Photo by: Office of Senator Kaplan Senator Anna M. Kaplan (D-North Hills), Chair of the New York State Senate Committee on Commerce, Economic Development, and Small Business, introduced legislation, S.6397, to speed up the process of establishing the COVID-19 Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program, a new, $800 million flexible recovery grant program being made available to small businesses who suffered pandemic related hardship over the past year. The funding to create the grant program was included in the recently enacted State budget, with a provision that Empire State Development, the State s economic development agency, would craft the parameters of the program and develop a means of facilitating applications and disbursement to needy small businesses.
Photo by: Senator Anna Kaplan Senator Anna M. Kaplan (D-North Hills) joined Assemblymember Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove), Westbury School Board President Robert Troiano and the Westbury School Board to announce that the Westbury Schools tax levy would be cut for the first time in decades thanks to record new funding in the New York State Budget. Earlier this year, the Westbury School Board filed a preliminary tax levy with the New York State Comptroller which would have raised school taxes for Westbury homeowners by 2.96%, a total tax hike of $2,445,802. Following the enactment of the 2021-2022 New York State Budget, in which Westbury Schools received an additional $10,610,874, with a commitment for even greater aid increases in the next three years, the School Board made the decision to cancel the tax increase, and instead cut property taxes by .5%, saving the taxpayers $2,855,992, and delivering the first property tax reduction the Westbury communit