School Buildings Shut Down in the Last Quarter of the 2019-20 School Year, and Have Been Granted Significant Federal Aid

• The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a complete shutdown of school buildings in March 2020, with partial reopening plans developed that summer and continuing to evolve based on school district experiences and capacity. New York’s educators took on the extraordinary challenge of quickly shifting teaching to remote formats.

Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)

• In SFY 2020-21, DEC All Funds spending totaled $991.8 million, a decrease of $251.3 million (20.2 percent) from SFY 2019-20 due to COVID-19 related reductions in activity and spending. Compared with SFY 2019-20, spending was reduced in all areas except personal service.

Highway Conditions Have Slightly Improved in the Past Year After Declining Since 2016

• The State is responsible for maintaining more than 42,700 lane miles of highway.
• Compared to the prior year, the number of highway lane miles rated poor to fair decreased by 1.7 percent in 2020.
• In 2020, 54.8 percent of the State’s highway lane miles were rated good to excellent, a 1.0 percentage point increase since 2019.

Number of Crimes and Crime Rates Rise for the First Time in Eight Years

• The number of crimes in seven categories increased for the first time since 2012, rising 1.5 percent to 341,908 in 2020, according to preliminary data reported to the State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). Motor vehicle thefts increased by the greatest percentage (54.1 percent), followed by murders (45.8 percent), burglaries (16.6 percent) and aggravated assaults (4.4 percent). DCJS recorded decreases in rapes (15.8 percent), robberies (3.2 percent) and larcenies (3.1 percent).

Public Assistance Recipients Increase for the First Time in Five Years

• Family Assistance (FA) provides up to 60 months of cash assistance to eligible needy families; Safety Net Assistance (SNA) provides cash or non-cash assistance to eligible single adults, childless couples, persons who have exceeded the 60-month limit on Family Assistance, children living apart from adult relatives and certain other individuals. SNA is largely funded by the State and the counties, while FA is funded by the federal government.

Enhanced Federal Funding Helps Lower State and Local Medicaid Spending; Overall Spending Decreases Slightly

• Enhanced federal Medicaid funding during the pandemic helped lower State Medicaid spending by $4.1 billion (15.4 percent) to $22.5 billion and local Medicaid spending by $693 million (8.3 percent) to $7.7 billion in SFY 2020-21. Federal COVID relief legislation shifted $3.4 billion in State Medicaid costs and $754 million in local Medicaid costs to the federal government.

A robust, efficiently managed capital investment program can support healthy economic growth, while the deterioration of capital assets can weaken the State’s economy and its ability to attract and retain business. Capital assets include not only highways and bridges, but also facilities for education, government, health, housing, environmental conservation and recreation.

Spending generally reflects the State’s program priorities. Comparing spending to revenue provides an indication of the State’s ability to support continuing programs. State spending, which includes spending from federal funds, is recorded on a cash basis.

See Appendices 1 and 2 for a breakdown of State spending by major service function and funding source for the past five years.

Revenues are affected by economic changes and changes in federal and State policies. Tax base is a measure of the State’s ability to generate revenue. A decreasing tax base may force spending reductions, increased taxes, or both. Receipts are revenues that have been recorded on a cash basis.

See Appendix 3 for a breakdown of State receipts by major source for the past five State fiscal years.

Fund financial statements provide a short-term view of finances. As such, these statements only focus on the inflows and outflows of current financial resources—cash or liquid assets that are available to pay current obligations (or will be soon).

Funds represent sources of funding and spending for particular purposes.