most
2 impactful farm bill to New York State this
3 time. So those are things we're going to
4 watch closely, we just have to pay attention
5 to, because it's a little bit of the federal
6 administration, a little bit of Congress.
7 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: So it's my
8 understanding that when it comes to food
9 safety as far as, you know, meat and other
10 things, it has been the USDA responsible for
11 inspections.
12 So we know that we're now in the
13 middle of an avian bird flu crisis. I just
14 read about I guess the duck farm on
15 Long Island having to I believe kill off its
16 entire flock of 100,000 ducks.
17 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yup.
18 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: And so
19 historically that would have been USDA doing
20 inspections and making sure that our poultry
21 was healthy. So does that -- are we
22 concerned that they will no longer be doing
23 this kind of work for us?
24 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
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1 that would be terrible. But we do have to
2 look at those relationships.
3 USDA-APHIS, who manages the meat side
4 and manages the, you know, plant and animal,
5 those are conversations we have -- we
6 consider them partners with us in a very big
7 way. I expect that partnership to continue.
8 Will they roll back some of their partnership
9 efforts? I don't know. I hope not. But we
10 meet with them very regularly, work very
11 closely with them.
12 So meat is a little bit unique in that
13 USDA-certified meat means something. We do
14 not have a certification program in New York
15 State.
16 But when it comes to produce, grocery
17 stores, food manufacturing facilities, dairy
18 processing facilities, that's the Department
19 of Agriculture in New York State that does
20 those inspections for FDA, for example.
21 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
22 So we know under CLCPA law we have
23 targets we have to reach on economy-wide
24 greenhouse gas emissions, and it's my
142
1 understanding that unfortunately agriculture
2 emissions have not decreased. Do we have
3 plans to try to increase the decrease of
4 emissions in our agricultural sector?
5 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: We
6 sure do. And we're doing some really great
7 work in that neighborhood.
8 New York agriculture has -- was very
9 happy and pleased and able to serve on the
10 Climate Action Council. We had a chair
11 there. I got to head up the Forestry and
12 Agriculture Work Group, and I'm happy to say
13 we were the only work group that came out
14 with consensus on what was the thing to do.
15 But in agriculture today we have the
16 ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
17 We have the ability to sequester carbon. We
18 have the ability to reduce nitrous oxide
19 emissions on our farms. And we have the
20 ability to make energy on our farms.
21 So I'm very optimistic about our way
22 forward. We need to invest some, we need to
23 work a little bit harder on this, we need to
24 get back to cap-and-invest, which is -- got
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1 tabled for a little while because of some
2 extracurricular activities in all our
3 governments. But I'm looking forward to
4 getting back to that conversation, because
5 agriculture is part of the answer here. We
6 don't just make it less bad, we actually make
7 it better.
8 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Good. We want
9 you to.
10 You know that I am a big supporter of
11 the New York City farmers market system and
12 the system in Hunts Point of moving New York
13 State produced and grown products down to
14 Hunts Point so that it can be sold throughout
15 the city. How are those programs doing? Are
16 we seeing increases in the sales? Do we
17 measure that?
18 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: We
19 have seen dramatic increases in sales, and we
20 have to because we have a tremendous
21 population, particularly in that big urban
22 center, that doesn't know much about us.
23 We're getting ready any day now --
24 it's been a little bit delayed by New York
144
1 City -- in opening the food hub in the Bronx,
2 which will be a New York Grown and Certified
3 food hub, the biggest one down there, provide
4 us access to the South Bronx, to Brooklyn,
5 parts of Harlem, all the boroughs.
6 We're very anxious to get that done.
7 The building is up, we need to get the
8 certificate of occupancy, and waiting for a
9 day to be there. I'd love to have you come
10 join us there when we kick that off, because
11 it's going to dramatically increase the
12 accessibility of food for the boroughs.
13 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
14 So I support selling wine in
15 supermarkets, and basically the analysis is
16 it will help New York wine producers sell
17 more wine. I'm curious what your opinion is.
18 (Pause; laughter.)
19 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: I
20 will say, first of all, not to pass the buck,
21 but that's an SLA issue. And we've talked
22 with SLA about it.
23 I think, if done properly, it could be
24 a significant boon to New York producers and
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1 consumers both. We were able in our last
2 year to get direct shipment for our liquor
3 producers in the state, which was an
4 important step forward. This is a
5 conversation that's been looming out there as
6 long as you've been up here and before I came
7 up here. So it needs to be carefully thought
8 out.
9 But I look forward to that discussion
10 and anything we can add to that.
11 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: I'm going to give
12 back my one minute and 22 seconds to the
13 Assembly. Thank you.
14 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: We'll try not to
15 use it.
16 We've been joined by Assemblywoman
17 Jo Anne Simon.
18 Our next questioner will be
19 Assemblymember Brian Cunningham.
20 ASSEMBLYMAN CUNNINGHAM: Thank you,
21 Chair Krueger, for the additional minute and
22 27 seconds.
23 (Laughter.)
24 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Nope, I just said
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1 you couldn't have it. Three minutes.
2 (Laughter.)
3 ASSEMBLYMAN CUNNINGHAM: I can't help
4 but try.
5 And Mr. Chair, the chairmanship looks
6 good on you. Congratulations on being
7 appointed.
8 I have a really quick question; I'll
9 be under a minute. I just wanted to know if
10 there are any current studies or research
11 into climate-resilient crops and
12 climate-smart farming practices right now in
13 the State of New York.
14 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yes.
15 ASSEMBLYMAN CUNNINGHAM: That was a
16 short answer.
17 And is there more to be done there,
18 particularly looking at some of the
19 climate-change things happening across the
20 state and the country. Just wanted to know
21 if there's more we can do on that front.
22 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah,
23 continue to support this budget with
24 climate-resilient funding in it. Because
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1 we've been able to significantly increase
2 that funding up to over $17 million. And we
3 have -- that helps farmers deal with
4 droughts; you know, what to do and how to
5 raise those crops successfully in a very dry
6 year. And also it's something farmers deal
7 with: The extremes, and what about flooding,
8 what about too much moisture going on?
9 We work with our soil and water
10 conservation districts all around the state
11 to implement best practices. And that's a
12 great program, and one that's oversubscribed
13 every year.
14 ASSEMBLYMAN CUNNINGHAM: Perfect.
15 I am also going to give back a minute
16 and 45 seconds.
17 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Thank you.
18 Assemblywoman Paula Kay. For three
19 minutes.
20 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KAY: Thank you. Thank
21 you, Mr. Chair.
22 So I have a question actually for both
23 commissioners today. I'll start with
24 Commissioner Ball.
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1 Mental well-being of farmers is
2 certainly important and imperative, so I was
3 interested in funding for FarmNet in the
4 budget.
5 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: We
6 are too. FarmNet, they've been great
7 volunteers, great partners with New York
8 State with regards to mental health in a big
9 way.
10 I would add NYCAMH, which has been --
11 operates in a base in Cooperstown. It's been
12 so important and critical in helping to
13 educate farmers and farmworkers both.
14 I think our conversations at Ag &
15 Markets with the Office of Mental Health,
16 looking at mental first aid and the need for
17 that amongst our population, amongst the
18 state government. And it's something we saw,
19 if you remember, you know, it was about a
20 decade ago, actually, when we saw suicides on
21 farms and we saw extreme stress in the dairy
22 industry in particular. And we were training
23 our inspectors, our animal inspectors, our
24 plant inspectors as we have interactions with
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1 people on farms, to look for warning signs,
2 look for things that we could do to help
3 identify.
4 So I think you've highlighted
5 something that's very critical in New York
6 especially. Things have just gotten more
7 challenging with social media, with
8 cellphones activity. This is a real
9 sensitive area. We all should be trained, as
10 we are in fundamental first aid, in
11 fundamental mental first aid.
12 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KAY: So there's funds
13 set aside for FarmNet?
14 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL:
15 FarmNet has a line in our local -- local --
16 Aid to Localities budget, I think it's a
17 million dollars. I don't think that's
18 unreasonable at all.
19 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KAY: Thank you.
20 And very quickly, Commissioner Simons,
21 parks. I'm very interested in the NY BRICKS
22 program and wondering -- and maybe you can
23 provide this in writing to me later because
24 we don't have a lot of time. But it's --
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1 municipalities and not-for-profits, it's the
2 goal for them to work together? Or are those
3 two separate grants that each would be
4 competing for?
5 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS: So
6 it definitely would be structured towards the
7 municipalities. And again, with -- and I
8 think -- the numbers are still being worked
9 out, but I think it could be up to a
10 $15 million max cap on the grant program.
11 I'll confirm that number with you.
12 But the idea is to create community
13 centers or have the opportunity to repair,
14 refurbish the current infrastructure to more
15 promote that community engagement.
16 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KAY: Love it.
17 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
18 Yeah, it's a great --
19 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KAY: Very interested,
20 thank you.
21 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
22 Great. Thank you.
23 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Is that it?
24 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KAY: That's it. Thank
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1 you, Mr. Chairman.
2 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblywoman Jodi
3 Giglio.
4 ASSEMBLYWOMAN GIGLIO: Yes. Good
5 afternoon. Thank you for being here.
6 So I would like to speak a little bit
7 about the Crescent Duck Farm located in my
8 district. The duck farm -- it's the last
9 duck farm on Long Island. It was established
10 in 1908, over a hundred years old. A
11 fourth-generation farmer right now leading
12 the charge, and children -- fifth and
13 sixth -- on the way.
14 So as you know, they had to euthanize
15 100,000 ducks due to the avian bird flu. It
16 was a tremendous -- it still is a tremendous
17 impact on them. And I want to thank you,
18 commissioner, and I really want to thank
19 Dr. Bennett and Dr. Collins for working with
20 the owners of the farm.
21 But, you know, they just spent
22 $5 million on wastewater treatment and it
23 costs a million dollars a year to run the
24 wastewater treatment plant. He's expended
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1 $500,000 so far in just the composting and
2 remediation. And he's not asking the state
3 for any money, which is shocking -- he's
4 using his own capital.
5 But what are we doing about the avian
6 bird flu to prevent this happening now that
7 it's moving into livestock in other parts of
8 the country, and France is using vaccinations
9 for the birds to prevent the avian bird flu
10 from killing these flocks?
11 And also about the spotted lantern
12 fly. I mean, these are threats that we've
13 been talking about for many years, and I'd
14 like to know what research is being done to
15 prevent this from happening to any other
16 farmer.
17 And again, I want to thank you for
18 your continued cooperation of working with
19 the Corwin family at the Crescent Duck Farm.
20 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
21 please give them my best when you see them
22 and talk to them. I look forward to seeing
23 them at food shows, where he's always there
24 supporting Taste New York and New York Grown
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1 & Certified stuff, so ...
2 This is a very painful thing to watch
3 and have to be a part of. And it's so
4 random, because it's, you know, ducks and
5 geese that are flying through the migratory
6 pathways that are distributing this virus.
7 They're immune to it, but they leave us with
8 it.
9 So it's been a great partnership. It
10 occupied most of our weekend, you know, when
11 it hit, talking with the USDA, talking with
12 our people to get the job done to our
13 satisfaction.
14 Yeah, we'll do whatever we can to help
15 him sustain the family farm, in any way we
16 can be helpful in negotiating the
17 indemnification with USDA.
18 I will say, though, when it comes to
19 high-path AI, the state departments of
20 agriculture, all the commissioners across the
21 country, all the state animal health
22 officials, the Dr. Bennetts all around the
23 country -- we talk with FDA, we talk with
24 USDA. We're talking on this subject every
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1 day. Everyone's looking at the vaccinate
2 opportunities. We're testing milk across the
3 country. We're doing everything we can in
4 New York at least to keep the dairy side of
5 it out of New York State.
6 ASSEMBLYWOMAN GIGLIO: Thank you. I
7 just -- it's devastating, and I don't want to
8 see it happen to any of our other cattle
9 farmers or steer farmers or duck farmers.
10 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah.
11 ASSEMBLYWOMAN GIGLIO: So thank you.
12 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Thank
13 you. You bet.
14 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblyman Joseph
15 Angelino.
16 ASSEMBLYMAN ANGELINO: Thank you,
17 Chairman.
18 Commissioners, thank you very much for
19 being here. I appreciate your time. And
20 I'll stay in my legislative committee
21 membership lane and direct my questions
22 regarding parks.
23 I was happy to hear you're increasing
24 or at least you've had a couple of classes of
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1 police officers graduate for the Park Police.
