New York State SmartTranscripts:

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Alright. People are they've got their seats. Great. Okay. We're good. Thank you. Good afternoon. We are starting the first budget hearing of 2026. It was originally scheduled to start at 09:30 this morning, but due to the inclement weather throughout the state of New York, we decided to start at about four hours late so that we could make sure everybody could get to Albany from whatever corner of the state you might have been, I don't know, hibernating in during the snowstorm. I'm Liz Krueger, the chair of the Finance Committee. And I'm so sorry. I was going to say Tom O'Mara is the ranker for the Senate Finance Committee, and, of course, my partner in crime, not exactly, Gary Pretlow, the chair of the Assembly Finance Committee. And I'm just gonna introduce some Senate Democrats that are here. Myself, Michelle Hinchey, our chair of agriculture. Natalia Fernandez from the Senate. Did I see senator Grisport? No. I saw him outside. He isn't here yet. Okay. Fine. Thank you. So that's it for the senate Dems right now. I'm gonna have Gary Pretlow introduce the assembly Dems, and we'll come back to our rankers and their members.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Good morning, everyone. And as the senator said, this is a delayed hearing, but I'm hearing just the same. Well, it's the first of 14 hearings that the good senator and I will be holding. So if you don't see us between now and February 28 or '27 or whatever the end, we'll be right here. Great. Us, we have I'm the chair, of course, of Ways and Means. And I have the chair of tourism, Assembly Member Ron Kim. And with us, we have Assembly Member Buttenschon, Zinerman Cunningham, and Assemblyman Otis. Next to me is the ranker on Ways and Means, Ed Ra, RAH: who will introduce his members.

[Assembly Member Ed Ra, Ranking Member, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you, Chairman. We are joined currently by Assemblyman Tague, who is the ranking member on the Agriculture Committee, Assemblyman Gray, who is our ranker on tourism, as well as Assembly members Angelino, Miller, Lemondes, and Giglio.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Did I mention Sullivan Stirpe? Don't think I did, Okay. But I did

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: And we're awaiting for Senate Chair Serrano for Parks Recreation. Turns out that committee has many titles. I'll just start there with Parks and Recreation, and then to have Tom O'Mara introduce his rankers and colleagues.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: T. Good afternoon. We're joined by our ranking member on the Agriculture Committee, Senator George Morello our ranking member on the Cultural Affairs, Parks and Recreation and Tourism Committee, Jim Tedisco and Senator Peter Oberrocker.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Great. Thank you. All right. So as you've already heard, this is the first of 14 budget hearings, which are the proposed executive budget fiscal year twenty six-twenty seven. These hearings are conducted pursuant to the New York State Constitution and legislative law. Today, the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees will hear testimony concerning the Governor's proposed budget for both the Department of Agriculture and Markets and the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Following each testimony, there will be some time for questions from the chairs and rankers of the fiscal committees and other legislators representing these committees. Representing the office oh, before we get to that, let me just rules of the road. And you're gonna have to remember this through all the hearings, but we'll remind you through all the hearings. One, when it's your turn to testify, you need to press the button that says push on your microphone, and it should turn green when it's on and red when it's off. And there's sort of a sweet spot you just need to hit to move from red to green. Practice it once or twice. It will work just letting you know. Second, witnesses have only a certain amount of time to testify depending on who they are. So governmental invitees such as the two commissioners we have before us now get ten minutes to summarize their testimony. We know your testimony is longer than that, but you give us copies. And there are copies that go online and therefore can be streamed here as we're having the hearing, but also are available to anyone in the state of New York who wants to go on the assembly committee website or the senate committee website and read the full testimony. Okay? For the testifiers, we're asking you to summarize. Because the truth is, we want to ask you questions. We don't want you to use up all of our time just talking, nothing personal, but we can read your testimony. But we get you in front of us to ask questions of, and then when you're gone, it might not be so easy to find you at that time. Then if you're a nongovernment testifier, it's only three minutes per person. Wayne, are you trying to point something out to me? No, me. Not you. Okay, thank you. Sorry. Thank you. Then for legislators who are asking questions of governmental witnesses after they testify, hearing co chairs, that's myself and Assembly Member Pretlow, sorry about that, and relevant committee chairs, you get ten minutes and then committee chairs, ten minutes and a three minute second round. Just chairs, and that includes Gary Pretlow and myself. Then rankers on the relevant committees get five minutes, but no second round, And all other members of the legislature who are in relevant committees and therefore are entitled to testify get three minutes to ask questions. So we all get very good at speed questions and speed answers if possible. And for legislators to ask questions of nongovernmental witnesses, all members get three minutes, no second rounds, so you don't get any extra status as a chair or a ranker when it's a nongovernmental witness. And today was our shortest hearing always, so nothing gets really too crazy on us in the first day. It's like our practice every year before and then you realize, oh, we have twenty hours of questions and answers, and we only have ten hours for the hearing. So you start to realize you're gonna be talking fast. You're not going to get all your questions answered. And perhaps most important, if you're a legislator and we don't get to your question or they don't have adequate time to answer, One, we will encourage people to submit their responses in writing if they know they need more time to get us answers or they know they've got data, but not the kind you can whip off your tongue. Then please get both Gary and myself the answers to questions you've been asked, and we will make sure everyone gets the answers. You don't have to send out two twelve responses, just one, to each of us. We'll make sure everybody gets the copies. Okay? So those are basic rules of the road. And again, green light, your mic is on. Red light, your mic is off. Alright. So with that, we're gonna ask Kathy Moser, the Acting Commissioner of the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, to start us off with ten minutes, and then we will welcome the Department of Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Richard Ball, who's been around quite a while, Commissioner. Haven't you? Me too, I know. Exactly. Fair enough. Fair enough.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: I just want to point out you have the rookie and the veteran. So it's a good combo. Perfect.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Perfect. So then commissioner Moser, we acting commissioner Moser, if you would like to start for ten minutes.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Great. Thank you. Good afternoon chair Krueger, chair Pretlow, senator Serrano, assembly member Kim, members of the state legislature. On behalf of governor Hochul, thank you for this opportunity to speak out about the New York State Parks And Historic Sites. I'm grateful for the governor's nomination to lead the office of parks, recreation, and historic preservation. I joined the agency in October 2025, the beginning of state parks second century. As a lifelong advocate for public lands, outdoor recreation, and conservation, I'm eager to lead this agency into its next era. Our state parks are fundamentally about affordability, wellness, and access for all. At a time when families are looking for ways to stay healthy, connected, and engaged without breaking the bank, Our parks provide something truly special, experiences that are open, welcoming, and within the reach for all New Yorkers. Every day, our parks are helping people unplug, get outside, and reconnect with nature, with history, and with one another. This year, we're launching hundreds of wellness activities in our system from guided heights and nature education to yoga and mental health focused programming. Building on governor Hochul's get out, get offline, and get outside initiative, we're bringing families into parks to build lifelong habits of wellness, outdoor recreation, and fun. Expanding youth programs like our explorer club, ladders to the outdoors, and connect kids to parks, we help we wanna reach more underrepresented communities and ensure that all New Yorkers benefit from high quality recreation. The governor's robust 340,000,000 capital allocation for our agency will enable us to continue planning a strong future for parks and historic sites. We've made great progress reversing decades of decline in our 100 year old park system. Still, we face challenges of aging infrastructure, rising capital cost, and the welcomed influx of over 85,000,000 annual visitors. We'll dedicate this funding to address these challenges and ensure access, resiliency, and sustainability for the long term. At Denny Farrell River State Riverbank State Park in Harlem, we're investing in upgrades to an already thriving open space and community center so it can better provide safe, modern facilities to all who visit. In Rochester, formerly industrial land is becoming a natural asset for the community at High Falls State Park. And along the Niagara River Gorge, we're expanding the footprint of Niagara Falls State Park and strengthening stewardship of one of the world's most iconic landscapes. This summer, thanks to the leadership of governor Hochul, we'll see payoffs in recent investments. We'll we'll be opening the pool at the East Bath House at Jones Beach. We are putting in new swimming facilities at Sojourner Truth State Park, and we're upgrading Buffalo Harbor and Selkirk Shores State Parks. Our parks are always also gateways to history. Current planning is underway for the historic park, a preservation and resource center at People's Island, which will connect New Yorkers more deeply with the stories that shaped our state and our nation. As we mark the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the American Revolution, our agency will activate programs, exhibits, and events across the state through a whole history lens that includes the stories of all New Yorkers who have been left out. When it comes to park infrastructure improvements, it's crucial to recruit and retain skilled tradespeople to maintain our facilities. This year, we are launching a new pilot program, the New York State Parks Trades Corp, to provide career opportunities and to fill the state's urgent need for skilled tradespeople while restoring our historic park infrastructure. The impact of our parks is undeniable. One out of every 20 New Yorkers were at a state park on July 4. And in 2025, we were welcomed tens of millions of people into our parks to enjoy beaches, to explore waterfalls in USA Today's best state park, Letchworth. People gathered last year for over a 100 major concerts and large scale events to from festivals, polar plunges, I love my park day, and the nation's largest breast cancer walk. Our parks are where New Yorkers come together. The New York State Park System is already grappling with the impacts of climate change. You've heard about the extreme weather events that affect infrastructure and ecosystems. We've made significant progress in adapting to climate change and strengthening our environmental stewardship planning from our work to solarize our park system as well as increasing the number of EV chargers. Every day, we are committed to the safety and security of visitors and staff. Our park police and rangers are crucial to the safety and peacefulness of our park system, particularly our ability to host major events. We'll graduate a new class in April, and we're moving ahead with security upgrades, everything from fencing and lighting to security cameras and license plate readers, along with enhancing staff training on emergency response and public safety. None of this happens without the people behind our parks, the frontline staff, rangers, lifeguards, maintenance workers, educators, volunteers, and partners who make these experiences possible. In the coming month, I look forward to a strong productive collaboration with members of the legislature. Our agency must expand our partnerships across the state with other state agencies, with not for profits, communities, and local representative to drive results, steward our lands, and reflect the interests of communities that we serve. Together, we will strengthen, access, preserve our history, and ensure our parks remain a source of pride, wellness, fun, and opportunity for generations to come. Thank you for your continued support of New York State Parks and historic sites.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. We're gonna then, I think, have the Commissioner of Agriculture testify. Oh, no. It's actually more you get more time as a legislator if we let you go, one each as commissioner. So last part, we'll start with Parks, to take questions from chairs and rankers. Hello, Senator Serrano. Nice to see you. Also, I believe we have also been joined by Senator Baskin. And also sorry, someone I didn't introduce before. Senator Fahey, I believe, is also here. Oh, thank you. I didn't see you. Thank you. Thank you, Pat. So why don't we start with our chair of the Parks and Recreation Department, Senator Marco MARCO Serrano.

[Senator José M. Serrano, Chair, Senate Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee]: SENATOR Thank you very much, Senator Krueger. It's a pleasure to be here with all of you and with Acting Commissioner Moser. Thank you for your testimony and for your many, many years. I've known you for a very long time, your many years of work in this field and increasing access to green space and so on. So very excited about your work that you continue to do. And I think you know a bit about how passionate I am about parks and how much they mean to me, to my constituents, and to the entire state of New York. As an avid user of state parks all year round, in the summer, in the winter, I always make a plug for winter hikes, not when there's two feet of snow outside. But generally speaking, hiking in the winter is, to me, less bugs and you could see more. So there's certainly something to do in our state parks all year round. And increasing access and visitorship, I know that year over year we've seen more and more folks take advantage of our state parks. And I think that that's such a wonderful thing. I'm always concerned, however, about overuse in certain parks and how we can help sort of encourage people to explore more of the parks that are in their area. And even more importantly, helping to encourage constituents to become stewards of their parks, to feel a vested sense of ownership of their state parks, and be involved in their furtherance in their health. So can you talk a little bit about the increased usership and any efforts for stewardship?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Thanks, senator. We love the fact that our visitation is as high as it is. And I think with 350,000 acres and a lot of facilities, there's myriad of places to go. But we we have different programming. We do different marketing. We have connect kids to schools so that school kids come out to our parks and learn about parks. We're always expanding our trail system, and when you come into a park or you go to the website, you can see what are the opportunities at different state parks. So we're constantly trying to improve our programming, get the word out, and do more programming based on what the communities near parks would like.

[Senator José M. Serrano, Chair, Senate Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee]: And thank you for that, Commissioner. And along the line of staffing and budget and what you need to be able to fully staff your parks in light the fact that there is so many new visitors showing up every year. I have had the experience with my family where we'll be at a pool, a state park pool. And because there's not enough lifeguards, there'll be sections of the pool that are closed off. And we're all sort of crammed in one area, which is, for me, I look at it as a plus. Hey, people are using the park, and it's great. Is that more of an issue of funding for additional staff? Or is it more of an issue of finding lifeguards who want to apply and be part of the lifeguard system?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Well, we're currently at our highest staffing levels ever, 2,400, 60 something. We also hire over 5,000 seasonal employees in the summertime. And in the specific case of lifeguards, Governor Hochul increased the hourly rate a couple of years back because we were having a difficult time recruiting lifeguards. But, you know, we're already out in the recruiting lifeguards, recruiting park police, the new trades, New York State Park Trades program. We're really proactively going out for the skills that we need to manage our parks.

[Senator José M. Serrano, Chair, Senate Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee]: Thank you. And also, when we've spoken about this before, as a kid from The Bronx, Bear Mountain is a huge deal. What's interesting is that it's not around the corner. But if you go to on any given Saturday or Sunday, you go to Bear Mountain, Lake Welch, Tiarati, it's very high constituency from The Bronx, Upper Manhattan, New York City. And it's such a wonderful thing. We need to connect more to nature. We need that medicine that nature is giving us. And it is almost like a cultural tradition. If you go to Lake Welch on a Sunday, I mean, is just a wonderful celebration of the diversity of New York State. The smells, the music, the food, the fun. It really is an amazing place. Talk to me a little bit about capital projects in these high use parks like Harriman, Bear Mountain, Lake Welch, because I know there's always a constant need there. Right.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Well, we were really excited when we saw the governor's budget. She's dedicated $20,000,000 to reopen Lake Welch. That beach has been closed for over five years, and it needs major wastewater treatment upgrades. So 15,000 people a weekend when Lake Welch was open would come and utilize that beach. So that's a really exciting project. Riverbank, there's another $20,000,000 there to upgrade, Riverbank State Park where we get 4,000,000 visitors a year. So the governor designated some specific projects. But also, we reach out. We have 11 regions, and we reach out to our regional directors. They know their parks, and they let us know every year what are the critical capital needs, whether it's boat launches or a new trail or a new roof. So that's how we make some of those decisions. We're also lucky I neglected to mention our friends groups. So we have partner organizations across the state who are raising money to help with programming and infrastructure at our state parks. So I mentioned partnerships, how important they are. And that's another example of how our friends groups know the pulse of the local communities and can work with state parks to improve our programming and our infrastructure.

[Senator José M. Serrano, Chair, Senate Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee]: Now one last thing. You mentioned Lake Welch. We talked about Lake Welch. But what about Lake Sebago? Sebago Beach, is that I know that's been talks for, I guess, decades at this point. We need to get that lake back online.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: That will get done. We are breaking well, it's probably a little frozen. But we'll be breaking ground this spring. We've chosen a contractor. And so that'll be a two year project so that Lake Sebago will open in 2028.

[Senator José M. Serrano, Chair, Senate Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee]: Okay, great. All right, thank you. That's all I have.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Excuse me. Assembly members?

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you. Before we go on, we've been joined by Assembly members Lupardo, Cashman, Kay, Kelles, Septimo, and Werner. Assembly member Kim?

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: That's all right. I forgot Senator Leah Wessham. Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Oh, and Schiavsky.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: S. Great. Thank you, chairman and chairwoman. Kruger, congratulations on your new role. You know, I've been in a very privileged place for the last few years to travel with my kids, not just throughout New York, but around the country on various road trips and such. And it's true, like other states have some scenic places and But beautiful I am convinced New York State has the best public assets in the entire country. And it's not just because it's beautiful or scenic. It's what the senator had mentioned. It's the ownership, the culture that each public space brings to the local region. And I had the experience of experiencing some of those elements throughout the state. And I'm just fascinated by how we were able to design and create such outcomes. I don't even know how to articulate that level of pride and culture and ownership that people in the community have, and whether it's the people at the local stores or the people hiking when you have a random conversation. There's so much pride in those public assets. Like, for example, I was just at Minnewaska State Park. The visiting center was phenomenal. Was, you know, I could have spent like two days there. It was amazing. And what's shocking for that place is that when I when you look at the license plates, half of them were out of state. They weren't even from New York. So I heard about it the last couple of years. But just to see it in real life of the impact that this is having, our places are having, it's amazing. And I'm fascinated by the public private balance of investing and developing in our public spaces. And you've you've mentioned this in your testimony. And all the parks from the Herriman State Park, Downstate Park, Danny Faroe River Park, expanding access to state parks, all these new initiatives that the executive is outlining. Is there a guiding philosophy or economic rationale in picking where and how to invest state money, or is it a combination of various different local reasons?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Yeah. As I mentioned earlier, the first thing that we do at state parks is we ask our regional directors to let us know what their backlog and capital is. And on the programming side, I think it's incredibly important to reach out to the local communities and find out, you know, something that happens at Shirley Chisholm State Park is gonna be very different than Wellesley Island State Park, up in the Thousand Islands. So we really do try to reach out to the community, and our park managers are doing that all the time to figure out even in in the design and architecture, I give a lot of credit to our capital staff of, like, picking designs that fit into the landscape and fit into, you know, what the local community wants. So I believe that it should be from the ground up to get the input first from the communities near the parks and up through our regions and into our headquarters in Albany.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: Great. And and speaking of best public places, our bad page state park, the Ryder Park, I wanna go into that for a minute. Has there been a financial analysis of the impact for hosting the Ryder Cup last year?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: There has. Empire State Development estimates that the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, a state park, generated $399,000,000 in economic activity for the communities around Bethpage. So, you know, it's a world class park. It's a world class experience. Any New Yorker can go. But to host those type of events where the world's eyes are on us really brings economic impact, positive economic impact to local communities.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: And do we have a sense of how much we spent as a state to help market versus how much revenue we collected for the state?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: So the the PGA in this case did pay a fee to the state. We we did have a lot of staff participate both, you know, at from state parks and in other state agencies. The PGA has also signed up for future events. So we have the women's championship coming to Bethpage. And I think in, like, 2030, there's also other golf golf tournaments that'll be at Bethpage.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: So I'm assuming you say economic impact, that includes secondary marketplaces that So sell tickets, a lot of that may not have gone directly into the revenue streams for the state. But overall, people sold tickets. They paid taxes on them, etcetera.

