Morning News Briefing
Written by Michael Baldwin on October 7, 2020
Hang on to your hats today. The National Weather Service has a wind advisory in effect for much of the day. Wind gusts to near 50 mph are possible. What does it mean? Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result.
Batavia City Schools…looking at a $5.5 million revenue shortfall, thanks to state funding hold backs, because of the coronavirus pandemic. The district has experienced a funding cut of 20% so far. The state says it is “withholding” the funds but there’s no guarantee the funds will be backfilled nor that there won’t be more “withholding” during the remainder of the year. The state is facing a $16 billion budget shortfall and the deficit over the next four years is expected to grow to $66 billion. That doesn’t bode well for the future of school funding.
Genesee County has one new case of COVID-19. The latest patient lives in Elba and is in their 50’s. As of this morning, there are two active cases at the Elba school. Orleans County also reports two new positive cases.
There will be a chicken BBQ fundraiser for the South Byron Volunteer Fire Company beginning at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 25 until sold out. It will be held on a drive-thru basis at the fire hall, located at 7389 Route 237 in South Byron. Cost is $12 per person. Please wear face mask and remain in vehicle.
New York’s municipalities collected nearly $17 billion in sales tax revenue in 2019, representing 9.7 percent of all local government revenue, according to a comprehensive report on local sales tax just released by State Comptroller DiNapoli. Every county and city in the state, along with many towns and villages, depend on these funds to pay for essential services and operations, revealing the statewide impact of the revenue losses from the pandemic. DiNapoli says “COVID-19 has decimated local sales tax revenue this year, blowing holes in the budgets of municipalities across New York State. ” He said just as our Main Street small businesses can’t rebuild alone, our local governments don’t have the means to do this themselves. Direct aid from the federal government is needed to help communities recover.
Congressman Chris Jacobs has cosponsored four pieces of legislation that he says will help drive economic recovery – the Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act, a bill extending coronavirus aid for airlines, the Small Business Expense Protection Act of 2020, and the Coronavirus Economic Relief for Transportation Services (CERTS) Act.