2 And hopefully that maintains your workforce,
3 because I know you're at -- it's hard for you
4 to do when there's no equity between the
5 retirement systems of other officers.
6 My first question regarding the Park
7 Police is, do you -- would you support or do
8 you support the end of the New York State
9 Police operational control of the
10 Park Police?
11 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS: I
12 support the best avenue for public safety in
13 our parks. And I truly believe the
14 Park Police are a crucial area of our
15 workforce that maintain a sense of comfort
16 and security in our parks because of their
17 presence. They're in and around the parks
18 and, in conjunction with our Park Rangers and
19 our park staff, offer a much-needed resource
20 in our parks to give the utmost public safety
21 to our patrons, yes.
22 ASSEMBLYMAN ANGELINO: So currently
23 the Park Police have put their investigators
24 back into uniform and the New York State
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1 Police BCI investigates major crime. Would
2 you like to have your own officers back
3 conducting your own park investigations?
4 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS: I
5 think when you look at public safety you have
6 to look at, you know, New York State
7 resources and all the resources available to
8 do, you know, the different jobs that are
9 required in law enforcement.
10 I value the tremendous partnership we
11 have with the State Police, even our local
12 law enforcement agencies. And together,
13 together I think we can deliver, we have
14 delivered better than ever, in the last few
15 years, you know, the best public safety at
16 our parks.
17 But that discussion is ongoing, and we
18 continue to have it. But I know the State
19 Police in that area, they do it well. We do
20 it well as well. And it's a matter of
21 finding out what the right niche is between
22 the two units. But I think we certainly have
23 the ability to do so.
24 ASSEMBLYMAN ANGELINO: I'm very fond
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1 of the Park Police. They're the
2 organization -- especially out in the
3 Niagara Frontier, the specialties that they
4 do, you know, the rope rescue, it's just
5 amazing.
6 They're also, a lot of people don't
7 realize, New York State's first state law
8 enforcement agency.
9 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS: A
10 hundred and forty years, yes, sir.
11 ASSEMBLYMAN ANGELINO: Real quick, I'd
12 like to see more marketing, and tell me what
13 you can do to highlight more our great
14 veterans at the Purple Heart Hall of Honor in
15 New Windsor. Please expound on that.
16 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
17 You know, so that is a very special place in
18 our system, in our hearts. We -- you know, I
19 think what we saw in the centennial year last
20 year, we launched the most aggressive
21 marketing campaign in the history of our
22 agency. And we saw -- we had the data to
23 back it up.
24 And you can point to the record
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1 visitation, you know, in the 4.5 percent,
2 88 million. But it's certainly -- we're now
3 looking at different parts of the agency to
4 incorporate into the marketing plan as well.
5 ASSEMBLYMAN ANGELINO: Thank you,
6 Commissioner. Appreciate your time.
7 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
8 Great, appreciate your questions.
9 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Next is Assemblyman
10 John Lemondes.
11 ASSEMBLYMAN LEMONDES: Thank you,
12 Chairman.
13 Thank you, Commissioners. Appreciate
14 you being here today. My question is for
15 Commissioner Ball.
16 With respect to the annual increase in
17 demand for New York's maple products, is
18 there any discussion on easements for all of
19 the maple that's locked up behind road
20 frontage by different property owners?
21 Similar to Senator Fahy's question on another
22 topic.
23 I'm just wondering if that -- if Ag &
24 Markets would undertake that to enable, to
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1 unlock that benefit for the whole state's
2 economy.
3 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Well,
4 that's an interesting question. We have gone
5 down that path with regards to state lands.
6 We have unlocked that door. We can get
7 access for maple producers to get on state
8 lands and find the maple trees.
9 Other private properties? I'd have to
10 think about that one a little bit. You know,
11 if there was a viable pathway that made
12 sense, I guess we'd consider it. But that
13 one looks problematic to me.
14 We are growing, we did invest more
15 money in maple this year in the budget. You
16 know, the research we're doing in New York
17 State is great. As you know, we have more
18 trees than Vermont, we have more producers
19 that Vermont, and we can do more. And it's
20 been a growing industry, so we're very proud
21 of our maple industry.
22 ASSEMBLYMAN LEMONDES: Right,
23 recognizing that it is difficult, that that
24 would be difficult. I think that if we were
160
1 able to unlock that, though, even if it were
2 only partially successful, it would still
3 contribute greatly to the state's economy.
4 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah.
5 Look forward to your ideas on that.
6 ASSEMBLYMAN LEMONDES: Thank you.
7 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: You
8 bet.
9 ASSEMBLYMAN LEMONDES: Thank you,
10 Chairman.
11 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Thank you.
12 Assemblywoman Stefani Zinerman, three
13 minutes.
14 ASSEMBLYWOMAN ZINERMAN: Thank you,
15 Chairs Pretlow and Krueger.
16 Commissioners, good afternoon. How
17 are you?
18 PANEL: Great.
19 ASSEMBLYWOMAN ZINERMAN: I have one
20 question for each of you. I missed you this
21 summer at the State Fair, Commissioner Ball,
22 so you're up first.
23 My question is to follow up on the
24 question asked by Senator Fernandez. And I
161
1 appreciate your update on what happened with
2 the Black and Socially Disadvantaged Farmers
3 Fund. But it's been two years, so I'd like
4 to know, how many people did we lose in that
5 time? Because they were in the program
6 because they were struggling. And so how
7 many did we lose?
8 And would you be open -- although we
9 have $4 million, I assume those are for
10 people who are already in the pipeline.
11 Would you be open to asking for an additional
12 million or 2 million for the people who are
13 standing in line to enter the program?
14 As you know, in my little town in the
15 56th Assembly District, we've got 15 out of
16 19 schools growing food hydroponically and
17 aquaponically and we've got people -- there
18 are now 26 farms and gardens, you know,
19 buying land upstate, and they need assistance
20 too. So I know you said there's 4 million in
21 the hopper, but we do have other people who
22 are waiting. This program is a beacon of
23 light, and for it to disappear in this year's
24 budget is a little disarming to people,
162
1 especially as they look at the federal -- the
2 adverse federal policies that are starting.
3 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yeah.
4 Well, thank you for that question and for
5 your passion about it.
6 I've been able to visit a lot of
7 schools in the New York City area, just
8 recently in the Bronx and Brooklyn and even
9 Manhattan. And what they're doing through
10 the Ag in the Classroom program is amazing.
11 I'm not sure I could quantify how many
12 people maybe got lost because of the delays
13 in getting the funding and an administrator
14 out, because we were able to, through our
15 Nourish New York program and through the
16 New York Food for New York Families program,
17 which was part of the federal LFPA money, we
18 were able to reach much further into the
19 neighborhoods, the young farmers, the
20 beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged
21 farmers, and connect them with neighborhoods
22 much more deeply even than Nourish, the
23 pantries and the soup kitchens.
24 ASSEMBLYWOMAN ZINERMAN: So can we
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1 talk offline about that?
2 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Yes,
3 we can.
4 ASSEMBLYMAN ANGELINO: Just so I can
5 ask the commissioner -- but I will say, you
6 know, we're at about 139 and we used to have
7 1 million Black farmers. So I really do not
8 want to lose any more.
9 Commissioner, thank you so much for
10 100 Years of Parks. I had a great time with
11 my seniors in several parks this year.
12 Please keep it up. Additional challenges --
13 it doesn't have to be about a hundred years,
14 but let's figure out how we can kind of keep
15 it going.
16 My question to you is that I went to
17 Barcelona, I saw some wonderful innovations
18 for people with disabilities. So do you have
19 plans to do any guided audio navigation or
20 tactile pathways for visually impaired
21 people? Talk about what you're doing for --
22 to improve the parks for people with
23 disabilities.
24 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
164
1 Just people -- real quick, to people with
2 disabilities, you know, just thanks for the
3 funding. Right? So every new capital
4 project takes into account our programming.
5 It continues to, you know, bring up new and
6 innovative ways to -- you know, to address
7 accessibility. And also we're addressing
8 some of those aspects, being as expansive as
9 we are, just to improve accessibility. But
10 it's one of the top priorities of the agency
11 to improve this all across the board.
12 ASSEMBLYWOMAN ZINERMAN: Say it again.
13 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Sorry, we have to
14 cut you off.
15 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Thank you very
16 much.
17 I just have a couple of questions,
18 basically for Commissioner Ball.
19 You had mentioned earlier about the
20 direct shipments. The naysayers had a lot of
21 bad things to say about that proposed
22 legislation, that, oh, the companies are
23 going to come into New York and take over the
24 industry. Did that ever come to fruition?
165
1 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: I
2 think I heard part of your question, but you
3 were -- it was about direct shipment of --
4 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: About the direct
5 shipment of cider and wine. The people that
6 were opposed to that legislation were
7 claiming that other companies would come from
8 out of state and set up shop and call
9 themselves New York companies and ship their
10 spirits in New York.
11 Did that ever happen?
12 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: No.
13 My experience, actually we did direct
14 shipment of wine 20 years ago, and there were
15 the same predictions that things were going
16 to be very bad. And if anything, the wine
17 industry has grown both -- on every aspect of
18 it.
19 So I don't expect any changes that
20 we'll see in direct shipment of cider and our
21 spirits. I don't think it's going to affect
22 that at all. It's going to be a success,
23 especially for the craft beverage producers
24 that we encouraged to get into the business
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1 over the last decade.
2 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Okay. And with the
3 slow rollout of cannabis in New York, there
4 was some talk about farmers that couldn't
5 sell their product because there weren't
6 enough licensed retail sellers, so they had
7 to destroy their crops or they -- I don't
8 know, I didn't know marijuana went bad. But
9 it does, I guess. And there was a monetary
10 loss to these farmers.
11 Were they ever made whole? Was
12 anything ever done to alleviate the pressure
13 that was put on them? Because that pressure
14 was put on them by the state. We forced them
15 to do certain things, we told them how to
16 grow, when to grow and where to grow. And
17 then we had nobody allowed to buy their
18 product, they had to sit on it. And my
19 understanding is it was like tens of millions
20 of dollars. Was anything done to take the
21 stress and the pressure off of those farmers?
22 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: You
23 know, that's a complicated question. You've
24 got a federal issue there, you've got a state
167
1 issue, and you have another agency, the
2 Office of Cannabis Management. Their mission
3 is much bigger than simply growing a crop.
4 But my understanding is that very few
5 of them actually found satisfaction with what
6 they lost. But today's a new day, and we've
7 been -- recently, in the last two years, I
8 know they've been working very actively to
9 get more opportunities for them. That's the
10 Office of Cannabis Management; I'd have to
11 defer the specifics to them.
12 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: So they just burned
13 their crop and moved on to the next time,
14 next year?
15 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: Some
16 did, yeah.
17 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: They're coming to
18 the Economic Development hearing.
19 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Oh, they are?
20 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: So you can ask
21 them the question.
22 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Okay, we will.
23 Another thing on cannabis also, I've
24 heard complaints that the odor emitted by the
168
1 crop as it's growing has been objected to by
2 neighbors. Is that true, first of all, and
3 if it is, is there anything that can be done
4 to make it better, make the air better for
5 the surrounding communities?
6 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: We
7 anecdotally hear reports that the odor is
8 objectionable to neighbors. I would defer
9 what's being done about that to the Office of
10 Cannabis Management. But that is a concern
11 that we have heard.
12 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: So that's also
13 Economic Development, I guess.
14 I just have one quick question for
15 Commissioner Simons. You'd mentioned the
16 swimming program, and you mentioned children.
17 Is there anything being done for people like
18 myself, adults, that need swimming lessons?
19 (Laughter.)
20 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
21 You know, we have a number of programs in our
22 parks that certainly, while the concentration
23 has been on our youth, there are certainly
24 opportunities and considerations to expand,
169
1 you know, the program in the future.
2 But right now it is targeted to the
3 youths -- you know, it's a lifelong skill.
4 But yeah, Riverbank, I know there are
5 adult swim programs. So that select parks do
6 have adult swim programming, and we find
7 they're booked to capacity, as you can
8 imagine. And it's looking to expand that in
9 some of the other areas. And Riverbank,
10 what's nice about that, that's a year-round,
11 our only year-round swimming facility. But
12 certainly trying to, you know, get that into
13 the calendar on a regular basis on our summer
14 pools that are open seasonally.
15 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: So the adult
16 lessons are booked to capacity. Are the
17 youth swim lessons also booked to capacity,
18 or is there some space there?