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: So Right. You had

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Meals, hotels. Hotels, right. That type of stuff, yeah.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: Got it. There's been two years, I think, have been around 30 full time employees have been added to the parks. Police or security staff. The executive includes a $1,700,000 for security contract for security cameras and license plate leaders. Can you please talk about security and public safety in state parks and what problems you're trying to address with these resources?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Right. So we have a robust park police force. We have over two thirty officers. We have an academy occurring right now that should graduate another 37 officers, the most diverse class we've ever had. We're already recruiting for our next academy in December. And governor Hochul allocated $53,000,000 to improve security at state parks. This was after the kidnapping at Monroe Lake State Park a few years ago. So with that money, we've installed fencing and lighting at critical state parks. We're also installing security cameras and license plate readers at 51 state parks. And that's all happening this year.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: Does the executive or the commissioner have a position on New York state troopers overseeing the New York State on New York State Parks Police?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Well, we the park police and the state troopers get along really well. I prioritized meeting with state police superintendent Stephen James early on. Well, I've only been on the job less than four months. But in my first month, I met with a state park superintendent. We work well together. They coordinate on primarily on major events, making sure that parks are patrolled. So right now, things are working as is, and we have a team looking at the future of the relationship between state police and park police.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: J. There's also a pension inequity involving the parks police. And I think this is something that needs to be addressed. And I'm hoping that the governor, the commissioner can come together and focus on fixing the inequity of the Parks police officers. Just one quick more question. The executive eliminates $10,000,000 of appropriation for ZBGA, the Zoos Botanical Garden capital, from last year. How was the funding allocated last year? Do you think the appropriation could be improved to facilitate better allocation?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Well, know there's still the ZBGA grants, and the Environmental Protection Fund has stayed I think that's $21,500,000 has stayed at the same level for operational grants. And I would have to get back to you on the capital grants. I was not at Parks when Parks managed that program.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: J. And lastly, you mentioned the two fifty University of the American Revolution. Can you tell us more about what have you been working on, what the agency have been working on, and what you have planned for the coming months.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: There there are so many plans. So first of all, the legislature created the two hundred and fiftieth Commemorative Commission. And that is a great commission of members from all over the state that are guiding the work that I do with education secretary commissioner Rosa. Parks and historic sites, we have 44 parks and historic sites that have direct relationship with the two hundred and fiftieth. So there'll be events at all of those 44 sites all year. We also are focused on what we call the whole history on the unfinished revolution. You know, back in 1776, there were certain people there got their freedom. But what about the indigenous people, women, people of color? So what we're really focused on is the whole history, making sure that we're representing all New Yorkers, you know, what their lives were like in 1776. And then that the the revolution in New York continued for another eight years past 1776. We're starting this year something we're calling enslavement to freedom. In 2027, it will be the four hundredth anniversary of the first enslaved people coming to The Americas and the two hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. So we're rolling right into the unfinished revolution to talk about, enslaved people and the emancipation and the steps to freedom. So we've got plans starting this year but all the way for another eight years. So you can go on the I Love New York website, the path to history, and all the events, both what the state's doing and other agencies. I know Commissioner Ball has plans for the Revolutionary War commemoration as well. But all of the events will be on the path to history.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Next we have Ranken Tadesco. R.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Thank you, commissioner and commissioners and staff and all the folks who are here today for being here. You're probably familiar with my district, the 44th Senate District. I like to say all good things emanate from the 44th Senatorial District. Two great cities and counties, city of Schenectady and the city and county of Saratoga. Schenectady, we're known as the county and city that halls and lights the world. Thomas Edison, General Electric developed there. And of course, we don't celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this great nation unless we win the Battle of Saratoga, the turning point of the Revolutionary War. This may not be New York anymore or The United States Of America. We dispatched ourselves from a king. And that was an important turning point. We have great recreational activities in my Senate district arts, cultural affairs. And I truly believe the parks, recreational, cultural affairs really incentivizes our people, one of the greatest states to incentivize our people to stay, live, work, build a business maybe in this particular state. Unfortunately, there are parts of our agenda, I think, in our policies which don't do that, incentivize people to come and stay and work in New York State. In fact, you're probably familiar with the fact that during the last census, were number one in out migration from the state, one of seven states in the nation to lose another congressperson. We're projected by those who study these things to possibly lose two congresspeople in the 2032 census. And recently, I don't know if you saw this report that came in. It's from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. It calculates how often on average a taxpayer enters or leaves a state at net. Do you know we're number two? Every two minutes and twenty three seconds, somebody leaves the state of New York. Not to go to Disneyland, not to visit friends or family, but to find another home. Only California is one minute and forty four seconds. Now, the reason why I say this, as I say, you're keeping people here. You're attracting people. We've got great recreational opportunities. But all the polls, when we do them in New York State, of course, affordability, we know about that. But also they talk about public safety. I was the chairman of a task force on child abduction and missing children, so I did a lot of research on that. In fact, I got a previous governor to come to Exit 23 when we had threw away toll tickets and actually put the pictures of missing children and missing people on threw away toll tickers. We found the first person in Western New York because of that. Of course, we don't have toll tickets anymore. I want to ask you about Monroe Park, a child who was abducted from there. A fellow drove in there, abducted a girl. She was on a bike. The bike was left. He left. Had no idea the license plate on that vehicle, who that individual is. Now, cognizant of the fact we're doing great with our parks and recreation. But an environment means a lot to what happens with these facilities that are doing great and attracting people to come out. The only reason I think that more didn't happen to that young lady because you can be in another state when someone is abducted. A policeman parked in front of her home. This person came within two days and put a note there to try to abscond funding, to put the person back that she kidnapped. They found her she was safe, okay? Put in a bill. It was 7,688 Senate. All parks, all 180 and the 35 other facilities for cultural affairs would have to have video cameras as you enter a park and leave. Not in the park to be involved in their own personal things taking place. And the governor put that in the budget. We passed it two years ago. What is happening with that project? Because if we want to continue to be safe in this state, our parks should be the one bastion where you can recreate, where your children can ride a bike, and they come out safely. I know there's 12 indicated in this budget. They're going to get those cameras in and out. How many do we have in place right now of the 180 parks? And what's the projection on how soon we can get those in there?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Well, thank you for that legislation. So the governor did allocate $53,000,000 for security at state parks. And we are, as we speak, installing the security cameras and license plate readers at 51 state parks across the state. That will happen this year.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: So the total number that will have them at the end of this year is how many?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: 51.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: 51.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: And we chose those based on, you know, the amount of visitors that go in there, you know, what are the busiest parks, where do we think we're most vulnerable.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: There any projection for the other 134 of when they will get those cameras? Because everybody deserves that safety in the park to recreate.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: So that 53,000,000 was allocated. That's go that all of that money is being used for the 51 parks.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: And you look for more funds in the next budget?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: I leave that to you to decide.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Okay. Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Assembly.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Ranken, Assembly Member Gray.

[Assembly Member Scott A. Gray]: Thank you very much. Chairman Pretlow, welcome, commissioner. Glad to have you here today.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: So

[Assembly Member Scott A. Gray]: I just want to talk about the allocation and some of your capital projects. So $340,000,000 for capital projects. Is that net of those individual items that you list out, like High Falls State Park, Denny Farrell? Is that net of that? Or has that come out of

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: that No. So we have the $200,000,000 that we need to keep our system functioning and renovating it, and then the additional $144,000,000 the governor assigned to specific projects.

[Assembly Member Scott A. Gray]: Okay. And so I represent the Thousand Islands Region. And I know my colleagues, like Mr. Miller, has concerns about the allocation of some of the funding for some of these campgrounds and state parks and boat launches, standalone boat launches. So every time we go to the region, they blame it on capital, lack of capital funding. You tell us that it's coming from the region and from local input. And we give them input. And we're getting no progress on that. So how is the allocation being decided? Is it completely regional?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: So some of the money we use in Albany for the regions, for example, meeting, the governor's executive order 22 on sustainability. So we have an energy team in Albany that's doing the solar panels and the EV chargers. So some of that capital stays with I mean, it goes out to the regions, but it's not allocated to regions. I think last year of $200,000,000, 160,000,000 went out to the regions, And we try to be very fair so the region will send us a list that, you know, adds up to more than the total amount we have. But we do allow the regional directors to make those priority you know, set their priorities for capital. I know we're in a design phase for four of the boat launches, in your district. And so, you know, first we design it, and then we figure out how much it costs. So once we have a final budget April 1, somewhere around there, we'll circle back to the regions and let them know how much they're getting.

[Assembly Member Scott A. Gray]: And so are we looking at this year for capital for the improvements to some of those boat launches? Is that capital money flow this year and the work starts this year on some of these projects?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: I hope so. And it'll depend on Peyton and the regional director out there and what her priorities are. But I know she said that the boat launches are important to the region.

[Assembly Member Scott A. Gray]: They are. So it always seems like there's budgetary constraints in terms of and I understand that. But at the same time, we also allocate we fragment our approach, right? And solar panels, the EV chargers, they're all good things. But if we don't take care of our core structures and our facilities, our campgrounds, like 8 Lakes Campgrounds, stuff like that, if we don't take care of some of these core projects, all that other stuff is for nothing.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: You know, we didn't get a chance to meet each other out there. But I went to Wellesley Island State Park, which has more campground campsites than any other place. And we have a brand new welcoming center there. ROBERT So when we cut a ribbon on it, I went and checked it out in the middle. I guess it was October. It wasn't that cold. But we'll invite you to come out

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: and check out the new infrastructure

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: I get around to

[Assembly Member Scott A. Gray]: all the state parks. So I have like 26, 27, eight of them in the district that I represent. So they're critically important to our economy up there.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: J. Absolutely.

[Assembly Member Scott A. Gray]: J. As you know, the St. Lawrence River is a major tourism attraction. So our state parks are critically important. And so my concern is when we start talking about New York plays, New York swims, New York bricks, all those programs, they're great. And I admire the investment in some of those areas. But I think our core mission should be I mean, it is what we do. We have state parks. And I think until those are all of the standards that meet what people expect, I think we should be secondarily looking at some of these other programs until our parks are

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: And the only thing I would say is all the programs you mentioned swim, plays, and are all in addition to the $200,000,000 that we get. That isn't going into our parks cap.

[Assembly Member Scott A. Gray]: I understand that. But when we're talking about terms of priorities, right, when we're talking about terms of priorities, we ought to say parks first, and then if we can do other things addition to that, parks, you know, swims, plays, bricks, whatever, that's great.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Thanks. Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Senator Webb.

[Senator Lea Webb]: Okay. Now it's on. Good morning. Thank you all for being here. I guess it's Okay if I can ask the commissioner for ag. He hasn't testified yet, so I'll keep you at Parks for now. So I know the governor about a year and a half ago implemented New York swims, and so this is something that, we've continued to support most certainly, in areas like mine in the Southern Tier. We definitely understand how important it is to have access to swim, especially in our our public parks. Similarly, with New York bricks, these are two very important programs. So my question to you is, what are some additional steps that you need the legislature to take to really, solidify these particular initiatives that were set up in kind of like a temporary, fashion, while specifically New York swims, but also we know how, valuable the, New York BRICS program is? And thank you.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: So Senator, the governor did allocate another $75,000,000 for the New York BRICS program, which New York State Parks does in association with the dormitory authority. We also have funding in the Environmental Protection Fund. We have a municipal parks line that we encourage municipalities to apply to for funding for. And it can be for land acquisition, infrastructure for parks. We, as state parks manned, we put out 150,000,000. We answered 150,000,000 proposals in New York swims. And, you know, the governor there was funding for bricks in the governor's executive budget this year, but not for New York

[Assembly Member Carrie Woerner]: swims. That's kind

[Senator Lea Webb]: of my, you know, concern that these are really great initiatives just given the number of challenges we continue to see federally, but also these are programs that help a lot of our areas that otherwise would not have the financial means to make significant upgrades to infrastructure and and so on. And so, I guess, going back to my original question, even with the BRICS program, we know that's not enough funding. And so, again, what in your estimation would be helpful even more helpful from us in the legislature to help to further solidify these two, initiatives.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Well, I know that, when the governor first went out with New York swims, there was way more proposals than that could be funded. And I think that's when more money got allocated to that. I also neglected to mention that we are managing $20,000,000 of the bond act, the environmental bond act, well for municipal recreation. We just announced a new round, again, dollars 10,000,000 for recreational infrastructure. So that's another opportunity for local communities to apply for funding.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Okay. Assemblymember Zinerman? I cut off your thinking. She left.

[Assembly Member Stefani Zinerman]: It's green. I am here. Good morning again, commissioner. Congratulations. I look forward to taking you up on your offer to meet you at some of our state parks this summer. Just beware, I'll be traveling with probably 200 seniors and about 100 kids.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Bring them on.

[Assembly Member Stefani Zinerman]: I'm really excited to hear you talk about access, affordability, and wellness in our state parks. And so I have two questions for you today. The first one stems from my role on the Committee for People with Disabilities. And so if you could talk to us a little bit about how you imagine people who have a range of disabilities are going to continue to access the parks and certainly afford and enjoy the wellness that you imagined that they would. And my second question comes from my role as the chair of the subcommittee on emerging workforce. So I am totally excited about this Skills Trade Corp that you've put together, and certainly look forward to working with you, our labor unions, and just the idea of a young person visiting a park and then understanding if they can grow up and work there as well or get training. So could you talk to us a little bit about how those with disabilities will enjoy our state parks more, the investments that you're implementing this year? And then talk to us a little bit about how you imagine working with us to make sure that our constituents from our district I'm from Central Brooklyn, the vibrant 56, so we want to be a part of this new reimagining

[Senator Patricia Fahy]: J. Of work in the

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: as you can imagine, our park system is 100 years old. And a lot of the buildings that we have didn't contemplate all being open for people of all abilities. So we spend 75% of our capital money renovating buildings that we already own. And every single time we do a renovation, it is ADA compliant. We are upgrading all of our buildings to let people of all abilities come in. We're buying more mobility mats at beaches so that you can bring I know. It's great. We have a visitor enhancement program. So when you come into a state park and you're making your reservation on campgrounds, you can add a little bit more money to your reservation. And we've already spent over $200,000 of money that people donated to state parks on these type of things. A lot of them were for mobility maps so you can bring your family members that may have mobility issues with you. So that's some of the things we're doing. We're open all the time to new programming. So if your seniors have ideas, like if we're doing a yoga class and they want something different I know I went to Riverbank State Park, and there was all sorts of senior programming there. And lastly, on the New York Parks' trades corps, we're gonna start it's a pilot. We're gonna start small. We'll probably have two or three groups working in Harriman State Park on the historic campground there.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Okay. Thank you. Senator Oberacher. There's a sweet spot somewhere.

[Senator Peter Oberacker]: J. All right. We got it on. J. All right.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: J. Can hear you.

[Speaker 18.0]: L. Thank

[Senator Peter Oberacker]: you. Whoever was pushing that. Acting commissioner, thank you for your testimony. Thank you for coming up to Albany on this blistery day. I represent the fifty first Senate. I 12 parks in the seven counties that I represent. I was really interested in your testimony when you talked about affordability, wellness, and access. One of the things I'd like to focus on is those three words. Affordability, I am looking for more, not only boat launches, if you will, at those 12 facilities. But more appropriately, I live just outside of Kerberstow. And we put in a kayak launch in glimmer glass that has seen exponential use, absolutely amazing. Great project. Worked with Duane Owens, was a regional representative of the office. So thank you for that. But where I'm going is this. I've held many titles in my life husband, father, county legislator, town supervisor, and New York state senator. The one I covet the most is pop up. And to be able to have a boat launch in Cooperstown, to be able to take my grandkids fishing, I can't think of a better wellness part of your equation than to be able to connect with them. They may think we're fishing, and I'm really connecting. So I would just encourage you when and where. If we could get more boat launches, I think we will see the visitorship go up exponentially.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: JULIE Great.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: And I'll be with I learn something new every day at state parks. And one of the things I learned is that at New York State Parks, we build not in your district, but a little bit south, we build North America's largest ice skating rink. And so I'm heading out to Binghamton this weekend at Chenango State Park to participate in PondFest where we have hundreds of ice hockey teams show up in an outdoor ice rink that our staff built, every weekend. So I know those I I missed last weekend. It was a kid's weekend. It was a little cold. I think they canceled a lot of stuff. But I agree with you. The boat launches are critical, and having your grandkid in that boat is an experience that you'll want to have. J. I'll check with Duane this weekend about the boat launches in our Central Park District that he's planning on renovating.