19 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
20 Yeah, so we have signups, you know, around
21 May, June of every year, and they book up
22 pretty fast. You know, I know people are
23 lining up, families are lining up on sign-up
24 day. But what's nice about that is, you
170
1 know, two years ago we taught 400 kids to
2 swim over a summer. With the tripling of the
3 program, that jumped to over 2,000. But
4 those programs are not only popular, but they
5 are needed. And we're looking at expanding
6 it in different parks across the system as
7 well because they're very, very utilized.
8 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Okay, thank you.
9 And I just have one quick question for
10 Commissioner Ball again.
11 Equine slaughter, something that's
12 been near and dear to my heart for several
13 years, and we recently did legislation that
14 the Governor signed having to do with human
15 consumption of horses and monitoring at the
16 auctions that these horses are being shipped
17 through New York. It is -- I believe it's a
18 felony to transport horses for human
19 consumption, but they're going through
20 New York into Canada where they're being
21 slaughtered and sent out to other countries
22 in Europe and Asia.
23 I know the bill talked about a
24 good-faith effort by Ag & Markets. Is it the
171
1 intention -- I hope your answer is a big
2 yes -- that Ag & Markets will actually go and
3 attend these auctions -- there's only one, I
4 think it's Uniondale. You don't have to go
5 to a lot of different places -- and just
6 monitor these? Because the individuals that
7 are selling these horses, it's the same
8 person or persons, there's not very many of
9 them. And we'd really like to stop that. I
10 mean, these horses could be humanely
11 euthanized and not tortured and sent to
12 Canada to be, you know, whacked into horse
13 steaks.
14 So my question is, is it the full
15 intention of Ag & Markets to actually monitor
16 these auctions and make sure that horses are
17 not being shipped off to other places for
18 slaughter?
19 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: At
20 this point that's a police activity. We are
21 able to post, and we have people at auctions.
22 But I think we need a more thoughtful
23 conversation about the legality of someone --
24 you know, when a horse is sold at an auction,
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1 there needs to be a veterinary signature,
2 there needs to be, you know, some legal
3 documents signed, a purchase agreement,
4 et cetera. And I think that's probably the
5 vehicle that we need to have a thoughtful
6 conversation about.
7 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Well, I have those
8 papers, I have where horses were sold in
9 Pennsylvania, auctioned through New York, and
10 the papers, their final destination was the
11 slaughterhouse where they make horsey steaks.
12 So we know it's happening. And the
13 paperwork that you're referring to is
14 available. And I think that if we took --
15 made a good-faith effort to stop this, that
16 it would stop.
17 But to turn the other -- you know, the
18 blind eye to it doesn't really work.
19 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: It's
20 not -- it's not really about turning a blind
21 eye to it. We are engaged in conversations
22 with Gaming to talk about putting more teeth
23 into that law, so.
24 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Okay. Thank you.
173
1 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
2 And to close for this panel, Senator
3 Hinchey, chair of Agriculture, with a
4 three-minute second round.
5 SENATOR HINCHEY: I'm so happy to kick
6 off and close. Good for me.
7 (Laughter.)
8 AG & MARKETS COMMISSIONER BALL: What
9 an honor.
10 SENATOR HINCHEY: Thank you all.
11 Again, thank you for your time and for your
12 answers today.
13 I'm going to close my last question
14 with our commissioner for Parks, Mr. Simons.
15 Thank you, Commissioner Simons.
16 In the 41st District some of the most
17 beautiful areas, I would say, in the world,
18 and wonderfully, Parks is a great partner on
19 a lot of those places. However, they also
20 all need capital improvements and capital
21 projects, one of them being the Harlem Valley
22 Rail Trail, which we're told the state is
23 going to support -- without $25 million for
24 helping close the section of trail. I'm
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1 hopeful -- I didn't see that in the budget.
2 It's a smaller number in comparison to budget
3 numbers, so I'm hopeful that that is
4 happening.
5 But I'd like to just take a second to
6 ask if this is on your radar: The
7 Hudson-Athens Lighthouse. So that is
8 nationally recognized as one of the seven
9 historic landmarks to save across the
10 country. It is an incredibly important
11 historic landmark in our area, but really for
12 our state.
13 Minority Leader Schumer has allocated
14 significant federal dollars to help restore
15 the lighthouse, but there is a state share.
16 And that is something that I've also not seen
17 in the budget, so I just want to check and
18 see if that's on your radar and what the
19 plans might be.
20 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS: So
21 thank you. And you heard it here first,
22 right? The Hudson {sic} Valley Rail Trail,
23 there is that gap. And we are, you know --
24 an existing $200 million in providing the
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1 gap -- it's 2.5, providing that it doesn't
2 escalate. But we are prepared, under the
3 Parks budget --
4 SENATOR HINCHEY: Thank you.
5 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS: --
6 to close that gap and get that moving. So
7 we're very excited about that.
8 SENATOR HINCHEY: Thank you.
9 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
10 We're watching the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse
11 very closely. Many discussions with the
12 Army Corps, who have been greatly involved in
13 sort of -- you know, there's been dredging
14 around that that impacted and is really
15 expediting the erosion, you know, of that
16 lighthouse and the foundation.
17 But watching that closely, working
18 with our historic preservation partners, and
19 just having active discussions. But like
20 anything else, it's -- if it comes down to a
21 capital request, it's just what's the nature
22 of the capital request and how can we
23 partner. It's, you know, much to -- a lot of
24 the questions today were about communities,
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1 and where we can help, we will.
2 SENATOR HINCHEY: Our understanding,
3 just so that we're all on the same page, our
4 understanding is that Minority Leader Schumer
5 has allocated the $50,000 for the Army Corps
6 of Engineers to start doing the study, it's
7 in that pipeline. And then the total
8 anticipated cost is about $30 million, with
9 the federal government taking about
10 two-thirds, but would require the state to
11 take a third. So that, should it not
12 increase, would be about 10 million.
13 So happy to continue the conversation
14 with you, thank you, but want to make sure
15 that we're tracking that.
16 PARKS COMMISSIONER PRO TEM SIMONS:
17 Absolutely. Thank you.
18 SENATOR HINCHEY: Thank you.
19 And thank you, Madam Chair.
20 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Okay, and we were
21 wrong, don't go anywhere. We have another
22 Assemblymember.
23 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Nope. The question
24 was answered.
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1 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Never mind.
2 Okay, then we all -- we want to thank
3 you very much for your participation today,
4 and free you from this hearing.
5 And we will call up, as you leave --
6 oh, sorry, you're our first panel for the
7 year. If people want to grab these
8 commissioners, do it outside. We don't want
9 you having conversations on either side where
10 we can't continue with the next panel.
11 So we appreciate you, but now go away.
12 (Laughter.)
13 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: And we're going
14 to call up the New York Farm Bureau, the
15 Northeast Dairy Producers Association, the
16 Northeast Organic Farming Association of
17 New York, and the Adirondack Food Network.
18 (Pause.)
19 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Hello, everyone.
20 Welcome. And so we now get to the part of
21 the hearings where everyone only gets
22 three minutes. So we always advise people,
23 even if you have a 20-page document, don't
24 try to read it. Just highlight your most
178
1 important bullets. We all have all of the
2 testimony, and it is up online for everyone
3 to read.
4 So in my experience, those people who
5 have mastered their key issues, not reading
6 really fast, are the ones who win.
7 So I will let you start on this side
8 of the table (pointing), introduce yourself,
9 do your three minutes, and then we'll keep
10 going down.
11 Okay? Thank you. Please.
12 MS. BAILDON: Thank you so much for
13 this opportunity to speak with you. The
14 Northeast Organic Farming Association has a
15 few priorities for the 2026 fiscal year
16 budget that I'm going to share with you.
17 My name is Katie Baildon, policy
18 manager with Northeast Organic Farming
19 Association, also called NOFA-NY. We've been
20 around since '83 and have been leading the
21 growth of the organic regenerative
22 agriculture movement across the state. We
23 provide farmer-to farmer education, technical
24 assistance, and advocate for resilient food
179
1 systems. As a USDA-accredited organic
2 certifier we also certify about 1,000 organic
3 farms and food businesses.
4 And as you know, New York is a
5 national leader in organic agriculture,
6 ranking third in the number of organic farms,
7 and we're also leaders in field crop and
8 organic livestock production.
9 So I'm going to move on to -- past
10 contracts that we've had have expanded access
11 to organic certification and increased our
12 ability to provide support with certification
13 and the implementation of organic
14 climate-smart practices.
15 We're thankful to the Legislature for
16 their support, and request additional funding
17 this year to help build a more inclusive,
18 resilient network of New York farmers.
19 Specifically, NOFA is requesting 250,000,
20 including 40,000 to expand access to our
21 programs for underserved producers, 50,000 to
22 supplement USDA funding for NOFA events, and
23 160,000 to expand our capacity to meet an
24 increasing demand for our technical
180
1 assistance support services.
2 With the change in presidential
3 administrations, the future of one of our
4 USDA grants is uncertain, and without it we
5 won't be able to run our Climate Smart
6 Farming and Marketing program as it currently
7 exists, but with some support from the state
8 we can keep offering that climate-smart
9 technical assistance at a smaller scale.
10 And then, lastly, we have an
11 opportunity this year I think to address an
12 unexpected $800,000 federal funding gap for
13 New York farmers and to sustain a really
14 valuable program that might otherwise be
15 unfunded.
16 So since the beginning of the USDA
17 Organic label, the Organic Certification Cost
18 Share Program has allowed farms and
19 businesses to recover some of the expenses
20 associated with certification, and this year
21 that funding was not included in the
22 Farm Bill extension. So there's around 2,000
23 farms and food businesses in New York State
24 that have organic certification and have been
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1 depending on these funds. So we would
2 appreciate the inclusion of that in this
3 year's state budget.
4 Thank you.
5 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Next?
6 MR. WALLACH: Good afternoon. My name
7 is Kyle Wallach. I'm the associate director
8 of public policy at New York Farm Bureau.
9 And, first off, I'd like to say thank you all
10 for being here.
11 New York Farm Bureau is the state's
12 largest general agricultural advocacy
13 organization. Our members represent a
14 variety of commodities and provide
15 significant revenue streams for our local,
16 state, and national economies.
17 As most of you know, New York's farm
18 economy has been struggling and farmers are
19 working with razor-thin margins as input
20 costs and labor costs continue to increase.
21 That being said, we see many bright spots in
22 the Governor's proposed budget. However,
23 there are still funding gaps that need to be
24 addressed.
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1 To further support various agriculture
2 commodities within the industry, farmers rely
3 heavily on research and promotion programs
4 like apple research, maple research and hops
5 breeding, to name a couple of many. These
6 programs are dependent on support from the
7 Legislature each year.
8 Additionally, I would like to stress
9 the importance of Cornell's College of
10 Agriculture and Life Science, CALS, and the
11 many programs under their umbrella. These
12 are a lifeline to many farmers throughout the
13 state.
14 CALS provides key research and
15 critical expertise that we cannot afford to
16 lose right now. Key lines include PRO-DAIRY
17 and PRO-LIVESTOCK, as well as the diagnostic
18 labs, and funding to support operations at
19 Cornell AgriTech and its research there.
20 I would also like to mention the
21 refundable investment tax credit from
22 previous budgets for on-farm investments from
23 tractors and equipment to milking machinery.
24 This has triggered an incredible amount of
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1 investments on farms.
2 However, we are hopeful that this year
3 the Legislature, along with the Governor,
4 will add the construction of housing to be
5 eligible, or the rehabilitation of current
6 housing. As you can imagine, farm housing
7 can be very expensive to build, and those
8 that work on farms need and deserve
9 high-quality, comfortable housing.
10 Along similar lines, we are strongly
11 supportive of the Governor's proposal to
12 increase the Farmworker Housing Revolving
13 Loan Fund by $5 million. We are requesting
14 that the per-project cap be increased from
15 200,000 to 400,000 due to the high cost of
16 construction.
17 I would also like to highlight the
18 importance of extending the current Farm
19 Workforce Retention Tax Credit that expires
20 at the end of this year. This tax credit has
21 been major in helping farmers deal with
22 ever-increasing labor costs.
23 We look forward to working with the
24 Legislature and the Governor on these
184
1 proposals, along with additional legislation
2 like the low-carbon fuel standard, creating
3 an equine advisory board, and wine in grocery
4 stores, among others.
5 Thank you all for your support of the
6 agricultural industry.
7 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: Good afternoon.
8 I'm Allyson Jones-Brimmer, with the Northeast
9 Dairy Producers Association. Thank you to
10 Chairs Krueger, Pretlow, Hinchey and Lupardo
11 for holding this important hearing.
12 We are excited about many of the
13 investments the Governor has proposed in the
14 Executive Budget, ranging from workforce and
15 employee housing to transportation and
16 climate initiatives. However, there is one
17 glaring omission in the Governor's budget
18 which was a disappointing surprise to our
19 members, in that it did not include a
20 proposal to fix the Farm Employer Overtime
21 Tax Credit to ensure all farms are eligible
22 to receive this critical tax credit.
23 Thanks to your leadership, the
24 Legislature unanimously passed a bill last
185
1 session that would fix an interpretation
2 technicality that prevented some farms from
3 accessing this credit. However, the Governor
4 vetoed this legislation and in her message
5 directed the departments of Tax and Finance
6 and Agriculture and Markets to work with the
7 Legislature during this year's budget
8 negotiations to develop an appropriate
9 overtime tax credit structure which would
10 ensure all farmers can access the credit
11 regardless of their business structure.
12 We respectfully encourage the Senate
13 and Assembly to advance legislation in their
14 one-house budgets to provide a retroactive
15 fix for this crucial overtime tax credit.
16 Other aspects of the Governor's budget
17 that we appreciate include the $5 million
18 addition to the Farm Worker Housing Program.
19 This revolving loan fund ensures farmers have
20 support to build adequate housing facilities
21 for employees. This program is
22 oversubscribed, and we believe the need is
23 even greater than the Governor's proposal and
24 would respectfully encourage adding a total
186
1 of $15 million to the program, which would
2 ensure long-term solutions to challenges
3 facing recruiting and retaining employees on
4 New York State family farms.
5 We also agree with Farm Bureau that
6 the cap on per-project is too low and would
7 encourage increasing it from $200,000 to
8 $400,000 per project.
9 We also appreciate the Governor's
10 support of Cornell's farm labor specialists
11 in the New York Center for Agriculture
12 Medicine and Health. Both programs provide
13 farms with trainings that are essential to
14 recruit, retain, and train a high-quality
15 workforce.
16 And finally, we also appreciate the
17 Governor's support of PRO-DAIRY, including
18 Cornell's climate leadership specialist
19 position as well as the Executive's funding
20 of the Cornell University Ruminant Center.
21 This is a major step forward. Research done
22 at this center helps inform farm
23 decision-making and could further advance
24 agriculture's impact on reaching the state's
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1 climate goals.
2 We respectfully encourage that the
3 Legislature continue to increase support for
4 PRO-DAIRY to allow the program to add two
5 farm business specialists, a dairy nutrition
6 specialist, and an animal well-being
7 specialist.
8 Thank you for taking the time to
9 consider our remarks, and happy to provide
10 more information.
11 MR. STEPHANI: Thank you. Good
12 afternoon, and thank you for allowing me to
13 speak on some budget priorities for the
14 North Country communities.
15 My name is Josh Stephani, and I
16 represent the Adirondack Food System Network,
17 a collaborative effort across North Country
18 communities to address the challenges, gaps,
19 and opportunities within our food system.
20 Since 2020, our network works to broaden
21 collaboration across the region and bring and
22 build capacity to organizations.
23 As you are aware, the most recent
24 USDA census highlights the disappearance of
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1 New York farms and an aging farmer
2 population. Hamilton County, one of the most
3 sparsely populated counties in our state, has
4 watched nearly all its farms disappear. This
5 means that access to fresh and healthy food
6 grown in the county for its communities
7 remains a significant burden for residents.
8 Moreover, New York must invest in
9 resources to address and prepare for a
10 changing farmer landscape, including
11 succession and transition plans for the next
12 generation.
13 Yet with recent flooding and drought,
14 AFSN sees it as a priority to assist our
15 farmers in preparation for extreme and
16 inconsistent weather. We ask that this
17 Legislature continue to prioritize our
18 North Country farming communities through
19 programs such as the Farmland Protection
20 Program, the Farm Worker Housing Program, as
21 mentioned by my colleagues, and the
22 Environmental Protection Fund. It is
23 critical we expand these programs to shore up
24 our vulnerable assets.
189
1 Healthy and local food is directly
2 linked to supporting our farmers. A few
3 weeks ago a farmer in Herkimer County
4 remarked that more value is placed on a bag
5 of potato chips than a potato. Herkimer
6 County remains one of the most food-insecure
7 counties for New York adults. Emergency
8 feeding programs like food pantries and
9 backpack programs are struggling to meet a
10 growing demand.
11 AFSN joins the call to raise both
12 budgets of Nourish New York and HPNAP to
13 $75 million each and broaden the ability of
14 local and direct contracts with these food
15 pantries to ensure the food economy in our
16 communities matches with our local farms.
17 These programs place agriculture grown in our
18 region back into our communities, supporting
19 families and farmers in the process.
20 AFSN is excited to see a commitment to
21 provide healthy and universal meals to our
22 children in the Executive Budget, and we
23 support continuing our Farm-to-School grants
24 and 30 percent Farm-to-School reimbursement
190
1 programs. These programs provide critical
2 links between healthy food, our children, and
3 our farms.
4 Additionally, these programs directly
5 incentivize and offset the cost of purchasing
6 local food for our regional children.
7 We applaud recent efforts by the
8 administration and Legislature to support,
9 grow and sustain our farms, emergency
10 feedings, local and regional food economies.
11 The Adirondacks is often seen as the last
12 mile of service, a place to visit but not to
13 live. But despite this, our communities are
14 resilient and vibrant, and many people call
15 these places home.
16 Thank you for your time, and I look
17 forward to furthering these conversations.
18 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you very
19 much.
20 And our first questioner is
21 Agriculture Chair Michelle Hinchey -- oh,
22 sorry, everyone gets three minutes. There's
23 no special favors for the chairs or rankers
24 anymore.
191
1 (Laughter.)
2 SENATOR HINCHEY: All right. Thank
3 you so much, and thank you all for being here
4 and for your work.
5 Josh, I appreciate the comments on
6 Nourish. And I think it's important for
7 everyone to hear, you know, even if you live
8 in an agricultural community, that doesn't
9 mean that everyone who lives there then has
10 access to the food that is grown just down
11 the street.
12 And so things like the Nourish NY
13 program, HPNAP, Double Up Food Bucks and the
14 Farm-to-School program are really important
15 to make sure we continue to fund -- like,
16 adding breakfast to the Farm-to-School
17 program would be a great place to start.
18 But I do have a couple of questions.
19 First for NEDPA, you probably heard me talk
20 earlier about the tax credit that we were
21 hopeful would get done. We were told it had
22 to be in the budget. We too were surprised
23 to not see it in the Executive's budget.
24 How have the conversations been with
192
1 Ag and Markets? And does it seem like on
2 your end that you're close to coming up with
3 a solution like we just heard from the last
4 panel?
5 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: Yeah, we've had --
6 we have a great working relationship with Ag
7 and Markets and really appreciate their
8 team's efforts. We've presented something
9 that we think could work, and from our
10 understanding of the issues of what was
11 presented last year, we think it could solve
12 those problems.
13 We haven't received much feedback on
14 that so far. But we're, you know, ready and
15 willing to continue those conversations.
16 SENATOR HINCHEY: Great. Well, and
17 hopefully this will spark responses to that
18 feedback so we can hopefully have an answer
19 for that soon in our budget all going
20 forward.
21 Also agree with everyone's comments on
22 the Farmworker Housing and the Retention Tax
23 Credit. Those are really important programs
24 and ones we could fund more.
193
1 Kyle, you mentioned -- I'm taking a
2 book from Senator Krueger here, or a page
3 from Senator Krueger here -- but you
4 mentioned in your comments about wine in
5 grocery stores. I'm not taking a position on
6 that plan, but I'm curious how it would help
7 New York farmers and the New York wine
8 industry.
9 MR. WALLACH: Sure. A lot of our
10 local New York wineries have trouble getting
11 their products into liquor stores, and this
12 would give them another avenue and another
13 opportunity and a place with good foot
14 traffic and good availability for them to
15 sell their products.
16 SENATOR HINCHEY: Do you think there
17 should be specific language around promoting
18 New York products specifically?
19 MR. WALLACH: We would absolutely
20 support that.
21 SENATOR HINCHEY: All right. Thank
22 you so much.
23 And then I would just like to kind of
24 open the question in my last few seconds on
194
1 what concerns anyone -- probably NEDPA and
2 Farm Bureau, but any -- NOFA as well --
3 anybody on farmworkers and farmers, the
4 concerns they're hearing from changes at the
5 federal level as it pertains to farmworkers.
6 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: Yeah, this is a
7 really challenging question and something
8 that our farms are facing. And I think,
9 quite frankly, workers are scared. They
10 don't know what's to come, and they don't
11 know if their job and their world is secure.
12 So trying to get through
13 misinformation and help them with facts and
14 what they need to know for their rights is
15 what we're focusing on.
16 SENATOR HINCHEY: Thank you very much.
17 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
18 Assembly.
19 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblywoman Donna
20 Lupardo, chair of Agriculture.
21 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Yes, thank
22 you.
23 Senator Hinchey covered most of what I
24 was about to take up, so thank you for
195
1 highlighting, again, the housing revolving
2 loan and giving us an actual dollar figure to
3 handle the oversubscription. You sort of ran
4 out of time. I'd like to give you an
5 opportunity to finish discussing some
6 additional adds from -- from NEDPA. NEDPA,
7 yes.
8 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: Regarding --
9 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Right, toward
10 the end you were sort of -- ran --
11 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: Toward the end I
12 was talking about PRO-DAIRY's budget. They
13 have several new positions they would like to
14 fill -- farm business specialist, dairy
15 nutrition specialist, and animal well-being
16 specialists, as well as some education --
17 outreach and extension funding that they
18 could have bolstered to make sure their
19 program is fully functioning and fully
20 capable of seeing the benefits -- of farmers
21 seeing the benefits of their work.
22 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: A PRO-DAIRY
23 focus.
24 And Katie, I know you had a $200,000
196
1 appropriation last year; you're looking for
2 250 this year. You outlined some of the
3 things you wanted to do with that. It's not
4 really going to take care of the federal
5 pause, which is likely a cut which is
6 impacting you on the Climate-Smart
7 Commodities Program, a subsection of that
8 having to do with marketing.
9 Can you just explain in this last
10 minute how you utilize those funds?
11 MS. BAILDON: Sure. So we're part of
12 the regional project that's run by PASA in
13 Pennsylvania, and it's called the Climate
14 Smart Farming and Marketing Program. And
15 essentially it's providing technical
16 assistance to farms that want to adopt NRCS
17 climate-smart practices and offers them
18 up-front funding to make some of those
19 changes.
20 So we have a couple of staff right now
21 that are helping with that project, and it's
22 on pause, so we really don't know what's
23 coming next.
24 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: The additional
197
1 funding that you're asking for in this year's
2 budget, is it connected to that or is it more
3 about your infrastructure?
4 MS. BAILDON: A little bit of both.
5 So technical assistance on-farm is
6 something we've always offered. We've been
7 building up our virtual technical assistance
8 offerings, and we would like to still have
9 capacity there for helping farms with
10 climate-smart practices.
11 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Gotcha. Okay,
12 thanks.
13 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Senator Borrello.
14 SENATOR BORRELLO: Thank you,
15 Madam Chair.
16 Thank you all for being here.
17 Appreciate what you do for agriculture here
18 in New York State.
19 I guess I'll start off with Allyson.
20 I think in last year's budget there was
21 $24 million to help with farm milk, fluid
22 milk processing. It was supposed to
23 essentially improve a number of things
24 including, you know, stabilizing that supply.
198
1 I know these things don't happen
2 overnight, but can you just kind of give us
3 an update as to where this is and if it's
4 been helping your members?
5 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: So that -- the
6 request for proposals is open right now, and
7 I believe those are due mid-February. So
8 farms are undergoing the process of getting
9 their applications submitted.
10 So we don't know, really, what that
11 will look like, if that will be
12 oversubscribed, which is very likely, because
13 the projects are often very expensive to
14 undergo. We don't know what kind of interest
15 is fully out there, but I know a lot of our
16 members were really excited about the program
17 and looking forward to submitting
18 applications.
19 SENATOR BORRELLO: You know, we always
20 hear, you know, small dairy farms versus the
21 big farms. And, you know, I guess my concern
22 is that 24 million is going to be gobbled up
23 by the big farms.
24 Is there any guardrails that were put
199
1 in place so that it would ensure that there
2 are small dairy farms that have access to
3 that as well?
4 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: I can't really
5 speak to that. I'm not sure.