[Senator Peter Oberacker]: J. And just being an outdoorsman, I can't think of a better opening that up to the many outdoorsmen in our 51st Senate District.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: So thank

[Senator Peter Oberacker]: you for that commissioner.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: I appreciate it.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: J. You. Assembly member Member

[Assembly Member Mary Beth Walsh]: Thank you very much, Chair Pretlow. Good afternoon. And apologies to my colleagues for letting me kind of skip ahead for a second. I appreciate it. This question that I have is for the acting commissioner, Kathy Moser. Welcome. I don't know if you were here last year. I asked a very similar question of Randy Simons. It has to do with the 200 and, the I think the complete, like, lack of budgeting that's going on for the two fiftieth, the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the American Revolution. I represent Saratoga County. The battle of Saratoga in, 1777 was the turning point of the American Revolution. And this governor has appropriated $7,000,000, $7,000,000 for this, and it it is specifically earmarked to one thing, which is People's Island in Assembly Member McDonald's district. Gotta love my colleague. Love People's Island. Have no problem with it. But it's being used for capital expenditures for that specific project instead of I mean, just comparing it to last year's numbers I had, Virginia, dollars 20,000,000. New Jersey, 25,000,000. And they don't have as much to say or to claim as far as historical significance as we do here in New York. So I'm incredibly disappointed to see the governor's proposal. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and whether you think it's adequate. And if you think that it should just be earmarked for one project and a capital improvement at one project, this could be an enormous historical tourism benefit. I mean, I just in December was a participant in the Knox Trail celebration. We had people from out of state. I I would imagine that for, 2027, we're gonna have people internationally traveling to the state of New York, and we are really not, appropriating nearly enough money. I'd like to give my remaining time to you to hear your thoughts on this.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: So I was at the Knox Trail event along with secretary of state Mosley when we turned over the sleigh over to Massachusetts. But, in last year's budget, there was $5,000,000 for the two hundred and fiftieth commemoration. Half of it went to state parks, and we're improving, the 44 sites that we have that are directly related to the revolutionary war. The other half, 2,500,000.0, went to state education, And they made a decision to put that money into all the tourism agencies in the different counties. So every county is getting money from the state education allocation to their tourism agencies.

[Assembly Member Mary Beth Walsh]: My perspective though, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but my time is limited, is that if walkways need to be improved, great. Walkways should that's but that's maintenance. This a this is a once in a lifetime event. Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Michelle Hinchey, who, she is a ranker, although she's a ranker on agriculture, but we're allowing both of our rankers to have up to ten minutes for the other commissioner. Although I think she has less than ten minutes worth.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you, Chair Krueger. And acting commissioner, it's great to see you. Know. I'm offended. It's great to see you. Thank you for your accessibility already. We've had a lot of great conversations on some of the wonderful parks and aspiring parks in the 41st District. And it was great to see you at the Knox Trail celebration in Columbia and Hillsdale. I do echo some of the feelings from Assembly Member Walsh who had to leave us. Know, I think it's great to have a holistic space. But we have so much rich history. And one thing I haven't seen is kind of the holistic plan for where we can go. I think you were getting a little bit to it, to the assembly with the assembly chair. But it would be great for us to see a plan instead of looking piecemeal. We only knew about Knox because it's in my district. I don't think anybody else in the legislature did. What are we doing with the Tower Of Victory in Newburgh as a critical place that's undervalued, quite frankly, from a historic tourism perspective? And so I would like to ask if there is a holistic list. I don't think that's enough money. I'm sure you can't comment on that, but I think we should be allocating more dollars to the 250,000 and would have liked to have seen that leadership. Is there a holistic list that you all can share with us about what's coming down the pike?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: So we've been working with the New York State Tourism. I love New York. So all of the events, both county events, local events, are on that path to history. But that's a good point. We should look into doing a brochure or driving people to that site. We also, on our state park website, we do have a landing pad for the two hundred and fiftieth. You can go in there and look for events. And we're trying to incorporate as many events from not just our state parks and historic sites, but county and municipal efforts as well.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you. And I mean, you've been in this role for like four months. So understand that a lot of this planning would probably have to be prior to your tenure. But I'm hopeful that with your leadership, I think we should be promoting much more aggressively, whether it's a brochure, more ad campaigns, figuring out how we're communicating to our residents. I mean, after I was with you, we went over to Great Barrington to continue the celebration. And in their old historic theater, it was packed with people who were celebrating the Knox Trail. There's so much more that we should be doing as a state. I love that it's you know, the local communities, the counties, the towns are leading. The state of New York should be leading this effort. And so, look forward to seeing some additional plans, hopefully, from your office, and would love to work in any way we can to help you do that. Want to take a quick second. I have Bel Air Mountain in my district. It's under order. And it's great. We love Bel Air. We love to see in the budget some of the allocated dollars, especially capital dollars for maintenance of Bel Air. But we just had a pretty big snowstorm. Our area got about two feet of snow. And while there was a state of emergency at the state level, Ulster County, Bel Air kind of teeters on the border. But in Ulster County, we had a county state of emergency with a travel ban. Only necessary required travel was really allowed, Bel was still open.

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: And so

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: our we got a lot of outreach from our volunteer fire department and our volunteer EMS who are the ones tasked to serve Bel Air. And I'm curious if you and the agency has ever thought about fiscal support for our local volunteer fire departments and EMS departments. Pine Hill Fire Department responds to about 40 to 50 calls a year at Bel Air. They're entirely volunteer. And they receive some contributions from the town of Shandakin in which they serve. But it's also a very large area. So you can imagine every time they a call out in Bel Air, it's, you know, mutual aid to get a call into their own community. So I'm curious if that's ever been a topic of conversation.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Well, I believe the park commissioner's on the board of order. But since it's in the Catskills, it's managed it's owned and managed by DEC. So I would suggest you ask that same question of Amanda Lefton tomorrow

[Assembly Member Carrie Woerner]: I. To her Will they testimony.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Half the time, George, is back to you. So hopefully we can continue this conversation then, because we do get a little bit of runaround on order generally. Question on a solar development district in Copaig. You may be asking, why am I asking you about a solar development? But we have one that's been denied twice by the state for improper siting. It's on some prime farm land. The commissioner knows what I'm talking about very well. But SHPO has actually expressed concerns for this development. It cited that it would have significant negative impact on five national registry eligible properties in the COPIK area. And that if it moved forward, that it would no longer guarantee that these locations would be considered for historic status. We understand that Schiavoni contacted the developer. The developer was Hecate, is Hecate about this issue, but were largely ignored. And so I'm wondering, you know, this is kind of maybe a unique situation, but I'm wondering what your role is in the citing process, and how you work with agencies or organizations like ORES, and how we can better support that.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Right. So obviously, preservation's in my agency. We have a whole team of historic preservation staff as well as somebody that is a state historic preservation officer. I'm not I'm not aware of the specifics of the solar farm you're talking about in COPAC. I do know that what they look at is how do you it's not always a question of a project not being able to move forward. Sometimes you can document it for historical reference. But I will check-in with my SHPO officer and get back to you on that specific case.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you. I would think that we should be holding SHPO and your agency in high regard as we're looking at historic places, especially as we're talking about the February. So I think you should have a larger role in that. I yield back my rest of my time. Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: J. Thank you. Assembly Member Septimo? I don't see her, so we'll move on to Assembly Member Warner.

[Assembly Member Carrie Woerner]: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Commissioner. Nice to see you. I have have three questions. I'm going to start where my colleague, Mrs. Walsh, ended. The two hundred and fiftieth Commission, you are one of the co chairs?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Correct.

[Assembly Member Carrie Woerner]: Was there an ask put forward to fund the broader efforts beyond what the state historic sites are doing?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Well, last year, there was the $5,000,000 And so the money that comes to state parks, the $2,500,000 we have to spend that on our own properties based on budget legislation, budget laws. State education decided to get the money out the door, and that's how they made the decision of sending the money to I

[Assembly Member Carrie Woerner]: get that. My question was, did the commission bring forward in this budget a request for additional funding to fund statewide efforts in communities?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: I'm unaware that the commission did do that. And I don't know what Commissioner Rosa did on her part.

[Assembly Member Carrie Woerner]: But you as one of the co chairs are not aware that the commission asked for money? No. I think that's a miss, but thank you. I appreciate that. You mentioned that you're doing some work with the state police, park police relationship and that there's a working group looking at the future of the park police role. I'm wondering if, as part of that effort, you are consulting with members the rank and file members of the Park Police on what their experience has been under the leadership of the state police.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Right. We have a great chief of Park Police. I meet with him regularly. And we've been talking about the relationship with the state police. I know superintendent James and, chief Donna are talking all the time. I did go out to the, Park Police Academy, met with a lot of the officers there, met with the 37 recruits. So we're I'm keeping a close focus on that relationship and making sure that we're working closely together, especially for major events, like at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. That's where we really need the state police cooperation.

[Assembly Member Carrie Woerner]: So are you aware that in the recruitment process, the recruits are not allowed to speak to anybody from Park Police when they're making their decision as to whether they're going to join the Park Police?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: I was unaware of that. I know that some recruits apply for both the state police and the park police, and the state police have a higher bar, for, you know, their requirements. So we do lose some of our recruits in the academy to the state police every year.

[Assembly Member Carrie Woerner]: And in my last ten seconds, I would just put in a plug, capital improvements, the Saratoga boat launch, huge potholes, and your ability to collect access fees is diminished because that's all broken.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Okay. Thanks.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Ranker Tom O'Mara, five minutes.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: Good afternoon, Commissioner Moser. To see you. I am the proud representative of Watkins Glen State Park, the number one visited state park in The United States according to Google Maps this year. And also on the edge of Lutchworth State Park, which I believe was number five most visited park in The U. S. So our park system is fantastic and a lot of good things going on. And I want to thank you for meeting with myself and as many members, Paul Massano and Gallahan, this summer regarding public private partnership at Sampson State Park and the good work that's been done there. Can you comment a little bit on where we stand on more public private partnerships? Because it's been really, I think, a huge success at Sampson State Park and I believe alleviates a lot of burden from the state funds under these public private partnerships.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Thanks, senator. You know, after we met, I went out to Sampson State Park and Seneca Lake State Park, and I saw the great work that, you know, our lessee has there. It really, provided different you know, whether it's campgrounds or cabins or it it was really great, to see that. We're pursuing more public private partnerships all the time, and, some of our regional directors are very entrepreneurial when it comes to that. You know, for example, we're buying scouting camps and then leasing it back to the scouts so that the the land is open to the public, yet the scouts can continue their programs there. So there's examples all over the state of public private partnerships like that, and and I would like to see more of them. You know, with our historic preservation tax credits, another thing that we're doing is, New York City's housing authority comes to us, and because the housing, some of the housing that they own is over 50 years old, we can declare it historic, and then they can get tax credits to for from historic preservation to renovate those infrastructures. So we're looking for partnerships like that all the time.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: Great. Thank you. Follow-up on the state run ski facilities Bel Air, Gore, White Face. It's been an issue with me over the years with the hundreds of millions of dollars that we provide those ski facilities for capital upgrades. They don't pay income taxes. They don't pay sales taxes. They don't pay property taxes. Our private ski facilities, which are also great attractions in this state, pay all of those taxes and really get nothing in return from the state. In fact, the state even charges more for their ski tickets on a daily basis than the private facilities. What can we be doing on tourism aspect of helping our privately run ski facilities that are really under unfair competition from the state facilities?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: So you're making my colleague, DEC commissioner Amanda Lefton very nervous right now because, New York State Parks doesn't manage the Adirondack Park or the Catskill Park where those, state owned ski facilities are. So I'm gonna ask you to defer your question to Amanda when she comes in tomorrow morning. I'll give her a heads up that it's coming.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: I think she'll know. But thank you for that. It just strikes me as very unfair over there. As a skier, I wish I'd been able to get to Bel Air during the state of emergency the other day because skiers aren't afraid of the snow. They go and get it. Avalanche. You see there's no funding in here for a park police class in 2026. Is that accurate?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: No. We are already recruiting. 02/28/2026 is the deadline to apply to be a park police. And we're planning we have one academy graduating in April, and we have another academy starting in December.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: Good. Good. I didn't see that in here. My notes said otherwise, so I'm glad to hear that. Where do we stand as far as staffing in our park police, the advocacy of it?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Currently, we have two thirty seven park police. We have the academy occurring right now, which will add another 37 park police when they graduate in April. And then we'll have the new academy in December. And I would say the class in, the academy right now is the most diverse class that we've had to date. So we're really trying to get more women and people of color to join our Park Police force.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: Are still seeing significant attrition from the park police ranks to other law enforcement agencies that pay better?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: It happens more as we were talking about in the academy when if somebody qualifies for both the park police and state police, we may lose them at that point.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Thank you. Okay.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank thank you. Assembly member Tague.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Thank you, mister chairman. First of all, welcome, And thank you for your testimony today. And you are definitely a breath of fresh air. This is the ninth hearing that I have had with Parks. And you have answered all the questions wonderfully. And it's nice to have somebody actually answering questions. So thank you.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Tell your Senate colleagues that when they confirm me later this year.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: I didn't say I agreed

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: with you.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Never know. Just a couple brief things. First of all, I was just wondering if you and Commissioner Ball have been working together on anything about doing some farmers markets at our state parks.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Well, yes, there was legislation passed that allowed that. We already do have farmers markets at our state parks. I believe there's a big one at Saratoga Spa State Park. But we're already complying with that legislature legislation. So I don't have the list of all the parks that host farmers markets, but I can certainly get that to you.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: That would be great because I think it's a great move. And, you know, not only does it help our local farmers and growers, but I think that there's also an opportunity for some ag educational materials for young kids that are there swimming or doing whatsoever. So I appreciate that. The other thing I wanted to hit on, and I don't want to beleaguer the point because my colleagues brought it up, but the February fiftieth as well. Being juror on the commission, I hope you would voice your opinion to the governor and the others that we're not spending enough money on that. I come from what we call, and the commissioner is actually, commissioner Ball is my neighbor. We live in a community that's considered the bread bread basket of the revolution.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: The commissioner said that to me various times.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: And and I like to say the man that single handedly won the the battle of Saratoga is from Schoharie and Middleburg in Schoharie County. It was Timothy Murphy. He's considered the first American sniper, and he shot two British army officers, sir Francis Clerk and Simon Fraser, during the battle of Saratoga. It'd really be nice at two fifty years to actually celebrate all these communities that played a part in our revolution. And I can tell you that Schoharie County played a huge part. And I was hoping that Mary Beth was still here so I could say they had to take somebody from Schiarie, get them to Saratoga to win the war. But anyways, the rest of my questions pretty much pertain to questions that have already been asked. I have two concerns. Number one, are we putting enough money in the budget to maintain some of the projects, some of the rebuilding projects or the new projects that we're doing? I think that's a fault of ours in state government. We spend a lot of money on a project and then we don't maintain it. And secondly, to the question that my colleague, asked again, do we have enough park police where we should have?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Right. So as far as maintaining, of our $200,000,000 that we get in New York works every year for capital, 75% of that goes to renovating our existing facilities. So, we are really have an eye to maintaining what we already have. Our New York State Parks trade corps also focuses on that because we right now compete with the private sector for electricians, plumbers. So we're hoping that if we can get use 18 to 24 range, bring them into state parks early on, train them in the trades, that they will stay with us to do that maintenance work, which saves the state money if we can pay our own employees rather than contracting that out. I'd also say on the February, we are spending our own operating dollars at our 44 sites at state parks and historic sites on different events and celebrations. So Old Fort Niagara, Bennington State, historic site, numerous sites across the state. We just had an

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: event Can I just interrupt you real quick? Then we have two beautiful parks in Schoharie County that are right one's actually near the fort, the Old Fort that's not there anymore, where Timothy Murphy actually lived, Shaw State Park, and then, of course, at the power authority. Yep. Maybe if you could just say that you and Assemblyman Tague had a great discussion. And if we could throw a little bit towards the two hundred and fiftieth for those two locations, boy, that would be great.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Well, I'll check with those two state parks and see what their plans are for this year on the February.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: You very much.

[Representative on behalf of Guillermo Alfonso Maciel, Columbia County Sanctuary Movement]: I appreciate it.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: You. Senator Jeremy Cooney.

[Senator Jeremy Cooney]: Thank you, chair. I'm thinking a little bit of moving around here. Commissioner, thanks so much for being with us today. I want to thank you on behalf of all the Rochesterians I represent for the historic investment that Governor Hochul has made with $75,000,000 to the new state park, in the High Falls District. Could you talk to us a little bit about the timeline for which that park will be developed, with that investment if this budget passes in the budget?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Right. So you know, that we just came out with a a vision and design for High Falls State Park, and we broke it into three phases. The funding that we're getting, we're obviously gonna dedicate to the first phase, which will be the city of Rochester owns the terrace park.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Mhmm.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: And we're talking to them about making that the first phase of the state park, putting an overview in there for that and, you know, really upgrading that park. We'd also like to open up a a visitor, a welcome center for High Falls State Park, and as well as we're looking at lighting the falls similar to Niagara Falls. Phases two and three, you'll know down in the gorge, DEC's leading the remediation of land from Rochester Gas and Electric and Bausch and Lomb. So a lot of the land, down in the gorge along the Genesee River would be phases two and three. So I would say phase one, we can probably get done in the next three to four years. The park will be the you know, upgrading the park will be the faster. Mhmm. The the new welcome center for people would probably take a little bit more time. And then phases two and three would be done over the preceding years.