6 SENATOR BORRELLO: Okay. So as of
7 right now, your members are in the process of
8 putting those RFPs in.
9 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: Yes.
10 SENATOR BORRELLO: Okay. Well, so
11 hopefully that improves and those -- so would
12 you say -- obviously you're afraid of it
13 being oversubscribed. So in this year's
14 budget, then, you think perhaps another round
15 would be helpful for additional funding?
16 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: Yeah, definitely.
17 I believe there was 10 million put in this
18 year to fill out the program. But if
19 24 million in the first year isn't enough,
20 then --
21 SENATOR BORRELLO: Yeah. So we step
22 it down pretty considerably for that second
23 one, but it's still -- there's still money in
24 the program for the second year. Thank you.
200
1 And I would just -- to address a
2 little bit of the wine in grocery stores, you
3 know, it's a controversial topic. And, you
4 know, I've been in the beverage/alcohol
5 business for 30-plus years, and I can tell
6 you that while I appreciate that I have a lot
7 of wineries and grape growers in my district,
8 when you go to grocery stores in other
9 states, you don't see local wines. You see
10 the big conglomerates. You see the Barefoot
11 and all these others.
12 So my question is, would you favor a
13 restriction for only New York-based wines to
14 be sold in grocery stores in New York State?
15 MR. WALLACH: I mean, being New York
16 Farm Bureau, yeah --
17 (Laughter.)
18 MR. WALLACH: -- we're always going to
19 support our local New York wines.
20 SENATOR BORRELLO: That's a softball
21 question, but I think it speaks to the point
22 that there's -- you know, I think there's
23 very little chance, quite honestly, that
24 you're going to see, you know, the local
201
1 wines, which typically are a little more
2 expensive. You're going to see those, you
3 know, Two-Buck Chuck things dominating the
4 shelves in New York grocery stores if we
5 don't put in some kind of guardrails to
6 ensure that our wineries and our farmers get
7 that.
8 So thank you.
9 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
10 Assembly.
11 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblywoman
12 Carrie Woerner.
13 ASSEMBLYWOMAN WOERNER: Thank you.
14 Kyle, you mentioned that one of the
15 Farm Bureau's priorities is the low-carbon
16 fuel standard bill. Could you reflect on how
17 that particular bill would be -- would
18 benefit New York farmers?
19 MR. WALLACH: Sure. So the low-carbon
20 fuel standard we think would be a great way
21 to help reach our climate goals while also
22 being -- giving the opportunity for biofuel
23 markets and other ways that agriculture can
24 be part of this solution.
202
1 ASSEMBLYWOMAN WOERNER: In specific,
2 are you talking about hard-to-electrify
3 vehicles like farm equipment being able to
4 use low-carbon fuels to reduce their carbon
5 footprint? Or are you talking about farms
6 being able to generate electricity by
7 converting manure into first a gas and then
8 into electricity?
9 MR. WALLACH: I think there is
10 opportunity for both, but specifically
11 converting manure into electricity would be
12 something that our membership would be
13 interested in, and I think there is a lot of
14 room there to grow that industry.
15 ASSEMBLYWOMAN WOERNER: Thank you
16 very much. For the -- and I'm so sorry, I
17 forgot your name -- Northeast Dairy
18 Producers, you talked about the need for --
19 and actually Kyle did as well -- for
20 increasing the project cap from 200,000 to
21 400,000 for farmworkers' housing.
22 Do you have some sense of what is the
23 backlog of projects that are not getting done
24 because the fund has been depleted as well as
203
1 the cap is too low?
2 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: I don't have exact
3 numbers on that, but I know just from talking
4 to our membership there are many farms that
5 are interested in doing projects that would
6 fit in this revolving loan fund. And if
7 they're not able to get traditional financing
8 for it or if it's not the highest priority on
9 their farm's project list, then it doesn't
10 get done. It gets pushed off.
11 So I think there would be a great
12 need, a great interest if this were expanded
13 to have more farms involved.
14 I do know that some of the farms that
15 have done projects that is new housing for
16 many -- for, you know, 20 or so staff
17 members, they're looking at a million or
18 slightly over a million dollars to build that
19 housing. And so that's kind of looking at
20 that $200,000 cap -- the construction costs
21 have gone up so much, and farms are looking
22 to build larger housing units now.
23 ASSEMBLYWOMAN WOERNER: Right. And
24 access to traditional financing is limited.
204
1 It was sort of implied in your answer. Is
2 that correct?
3 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: Yeah, I think they
4 just have to make decisions based on what
5 their priorities are, and that fits within
6 their traditional financing options.
7 ASSEMBLYWOMAN WOERNER: Great. Thank
8 you very much.
9 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
10 Any more Senators? Then I'm turning
11 it back to the Assembly.
12 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Okay.
13 Assemblymember Chris Tague, the ranker on
14 Agriculture.
15 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: Thank you,
16 Mr. Chairman and Ms. Chairman.
17 I wanted to start off right from the
18 beginning with Allyson. If you could tell
19 me, do you think that there would be an
20 economic difference in agriculture if we
21 legalized whole and 2 percent milk back in
22 our schools?
23 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: Yeah, our members
24 would definitely be in favor of that. And
205
1 really the science supports it in giving the
2 students choice to wholesome and nutritious
3 products.
4 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: Well, I really
5 appreciate hearing that, because I've had a
6 bill for the last four years that just can't
7 seem to get out of committee for some reason.
8 But boy, everybody's in favor of it.
9 Hopefully this session we'll get it passed.
10 But thank you very much.
11 Secondly, what I thought I would do is
12 individually ask each one of you -- because
13 we don't have much time -- but ask each one
14 of you what is the biggest thing needed in
15 this budget, and how much is needed to, you
16 know, to make that work for you folks, I
17 think is my question.
18 Although the budget's at $252 billion,
19 I was a little saddened to see that the
20 ag budget is knocked down by 7 million. We
21 seem to have money to spend in other areas,
22 but agriculture is 7 million less than it was
23 last year.
24 So I would like to hear from you folks
206
1 what we need to make your operation
2 successful, and how much money do you need to
3 do it.
4 MS. BAILDON: Thanks for the question.
5 So in terms of NOFA's number-one priority for
6 the state budget this year, it is for our
7 line item for $250,000 that would really help
8 us to continue the work that the state's been
9 investing in over the past several years,
10 increasing access to our services and our
11 technical assistance capacity.
12 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: Thank you.
13 MR. WALLACH: I think adding housing
14 as an allowable expense to the refundable
15 investment tax credit would be huge for us,
16 as well as making sure that we don't let the
17 Workforce Retention Tax Credit sunset.
18 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: I would agree that
19 labor workforce retention and recruitment is
20 the greatest need that our farms have, so
21 increasing that revolving loan fund for
22 housing would be a great addition, along with
23 what Kyle had mentioned.
24 MR. STEPHANI: And I'll echo the same
207
1 thing with worker retention as well as those
2 transition plans for farmers, as a lot of our
3 farmers are not only struggling with labor
4 and finding adequate labor for their farms,
5 but also being able to prepare for future
6 generations.
7 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: Would all of you
8 agree with me that without any farms we don't
9 have any food?
10 (Laughter.)
11 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: Thank you. Thank
12 you very much.
13 (Laughter.)
14 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblywoman Anna
15 Kelles.
16 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Thank you so
17 much.
18 One initial question. Your
19 experience, like from across the board, is
20 that the Farmland Protection and Agricultural
21 and On-Point programs and the Soil and Water
22 Conservation programs are all overprescribed
23 and underfunded? Would you say that pretty
24 consistently across the board?
208
1 Do you have a sense of how much money
2 would be needed to fully fund these to meet
3 the existing demand?
4 MR. WALLACH: I think -- I think we
5 would have to go back to the individual
6 districts and hear from them what, you know,
7 each district needs.
8 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Are we getting
9 close? Or are we like nowhere near what
10 actually we need? Because these can be used
11 for capital improvements to address climate
12 change issues.
13 MR. WALLACH: Yeah, I'm not sure how
14 overprescribed they are. I know they are,
15 but I'm not sure by how much.
16 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Okay.
17 MS. BAILDON: I have some numbers on
18 that --
19 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Yeah.
20 MS. BAILDON: -- that I can follow up
21 with. I don't want to say them right now,
22 just because I don't want to get it wrong,
23 but I can follow up with you --
24 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Okay.
209
1 MS. BAILDON: -- on the Climate
2 Resilient Farming Program in particular.
3 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Okay. That
4 would be great.
5 And a question about manure on farms.
6 What percentage do you think -- estimate --
7 of farms in New York have biodigesters?
8 MR. WALLACH: We can get numbers.
9 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: And what
10 percentage of a farm's operating budget do
11 you think are the fertilizer? Is it a tiny
12 small fraction, or is it a pretty big cost?
13 The cost of fertilizer.
14 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: The cost of
15 fertilizer, I think that varies by type of
16 farm. So those with animal agriculture are
17 able to recycle nutrients and bring that cost
18 down, but it still is a substantial cost to
19 make sure they're putting the right nutrients
20 on the right crops.
21 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: So it's the
22 recycling of the manure that's really helping
23 the cost come down, that particular cost.
24 I ask only in particular because if
210
1 the manure is being used for other purposes
2 rather than being used in biodigesters,
3 creating biosolids that are really stable
4 molecular structures that then could be
5 tilled into the ground to bind with nitrogen
6 and phosphorous to retain those nutrients in
7 the soil and reduce runoff -- those things,
8 you know, significantly reduce the cost of
9 fertilizer.
10 They also, right, improve the
11 stability and nutrient value of the soil.
12 That would add, maybe -- give them funding in
13 one direction but cost them money in other
14 directions, right? Potentially.
15 MR. WALLACH: I -- I don't want to say
16 just because I'm not a hundred percent sure
17 of the --
18 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: But then the
19 manure would be diverted, and that would be
20 true since it is used as a nutrient source
21 right now.
22 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: Typically there
23 still is material that can be used as
24 fertilizer in those processes even if it's
211
1 used for another use first and then --
2 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: I say that
3 about fertilizers because they are both
4 petroleum based and very expensive. So
5 having manure as a resource for nutrient
6 loading is a great use of it on-site on
7 farms. Thanks.
8 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
9 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblywoman Jodi
10 Giglio.
11 ASSEMBLYWOMAN GIGLIO: Yes. Thank
12 you.
13 I'd like to go back to the ag worker
14 housing, because I know that there were a lot
15 of grants that a lot of farmers utilized last
16 year but they were unable -- they had to
17 return the money, essentially, because the
18 process in order to get permits for the
19 upgraded sanitary systems and for
20 enhancements to the buildings and creation of
21 workforce housing, was just -- the time was
22 too long and they couldn't meet the
23 deadlines.
24 So I want to hear from you as to
212
1 whether or not there is still tremendous need
2 for ag worker housing and enhancements to ag
3 worker housing that should be in the budget
4 and is not currently in the budget.
5 MR. WALLACH: There is absolutely a
6 need for new farmworker housing as well as
7 updating farmworker housing that's existing.
8 ASSEMBLYWOMAN GIGLIO: Okay. And did
9 you hear some of the same things when it came
10 to the funding and whether or not any of the
11 money that was returned is being
12 reappropriated for grants for enhancements
13 and upgrades?
14 MR. WALLACH: I didn't hear
15 specifically about funding that had to be
16 returned. But as far as the need for it, we
17 have heard a lot of. And as far as being
18 able to fund that, it's a huge expense for
19 any farm to take on. So having funding
20 opportunities is important.
21 ASSEMBLYWOMAN GIGLIO: Yeah, and I
22 think so, too. I think so that with the
23 housing opportunities, that it also works
24 towards the worker retention and knowing that
213
1 they have a pillow to put their head on at
2 night.
3 So if you could just chime in on that
4 a little bit, that would be great.
5 MR. WALLACH: Absolutely. Farmers
6 want their employees to have a comfortable,
7 safe place to live. They make their best
8 efforts to do so, and, you know, we need to
9 help them how we can.
10 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: And I think
11 there's a lot of choices for places to work.
12 People could go work in a lot of different
13 lines, and agriculture isn't always the most
14 attractive, but we do -- our farmers do what
15 they can to provide high-quality training,
16 high-quality -- good salary, good benefits.
17 And one of those benefits is having
18 housing near the farm and it being
19 up-to-date, clean, and, like Kyle said, just
20 a nice place that they have to go home. It
21 really helps in worker retention.
22 ASSEMBLYWOMAN GIGLIO: Thank you.
23 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: All right, we've
24 completed the questioning. Just
214
1 double-checking.
2 I want to thank you all very much for
3 your participation today, and you may have
4 followup questions from us later. Thank you
5 very much.
6 MR. WALLACH: Thank you.
7 MS. JONES-BRIMMER: Thank you.
8 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: And our next
9 panel -- if the American Society for the
10 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is here,
11 please come down. We don't think you checked
12 in. Humane Society of the United States, and
13 New York State Animal Protection Federation.
14 Oh, good, so all three of you are
15 here. Great, okay. Good.
16 Okay. So we're going to start from my
17 left with Libby -- oh, you want me to
18 start -- is that Bill? Okay, we're going to
19 start from my right, your left: Bill Ketzer
20 first.
21 MR. KETZER: Good afternoon,
22 everybody, and thank you very much for your
23 time.
24 I'm Bill Ketzer. I'm the senior
215
1 legislative director for the American Society
2 for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
3 And as you've mentioned, you have my
4 written testimony, so I will keep my comments
5 brief and related to the Companion Animal
6 Protection Fund that's in the
7 Executive Budget proposal.
8 I began my career in government about
9 25 years ago -- right here in this
10 building -- as a policy analyst, and soon
11 after I was doing agriculture policy. Which,
12 you know, most of you know, I think, includes
13 animal welfare policy.
14 In that era, New York was definitely
15 behind the curve when compared to other
16 states in the northeast when it came to
17 animal sheltering. We were definitely seeing
18 improvements at that time -- better access in
19 funding for spay and neuter programs for
20 example, more effective working relationships
21 between shelters and rescue organizations.
22 But ultimately, at the end of the day,
23 the goal was to be able to get them to
24 drastically reduce euthanasia and increase
216
1 liabilities rates. That was the name of the
2 game at the time.
3 But there was very minimal oversight
4 of animal shelters, and absolutely no
5 oversight of animal rescue organizations. In
6 fact, no one could even tell you how many
7 there were or what they did or where they got
8 their animals from. We just had no -- simply
9 no idea as policy people.
10 You changed that in 2017 by passing a
11 law to create a registry for these entities
12 so that we could know. And this was the same
13 year that you established the first Companion
14 Animal Capital Fund, the first of its kind in
15 the nation -- and still is, to my
16 knowledge -- and currently it provides $33
17 million to support capital projects for more
18 than 70 animal shelters thus far.
19 And that in turn helped generate
20 support for another thing New York didn't
21 have, which was uniform peer-reviewed
22 facility standards in law for the
23 400 not-for-profit organizations and
24 municipal entities providing sheltering
217
1 services in every region of the state every
2 single day.
3 You passed this law in 2022, and it
4 goes into effect in December of this year.
5 That's why we are asking you not only to
6 support Governor Hochul's $5 million
7 Executive Budget proposal for that fund, but
8 we ask that you renew your commitment with a
9 legacy allocation of $5 million, in addition
10 to the Governor's 5 million, bringing the
11 fund to a total of $10 million. The
12 outstanding capital need is still well over
13 $77 million as we look towards the standards
14 being implemented at the end of the year.
15 And finally, I just want to say thank
16 you for all of that good work. That can't be
17 understated. It's like night and day from
18 the time I was sitting behind you as a
19 staffer, so thank you very much.
20 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: (Inaudible.)
21 MR. SHAPIRO: Thank you so much. My
22 name's Brian Shapiro. I'm the New York
23 director for the Humane Society of the
24 United States.
218
1 I would like to thank everyone here
2 for all of the work over the past few years
3 really putting shelter issues and animal
4 protection at the forefront.
5 I'm the New York state director, but
6 when I go to our national conferences,
7 everyone is absolutely wowed and floored at
8 what we've been able to accomplish. And many
9 of you who are in leadership positions here
10 have helped us get those bills and those
11 budget measures over the finish line.
12 I'm here with my wonderful colleagues
13 to ask for support for the Companion Animal
14 Capital Fund, which is a very popular program
15 which helps to boost and bolster our animal
16 shelters with capital improvement programs
17 for matching grants.
18 In my years of lobbying I have seen
19 photographs and heard many stories of the
20 wonderful animals that many of you have
21 adopted from shelters, but shelters provide
22 so much more than just adoptions. You have
23 surrenders. You have pet retention programs,
24 food pantries for the duly incorporated
219
1 humane societies and SPCAs, you have Humane
2 Law enforcement, low-cost spay and neuter,
3 and the list goes on.
4 These are essential services. And
5 unless we have the infrastructure where our
6 shelters can operate effectively, we would
7 not have these programs. Again, these are
8 essential services that are very important to
9 members of the community.
10 I recall when I was the shelter
11 director in Ulster County for many years,
12 just fretting over where's the money going to
13 come from for new kennel doors, to replace
14 pipes that have been decades old. So we are
15 asking for $5 million combined from the
16 Legislature to match what the Governor has
17 kindly put in, for a total of $10 million.
18 Additionally, I want to express
19 support for an Animal Crimes Fund. There
20 currently is a process that impounding
21 agencies, Humane Law, can take advantage of
22 to get reimbursed for the cost of holding
23 onto live evidence.
24 But I will say this, there are no
220
1 other examples where a not-for-profit -- it's
2 the not-for-profit's responsibility to hold
3 onto evidence in criminal court cases, and
4 often not get reimbursed for that. It's
5 crazy, quite frankly.
6 So we are asking for support for an
7 Animal Crimes Fund. The bonding process
8 works, but it doesn't always work. I've seen
9 cases where we have judges in rural parts of
10 the state, and they have no idea about this.
11 And sometimes the shelters are very lucky if
12 they can get a DA to assist with that.
13 I see time is running out. I just
14 want to also give a tip of the hat to
15 Chair Pretlow for his work on the
16 horse issues, with horse slaughter, and the
17 issue you mentioned. We are following it and
18 interested in talking with you more about
19 that.
20 Thank you so much for your time.
21 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
22 Libby Post, New York State Animal
23 Protection Federation.
24 MS. POST: Good afternoon.
221
1 I just wanted to say, first, todah
2 rabah to Senator Krueger for mentioning that
3 it's Holocaust Memorial Day.
4 And also a very hearty mazel tov to
5 Assemblymember Pretlow for becoming the new
6 chair of the Ways and Means Committee. So
7 it's a really -- you know, it's a great
8 thing.
9 So, yes, we also want to see
10 $5 million from the Legislature for the
11 Companion Animal Capital Fund. We've all
12 seen the good this money has done across the
13 state. We're going to have at least
14 50 applicants for the RFP that is due at the
15 end of this month.
16 Now, when you look at the budget
17 you're going to see reapprops after reapprops
18 after reapprops, and I'm asking you not to
19 hold that against giving us more money,
20 because -- we can all laugh about this -- as
21 we know, and as the Comptroller's office put
22 out in a recent report, the contracts are not
23 being let quickly. The RFP from January of
24 2024, those contracts will hopefully be
222
1 executed by the Comptroller's office this
2 week, okay?
3 So that money is going to be spent,
4 and we need it to -- I just don't want it to
5 be held against us that that money isn't
6 being spent out even though the awards have
7 been made.
8 The other thing is is that -- and the
9 commissioner mentioned this, SFS, the State
10 Financial System, it has been a virtual
11 nightmare for my members. And they had to
12 expand the deadline for the RFP that's due at
13 the end of the month almost 25 days because
14 of the problems everyone was having with SFS.
15 And so if there's anything you guys can do
16 about that, that would be great.
17 In terms of the Animal Crimes Fund, we
18 asked about this -- we mentioned this last
19 year. You all remember the Times Union story
20 of the horrific rescue, there were 100
21 animals in a house. It cost Mohawk Hudson
22 $300,000 to care for those animals in just
23 the first month alone.
24 And we have this rolling Animal Crime
223
1 Survey that we do. Of the 28 cases that have
2 been reported, the cost of care was over
3 $604,000. The shelters only recouped
4 109,000, which is 18 percent of the total
5 cost.
6 And so we are asking the Legislature
7 for a $2.5 million Animal Crimes Fund that
8 would help defray these costs as a -- it
9 wouldn't be a grant, but it would be a
10 reimbursement program.
11 And it really is very, very important,
12 because it is costing the shelters more and
13 more money. And with the Companion Animal
14 Care Standards Act coming into effect at the
15 end of this year, we're going to see even
16 more of a need. So, please.
17 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Perfect timing.
18 Thank you.
19 Questions from the Senate? Everyone
20 was very articulate.
21 Questions from the Assembly? Oh, I'm
22 sorry, and you have another Assemblywoman
23 down there.
24 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Okay.
224
1 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
2 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Donna?
3 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Yes.
4 Thank you for being here. Understand
5 what you're saying about increasing the
6 funding. Let me -- why have the funds not
7 been spent out? You kind of breezed through
8 that.
9 MS. POST: That's a really good
10 question. The money has been awarded, okay,
11 year after year. Some of the money has been
12 totally expended out. But like as an
13 example, the money that was awarded in
14 January of 2024, awarded -- you know, oh,
15 you're going to get this grant -- the grants
16 are just being executed hopefully this week.
17 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Oh, I see.
18 Bureaucratic doings.
19 MS. POST: It's -- right.
20 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Gotcha.
21 MS. POST: It's not the shelters'
22 faults. It's the process.
23 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: And then you
24 mentioned about the need for the Animal
225
1 Crimes Fund. You talked about one case, and
2 you said that they had eventually recouped
3 some funding. Who did they recoup it from?
4 MS. POST: So there's a -- the
5 mechanism is a security bond posting
6 mechanism that Brian talked about where you
7 can go and ask the judge in the case to tell
8 the perpetrator of the animal crime to either
9 give up their animals or they have to pay.
10 That doesn't always work. The lawyers
11 have been very good at going around the
12 process and not getting the money to the
13 shelters, that they're not being paid for it.
14 And many times there is no restitution.
15 Many times there's just -- there's no
16 security bond posting, DAs don't want to do
17 it on behalf of the shelters even though
18 they're holding the animals for criminal
19 cases. But still they're saying, Oh, you've
20 got to find your own lawyer. So here, the
21 shelter's got to pay for the care plus that,
22 right? So they're just not doing it.
23 And it would be much better if there
24 was a dedicated fund to help reimburse the
226
1 shelters for these costs, because they're
2 astronomical and they're just going up.
3 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Gotcha. Thank
4 you.
5 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblywoman Anna
6 Kelles.
7 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Thank you so
8 much.
9 Two questions, one multipart. But
10 about the Companion Animal Capital Fund, what
11 would make that easier to get that money out
12 the door? Is there anything that we can do
13 to make that easier to get out the door?
14 MS. POST: I don't pretend to be an
15 expert in how the state financial system
16 works in total.
17 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: The things that
18 people are finding to be barriers.
19 MS. POST: It's really about making
20 sure that the various entities that have to
21 approve this do it in a timely manner, and
22 that there's staffing in all the various
23 offices that need to do it.
24 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Gotcha. And
227
1 about --
2 MS. POST: Without throwing anyone
3 under the bus.
4 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Absolutely.
5 About the second fund, the Crime --
6 Animal Crime Fund, I think that --
7 MS. POST: Yeah.
8 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: I'm not sure
9 I'm getting the name right.
10 Do we know what the total cost is? Do
11 you have any estimate? I saw in your
12 presentation there was a total of I think
13 883,000 just from last year were the amounts
14 of money that it cost. You're asking for
15 2.5, but then I saw all of these amounts
16 throughout that were like 1.7 million, you
17 know, 1.5 million.
18 It seems like 2.5 million won't even
19 cover remotely the cost of taking care of --
20 and all the criminal -- trying to recoup the
21 costs that they're putting into it. So I'm
22 trying to rectify all of that.
23 MS. POST: Well, I think that the
24 2.5 million is a place to start. As I said,
228
1 our rolling Animal Crimes Fund -- and I don't
2 get all the information from everybody. I'm
3 not getting a lot of information from
4 municipal shelters about their costs of
5 holding live evidence. But right now, from
6 2021, it's over $600,000. I know it's much
7 more than that, because we're not getting all
8 the information.
9 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Has it put any
10 of these shelters out of business?
11 MS. POST: Has it put them out of
12 business? No, it's made them have to go and
13 fundraise to cover these costs.
14 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: And have there
15 been cases where animals have not been --
16 have been turned away, there wasn't any
17 entity to take care of them and they've been
18 euthanized instead?