[Senator Jeremy Cooney]: I appreciate that. And as you know, the governor has also proposed some additional economic development dollars for the areas surrounding High Falls, which I think will be terrific in terms of leveraging this opportunity from a tourism standpoint, but also for housing and new business development and stadium rehabilitation. So this is terrific. Also, another project that's on my mind is the Fjord Trail in the Hudson Valley, making sure that that incredible preserve, but also one of the most popular trails in The United States, is accessible to all people through public transportation. Could you comment briefly on the commitment from the Parks Department to build out that infrastructure, not necessarily the train stations itself, but making sure that there are sidewalks and trails that people can get to, especially coming from New York City.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Yeah, so parks in conjunction with Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail that I see is gonna be on the public Yeah. Peter's on comment period. Peter's here. Is already planning, accessible, development there. We're already Parks is already moving with the Breakneck Ridge Connector Yes. Which will be a lot more accessible. A lot of that you know, if you've ever done Breakneck Bridge, it's crazy

[Representative on behalf of Guillermo Alfonso Maciel, Columbia County Sanctuary Movement]: R. Hard. L.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: It's yes. But so all of it will be accessible to the public. That's part of the planning and design.

[Senator Jeremy Cooney]: R. Thank you for your commitment.

[Carly Fracaroli, Government Relations Manager, Scenic Hudson]: Thank you, Chair.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Assembly.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: R. Thank you. Assembly Member Miller?

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: Thank you. I just Commissioner, thank you for your testimony. I have a couple specific questions. Parks inside or anything inside the blue line? That's the DEC, correct?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Well, there's two historic sites in the Adirondacks that my agency manages, John Brown Farm and Crown Point.

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: Okay. Thank you, sir.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: But everything else is DEC.

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: So my question was going to be directed towards the campgrounds. But I learned something DEC. Yes. There seems to be a reoccurring theme here today, and it's on maintenance of our facilities. And, of course, we never seem to fund properly for the maintenance, preventive maintenance and other things. Can you please be specific on how the maintenance schedule is determined per facility again?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Right. So all of our facilities, we have a park manager. Sometimes a park manager will cover, you know, more than one park. We might have more like, in a place like Jones Beach, you know, we'll have a couple of assistant managers. But they're they're the front line for us on making decisions about replacing roofs, replacing bathrooms. If it's a minor repair, that's usually something that the region can do with the money that they're generating. Parks actually generates about 35% of our operating budget through concessions, vehicle use fees, campgrounds, and golf. So a lot of that money stays in the region, and they start to take that money and and make decisions on maintenance. If it's a big maintenance repair like a roof, a brand new building, that those are the type of things that we fund out of the $200,000,000 that we get every year.

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: Okay. So we have a capital project, five year capital project already in place?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: So that we do. We have, our backlog is actually, our capital team has a pretty good sense. It's a $4,000,000,000 backlog on all the, renovations that we need to do on existing infrastructure. And so what we try to do every year is we go to the regions and say, what are your most critical projects? Is it a boat launch? Is it a roof at a park police station? Is it, better bathrooms for patrons? And all of those requests come into our capital team in Albany. And as soon as the budget's passed this year, we're sitting down with the governor's budget. But once the final budget's passed, then we let the regents know how much money they're getting and what projects were being funded.

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Welcome. You. Natalia Fernandez.

[Senator Nathalia Fernandez]: Thank you. I'm going to plus one a lot of my colleagues about the support for two hundred and fiftieth celebration. I represent the East Bronx, specifically well, the thirty fourth. And we have the many locations that are very significant to the Revolutionary War, Battle of Pells Point. The Bronx in general was such a huge part of movement of troops and and material during that time. So definitely wanna make sure that The Bronx is on the radar when we're looking at how we can amplify and celebrate the history, that happened here in New York State. But, speaking of my district, I don't have a state park in my district, but I do have the biggest green space in New York City, which is Pelham Bay Park, in addition to numerous park spaces. And every year, every administration, as long as I've been around, parks funding always gets decreased in New York City. How are you making sure that New York State can help support, natural spaces like Pelham Bay Park and getting the sufficient funding that they need.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Well, one thing I wanted to say about the February, the commemoration commission had a presentation by CUNY, the Gotham Center, and they're doing some amazing work on highlighting places in New York City that were important to the two hundred and fiftieth. Peter Christian Agner was the guy that spoke to us, so I would definitely get in touch with him. We do have state money to help parks outside of the state park system. So as I mentioned, we just announced a new round, $10,000,000 from the bond act from municipal parks. We also have think In interest of time, I'm sorry. Gonna cut

[Senator Nathalia Fernandez]: out there a minute. Is there any awareness and interest in continuing the renovations of Orchard Beach? I also have Orchard Beach in my district. They've gone through $100,000,000 renovations so far for phase one to bring back the pavilion and a lot of the public spaces that have been under supported, under renovated, under used. I do have requests that I'm going be doing in the budget process now. But is there any talk of Orchard Beach in your radar?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Well, the the other source of funding, since it's not a state park, we wouldn't be able to use our capital money. But there is money in the Environmental Protection Fund for that type of project. And on my list of things to do, I noticed that mayor Mondani has named a new New York City park commissioner that I would love to meet with and talk about any joint programming that we could do together.

[Senator Nathalia Fernandez]: Thank you. And we do have a lot of great organizations, not for profits, Bronx River Alliance, Save the Sound, City Island, Oyster Reef. Is there funding available in this budget that they can seek to help support their efforts in protecting land space and educating communities?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: I don't you know, we have a Parks and Trails New York partnership program. And I know Will Cote is coming up and speaking later. That would be one of the ones that might be eligible. But I'll ask Will to answer that question.

[Senator Nathalia Fernandez]: Thank you so much. Okay.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you, Assembly Member Otis.

[Assembly Member Steve Otis]: Thank you, Mr. Chair, thank you, Commissioner. And at the beginning, you sort of joked that you're new, Commissioner Ball is not but. You're not new to this field. And so you're showing your expertise today. And congratulations and good luck on the great work. The question I have is really about where we've had at state parks increased volume, certainly since COVID but beyond. The volume at certain parks has gone up a huge amount. And so one of the things state parks has to do is sort of pivot and do some things that were not the normal capital plan or staffing plan to deal with those. I'm curious, get a sense of what are the parks where we've had marked growth in recent years?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Yeah. And we were talking earlier about how we have two fifty parks and historic sites across the state. It's the second largest state park system after California in The United States. And I think about places like Bear Mountain and Harriman where we do see a lot of people show up. And I think it's our job to say, hey. We have Goose Pondes State Park. We have Skunamong Mountains State Park that are really close by. And so one of the things that I love to do is to is to get people comfortable in maybe they've always gone to Bear Mountain, maybe they go explore a new state park. One of the programming that we have to do that is Ladders to the Outdoors, we're taking kids from cities, bringing them to parks, and making them feel more comfortable about kayaking, hiking, you know, trying new activities. So I do think we have parks that are well loved, and I think we have parks that have yet to be explored. And we need to do a better job of encouraging people to try out new parks.

[Assembly Member Steve Otis]: Well, good luck in everything. We're here to help. And I just want to say thank you to the great team at State Parks. You have Tom Auerth over here, Dan McKay, the other folks that run your different units. They're so helpful when we have issues that come up with our constituents or our groups. And so I just want to say publicly thank you how responsive state parks is as issues come up, and kudos to the whole team.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Thanks saying that. I have a great team.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Thank you. To close for the Senate, our chair, Senator Serrano, has five minute follow-up.

[Senator José M. Serrano, Chair, Senate Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee]: Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'll be very quick, Commissioner. One other thing I wanted to speak to you about is group camps. As a youth, I had the good fortune of attending a group camp in Harriman. And at that time, in the I'm not going to say when, but early '80s. There were quite a few more camps run by nonprofits, very affordable. And we're really giving an option for kids like myself from the inner city a way to escape in the summer and be up in camp and learn a whole host of skills that are very important if you want to interact with nature and become lifelong stewards of nature. We have some great nonprofits that are still out there doing that great work. But there certainly has been a decline in volume over the years. And I'm mentioning Harriman because that's where I'm familiar. But I'm sure in places all across New York State, we've seen a decline in the sort of group camp affordable model through nonprofits. Is there any sort of anything in the works or anything you can speak about that we can try to find ways to connect more kids from the inner cities or from any part of New York State to be part of group camps, and and how do we get those numbers back up?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Yeah. And I I I'm not an expert on this, but I have seen this across the state. I think, one of the things that's happening are families are a little more hesitant after COVID to sending their kids to sleepaway camp. We also I know that in the Palisades where, our Palisades region where both Bear Mountain and Herriman are, We have dedicated 400,000 annually for that region to continue to upgrade, the infrastructure. We have over 900 buildings that are associated with those group camps. And so the the New York Park trades corps that I mentioned, that's where we're gonna have that pilot program based working on the camps because there's such a backlog of the need. I also think as far as attracting more camps, that's gotta be a public private partnership. So, you know, are there more fresh air funds? Can we get the Girl Scouts or the Boy Scouts? I mentioned, in the Finger Lakes, we're actually buying scout camps, but then having the scouts lease it back from up so that they can continue to run their camp. So we're open to any ideas on how to attract more of those group camps because we have the land and we have the facilities to welcome them into our state parks.

[Senator José M. Serrano, Chair, Senate Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee]: I think that's wonderful. And I have to say, I could think of no better medicine development tool, you name it, than exposure to nature for young people. It has a lifelong benefit. I'm a product of that. And my children, we've spent many, many hours out camping and hiking and swimming in lakes. And the physical benefit is enormous and immeasurable, but the mental benefit, the emotional benefit, and how we carry that forth in everything we do in life. I think it should not be overlooked. Nature is the type of medicine that we need now more than ever. So I applaud your efforts. Certainly want to work with you to do more of it. Thank you. Thanks.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Assembly Member Schiavski?

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Think she's here.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Sheila? Okay. Assembly Member Kelles.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Great.

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: It's wonderful to see you, Commissioner, and congratulations.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: JULIETTE Thank you.

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: JULIETTE So a few questions. You mentioned that there's an evaluation going on about administrative oversight and roles related to state parks or park police and state police. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that evaluation is?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Right. So right now, we're working as the park police are working closely with the state police. We we rank our parks, you know, first tier, second tier based on the number of visitors we're having. So for the most part, our park police are going into the parks and patrolling. We call in the state police when we have a major investigation or a major event, whether it's a concert, a golf tournament. So we're we're constantly talking to the state police about when we need them. Like, the the air show at Jones Beach on July 4 will have both park police and state

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: police isn't related to, I know that, there is discussion about potentially reversing the 02/08/2019 decision about having park police under the state police. Is That isn't what you were referring to.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: No. This is just us in our we I hope to eventually have a memorandum of understanding with the state police about different roles, and responsibilities. But right now, that that's how we work it.

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: Mean, I know they're just fundamentally different. The park police and the environmental conservation officers, I think their identity has gotten very subsumed and lost a bit. And they all should be respected in their own right. So thank you for continuing to look at that. And you mentioned we've had a lot of conversation about the $340,000,000 for the capital. I'm going to second, third, tenth what everybody has said, the February. I would love to see discussion with the executive over the next couple months hopefully not too many months about getting more funding for capital for the 200 and fiftieth. So just put me down. I think that is you know, a missed opportunity for sure. But one of the things that I've always been curious about and what's difficult for me to assess is when we talk about three forty or whatever number, I don't know what it is in relation to. Have we done a comprehensive analysis assessment of what the actual need is evaluated across all of the parks?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: So across our existing infrastructure, not adding any new state parks, we have a spreadsheet that lists out $4,000,000,000 b billion with a b of renovation that needs to happen at our state parks. And so we every single year when when we get our budget allocation, we work with the regions to figure out what are the most critical needs that are happening. So that's how we do it.

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: And I'd love to get data on HABs and how many

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank features you very much.

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Assemblymember Cashman.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Was

[Assembly Member Michael Cashman]: convenient. Good afternoon, acting commissioner. I'm the new guy, so

[Assembly Member Ed Ra, Ranking Member, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: I know what it feels

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I to be the new person in the

[Assembly Member Michael Cashman]: want to amplify some comments from my colleagues, but I want to do it through the perspective of the North Country in the upper portions of Lake Champlain. The North Country has been part of the early preface of the American story in the earliest chapters from the Battle of Valcourt, which, all due respect to my colleagues, we wouldn't probably have been where we were without the Battle of Valkor being a strategic failure nonetheless. But we also have Crab Island that is in Lake Champlain. And over my years, I have seen this historic property where there are Americans and British buried side by side in unmarked graves, volleyed around from agency to agency. And I would really encourage you to lean in very deeply with that story and to pay some attention. Some of our local veteran groups with their own money, their own resources, and their own boats have been bringing over lawnmowers to mow the lawn. But also I want to amplify USA 250 from the standpoint of I was very fortunate to live in Plattsburgh and my district was in the path of totality during the total solar eclipse. And to me, this is you know, very significant in its own way. And I believe that the North Country was not fully embraced and as supported through New York State for that program. So, you know, on par for USA two fifty, I would like to see the commission and us embrace all of our our parks and resources and tourism because when we don't take the same opportunity to embrace all four corners, we're missing the opportunity to tell the totality of our own story. So with that, I'll yield the rest of my time and just say I'm looking forward to working with you and your team. Again, I recognize you're the new folks, but I just wanted to give you that constructive criticism as we sit here today. Thank you.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: I'll just add one comment to that. I'm getting ahead of myself. But Commissioner Rosa and I are about to send a letter to all of our sister agencies, like Ag and Markets and DEC asking them to get more involved in the two hundred and fiftieth commemoration. As you mentioned, a lot happened in Lake Champlain, and that's that's more of, you know, Adirondex DEC. We're hoping in the next few months, commissioner Ball and I have talked about some ideas, but to get other agencies involved in the two hundred and fiftieth as well.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you. Assembly member Giglio.

[Assembly Member Jodi Giglio]: Hi. How are you? Thank you for being here today. My question has to do with the historic Hulse House on Sound Avenue and Wading River that is part of the Wildwood State Park System. And for six years, we've been talking about this over 200 year old house being renovated. The architectural plans were being designed and engineered, and the work was to begin and hasn't yet. And the house continues to fall into disrepair. So I know that there was a plan to put solar on the tree line, a budding Wildwood State Park, and then also to repair the whole house and potentially rent out that farm for farmland productivity. So I'm just wondering where we are and where the money is in the budget and the capital plan for the restoration of that historic home.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: I knew about Wildwood State Park. I did not know there was JULIE Oh, I don't have that statistic yet. I'll definitely get back to you on that. I'll ask Chief Didianna for those numbers.

[Will Cote, Deputy Director, Parks & Trails New York]: JULIE Okay.

[Assembly Member Ed Ra, Ranking Member, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Yeah, because obviously, it goes back to what Chair Kim was talking about, pension equity and those types of issues, because I know there's been a retention problem. And obviously, we all know that our parks are great. We want to make sure they're as safe as possible. And having adequate headcount in the parks police is an essential part of that. I want to pivot over back to golf. You talked about the Ryder Cup and the economic impact. Sounded about what I spent in the merchandise tent when I went there, that economic impact. But we had you know, the past, we've had the PGA there, we've had the Ryder Cup, we had the US Open, and we have two more events coming up. Can you just elaborate a little bit? There was a report that the past events, there was a fee charged to the PGA for us hosting it. My understanding is that's not the case with the 2028 women's PGA and the two thousand and thirty three PGA championship. Is it a different structure in terms of how the state will be compensated for the use of the park? If you can elaborate on that.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: I know that the PGA did pay the state of New York $5,000,000 for the Ryder Cup, but I do not know if that was for the future events as well. So I'll have to get back to you on that contract.

[Assembly Member Ed Ra, Ranking Member, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: J. I mean, as you know, it really is a massive logistical undertaking that happens there. Tons of temporary construction and, obviously, everything on the back end of restoring the surrounding courses that are impacted as we host these events, which are great things. I mean, it was showcasing Long Island. We loved having it there. I was fortunate to have all the golfers staying in the district I represent in Garden City. So it really was a great event, and I look forward to those future events. The last thing that's also in the realm of golf last year at the budget hearing, we had talked about something had come to my attention with regard to the reservation system with Bethpage. My understanding is that both the Parks Department and the vendor that deals with booking tee times have implemented some changes to try to make sure the public has access to those times, that there's not bots booking them up and, you know, kind of through black market channels, getting them out to people. So can you just talk about the status of that and those changes?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Yes. So we have implemented those changes. It's really interesting. As you know, Bestpage is a world class golf course, so we have limited supply and lots of people wanting to be there. But the changes that 4UP, our service provider, did was they first installed the captcha system, you know, to make sure you're a person. You have to click on all the stuff. And then we do a a two part authentication to make sure as well that it's a human, and then there's a nominal reservation fee. And what we're hearing from our golfers, our patrons, is that they're finding the system is easier to use. They're getting the reservations because our vendor has eliminated the bots that were basically making the reservations.

[Assembly Member Ed Ra, Ranking Member, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Yep. I'm hearing the same, that things have improved. So I thank you and the entire department for your continued attention to that. Thank you, Commissioner. Thanks.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: J. Assemblymember Kim.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: J. Thank you. We've been hearing some concerns during this testimony about between the relationship between the state police, state troopers, and the Parks Police. You mentioned that you want to work on MOU to get a better understanding of the relationship between the two agencies. I just feel like when it comes to the MTA police or the Port Authority police, they don't report to the state troopers or state police or the NYPD. It's clear that they're a separate entity. And I think they can co the parks and state troopers, they can coexist without the parks police having to report what they're doing to the state police. And I think a better separation outcome would benefit the Parks Police morale and the recruitment process as well. So I just want go on record and state that. I know you've talked briefly about energy goals. 2030 is a big goal for parks. I think 50% the objective is to get solar and 100% energy neutral by 2030. Where how are we looking? What's the status?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: We're doing well. We're right now, we're on target this year to reach 21% of the energy, used by our facilities coming from renewable energy. We've also installed a 116 electric vehicle charging stations. It's a question of we try to put capital into that goal every year. And, our energy team, for example, got a $4,000,000 grant this year, for energy efficiency, and that's coming from, I believe, the federal government. So we'll even have more, money for this fiscal year to implement more solar panels and charging stations at our facilities.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: What contributes to the most energy usage at the parks?

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: Did you say what country?

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: What contributes the most to Oh, Contributes, sorry.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: I think, sorry, I heard

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: I'm like,

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: I think it's just maintaining the infrastructure that we have, whether it's visitor centers. You know, I don't know this for a fact. I'd have to get back to you. But I do think Parks owns over 5,000 buildings. So the energy needed to keep the lights on and heat and air condition some of those places would be my best guess. But I'll get back to you on that.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: Okay. Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Assembly member of Lupardo.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Great. Thanks a lot. Hi. Hi. I just have a quick question and a suggestion. First of all, I wanted to thank you for your partnership with our Taste New York stores in the Parks. I was curious as to how you were doing with the goal of 30% sales of New York products in the concessions. Because I've often been looking at the concessions when I visit parks and wish I could see more, especially on Long Island where I've heard from some folks that wish there were more of their some of their craft beverages

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: So we do include the New York products in all of our contracts with concessionaires. And currently, we have 35 locations at our state parks where we sell New York products, where the concessionaire has taken that and sold New York products. And I can get you a list of those 35 if you'd like that.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: That would be terrific. Also, as somebody who has done a lot of work with the craft beverage industry, just a suggestion as you're doing the two hundred and fiftieth planning, especially when it relates to ag markets, we have a lot of businesses out there that would appeal to history tourists like I am. I'll go to a place to see a museum or visit a site, but it's also nice to know that, for example, at a place called Serious Brewing Company in Mr. Tague's district, that they serve a beer called Schohari Burning. I would go there knowing that this was named after, it's a wheat beer named after the burning of the wheat fields in the Skarry Valley during the Revolutionary War. There are bakeries that are reviving heirloom grains. So I'm just suggesting that there might be a whole other linkage that if somebody were to do some digging, might be fun for people to, you know, broaden their experience when they're when they're celebrating the two fifty.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: That's a great suggestion. Someone sent me a picture at Treehouse Brewery across from Saratoga State Park, and they have a state park lager. We had no idea. Like, wait a second. I need to get in touch with that brewery and see if we can do more promotions like that.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Let's see if we can try that. Very good. Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Okay. I think we have finished all the questions for the Parks Commissioner. And thank you for staying with us all this time, Agriculture Commissioner Phil. And we're now going to turn to you. And we're going to start with the chair of agriculture, first in the senate and then the assembly. So senator Hinchy.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Testified yet.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Oh, hello. Oops. I thought I was reading your mind and already knew what you had testified. In fairness, we've had the printed version. Please take your ten minutes to highlight us on anything you'd like to highlight us. I think

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I can shorten it up just a little bit. But thank you so much, and good morning, Chair Kruger, Chair Pretlow, Senator Hinchey, Assembly Member Lupardo, committee members, and elected officials. Very pleased to offer my testimony on the fiscal year 'twenty six-'twenty seven executive budget for the Department of Agriculture and Markets. The executive budget recommends nearly $378,000,000 for the department. This allows us to carry out the work that is critical to our core mission. These funds also invest in initiatives that help offset costs for our farmers, boost our environmental protection efforts, further our agricultural education goals, and advance on farm infrastructure, marketing, and research projects. All of this is aimed at growing the industry and strengthening our rural economies. Agriculture is a major economic driver in New York with more than 30,000 farms that are among the nation's top producers of more than 30 different commodities, including dairy. New York farmers are forward thinking, innovative, and eager to meet consumer trends, producing some of the very best products in the world. Yet they face continued challenges, from increased labor costs to additional pressures stemming from supply chain disruptions, ongoing tariff changes, and cuts to important programs. Recognizing this, Governor Hochul has proposed in her executive budget a $30,000,000 tariff relief program. This will provide direct payments to New York specialty crop growers, livestock producers, and dairy farmers, providing some certainty in helping our farmers remain competitive in today's changing global marketplace. From helping producers reduce costs to investing in infrastructure, the governor is focused on direct support to our farms. The state's dairy community, which makes up half of New York's agricultural economy, has seen historic investments in infrastructure and processing capacity in recent years. The executive budget proposes to build on those achievements by advancing another round of the dairy modernization program and extending the refundable investment tax credit. With Governor Hochul's plan to maintain the Environmental Protection Fund at $425,000,000 the department will see continued funding for our programs that reduce the effects of climate change on the farm and protect our natural resources. Funding will target our grant programs that conserve farmland, boost farm resiliency, and provide additional aid to our soil and water conservation districts. Building a strong local food system and expanding access to food for all New Yorkers continues to be a priority for the state. In support of these efforts, this year's executive budget includes funding for the Farm to School, the Farmers Market Resiliency, and Urban Farms and Community Gardens programs. The Regional School Food Infrastructure Grant program will also see another $10,000,000 to encourage the use of fresh local farm products in school meals and open new market opportunities for New York's producers. To assist our farm families and workers, I'm pleased to say that the Governor has proposed increasing the state's commitment to the agribusiness child development centers to $11,300,000 plus a 3,200,000 allocation for capital improvements. This network provides child care, nutritious meals, and a foundation for learning while also providing essential family support services. Our local assistance budget will see an increase this year to nearly $84,000,000 under the executive budget. This funding will support research and promotion for many commodities, including craft beverages, apples, vegetables, honey, hemp, and more. In addition, New York's cider industry will receive a $250,000 boost dedicated to establishing New York as the state of cider. This investment will promote and market our cideries as premier agritourism destinations. In support of animal care, dollars 5,000,000 will continue the Companion Animal Capital Fund, which provides critical upgrades at shelters and enhanced care for our dogs and cats. And finally, the state is continuing its commitment to county and local fairs, which are hubs for education and a key part of our overall workforce development efforts. The executive budget proposes $5,000,000 in capital funding to help our fairs make infrastructure improvements and $500,000 in additional marketing funds to increase off season event capacity. This will help to draw new visitors to these community staples and introduce more young people to agriculture. Thanks to the investments that the governor and all of you have made in New York agriculture over the years, we no doubt have a stronger industry today, and I look forward to working together to further our shared goals in this coming year. So thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Let's try it again with the chair of agriculture in the Senate starting us off with ten minutes of questions. Senator Henschee.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you, Senator Krueger. And hello, Commissioner.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Great to see you.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Great to see you. Testimony in five minutes. Thank you. I want to start off just by saying how lucky we are and fortunate we are to have you as our agriculture commissioner here in the state. You are a tremendous advocate for our farmers and farm businesses, but you're also a great partner to the legislature. So thank you. I know you never totally love to hear that, but I just want to make sure it's on the record. Thank you.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Well, thank you. I always liked you too.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: I am wondering if you could shed some light for New York agriculture picture and the way that the federal choices have impacted New York ag. So we have seen cuts to SNAP, to the SNAP program. We have seen the elimination of LFPA. And these are programs that are really important to New York, obviously. Today, the controller came out with a report. And in his conclusion, states, the changes in federal agriculture support programs, the impact of tariffs on production inputs and markets for US agricultural commodities, and the widespread effort to detain and deport immigrants may ultimately hinder profitability and production, which would have implications for the supply and prices of food for New Yorkers and more broadly for rural economies. Can you just take a moment and help us understand the impacts on New York agriculture and how important these programs like SNAP, LFPA, and of course Nourish and HipNap are to our agricultural communities.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Sure. We'll take a stab at that. I'm actually heading to Washington this weekend to meet with the other 50 states, departments of ag, and talk about these various subjects. I would say it's fair to say that I get to Washington fairly often, talk with the other states quite several times a week. It's fair to say that there's a lot of uncertainty in the world of agriculture today in The United States. I think it's fair to say there's still some fog in Washington, DC about that uncertainty in programs and how this is all going to work. But I have to say that when I come back to New York, I feel reassured that the programs and policies that we've been working on for many years with your help, I see clarity there, and I see a lot of optimism here in New York. We have seen LFPA. We had renewed part of LFPA in December for $24,000,000 That was canceled. We did see the LFPA main program paused as well. Good news there we do have some funding which will last us until this fall available for LFPA projects. And it's important to note that the LFPA was modeled after New York's Nourish New York program, so we take a lot of pride in that. The uncertainty that most of the country is facing is largely centered around row crop farms, corn, soybeans, some of the commodity and program crops. I think we're fortunate in New York that we're a specialty crop state. We do grow a lot of corn and soybeans. Most of our corn and soybeans stay in the state, feed our dairy population. We don't export to China or the Pacific Rim or another country. So we're fortunate in that regard. It does affect the price of those commodities, which is an issue for our farmers that produce them. Tariffs are something that hit farms and, frankly, lots of businesses coming and going. The tariffs can increase the price of inputs that we need on our farms. We get a lot of inputs from Canada, certainly, and a lot of partners. And so our increased costs and productivity are challenged. And they also affect our ability to sell our crops at market prices. So tariffs get us kind of coming and going. At this point, we're down probably $10,000,000 in federal funding. There's still a lot of programs that are paused that are up in the air. Things like climate resilient farming, there was $30,000,000 in that program. That was canceled. That's gone away. LFPA, I mentioned, dollars 24,000,000 went away. But again, I like our chances in New York. Our farmers are very resilient. And we've got good programs, a good history of supporting agriculture in New York State. So I will take the temperature of the other 49 states next week. But I'm happy to say that we're in a pretty good place in New York State right now.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you. As you said, LFPA was modeled after the Nourish New York program, which is something that we should all be really proud of. We've been fighting for more money in the Nourish New York program to the tune of $75,000,000 Would, in your estimation, if we were able to get those dollars for the Nourish program, would that help close some of the gaps that we're seeing from dwindling money at the federal level to stabilize our farmers and get food on the plates of people across New York?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: R. You know, I think the biggest single gain in Nourish New York was the commitment by the state to connect the dots. The funding is great. The governor added some more funding when we saw snap cuts happening at the federal level to help boost that. But you know, to be able to directly connect New York producers with New York consumers in a very real way, the COVID pandemic lesson was very clear. New York better have a food system that's resilient, that works, that's responsive, that can take care of us. And when we go through something like that, whatever that might be, we don't want to depend on another country, another part of the world to feed us. Let's make sure that we have that connection of dots. So that's the biggest single. You guys can wrestle with the amount of funding it gets. The governor's clearly committed to it. You are. It's been the biggest single victory that I can remember in my tenure here. But I think the connecting of those dots, sending that lesson, that commitment. I want to just go one step further and talk about the Farm Bill, which didn't happen, still hasn't happened, but needed to be the most relevant Farm Bill in connecting those dots for New York. Unfortunately, I'm skeptical of how that's going to go. But the one lesson I learned in doing all the hearings three years ago about what the farm bill should look like for New York was that, for the first time ever, I heard farmers say, Don't cut the SNAP programs, because those are our customers. And this was kind of a revelation for our farmers post COVID. And I think we heard people who supported the nutrition title in the Farm Bill say, Don't cut funding for farmers because they feed us. So for New York State, aligning those two groups and those two missions, we don't need a smaller farm bill. We need a better farm bill, one that accurately depicts what New York's about.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you. Yes, and I know many of us have advocated in a bipartisan effort to push our federal partners and our federal colleagues to get a farm bill that works for everybody, and to get a farm bill, period. We hope that they listen. Farm to school. One of the biggest marquee budget items in the budget last year was the expansion of universal school meals. However, making sure that what our kids are eating, making sure that that's healthy, locally produced New York food, in my estimation, is critical. We have the 30% farm to school initiative, but it is underutilized. We would like to see breakfast and snacks included in the farm to school program, opening up more markets for our farmers, and getting our kids better food, especially now that this is a state priority. Can you talk to us about why you think the participation is so low, and how we could change that program to make it work the way it's meant to.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah, I think it's fair to always look at what we've done, where we've been, and where we need to go. We're up to 83 schools this year, which is a pretty good step. I think the buying of food for our school boards of education and our nutrition people has been complicated for years. There's been kind of a gray area about where food comes from and where food goes. I think we're working to kind of turn the lights on in those rooms and let people know. Clearly, we're going to have better economic outcomes on our farms. And I think more importantly, in what you focus on, what we focus on, is that we're going to have better health outcomes when young people know where their food comes from and understand nutrition at an early age. So it's just an amazing program. It should be bigger than it is. No question about it. And I think those improvements you suggested will do that.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Do you think adding breakfast and snacks maybe increasing the reimbursement rate, would that increase utilization and make that a program that's more robust for the state?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I understand that, you know, that's my feeling. Yes, I completely agree with that. If we're talking about getting more New York food to New York children, it's not once a day, it's all day.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: And also better for our farmers, right? If you're purchasing from the schools, you're not buying apples for just lunch and different apples for breakfast, you're buying apples collectively. So it's a better long term market.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I have to believe there's gains to be made there, for sure.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you. I'll be back.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you, Assemblywoman Lupardo.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Thank you very much. Hello, commissioner. A pleasure to see you. Good morning. It's certainly been an honor to have served with you during this stretch of my tenure If as we could talk a little bit about the tariff relief program. The governor has allocated $30,000,000 for this. I have two questions. One is, how did she come up with that number? What data was that based on? And how will this funding be dispersed? There's some urgency to it. And as you well know, we've done a lot of programs together. And it does take quite a long time to get the rules in place and the regs or whatever is involved. So I'm interested in how do we come to the $30,000,000 And what's the plan to get it out the door once the legislature approves that, if we do?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: R. The governor has been very singular of mind with regards to this. She, as you know, asked me to pull together a roundtable some time ago when the tariff discussions first began. She wanted to understand the impacts to each one of our commodities in New York. And so we brought in farmers, Farm Bureau, Cornell, economists, and sat around the table with her and talked about the impacts of tariffs very specifically. So this is something she asks about quite a lot. And I know she wanted to make a very clear commitment to New York State's agricultural community, understanding what the impacts to these tariffs can be. The size of these payments could depend on the weight, you know, hundredweight from dairy farms, sales, crops. The idea of larger operations may have suffered more than others. But I think the point is we're dealing kind of with a real time chaotic federal government that's already proven to be uncertain in this regard. So at present, this is the governor's initiative and her interest in sending a clear message to New York's agricultural community. It's intentionally pretty vague right now, But we're working with our partners and state government to talk about how we get this out to people in a timely fashion and accurately help them.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: So you think once this gets through the budget, this ought to be able to be dispatched fairly quickly?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: That's the intention to make it happen pretty quickly because the effects of the tariffs have been felt since the beginning of the year, frankly.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: I want to pick up on what my colleague Senator Hinchy was talking about regarding the impact on federal policies. Two things. We know we lost a lot of funding, climate smart commodities and the rest. Did that have any impact on your department staffing levels? Did you have to cut staff? How did you absorb that?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: We absorbed that by rearranging duties. We've got a great team. We've been, ever since COVID, really building back our capacity, and thanks to successful budgets over the years. We're in a very good position right now. But the work is still ongoing. It's still a good idea to consider the effects of climate on our agriculture in New York State. It's still a good idea to look at connecting the dots between the people who produce food and the people who need access to it. So we've got plenty of work to do. We have not reduced staffing levels, but we're continuing to look at other ways. And New York State can't make up for the loss in federal dollars completely, but we can stay committed with our Ag Nonpoint programs, our climate resilient farming programs, and all the ways that we support agriculture in the state. We're doing that.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: So if we could shift the workforce conversation now to what we're seeing out on our farms. There's just shocking stories coming in from other parts of the country where fields have been plowed under. They've lost their markets. How concerned are you about the impact of immigration raids on our farms impacting our ability to actually milk cows and get our crops out of the fields?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Frankly, for so many of our farmers, it's terrifying to have to consider that they're uncertain about their workforce. It's frightening for our farmers, but it's even more frightening for the workers that show up every day and do the work on our farms. So it's been documented. We've seen some very challenging situations occur farms in the state. And not knowing what's next is very discouraging. A lot of our workers are choosing to stay home from work. They're choosing to not go to Walmarts, choosing to avoid going to church because they're afraid they'll be identified or picked up some way. Having said that, we're educating people. We have a great workforce development program at Cornell educating our farm workers and our farmers about how to be smart in this era when there's some uncertainty out there, what to do in an emergency, look at workforce security issues, who's going to help get the work done should somebody be picked up, rounded up. But it's very unsettling for all of agriculture right now who have had many workers, same families on their farm for more than twenty years to run that risk of finding out that you don't have enough people. And it's not just for farms getting the work done. It's not just for the people who do the work worrying about where they're going to be tomorrow. But it's a concern about food safety. It's a concern about animal health and welfare because these are the people that take care of those operations. So right now, it's a frightening time.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Thank you. Can we shift over to talk a little bit about the Sun and Soil initiative the governor is proposing? The establishment of that program is going to build on NYSERDA's Agrivoltaics Research and Demonstration Program, as you know. And I guess it's being advised by the state's Agricultural Technical Working Group. What I'm curious about, is that group doing an analysis of the impact of loss of prime soil? I mean, we've lost a lot of acreage, hundreds of thousands, to development and to solar development. But is that group really doing that nitty gritty work of trying to understand what's at stake and how agrivoltaics fits into that picture? I would hate to see us somehow think we've you know, addressed the prime soil concern by focusing on agrivoltaics. I think it's important, but I'm just curious if that group is the one that's analyzing the bigger picture, and as you would say, connecting the dots between our future needs for prime farmland.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: -Yeah, I'm here to sing their praises. It's an excellent group. We have people on that group. NYSERDA has people on that group. And they are the ones that look at the technical details about how we can move forward in this regard. At the higher levels, the commissioner, at DEC, myself, president of NYSERDA, we talk very often. This is front of mind for us. And understanding the impacts fully of our energy desires in New York State and understanding that we've got to get along with agriculture and we don't need less farmland to do that, I think we're in a very good place. I'm very impressed with the working group, the technical working group. I'm very impressed with the input that we are able to have with our partners at DEC and NYSERDA. And I think that we've never had a better relationship there. As you know, we have an MOU with NYSERDA about our top four tiers of soil, for example, avoiding, minimizing, mitigating the impact on those top four tiers of soil. So I think that's going to do nothing but get stronger and has to.