19 MS. POST: There have been cases where
20 shelters are no longer entertaining municipal
21 contracts and are no longer working with
22 local law enforcement because it's too
23 expensive and they're not getting any money
24 back.
229
1 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: And so local
2 law enforcement will still then have these
3 cases, but then where do those animals go?
4 MS. POST: I don't -- I can't tell you
5 that.
6 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: So no one
7 knows.
8 MS. POST: Yeah.
9 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: So they may be
10 more traumatized --
11 MS. POST: Mm-hmm.
12 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: -- and in a
13 worse situation, even though they've been
14 taken away. And if they're in a really bad
15 traumatized situation, they need tremendous
16 veterinary care, as Anir {ph} mentioned,
17 correct?
18 MS. POST: There's another bill that's
19 going to come up that's not fiscal, called
20 the Civil Remedies bill. So that we can get
21 hoarders, the mentally ill, seniors who get
22 over their heads, out of the criminal justice
23 system and into the civil part of
24 Supreme Court, where a judge will just say
230
1 you can't -- after a process, you have to
2 relinquish your animals, they go to the
3 shelters, the shelters can turn them right
4 around, vet them, care for them, and get them
5 out the door through adoptions, instead of
6 having to hold them as live evidence.
7 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Thank you.
8 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: We have to cut
9 this conversation off, sorry. There's one
10 more Assemblymember.
11 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblyman Chris
12 Tague.
13 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: Thank you. Thank
14 you.
15 First of all, Bill, Brian and Libby,
16 thank you for the work that you folks do.
17 Near and dear to my heart. I have worked
18 with Libby on a lot of cases. And that's
19 kind of what I wanted to ask Libby. I don't
20 know if -- I just want to make sure that my
21 colleagues here understand what you folks go
22 through and what you do in our communities
23 all across New York State protecting animals
24 and animal rights.
231
1 So I thought maybe in the two minutes
2 and 35 seconds that I have on the record, if
3 you could explain to my colleagues exactly
4 some of the situations that you and your
5 folks have come into and the reason why this
6 is so important.
7 MS. POST: Sure. In 2021,
8 Hudson Valley Humane Society, there was
9 24 huskies and husky-mix adult dogs that were
10 removed from a small home. They cared for
11 them for 18 months at a cost of over
12 $334,000.
13 There have been hoarding situations.
14 Erie County SPCA, 39 small dogs were found
15 matted and in need of extensive medical and
16 dental care. It was in their care for seven
17 and a half months, $27,000.
18 Lollypop Farms, 65 cats, in 2024, from
19 an unsanitary cat rescue. I don't know if
20 they were registered or not. They were there
21 for 70 days, cost Lollypop almost $69,000.
22 They got $3100 back in restitution.
23 These are the kinds of cases that we
24 see over and over and over again. And the
232
1 shelters have to raise the money
2 philanthropically. And, you know, it's great
3 that there are so many people who love what
4 the shelters are doing and recognize their
5 importance and will give money. But still,
6 it's not easy to raise that money when it's
7 not -- when it really should be coming from
8 government to help offset those costs.
9 So there's lots of different -- and
10 honestly, I need to give you guys -- and I
11 don't know how to do this -- updated
12 testimony, because I have new information.
13 So I'd like to -- I'll just get it to
14 everybody on each of the committees. Because
15 I have new -- I got more updated information
16 since I submitted the testimony on Friday.
17 And I also would like to just take the
18 chance to thank Senator Hinchey,
19 Assemblymember Lupardo, Chris Tague,
20 Assemblymember Tague, you know, for all the
21 work that they've done and how supportive
22 they've been for the Companion Animal Capital
23 Fund and for the shelters in the State of
24 New York. It really -- it has made a
233
1 difference.
2 And the fact that the three of us work
3 together so well is why we have gotten so
4 much done for companion animals in New York.
5 And, you know, people think, Oh, New York,
6 you guys don't get along. Well, we do. And
7 it's made a big, big difference.
8 (Inaudible comment from dais.)
9 MS. POST: Yeah, well, you know how it
10 is. Talk to my neighbor from Missouri.
11 (Laughter.)
12 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: (Inaudible.) You
13 can adjust your testimony by submitting it to
14 the same email site --
15 MS. POST: Same thing? Okay.
16 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: -- that you
17 submitted your testimony to.
18 MS. POST: Right. Thank you.
19 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
20 And then thank you, all three, for
21 joining us today.
22 And I'm going to call out the last
23 panel for this afternoon -- trust me, this
24 will be the only budget hearing that ends in
234
1 the afternoon: Parks & Trails New York,
2 American Farmland Trust, and Scenic Hudson.
3 Good afternoon. Which order -- do you
4 have a preference?
5 MR. COTÉ: As you like.
6 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Well, then, we'll
7 start with my left, your right. Hello.
8 MR. COTÉ: Good afternoon. Thank you
9 for the opportunity to speak with you all
10 today. I'm really excited it's this early.
11 My name is Will Coté. I'm senior
12 director of public lands at Parks & Trails
13 New York. PT&Y is New York's leading
14 advocate for our public lands, parks,
15 historic sites, greenways and open spaces.
16 In the 40 years since our founding, we
17 have strived to improve our health, economy
18 and quality of life through the use and
19 enjoyment of our iconic public lands.
20 And it's with this core mission in
21 mind that I'd like to encourage you all to
22 support the Governor's proposal of
23 $200 million in capital funding for
24 State Parks. As you heard the interim
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1 commissioner mention, we have record
2 visitation this year reaching 88 million,
3 which is the twelfth straight year of
4 increased visitation, and this capital
5 funding is essential to make our park system
6 accessible, welcoming, and as pleasant an
7 experience as possible, and also to chip away
8 at the $2 billion backlog that exists in the
9 parks system.
10 After the successful centennial
11 celebration last year, I think we should also
12 anticipate additional visitation in 2025.
13 And as Assemblymember Kim, Chair Kim
14 mentioned, continued investment delivers
15 profound benefits statewide because the park
16 system is an economic powerhouse, with every
17 1 million invested yielding 10 million in
18 sales, 4 million in labor income, and
19 7 million in state GDP. And to put it in
20 perspective, this is now on par with the
21 agricultural sector.
22 Turning to the Environmental
23 Protection Fund, I'm going to stand with many
24 of my colleagues over the next couple of
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1 nights calling for an increase in the
2 Environmental Protection Fund to
3 $500 million. The real estate transfer tax
4 is a reliable revenue stream, with over
5 $1 billion collected in 2024 alone. With
6 uncertainty surrounding federal leadership on
7 environmental protection, this is a pivotal
8 moment to demonstrate New York's
9 nation-leading commitment to environmental
10 stewardship and broader liveability here in
11 New York State, not to mention that it would
12 help rectify the gap between available
13 funding and the oversubscription to nearly
14 all EPF programs that benefit every corner of
15 the state.
16 Two examples to that point. I ask
17 that you increase the Park and Trail
18 Partnership Grant program within the EPF to
19 $4 million from its $2.5 million allocation
20 proposed by the Governor. Since 2015, this
21 program has awarded $10 million to
22 24 projects across the state, leveraging
23 nearly $5 million in private funding. How
24 much more impactful could this program be if
237
1 we didn't have to deny half the applications
2 we receive each year.
3 Another example is the Connect Kids to
4 Parks program, which since 2016 has enabled
5 800,000 children to come to the outdoors,
6 those opportunities to visit public lands and
7 engage in meaningful scientific, historic,
8 cultural programming.
9 Since the program has grown by
10 500 percent since 2021, expanding that
11 program to 5 million and allowing
12 250,000 more students the opportunity to
13 directly connect with nature and experience
14 our state's best science classroom seems like
15 a wise investment.
16 With 12 seconds left, I'm going to go
17 off-course a little bit here and say that I
18 strongly encourage you all to dedicate an
19 extra 10 million in DEC's capital funding in
20 this year's budget. It's important that we
21 expand accessibility to all of our public
22 lands. Users don't differentiate between
23 parks or DEC properties. They just want
24 outdoor recreation.
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1 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Next?
2 MS. FRACCAROLLI: Hi. Good afternoon.
3 My name is Carli Fraccarolli. I want to
4 thank Chairs Pretlow and Krueger,
5 Chairs Hinchey and Lupardo, Chairs Serrano
6 and Kim -- who I do not see but still
7 appreciate -- ranking members of both
8 committees, and members of the Joint
9 Legislative Budget Committee for the
10 opportunity to testify today.
11 This is my first time testifying in my
12 five years at Scenic Hudson, so I'm really
13 excited about this opportunity.
14 I'm the government relations manager
15 for Scenic Hudson. And if you're not
16 familiar with our organization, Scenic Hudson
17 is a land trust and environmental advocacy
18 organization. We're the largest
19 environmental organization in the
20 Hudson Valley.
21 We've created over 45 parks and, since
22 1992, we've protected almost 23,000 acres of
23 farmland on 150 family farms. And we work
24 really closely with farmers and partners like
239
1 Cornell Cooperative Extension and Soil and
2 Water Conservation Districts to provide
3 technical and financial assistance to
4 farmers, conserve farmland, and connect
5 people with fresh, local food.
6 So you'll see that my written
7 testimony identifies key areas in the
8 proposed state budget that will meaningfully
9 support Scenic Hudson's efforts to advance
10 the state's agricultural and open space and
11 environmental goals in the Hudson Valley and
12 beyond. So with that said, I want to use my
13 time today to flag a particularly impactful
14 program that Scenic Hudson feels would merit
15 your further attention.
16 So we are encouraging the Legislature
17 to increase the allocation for the Climate
18 Resilient Farming program within the
19 Environmental Protection Fund to $33 million
20 in your one-house budgets. And that would be
21 up from the Governor's proposed
22 $15.25 million. And we're asking this, like
23 Will said, in the context of our ask in
24 partnership with a coalition of environmental
240
1 organizations to increase the EPF to
2 $500 million.
3 The reason we're advocating for an
4 increase in funding for the Climate Resilient
5 Farming program this year is that last year
6 the New York State Department of Ag and
7 Markets received an infusion of funds from
8 USDA's Partnerships for Climate Smart
9 Commodities grant to expand the New York
10 Climate Resilient Farming program. And
11 because of this, Ag and Markets was able to
12 disburse approximately $33 million in grants
13 to farmers implementing regenerative
14 agricultural and farming practices and
15 reducing on-farm carbon emissions.
16 But even though the funds available
17 for climate resilient farming programs and
18 projects were more than doubled with this
19 boost provided from the federal funding, the
20 one-time grant, the program was still not
21 able to fulfill every funding request, the
22 total of which we believe totaled
23 approximately $49 million.
24 So we are respectfully submitting that
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1 $33 million should be the new floor for the
2 climate resilient funding program, given the
3 amount of funding requests, potential future
4 lack of federal funding, and the fact that
5 $33 million was put directly to work on farms
6 to fund practices that made positive impacts
7 for both the climate and the farms and
8 farmers themselves.
9 Thank you.
10 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: {Mic off.}
11 MR. MANGANO: Good day, everyone.
12 Thank you so much for the opportunity to
13 testify today.
14 My name is Julian Mangano, and I'm the
15 New York policy manager for American Farmland
16 Trust, the nation's leading conservation
17 organization dedicated to protecting
18 farmland, promoting sustainable practices,
19 and supporting farmers.
20 New York's farmland anchors an
21 $85.8 billion farm and food economy
22 supporting nearly 300,000 jobs across over
23 6 million acres and over 30,000 farms.
24 However, this vital resource is under threat.
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1 From 2017 to 2022, New York lost nearly
2 364,000 acres of farmland. At this rate, we
3 risk losing another 452,000 acres by 2040,
4 jeopardizing 2500 farms and 7,000 jobs.
5 To sustain New York's agriculture and
6 address urgent challenges like food security
7 and climate change, I urge the Legislature to
8 act on the following priorities. For
9 farmland protection, raise the Farmland
10 Protection budget to $25 million within a
11 $500 million Environment Protection fund.
12 This investment will safeguard farmland,
13 support farm transitions, and promote
14 climate-smart agriculture.
15 We'd also like for an additional
16 $10 million in EPF funding to support the
17 Article VII Part OO amendments to the
18 Executive Budget. To support transitioning
19 and beginning farmers, we'd like to see
20 Farmland for a New Generation be funded at
21 $1 million. Right now, with 60 percent of
22 New York producers over age 55, and
23 90 percent lacking transition plans, this
24 increase in funding is critical to addressing
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1 the demand to support farmland transition.