[Assembly Member Ed Ra, Ranking Member, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: We'll be

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: continued on that topic as we go forward. The final area I wanted to just raise with you is having to do with the governor's Food and Fiber grant program, which has finally gotten stood up this year, dollars 8,500,000.0 going out the door for various grants for processors in particular. Of that $8,500,000 only $1,000,000 so far has been allocated to the fiber side of things. I was just curious if you could explain the vision that the governor has and the department for building out the, in particular, the industrial hemp pipeline because it just would seem that the potential is enormous in that area, yet this grant program is finally going out on the street, and only a very small portion of it's going to fiber. I'm just curious what the grand plan is there. R.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah. I think it's still a curious opportunity for New York farmers. I say curious because, you know, it's been we've seen starts and stops and fits along the way. We saw tremendous commitment when the last farm bill way back when opened up the opportunities here. And I think there still is a tremendous opportunity there. We released a grant today in that regard. The federal government is a little bit of a hang up for quite some time now on finally figuring out where they stand with industrial hemp and where they stand with some of the issues around industrial hemp and its uses medicinally, etcetera. I think the investment last year in the budget to Cornell to do the research, get the equipment, figure out you know, it was a $5,000,000 investment there. It's starting to play out. They've got the equipment. They're starting to do that work. I think we've got to see where that goes, where that takes us. But right now our farmers are very cautious. No one's feeling very brave to pursue that anymore.

[Senator José M. Serrano, Chair, Senate Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee]: Right. Thank you. Thanks.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you very much. Ranker Tadesco. Oh, you traded on me. Sorry.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Excuse

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: me, Ranken Borrello. R.

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you, Madam Chair.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: It's okay to anybody.

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: R. Yeah, exactly. I'm not getting a downgrade today. First of all, I want to echo the sentiments of our chairwoman and how great it is to have you as our commissioner. You do a fantastic job. The fact that you are not only a farmer, an agribusiness operator. You really understand the uniqueness of New York agriculture. I want to talk a little bit about the fund for the tariffs. I bring it up because, honestly, you were the one who brought to my attention a long time ago that, quite frankly, it's unfair tariffs from other countries, particularly Canada, that has had negative impact on our farmers here. You called Canada's policy on dairy a scheme that shuts out New York farmers. So I guess I support the idea of tariffs should be fair. And that if we have countries like Canada, Mexico, or other trading partners that basically shut us out of their markets, that has had a negative impact on agriculture. That being said, I understand the input side of it. But when you start talking about $30,000,000 that is going to be up for grabs, I guess the question is how do we qualify what market is impacted? So who is our biggest as far as exports, what do we export? Where does it go? And who's going be most impacted? And is that going to have how is that going to determine who is the most impacted and how that $30,000,000 will be distributed?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: J. Canada is our single biggest trading partner worldwide. Mexico, probably next with taking more than 25% of our dairy exports. And then it's all around the world. So 40% of what we produce in New York goes somewhere else, which is a high number. You're correct. You know, the relationship and the discussions I've been very fortunate to be a part of if you remember NAFTA, you know, the three countries in North America, and now the USMCA to be a part of that conversation when Canada misbehaved, particularly around dairy. And the cost to New York at that bad relationship time was about $60,000,000 in exports from New York, just with two processors to Canada. So big stakes there in this game. But the NAFTA and the USMCA put in place something called the Trinational Accord, which is I participate representing New York. But all 50 states and all the ministers from the provinces in Canada and the 42 states in Mexico, we participate in those conversations. So we talk about trade agreements. We really should be talking and calling them trade relationships. And I think the challenge then, which you identified, was big and it was important and they were misbehaving. But the opportunity to have a relationship and get into that and get rid of those annoyances and those things that are disrupting trade is very important.

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: J. It's fundamentally unfair what they have done to us in the past. So that's my question. And I was in Canada recently, and the strong dollar is probably the biggest impediment to our exports right now. They're up to 1.4 right now, the US dollar. As someone who actually exported products to Canada in my previous business life, I can tell you that that was the biggest challenge, was transportation costs and the strong dollar. Do we judge someone's impact when you have so many factors, like the exchange rate, like the added cost of transportation, that could be negatively impacting them, unrelated to tariffs, quite frankly?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah, but I have to I totally agree with you. The value of the dollar has changed my whole farming operation pretty quickly. But I have to say that, you know, tariffs are a decision that's made. And the impact that we've seen in New York State since the tariffs have been started has been dramatic. The cost of buildings, expansion, feed I can think of one dairy farm alone I know in the North Country whose feed bill went up $10,000 a month. These impacts are real, and they're affecting the future of New York agriculture. And the governor wants to make a commitment and display that to our ag community.

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: So do you think it's more of the inputs that would justify this funding rather than the exports? I mean, I understand that there are important things when it comes to feed that farmers get inputs from Canada. I don't know if there's alternatives. I'm not an expert at that. But are we going to be reducing the cost of inputs for farmers rather than subsidizing exports that have been damaged by tariffs? I guess it just seems like a very slippery slope. And $30,000,000 sounds like a lot of money. But in the scope of the size of our agriculture economy in New York State, it's a small amount of money. So how are we going determine who gets it?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: R. It's a small amount of money, and it's not going to adequately make up the difference clearly. But if you look nationally, the bridge program is $12,000,000,000 That's not going to be enough either. Dollars 30,000,000,000 wasn't enough in the last White House that did this. R.

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: R. Oh, thank you. R. Lemondes.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: R. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, before I get into this, quickly, I think we should all acknowledge Chairwoman Lupardo. This is her last budget hearing as the chairwoman of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, and she's done a wonderful job. It's been an honor and a pleasure working with her. So Donna, thank you. Thank you, Donna.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Need a second?

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: What's that?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Do you need a second? Sure. You

[Bill Ketzer, ASPCA]: got it.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: The only thing is they're still taking my time. I thought they'd be nice to me and keep me. But anyways, commissioner, first of all, always an honor and a pleasure, my friend and neighbor. I just quickly, hasn't agriculture in New York State or across this country since the beginning of time, wouldn't you you used the word uncertainty. Hasn't there always been uncertainty in the market and and in agriculture? And and why I say that is, you know, as you know, I know a lot of farmers. I was a dairy farmer. Most of my friends are dairy farmers. I haven't had one of them come to me to complain about tariffs. What they complained to me about is the price of their milk, which right now is the same price as what I was getting paid in 1986 and 1987. The difference is between now and 1986 and '87, the price of equipment, the price of grain, the price of growing crops has quadrupled. And we're expecting these people to make a living and do their jobs for 1985, '86 and '87 prices. It's not the tariffs. And I totally agree with your statement. $30,000,000 isn't enough. We ought to change the name this to farmer relief. The people that feed us. The people allow us to live our lives every single day. The people that take care of the environment are farmers. Never mind the political b s. Get rid of the word tariff and let's call this farmer relief and let's up it. Not 30,000,000. Right now, price of a cow, both beef and dairy is anywhere between 3,000 and $4,500 a piece. If you take this program at 30,000,000, you could get every farmer in the state of New York 3,000. I ain't gonna help them. They can't even pay their grain bill for $3,000. They can't even put corn in a 15 acre field for $3,000. This is just a political stunt. We need to stop it. If we really care about the people that we represent and we care about our farmers, then let's have real real policy that helps our farmers. Not because we wanna take a shot at the Trump administration or the Republicans in Washington. Let's work together. And I will tell you, the greatest committee that I have ever worked on here in the New York State Assembly is the agriculture committee because we're bipartisan. We work together whether it's George Morello, Michelle Henschon, Donna Lupardo or myself. The word republican or democrat doesn't even come up. The governor should be ashamed of herself for this. Ashamed of herself. Using our farmers, New York State farmers that work their tail off, work their fingers to the bone, and we make this about politics. I'm ashamed of her. I'm ashamed to call her my governor. And everybody in this room should be the same. We are supposed to stick together. No farms, no food. Knock off the politics, and let's help the people that have been suffering for years and years and years, our farmers. Now, commissioner, one last thing now that I've used up most of my time because I get very aggregate aggravated and passionate. But anyways, we just passed the whole milk, Healthy Kids Act in Washington DC. And I would ask for your help. I would ask for your help that we promote this to our schools. To make sure that we get this whole milk and 2% milk back in our schools that should have never been taken out to begin with. And I'm hoping that the Department of Agriculture Agricultural Markets will help us. That we go around and that we educate the people at these schools to understand I mean, senator Hinchey just talked about it, the healthy food program. Good balanced milk from New York Farms should be included. And I would hope that my friends at ag and markets will go around to our schools and please advocate to buy New York State milk and also give them all the essential information of why it's so important. And I'm sorry I took up most of the time by making a statement, but I get very aggravated over this political BS.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Excuse me, Senator Chris Ryan.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Commissioner, how are you?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I feel good. How about you?

[Senator Sean M. Ryan]: I'm good. Well, let's talk about the Great New York State Fair.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Okay.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: No, I'm

[Senator Sean M. Ryan]: just kidding.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: I thought we

[Senator Sean M. Ryan]: were just trying to change the dynamic. But no, thank you for your work at the great New York State Fair. It's nice seeing you for ten days, for those ten days leading up to Labor Day.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Thirteen days.

[Senator Sean M. Ryan]: Thirteen? Now it's thirteen, extended. Correct. So a lot of these questions have been asked, but one question I do have regarding the tariff relief funding, what's will they be prioritized by way of size? I know that it's a little bit you're not uncertain. I know you're a little uncertain about who will get rewarded awarded money. I think you said very quickly as soon as we can get it appropriated. But is there a size? Are we talking small, midsize, or is this basically everybody who kind of needs it? Because everybody needs it. Everybody's heard

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: of me.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah. We've left it a little bit vague here because we've got to the scope of the farm, the size of the farm. Obviously, all farms should be included in this because tariffs have affected all our farms, I all the think when I think about agriculture today, where it was with my grandfather, he worried about the weather. And he worried about the price of milk, for sure. The state's been able to invest in processing capacity in New York State. So where ten years ago I got calls on the price of milk several times a day, I don't get calls about the price of milk because I think we put in legacy investments in our dairy processing infrastructure here in the state. Farmers know they're going to have business. But the day to day activities are really what are bothering people, for sure. I think this is an attempt, as I mentioned earlier, for the governor to send a clear signal that she's investing in agriculture and wants us to continue to do the same.

[Senator Sean M. Ryan]: Just a follow-up to that. So I know that the question was, I think, Chairman Lupardo asked how we got to that number. And obviously, I believe the $30,000,000 could have been or possibly could be bigger. But is there perhaps a number in mind that you could actually get to, I guess, offset some of the tariffs and some of the relief. How how how I guess the question is how big of a problem or who's impacted and how much could he actually have to put into a fund to offset?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah, I don't think my mind's big enough to calculate that total number. I really do see $30,000,000 as a down payment here. Not that we need to do this continually, but this is a partial help to farmers who have struggled with this issue.

[Senator Sean M. Ryan]: Yeah. Well, listen, I hope that we don't have to continue to do this. But thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Assembly. Thank you. Assembly. Button shown.

[Assembly Member Marianne Buttenschon]: Thank you, chair, and thank you, commissioner, for your visibility across the state, attending my farm tour, you and your team, as well as many others.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Great day.

[Assembly Member Marianne Buttenschon]: I appreciate it in meeting with all of our small local school children to talk about the importance. You discussed many valuable topics, as well as my colleagues brought up many that I feel are important. However, workforce housing for our agricultural community is one that is we look at making our farmers whole. We have to ensure that there is housing. I will give all my questions, and then if you could address them. Thank you. And for both commissioners, as we talk about the importance of the two fifty celebration and our local fairs as well as the state fair? What type of partnership do you have to ensure that that is emphasized in those areas? And in your testimony, I didn't hear too much on state fair funding. If you could just talk a little bit about as you know, our local farmers are looking for a little bit more financing as they attempt to show, saying they can't afford it. I hear that quite frequently. And then just finally, the importance of local products within our schools. I commend you with 83 schools, and I look forward to the further expansion and possibly how this legislative body could help you. Thank you.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: J. Yeah, thank you. Great questions, a bunch of them. Do my best in a minute and twenty seconds. The housing, the farm worker housing program, we've been able to double that funding over the last five years. It's very highly subscribed. It's a great program. Zero interest loans to farms for ten years to improve their farm worker housing. It's been very popular. As payments come in, they are more available, again, like a revolving loan fund. That's going great. 200 and fiftieth and Parks, even before she's confirmed, we're talking about what do we do at the state fair to help accentuate that. And as a scary Valley farmer, breadbasket of the revolution farmer, Timothy Murphy fan who did fire that shot that killed General Frazier and turned the world upside down, we're very excited about that opportunity, having been in the crosshairs. And most of you had eighth grade education around New York State history. Remember the three pronged attack on New York State, in which we were right in the crosshairs of. State fair funding is good. We've been able to do so much in the last few years to really build that up. More importantly, to connect our county fairs, state fairs together to have more impact on career choices by our young people. So the number of young people shows experiences, those that are in four H, ag in the classroom, or FFA, reaching out beyond those has been really heartwarming to see. Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Let's see. We have Senator Tadesco, I believe. Yes.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: You're welcome.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Thank you very much, Commissioner, for being here and being so active in the senate and assembly districts across the state. You've been very active in the 44th Senatorial District. We see each other a lot, I really appreciate that.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Thank you.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: I wanna ask you about a bill that we have pending in the senate in the assembly. It's s 23 in the senate by myself and a two nine seven by assemblywoman Buttenschon. You know, we have a shortage of doctors. We have a shortage of nurses. We have a shortage of teachers in New York State. Welders we need. They're getting twice the amount of money if you can get a welder. Plumbers. But the people who bring food to our table are farmers. They have a shortage of farm workers, I believe, in New York State. And this bill, I believe, would put a dent in that. It would address that. It would peep people to work. It would create jobs. And it would send them incentivize people to help them get that food from their farms to our tables. What it does, very simply, provide a tax credit to farmers who wish to build farm working housing on their farmland. And, in fact, it's a part of their every time we get something from the farmers, that's listed on them, a tax credit for them to incentivize the creation of jobs for farm workers and help them get their products, develop them, and get them to the market and get them to our table. Do you have a position on that? Do you think it would be helpful? And I know it's a serious concern. They talk to me about it a lot. Several of my districts say, yeah, we we love to build facilities. We love to provide affordable housing for workers. And we love to have the workers. I think it would make some sense.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah, two things there. Happy to talk to you more about that in-depth. We do have the farm worker housing program, 0% loan for ten years. That's been very successful. Those ideas I'd be willing to talk to you about. Workforce development is kind of a touch point for us at the department because I do get around the state quite a bit. And I do see not enough workers on our farms, not enough workers in our food manufacturing facilities, our dairy processing plants. So we just put out an RFP today on workforce development at the department. We've got about $3,000,000 to help jump start some things here. That, in addition to our work with FFA, 4H, Ag in the classroom, and our Manor students, yeah, those are ideas that we need to do more about very quickly because we need to identify that next generation of workers on our farms

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Thank you.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Where they're going to live, etcetera. So thank you for that.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Thank you. I'd just say in the last fourteen seconds I have, we have in this budget, at least last budget, dollars 800,000,000 for Hollywood moguls to come here for three days in a week, create a couple jobs, then leave. The Empire Center says that's a wasteful amount of tax credits. I think we can help the farmers with a tax credit, create housing

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you, senator. Work. Assembly member Lemondes. Thank

[Assembly Member John Lemondes Jr.]: Thank you, you. Chair. Commissioner, it's a pleasure to see you, as always. Thank you for being here. Two questions. One, very simple, on meat processing, the grant program for that. Could you comment on when you see the throughput actually increasing? Because this is something that I personally struggle with and wonder when are we going to have that increased throughput so that our appointments can be shorter and that those transportation lines can be reduced?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: R. Yeah, thank you for that question. And thank you for the support of the bill that we had passed through. We're in our third round now supporting that processing. The first round, highly successful. All 5,000,000 went out the door pretty quickly. We're now looking at round two and round three coming out together. So that gives us an additional amount of funding. It was kind of just an odd situation. The USDA put out a billion dollars. Yeah. No takers. None. And the 5,000,000 in New York State, maybe because they trust you and trust us more, went very quickly and didn't meet the demand. The demand exceeded the funding. So very excited to see those next two rounds go out. This is very important because, we've identified post COVID the shortage in processing capacity in New York State. And we have the animals, and we have the farmers that are willing to grow the animals in a high degree of quality. So this is a great program.

[Assembly Member John Lemondes Jr.]: Thank you. My second question, similar to Chair Lupardo, her question, but from the other perspective, wonder if you would comment on whether or not New York should have emergency funding available for, as you know, when the federal government shut down, that stopped legal h two a migrant worker visas in place. And so many farmers all across our country found themselves in the position of the arrival of their workers, their legal workers, being late commensurate with the amount of time that the federal government was shut down. This is screwing farms in New York and every other state right now. And so I I say that from a perspective of experience in an uncomfortable way and still as an obligation to follow the legal process. The penalty for for following the legal process leaves no reprieve for those farmers doing it right.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah. It's been very challenging. The h two a program is frankly an option more and more farmers are taking up because they can know they have a worker. But it is complicated by the fact that it's an agreement between the federal government, the state government, a farmer, and a worker.

[Assembly Member John Lemondes Jr.]: Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you, Senator Oberacher. There

[Senator Peter Oberacker]: we go. Commissioner, thank you. Good to see you. This is our last budget hearing together. So just thought I would J.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I didn't bring you anything. I'm sorry. J.

[Senator Peter Oberacker]: That's Okay. That's all right. I appreciate that. Again, I first off want to say thank you and job well done. We had spoke earlier on about increasing processing, which you have done, both on the dairy side and, of course, on the meat side. So I thank you for following through on that with hopes that we would continue to increase the amount of processing opportunities that we have within the district. You know, my son being a farmer as well, I think a couple of things we could look at that would really make a difference. We've spoken about a lot of input costs and things like that to farmers. But by far, I think energy would be is something we could look at on the electric rate side. I know that that has gone out of sight on everyone's budget more appropriately for our farmers. I want to thank you and your staff for an issue that we had in Delaware County that you were involved in. It's not very how should I say glamorous, but it had to do with the manure pit. So thank you for that. Sometimes we in Albany are well versed in manure. And just lastly, commissioner, I think, again, you've really handled it well in the ag and markets sector. And I can't say thank you enough again for being a farmer, but also for being in touch and not losing that country sense is the term that I use instead of common sense, country sense that you've brought to the office. And lastly, this. If you're eating a meal at a table, they say you ought to thank the carpenter that made it. If you're eating a meal in peace, they say you ought to thank a veteran for that. And more appropriately, if you're eating a meal at all, you should be thanking a farmer. So with that, I want to just say thank you. And maybe we'll meet some other place at some other meeting and conference.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: We'll look forward to that. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

[Senator Peter Oberacker]: Yield back my time of fifty seconds. Thank you.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Thank Thank

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: you, Assemblywoman Zinerman.

[Assembly Member Stefani Zinerman]: Great to see you. My pleasure. I really wanna just thank you for your commitment to equity in agriculture, food access, and climate resilience. I know you work hard at this job. You have been very helpful to me and my district. Yet I look at this budget and the specific cuts that have been made to black farmers programming, the beginning socially disadvantaged farmers, and, of course, community food and land access. So I really wanna understand what the rationale was. And so I have about five or six questions for you. I know you're not gonna be able to answer me now, but you always send me a, like, nice email to tell me what what you all have been thinking. So if you could just tell me what criteria or analysis did the department use to justify these cuts, and how could these farmers and community organizations get over the impact that it's going to have to their programming? As we celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this country, we know at one point, black farmers were 99% of the farmers, and now they're less than 1%. And so my second question is, where are the new and aspiring farmers from underrepresented backgrounds gonna go to for training, technical assistance, and business development? Are they able to access some of the $30,000,000 that we've been talking about today that we know that's not enough for what is already intended? But will they have access to those dollars? The Grow NYC food access sites were defunded by $850,000. How many sites did that funding support, and how is this cut expected to affect food access in low income neighborhoods, particularly in New York City? With regard to the resiliency planting and agricultural forestry programming that was cut by a billion oh, wow. There's a new $1,000,000,000 resilience and restorations project category created. Will these smaller community scale programs be eligible for that new funding, and what share will reach those small and mid sized farms? Finally, wine, wine, wine. $34,000,000 was at the wine market, and now it's less than 1%. I'm sorry, mister Tague, as a result of the tariffs. So how are we gonna deal with the tariffs that we are experiencing? And I'm going to allow you to have the last twenty five seconds to try to answer all of my wonderful questions.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah. That should work. Actually, a lot of the the cuts that you see are the opportunity for the governor to present her budget in the executive form, and then for the legislature, the Senate, and the Assembly to weigh in. The cuts you described were legislative ads in the past. And I welcome you to consider those going forward and being part of that conversation going forward.

[Assembly Member Stefani Zinerman]: I will.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Thank Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Senator Tom O'Mara.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: Good afternoon, commissioner. Thank you for your testimony today and your years of perseverance with us in your position. Appreciate that and I enjoy working with you.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Thank you.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: Where are we on the spotted lanternfly and its impacts on agriculture?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah. It's still potentially so deadly. We are communicating with all the communities that are vulnerable to it, particularly the wine industry, particularly the apple industry. As you know, it follows freight lanes. And it follows that being train lines and highways. It latches onto a car or onto a truck and gets moved around the state. I think we're keeping up pretty well. We are seeing some cutbacks in federal funding in that regard, USDA APHIS. I'm going to be meeting with them next week directly in Washington. It's a shared partnership between our funding at the Department of Ag and USDA APHIS as we look at pests like this that are invasive. Far worse impact Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. But I think our education program and our people have done a great job alerting the industry what to watch for and how to take care of it. I would add also, I mean, we haven't solved this problem, but Cornell IPM is working on it as well, alternative methods to help control the problem. So I think we're doing the best we can with what we have to work with right now.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: Do you need more resources to work on it?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I don't think it's a money issue right now other than the support of IPM. We do need to fast track some controls and hopefully controls that are of the integrated pest management neighborhood, not just whacking them with a pesticide, but actually thinking about the biology of the pest.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: Given the impact of the spotted lanternfly on the grape industry and the apples, as you mentioned, How can we justify a 12% cut in funding to the Wine and Grape Association and a 61% cut to the funding of the New York State Apple Growers Association?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah. Those are legislative ads. And certainly would welcome your input about continuing that funding, and if it's the right amount, if it needs to be bigger, and what your priorities might be in that.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. I will do so. Similarly, there's a 52% cut in the New York Farm Viability Institute programs. Is that also what you would call was a legislative ad that we should be fighting to add back in?

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: Yes.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: To help farmers with their dealing with all these issues that we've talked about this afternoon?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I met with them last week. Good organization and importantly farmer managed. Yes, Next,

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: funding for the Central New York Lyme and Tick Disease Alliance has been completely eliminated from the budget. It was only $50,000 which I think is inadequate. Certainly, still are dealing with major issues with Lyme and tick disease that are significant, and so many New Yorkers are suffering the consequences of that. I think we need help in it from your angle, well as the Department of Health. But why was that funding eliminated?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: That was a legislative add. We certainly want to talk to you about, is that the right program? Is it the right amount of funding? And we can bring in DOH as well.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: Lastly, on the changes to the animal shelter requirements. The budget here, what funding, if any, is there to help our local animal shelters meet the changes in the criteria for running an animal shelter because I'm hearing from a lot. A lot of them are just going to close their doors. We don't have enough of them as it is. So in here is going help with that issue?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: We're going to spend this year because the effects of that law, which was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor, is really taking effect this year for the first time. Our role at animal industry is going to be to spend this year in an education mode, helping people figure out how they can comply. On the other side of the fence, we've got the educational opportunities, which is what we're going to spend the year doing. But we also have the continued funding coming from the animal companion bill to help them make those improvements on their shelter to meet the new criteria. It's a pretty tough one, and we acknowledge that. So we're going to spend this year helping them get ready.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: R. Yeah, I think it's very burdensome requirements that have been put upon these facilities. And I think we will see many of them struggle with keeping up with those. And certainly, we all have a concern and want to care for animals in these shelters. But frankly, I think some of these requirements just go too far and are going to be too expensive.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you, senator. Assemblywoman Giglio?

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Hi.

[Assembly Member Jodi Giglio]: Yes. Hi. Thank you again so much for spending so much time on Long Island this summer. And I'm happy to announce that the Crescent Duck Farms is ready to put it back on the menu in mid June to their next generation that has come up. So it really is a wonderful thing. And we really appreciate all of your help for everything you've done for Long Island. So my question really has to do with the Farmers' Fair Laborers Act, where the smaller farms on Long Island and in my district are really struggling. And the tax credits are great, but it's the front payments that they're really struggling with, with margins so minimal. So I'm just wondering, what else can we do to help our small farmers where the tax credit isn't enough and the front loading of payments for labor exists at the time that they're in farm production?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah. We I know initially farmers thought they wanted four payments a year. That's proved to not be the case. Two payments a year seems to be a lot for them to just handle the accounting of it. But we do offer two payments a year, one in July. Not everybody's ready to do it at that time. They're in farming mode. But I think the overtime tax credit, which we administer at the department, has gone pretty well so far. The redoubling of the farm worker tax credit has also been helpful. So I think we're where we need to be right now in that regard.

[Assembly Member Jodi Giglio]: Okay. And then my next question has to do with studies, and particularly the cannabis cultivation industry that seems to be taking over a lot of the farms within my district where, farmers that can sell for either development rights or farmlands that have already been preserved are being taken over by cannabis cultivation. And it's really affecting the local governments as far as how to control it seeing as they don't have a say. There's no opt in or opt out. Are you studying any of the saturation rates of cannabis where farm production and food production is being taken off of the list and and now going into cannabis cultivation? That's my first question on a study. And then my second question on a study would be the invasive species that Cornell Cooperative Extension is doing and they're But, you know, with all of these diseases that are coming in and the studies that they're doing in the new bio lab that we have in Riverhead, It just doesn't seem that there's enough money.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: You know, one of the just to get to that last point, when we did our Farm Bill listening sessions a few years ago, you know, research and, you know, having The United States reclaim its position as a research leader in agriculture was one of the number one issues. So I would agree with you totally there. On OCM, our cannabis management, that really sits at OCM. We look at industrial hemp on our side of the fence. But the cannabis industry is really bigger than agriculture. As you know, it's a little more complicated than that. But thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Thank

[Senator Patricia Fahy]: Thank you, commissioner. Thanks to both commissioners. I caught you earlier and had to step out for conference. So thank you. And I'm sorry if I'm a little repetitive on a couple of questions, but really appreciate you being here today. I'm hoping these weren't covered. Just a couple of things on a couple of different matters. One on the dairy farm modernization proposal, which we're obviously pleased to see that move along again. How many farms roughly have been assisted so far? And is there a distribution by region? It's obviously a big issue in my district. I know it's a national issue, but dairy farmers in particular here in Upstate continue to struggle.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah, twenty one point six was the first round that went to over 100 farms that was statewide in distribution. I could get the breakdown by part of the state for you. Don't have that in my head, but it was over 100 farms all across the state, in various sizes.

[Senator Patricia Fahy]: J. L. Thank you. It is an important one. Appreciate your support for that and to see Switching it back proposed gears, tariffs. Which sectors, in your understanding, are experiencing the greatest tariff related cost increases? In other words, is it dairy or any of the specialty crops, livestock, grain? Which are seeing the heaviest burden or impact from these tariffs?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yes.

[Senator Patricia Fahy]: Is Dairy that all of the above?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: It's pretty much all of the above. The dairy farmers, especially those with proximity to Canada to the North, are seeing substantial increases in their grain purchases. But specialty crop growers is really the largest, and that includes so many. Certainly the program crops own the real estate in the country, but specialty crops own the markets. And New York is a specialty crop state. So our fruit and vegetable industries, our wine industries, dairy, they're feeling it the most.

[Senator Patricia Fahy]: And I know wine is already struggling a little, so it's disturbing on all of those fronts. If you could, I'd really appreciate updates and keeping us posted on that, given the volatility that's just fueled the problem here. Last question, switching gears. The standardized date labeling to improve waste and food, or improve food donations, Do you support any updates on that with standardizing those labels, whether it's sell by, best buy, and more? I know there's been a lot of confusion, it certainly does lead to additional waste.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah. It's an FDA issue. FDA is a partner with us in a big way with our food safety people. I will be meeting with the deputy commissioner for FDA next week when I'm in Washington. We'll be spending a few hours together. So hopefully we'll get some clarity on that.

[Senator Patricia Fahy]: Thank you. Thank you so much.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Assemblywoman Warner.

[Assembly Member Carrie Woerner]: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioner, lovely to see you again. Thank you so much for everything My you

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: pleasure. Thank you.

[Assembly Member Carrie Woerner]: I want to use my time to talk about dairy and research. So we have, you know, all celebrated the arrival of Stefani and the expansion of Fairlife in our state and that and the opportunity that creates for our dairy industry. I've seen estimates that we need somewhere between six and ten billion pounds of additional milk in the state to meet the needs of those expanded companies. But the price per hundredweight is which is always volatile, is debt in a in a trough right now. And my colleague educated us on just how expensive a new cow is. So I wanna my question is, in this budget, are we funding cows to do research on how to produce a milk product that doesn't that is higher in protein, which is what those companies need, that doesn't require quite as many cows? I think that's I think it it seems unlikely that we'll be able to ramp up if we're dependent just on an increased sensitive census. So the value of r and d seems obvious, but is there anything in this budget that's going to help fund that?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah. Actually, two great things that jump to mind right off the bat. One is Pro Dairy. The other is Kirk, the Ruminant Center there. You know, continuing funding there is where that's going to happen. I have to smile because the dairy research Fairlife was developed at Cornell, the concept to make a Fairlife product. The improvements in yogurt, those happen at Cornell. So yeah, we don't want to be known as the formerly best you know, research state in the country or country in the world for that matter. We need to continue the research in a big way.

[Assembly Member Carrie Woerner]: But the Pro Dairy and the Ruminant Center are flat funded. So is there additional funding going to those agent those programs that would help support this?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah. We'll be talking about that together with the legislature. Thank you.

[Assembly Member Carrie Woerner]: Terrific. Thank you very much. Yeah.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Bennett. Just trying to remember who else. Oh, Michelle, would you like to take your next five minutes? And then maybe I'll close this down. Thank you. Sorry, our chair, Senator Hinchey.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you, Chair Kruger, and hello again, Commissioner. I wanted to touch on crop insurance. So obviously more of a federal program, but we know that just 11% of New York farms have crop insurance compared to over 50% of farms in states like the Dakotas. And a large reason for that is because our farms are small and mid sized in the way that the criteria is set out. And if any of this is incorrect, please share with me. But our understanding is that the criteria goes to the much larger farms as opposed to the farms that are across our state. Would something like a grant program to help offset some of the losses, especially based on large weather events, whether a late freeze and early frost, flooding? Would that be helpful to our farms in the state of New York as we see more weather events take out more crop?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: That'd be a really interesting question to explore because, you know, on the one hand, having gone through Hurricane Irene and events like that, you find the holes in the crop insurance program, which are pretty profound. The old saying on a farm was that if you could stand in your field in the middle of it and not see either end, then crop insurance was for you. But otherwise, it didn't work. And the fact that we're a specialty crop state we don't put in just one planting of corn or soybeans. We put in nine plantings of sweet corn. And we put in four plantings of summer squash. And we put in 10 plantings of bean. So the crop insurance programs traditionally have not really adjusted well. They have a whole farm program, which is interesting, so complicated that most farmers don't take advantage of it. So there's help to be done there, but particularly with the fact that we're seeing reductions in workforce in the Farm Service Agency, where those programs had access for farmers and offices not being open all the time. I think we're probably going to need to look at that question a little more closely and think about what we do when we have a disaster on a farm.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you. It's something that we're looking at closely and would love to work with you on it. When we talk to farmers, especially across the Hudson Valley, when they even do get crop insurance from the feds, it's something like $125 which is obviously not remotely close to the loss that they've seen. And just earlier this year, we saw one of our specialty crop growers lose a significant amount of crop, and we see it kind of across the state. So it's something that I'd love to work with you on and figure out how we can do more as a state. I think a grant program could be something that would be really helpful and beneficial across Sure. The

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: look forward to that.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Wonderful. One of our favorite topics, solar. We've done a lot of work. This is a conversation you and I have had for the last five years. And collectively, we've done a lot of work to keep solar off of farmland, especially the top four tiers of soil. I think we need to go a little further than that, but at least we've got the top four. Doesn't impact, though, the programs or the developments that have been in the pipeline before we were able to put that in statute. We were hopeful that the PSC and ORES would protect our farmland. Unfortunately, they didn't. So we were dealing with a development in our district. It's what I mentioned to you, acting commissioner. And it's on prime farmland. And from our understanding, we know that you have an MOU, Ag Markets has an MOU being brought into the mix now, thankfully. But when we reached out to Ag and Markets about this specific project being on farmland, we were told that the agency does not provide specific feedback pertaining to project citing. To me, that's curious because I think that would be an incredibly important role for ag and market. So can you shed some light into ag and market's role in the citing process?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: That sounds very counterintuitive to me, so I'm not following why we would say something like that. Let me dig into that and find out what went on there.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Would be great.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Something's missing.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: That would be great because I would see

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: That's exactly what we do.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: I would think so too. So I want to make sure for all the projects that we No, have in the

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: that's exactly what we do.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Okay, thank you. And in my last few seconds, can you just talk about how things have changed in the solar siting with you guys at the table?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Can you repeat that?