2 As Senator Hinchey has mentioned
3 multiple times today, for Farm-to-School
4 programs we'd like to include breakfast in
5 the 30 percent initiative to make it more
6 administratively feasible for schools to
7 participate and increase local food purchases
8 statewide.
9 We'd also like the maintaining of
10 funding for Farm-to-School grant programs to
11 strengthen farm-to-institution connections
12 and improve student access to nutritious
13 meals, following the lead of
14 Governor Hochul's support for universal
15 school meals for all.
16 For enhancing climate resilience, we
17 would like to see an expansion in programs
18 that support conservation practices like
19 cover cropping and reduced tillage to combat
20 climate change, improve soil health and
21 preserve farmland. And we would also like to
22 see an integration of AFT smart-solar
23 principles to prevent farmland loss while
24 supporting renewable energy development.
244
1 And lastly, we'd like to see the
2 deployment of the $150 million allocated in
3 the Environmental Bond Act for farmland
4 protection, ensuring these resources directly
5 contribute to long-term viability of
6 New York's agriculture. New York's farmland
7 fuels our economy, feeds our communities, and
8 combats climate change. By prioritizing
9 farmland protection and agricultural
10 initiatives in this Executive Budget and the
11 one-house budgets, we can secure a thriving
12 and equitable food system for our future
13 generations.
14 Thank you for your time and continued
15 support for these critical issues.
16 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you very
17 much.
18 Any questions from the Senate?
19 Michelle Hinchey.
20 SENATOR HINCHEY: Hi, everyone. Thank
21 you so much for being here and for all of
22 your work.
23 First, to Julian, thank you for
24 flagging the Farm-to-School programs among
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1 all of the important programs that you've
2 cited. Can you also talk about why
3 increasing the cents from 19 to 25 cents
4 would be important, how that would be
5 impactful?
6 MR. MANGANO: Yes. So to my
7 understanding, like, local food procurement
8 could cost a little bit more than the SYSCO
9 food and just general, like, food we can get
10 throughout the nation. So that additional
11 reimbursement of 6 cents from the 19 cents
12 will help just assist the school budgets and
13 increase their capacity to --
14 SENATOR HINCHEY: -- to actually make
15 it possible to buy farm fresh food --
16 MR. MANGANO: Yes.
17 SENATOR HINCHEY: -- into the schools
18 for all those programs.
19 MR. MANGANO: Precisely.
20 SENATOR HINCHEY: Great. So yes, that
21 nominal cent increase feels important.
22 You mentioned also smart-solar
23 principles from AFT. Can you talk a little
24 bit about those?
246
1 MR. MANGANO: So currently we're
2 working on defining a definition for
3 agrivoltaic so it can be included with Ag and
4 Markets. And we're hoping to have that put
5 forward. We have a draft. We're in
6 discussion right now to get that moving. And
7 that is what I have at the moment.
8 SENATOR HINCHEY: Great. Well, we
9 look forward to seeing those, because
10 we've -- obviously there's all that confusion
11 about what agrivoltaics mean, and dual use.
12 And is it -- sheep grazing, does that count
13 as agriculture? Where sometimes there's a
14 lot of loopholes that solar developers use to
15 be able to continue to move forward on a
16 program that doesn't actually maintain the
17 ability and access to farming on prime
18 farmland.
19 So thank you for that.
20 For Carli and Scenic Hudson, could you
21 talk a little bit -- and my colleague
22 Senator Fahy might mention this, but can you
23 talk a little bit about the farmland
24 preservation efforts that you're working on
247
1 and what we could be doing better in that
2 space?
3 MS. FRACCAROLLI: Yeah. So like I
4 said, we partner with farms to put
5 conservation easements on their farms so that
6 they're preserved in perpetuity so that we
7 don't lose any more farmland. I think --
8 SENATOR HINCHEY: Would you say we
9 have a lot -- where a lot of farmland is at
10 risk of being lost today?
11 MS. FRACCAROLLI: Yeah, we are seeing
12 farmland being lost every year,
13 unfortunately. And we're also losing farmers
14 themselves; they're aging out of being
15 farmers.
16 So I think having a system in place to
17 be able to keep farmland in farming for
18 future generations of farmers, and also
19 making sure that there's funding available
20 for these farmers to conserve their land, is
21 really important and something that we can
22 definitely utilize at Scenic Hudson.
23 SENATOR HINCHEY: All right, thank
24 you. Yeah, I mean, we were talking up here
248
1 before about the fires happening in
2 California and have for the last number of
3 years. We've all been talking about the
4 importance of New York ag land and how we are
5 going to be the breadbasket of our country
6 once again. And so it's incumbent that we
7 fund all of these programs and do a lot more
8 to make sure we have our farmland protected.
9 Thank you.
10 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblywoman
11 Lupardo.
12 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Sure, thank
13 you. Thank you for being here.
14 Julian, a quick question. You quickly
15 said that you were supporting the Article VII
16 changes, Part OO. Is that where the Governor
17 adds urban agriculture and regional system
18 support to current farmland protection
19 activities?
20 MR. MANGANO: There is that part of
21 the amendment. But just holistically, as the
22 amendment is written, there is no true, like,
23 fiscal designations. So we're just inserting
24 that at least 10 million for those programs
249
1 should be instituted.
2 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: And could you
3 just remind us -- I know you're calling for a
4 500 million EPF. But what did the
5 Governor -- what does the Governor have in
6 the budget to start with?
7 MR. MANGANO: Four hundred million.
8 ASSEMBLYWOMAN LUPARDO: Four hundred
9 million. And you're looking to supplement
10 the climate resiliency and soil health from
11 that additional funding. Because it looks
12 more than likely the funding has been put on
13 pause.
14 Senator Hinchey and I worked very hard
15 years ago to create the soil health standards
16 through that legislation and have been very
17 proud that it's been funded on a regular
18 basis. It's interesting to find out that it
19 was supplemented to that extent by federal
20 dollars that are likely to go away. I would
21 hate to go backwards on that important
22 program, so I appreciate your highlighting
23 it.
24 Thank you very much. I'm good.
250
1 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Senate?
2 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: I'm sorry. Any
3 other Assemblymembers?
4 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: I have two more.
5 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Two more? Oh,
6 keep going.
7 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: Assemblyman Chris
8 Tague.
9 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: Thank you, sir.
10 Julian, my question's for you. And it
11 was brought up during this -- you know, the
12 turnover of farms. But my understanding is
13 that American Farmland Trust actually has a
14 program where you bring in young folks who
15 maybe were not grown up -- did not grow up on
16 a farm, and you try to match them with a
17 retiring farm whose kids or loved ones are
18 not interested in farming.
19 Is that program still in place?
20 MR. MANGANO: Yes. I mentioned in my
21 testimony that we would like to actually
22 increase the funding for that program from
23 700,000 to a million, just so we can have a
24 more robust impact with our regional
251
1 navigators and enhance that connection
2 between the transitioning and new and
3 beginning farmers.
4 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: The other thing is
5 I think it's very important for my colleagues
6 to understand this, and anybody else that may
7 be watching. Can you repeat the numbers on
8 the amount of acreage in New York State that
9 has been eaten up, that is no longer in
10 productive farmland?
11 MR. MANGANO: Yeah. I mean, just to
12 put it in perspective from, like, preparing
13 for this testimony, some of the recent
14 language was that New York had 9 million
15 acres in farms, but now we're at 6 million
16 acres in farms. But just between 2017 and
17 2022 we've had 364,000 acres of land lost,
18 and that's based on U.S. Ag census data.
19 ASSEMBLYMAN TAGUE: To me that is
20 troubling, very troubling.
21 As I said earlier to the commissioner
22 of Agriculture, I have this feeling, and I
23 have for the last few years -- number one,
24 the State of New York took local control away
252
1 from our local governments and the people
2 that actually live in these communities. We
3 no longer feel that it's necessary for them
4 to have an opinion, or the other local
5 farmers. And what this does is when you take
6 that farmland away, it doesn't just hurt the
7 farmer but it also hurts the farmers around
8 them that may rent that property because they
9 don't have enough.
10 This is a serious problem. This is
11 much more serious than people are letting on
12 to. Again, I'm going to repeat what I said
13 to the commissioner: The left hand does not
14 know what the right hand's doing. We're
15 going to get to a situation here in New York
16 State, one of the greatest agricultural
17 states in this country, and we're not going
18 to be able to sustain ourselves in
19 agriculture. People need to smarten up at
20 the top and figure out that we cannot
21 continue down this road.
22 I really want to thank the three of
23 you for your testimony today. And I see that
24 you're passionate, as I am, about saving our
253
1 farmland. New York State should be the
2 leader, the leader in agriculture in America.
3 Best quality control, four growing seasons,
4 the greatest five universities in
5 agriculture -- we should be leading.
6 So thank you very much.
7 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: Thank you.
8 CHAIRMAN PRETLOW: One more.
9 Assemblywoman Anna Kelles, to close.
10 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: I wanted to
11 thank you all. Your testimonies are amazing.
12 The research you did, amazing.
13 A couple of things. And I agree, the
14 real estate transfer tax being the source of
15 funding for the EPF means that we just do not
16 have justification for not increasing it to
17 500, given that it's a billion. And it's not
18 coming from taxpayer dollars, particularly
19 given the federal cuts. So thank you so much
20 for bringing that up.
21 One question, on the other -- you
22 know, I agree with you about the funding for
23 the parks, the Park and Trail Partnership
24 grants, capital funding. We should also make
254
1 sure that we connect it to an incredibly
2 great source of therapy for mental health,
3 especially for children. And we've failed to
4 do that enough. And it is a huge boon to
5 improve mental health, and I think that we
6 could all use that as well.
7 You brought up 2 trillion as a backlog
8 of capital for parks. Where did that number
9 come from? Because I've asked that earlier
10 today, and I was told that we don't have that
11 or wasn't given that information.
12 MR. COTÉ: The number that I have been
13 using is 2 billion, and that is solely an
14 estimation that Parks & Trails New York has
15 made. That is not necessarily substantiated
16 by the agency --
17 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: I'd love to
18 see --
19 MR. COTÉ: -- it's just our best guess
20 on the math.
21 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: I'd love to see
22 that.
23 So just a question about the school
24 meals. And the data that I have shows that
255
1 we have 10 million a year, we've never spent
2 more than 4 million a year, so we are
3 reallocating every year. New York City does
4 not reach the 30 percent threshold, so they
5 wouldn't qualify right now. They'd have to
6 build up.
7 So if I added breakfasts and I added
8 25 cents and I added the entire state, would
9 we even come close to meeting that 10 million
10 threshold that is currently allocated for
11 this, for school meals?
12 MR. MANGANO: No, I don't think so.
13 The last I calculated, we would need
14 11 million total meals, total lunch meals
15 reimbursed, to get to that $10 million at
16 25 percent.
17 The data from the 2023-2024 purchasing
18 was two-point -- no, $3.1 million in
19 reimbursement at the 19 cents. So if we went
20 up to 25-cent reimbursement, it would take us
21 to 4.1 million.
22 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: So we could
23 actually get 6 cents per meal back to
24 farmers.
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1 MR. MANGANO: Yes.
2 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: With no more
3 additional funding required by the state.
4 MR. MANGANO: Yes, correct.
5 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: We would just
6 have to start allocating the funding we
7 actually have --
8 MR. MANGANO: Yes.
9 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: -- distributed.
10 MR. MANGANO: And hopefully the
11 inclusion of breakfast would increase overall
12 school food authority participation by making
13 it less --
14 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Universal.
15 MR. MANGANO: -- less administratively
16 burdensome for them to participate in the
17 program.
18 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Right. So we
19 could do breakfast and lunch and 25 cents and
20 it would still fit within our budget.
21 MR. MANGANO: Yes.
22 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Great.
23 Farmland for a New Generation, the 1
24 million, that is for the navigators, correct?
257
1 MR. MANGANO: Yes.
2 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Great. Thank
3 you so much.
4 MR. MANGANO: Yeah, thank you.
5 ASSEMBLYWOMAN KELLES: Appreciate it.
6 Thank you so much. This is wonderful.
7 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: All right. Just
8 double-checking. No more Assemblymembers or
9 Senators with questions.
10 Then I want to thank the three of you
11 for participating, and I want to officially
12 close the first budget hearing of the
13 2025 budget year.
14 We will be back here tomorrow morning
15 at 9:30 with the EnCon and Energy hearing.
16 It will go longer than today.
17 But I appreciate everybody's
18 attendance and patience. Thank you very
19 much.
20 (Whereupon, the budget hearing
21 concluded at 5:06 p.m.)
22
23
24