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: How it's changed, how the siting of solar developments have changed with you at the table now?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Well, I think that we have an NOI, so it's over 25 megawatts. We get notified by NYSERDA. That has made a big difference. We have an opportunity to weigh in, look at the land, say, did you consider the land across the street, which was not in an ag district, not a top four tier soil? And also, we partner with the ESA in that regard, our ag advisory committee, and the local farmland preservation board. So that is a game changer, but it needs more teeth. And now that we see solar developers sometimes change ownership, you know, what does that mean? How do we follow our construction guidelines? And who's the policeman here? Those are things we need to continue.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Solomon Cashman.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you.

[Assembly Member Michael Cashman]: Thank you, Commissioner. Want to thank you first and foremost. You were the first commissioner that I reached out to with a request, and we're very hopeful to be able to get you the Franklin County Fair this year. So thank you for working with our team to see if we can make that a reality.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: R. Already on our calendar.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: R. L.

[Assembly Member Michael Cashman]: I want to thank you. I want to touch on two things. Many of the county fairs that I'm talking about, they would like to see ag and markets explore with the Ledge possibly a consortium for insurance. It's a very unique niche area that is costing the county fairs a lot of money. And I believe that there is some way that we could creatively collaborate to find some solutions on that. I'm not presenting the solution today, but as we all know, insurance continues to go up. So I'd like to find a way to partner with you. The second is recently having been selected to chair the New York Canadian relations task force, I can tell you, hearing from many people throughout my district and the border communities, that the tariffs are a grave concern, especially when the administration just announced the nonsensical 100% Canadian tariffs. Farmers are concerned about everything from the cost of fertilizer, but it has a secondary impact that we know about as well. And that goes into our tourism community and has a rippling impact. So again, in a spirit of partnership and cooperation, if there's anything that the task force can do specifically through the lens of agriculture, please let me know how we might be able to partner. Thank you.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah, a couple of things there. I was with the County Fair Association last Saturday, actually, and an amazing group, high energy group, very compassionate group. But we've got a couple of sources of funding for them. Insurance did not come up when I was talking to them, but we're happy to take a look at that. And in the North Country, the relationship with Canada is as strong as it is with Downstate, frankly. So those relationships really matter. We get it. So thank you for that.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: You done? I'm sorry. Just don't want to cut you off.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: He's a new guy. He's done.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: He's done. Okay. Thank you. Hi, commissioner. I'm going to take my ten minutes now. I feel like over the years, I might have asked you every question, but I don't think so. So people have asked you various questions about the costs of food, tariffs, farm patterns, what's going on. Do we evaluate this over time as trends? So for example, years ago we talked about quite a bit the growing rate of organic farming and what you thought that would mean for farming overall in New York State. We talked at different times about the impacts of chemicals that many people felt were poisonous, both for farming and for the people eating the products. And we've talked about the changing patterns of what's being farmed. I remember distinctly having a conversation one year about that in the New York City area, there was such a huge growth in people coming from Asian American communities and other parts of the world where they ate different vegetables. But they really wanted to eat those vegetables here at home, their new home. They just needed somebody to grow them. I distinctly remember having a discussion about different kinds of cabbage and how well New York farmers could grow cabbage, but that the cabbages grown for the Asian American population were actually different cabbages and different radishes. We talked about giant radishes. I'm not sure you would remember that.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I remember all your conversations very well.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: I take notes. Don't say anything. So I'm just curious, do we track this over time? And are we learning whether sort of some of those assumptions were right, some weren't wrong, whether we should be trying to do replications of the ones that have been successful? I mean, for example, I'm certainly noticing, although I am not vegetarian, a lot more of my friends and colleagues, particularly younger ones, are vegetarian now. So that's changed the patterns of how we eat and what we're buying. The same reasons that we see different patterns of certain kinds of food and vegetables also reflect the fact that a hugely larger number of us as Americans are lactose intolerant today than we were forty years ago. Is that perhaps having some reflection on what's happening with the price of dairy and what kinds of dairy people want or don't want? I mean, I happen to be a lactose intolerant Eastern European Jew, the only one in my family. So everybody kept thinking that there was something wrong with me. And I was just trying to buy off every family member and pet to drink the milk, because it made me so sick. And much, much later in life, learned, hello, I was lactose intolerant. And if I didn't drink milk, I would be a whole lot better. So I'm just curious, do we track all that? And are there more lessons we should be taking about how we plan our agricultural sector, what we're encouraging people to grow on their property? Even the concept I think you had a program for a while where you were encouraging people who were coming from other countries, but were farmers at home, to come be farmers on our property here in New York, because we had older farmers who were retiring and didn't have family members who wanted to remain on the farm, and a realization that getting people who were farmers in other places might be the absolute right answer for us in the coming generations. So I'm just curious, do we track all of this? And should we be taking some new knowledge to heart about how we're planning for our future?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: R. Yes, yes, yes, and yes, yes,

[Assembly Member John Lemondes Jr.]: and yes.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: We do track this. We do look at it. We do now we have, for example, a fully staffed office in New York City in Brooklyn where we monitor these kinds of things, where we administer the community gardens program, the urban garden farming, that sort of thing, so we can better inform farmers in our state about what the market actually wants. Frankly, that was the silver lining in the COVID pandemic was there's all these markets that we did not know existed, and there were farmers Upstate New York who could deliver that. So emphatically, yes, lactose, I have to smile because Fairlife everybody's heard of this great new investment in Western New York Fairlife product developed at Cornell University takes the lactose out of milk, adds protein back in, makes it taste great, and has just taken over the marketplace by storm. So I think understanding the marketplace is what agriculture has to be about doing, not just simply figuring out how to lower our production costs. But it's really understanding who our market is. As far as organic and not organic, when you and I started talking about these things, the organic world was over there and the conventional world was over there. There was about 180 degree difference. And the organic market is significant. It's attractive. They're great growers. We have a good grower commitment in New York State to organic production. But frankly, we're much closer together today. We have IPM growers, integrated pest management growers. We share some of the basic concepts. When I go to the soil health meetings at the NOFA conference or at a vegetable grower conference, same people are in the room. The same ideas are being talked about. So we are closer together and doing a better job in agriculture in the country and in New York State than we've ever done in the history of agriculture. So those things are being accomplished. They need to be continued. It's going to require research, some investments, some marketing money. Our New York Owned Certified program, which I know you know, our Taste New York program, which I know you're familiar with. All of these are help bringing the people who produce food with the people who need access to food. And hey, you know, Chinese cabbage grows the same way as cabbage, tastes different, has these qualities. You can do this. So Cardun, I mean, I was one of the larger growers of Cardun in New York State, but I was also probably the only one, only because it was asked for from the marketplace. So yes, we're connecting those dots. And that's really the mission for us that we see hearing from you, hearing from growers, hearing from our consumers about what they want. Let's give them it's not about what the farmer likes to grow. It's about what the customer wants.

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: Right.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: And so to the extent that we can achieve that, that's our goal. So great questions. Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Well, thank you. And I think at least one person asked you before about the issues of people who had been working farms but might not have exactly perfect legal status, some being taken away by ICE. And some, I think, seem to just stop showing up. Or I'm asking that, because I don't live in Upstate New York. I live in New York City. We know that there are huge numbers of people not coming into their jobs anymore because they don't have the right, quote unquote, legal status, or they're afraid that some other member of their family might get caught up with them if they are asked questions by an agency such as ICE. So is it just a perception that this is also a problem in Upstate New York on the farms? Or is it actually a real issue limiting the ability of farmers to do their work on their farms. There's not people there to help them plant or to help them hoe or to help them unplant. It's not called unplanting.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah. What is it called? Harvest. J. L.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Picking. Thank you.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: J. B.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: This is a very real issue. J. Yes. J. B. The last time they did anything, Reagan was the president. So it's really been too easy to demagogue, too easy to kick down the road. But we simply do not have enough workers to operate all the farms in The United States. We don't have enough workers to do all the construction, hotels, service work there is in The United States, which far exceeds the demands of agriculture, frankly. Maybe 10% of those workers are working in agriculture, and yet agriculture remains the poster child. So that needs to be fixed, first and foremost. People from South America, Central America, Jamaica, The Caribbean, South Africa need jobs, need work, want to work, want to be legal, want to be able to return home afterwards. And the current system is broken. It's been broken for decades. So we need to stop kicking it down the road, stop demagoguing the issue, and start addressing why do people want to come here and work? Because they have no jobs, because their families are at risk. And that's why. We can work this out. We can have a working guest worker program here in The United States. No reason why we can't. There are five bills in Congress right now addressing it. We've got to set the politics aside and look at the needs for our country to grow. But you're absolutely correct. It is a huge probably the biggest limiting factor to agriculture in The United States is the lack of a working guest worker program.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: It seems to me it's pretty crucial for us to get this back in the right direction. Thank you. I've used up my ten minutes. I'm going to pass it back to the assembly. I think you have a number of people.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: I have a number of people, and first of which will be Doctor. Anna Kelles. I'm sorry, Member Kelles.

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: Wonderful, wonderful to see you. Thank you so much. I wanted to just add one piece of information about tariffs, just so it's on the record. Science is really important, and there actually is something called modeling that can be done to determine causality and what factors are driving and if factors actually are driving. And there have been some amazing studies that have been done that actually has shown. Here's one Americans have paid for 96% of tariff costs study finds. That's the Keel Institute for World Economics. There's a Harvard research study. US trade tariffs are increasing prices. Another one, US farmers face higher costs, fewer markets from tariffs. Farm groups warn. So, you know, that was just a quick Google search. I just wanted to get that on the record. I wanted to switch gears to talk about agrivoltaics for a moment. So the state has announced several agrivoltaics demonstration projects, including one under construction, actually, in my district, which are intended to evaluate whether solar installations can protect perennial crops from frost and sun stress, looking at water needs under solar panels. Yet this year, the executive budget eliminated the critical funding line dedicated for the Center for Agrivoltaics, which supports research and development. So without that infrastructure needed to ensure these projects actually deliver agrivoltaics agricultural benefits and the likelihood of lost federal funding, how does the department plan on advancing agrivoltaics? And I know the sun and soil was in the budget, but then or in the state of the state, but was not in the budget. So I don't know if there's funding for that. So a few questions there.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: -Yeah, sure. Significant investment at Cornell last year, as you pointed out, your district for agrivoltaic research. That's underway.

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: -Yeah, but it's a three year. We've only done two.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: -Right.

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: -And,

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: yeah, last year was half of the need.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yep. That's underway. NYSERDA also has programs and projects underway. So and then the new Sun and Soil, which is more of an understanding between the two agencies to work on this. There's been significant progress there. The legislature added to that funding last year, and we're certainly open to talking to you It's about kind of an elusive term, kind of like farm to school. Like, it's intuitive. I get that.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: We need to define it.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I get that. But the details the devil is in the details. Absolutely. We have seen some pretty good encouragement around fruit production, in particular with agrivoltaics. But there's probably not too many people in the room who could define it.

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: But we're not planning on adding anything into that. I just wanted to let's keep talking about that in the budget.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: For sure.

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: Absolutely. I just wanted

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: to ask one other thing in my last few seconds. The Farm

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: to School

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: Program, there was the comptroller's audit that came out that some of the major issues are actually administrative, barriers, like, you know, compiling prior year purchase information, not standardized, questionnaires. Are you doing administrative changes this year to make the barriers?

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: All that question, Doctor. Kelles. Somebody else

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: please ask that. That'd be great.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you.

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: Thank you, Commissioner. How do you feel?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I feel great. How about you?

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: I feel good too. Good. There's a lot of history to that question right there. There is. It'll take up too much time. Two two quick ones. Dairy modernization grant program. You've increased it $5,000,000. One of the biggest things that my office calls that we've been handling since the Chobani announcement and groundbreaking is help with energy upgrades. You know, lot of the farms still have two phase out there. Can this program be used for part of that energy upgrade?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Providing it's accessible. A lot of three phase requires some hard wires

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: in the One transmission lines.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: So that's transmission line work. But actually, the dairy modernization program was 21.6 that we started with, 15,000,000. We have 10 carried over from last year, it's a new 15 this year.

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: Okay. Second quick question here is Cornell CALS program. It's down $1,800,000 from last year. And then I see that in in the state fair appropriations here of fair capital impr you know, fair capital improvements of this amount, 2,500,000.0 is for Cornell CALS facility rehabilitation. We're taking from one pot and putting it over in the other one to still fund the the Cornell?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I'm not sure. I'd have to look at the line and see where in the aid of the localities budget, think, which is where you are. 1.8, I'm not sure what that was for. But increased funding for Cornell and CALS is always a priority for us.

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: But it was $1,800,000 less.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: What line was that under? Because we have so many lines before.

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: Yeah, just under Cornell's CALS program. 2,800,000.0, and that's $1,800,000 less than last year.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Let me look back and see

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: you would get back to me.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Yeah, happy to do that.

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Assembly member Septimo.

[Assembly Member Amanda Septimo]: All right. Hi, how are you? Thanks for being here.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: For your Thank

[Senator José M. Serrano, Chair, Senate Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee]: you. It's a

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: long day.

[Assembly Member Amanda Septimo]: So I just actually have one question. It is estimated that across New York, across food businesses, including wholesalers, retailers, we waste around 4,000,000 tons of food every year. And right now, about one in 10 households in New York face food insecurity. And of course, we expect that number to go up, given the changes in food assistance eligibility at the federal level. In Pennsylvania, they have a food rescue tax credit that allows people to write off 65% of the fair market value of food that they've donated, as well as 100% of the transportation costs associated with that donation, which has helped them rescue millions of pounds of food. And it's seen such success over these years that they've increased the amount for the write off. Now, I'm wondering if, here in New York, if the state is planning any efforts for new programs to eliminate food waste here in the state, and if there might be any reason why a tax credit like this would not be helpful in New York.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: R. Thank you. It's a great program in Pennsylvania. I'm familiar with it. We have one in New York, which came out of our Hunger and Food Policy Council, which gives farmers who have extra crops, don't know what to do with them, not marketable, a tax credit for doing just that, donating it into the emergency food system.

[Assembly Member Amanda Septimo]: Right. That's the Farm to Food Bank tax credit.

[Senator Patricia Fahy]: Yeah. Right.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: So that's one thing we did. The second thing is working with our partners at DEC. We look at food waste in general, like, can we turn this into something? Can we turn it into energy? And I was able to be in, where was I? I was in New York City, the top of the Bronx there. And I saw an amazing individual who and I'm forgetting the name of the program. I'll get back to you with the name of it. But he basically made a business out of going to grocery stores, food purveyors, getting stuff that was close to being out of date, buying it from them, and then putting it into the food system. And he was making a business at it. And I was there to celebrate a quarter of $1,000,000 grant for his business. So we obviously need to do more of that. We waste too much food, and we have people without food. We've got to connect those dots in a better way. But the food bank tax credit is one way. And New York farmers, frankly, have led the nation in donating.

[Assembly Member Amanda Septimo]: JULIE Great. I think that's right. And I think expansion of the farm to food bank tax credit to include all food businesses so wholesalers, retailers, not just farmers I think would go a long way to connecting the dots to those emergency food providers on the ground and those families that we know are in need of this food and that we know will need more food as these eligibility requirements change. Because it would really, like you said, allow New York to continue to distinguish itself as a leader in food rescue and making sure that we are making use of food that is perfectly good, but that otherwise ends up in the trash. So thank you.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: R. Thank you. Appreciate your passion.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Assemblyman Scavoni.

[Assembly Member Tommy John Schiavoni]: Thank you, chairs and commissioners. Thank you for being here this afternoon. Tommy John Schiavoni, 1st District, Eastern Long Island. Commissioner Moser, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your team for the work that you are doing around the southern pine beetle on Napaig Stretch. We have 40,000 trees that have been killed by this infestation caused by climate change and other factors. Director Gorman is meeting with local governments and doing a fine job. I appreciate all of that. Commissioner Borle, thank you for being here. It's good to see you again. I have a question about the agriculture industry, is growing on Long Island, aquaculture. And I know the Department of Agriculture and Markets is investing in this and assisting oyster growers and sugar kelp farmers. Does the current budget expand the agriculture industry? And what more can be done in the state to help meet the infrastructure needs of aquaculture, both oysters and sugar kelp? Also, is there a desire to expand this activity to other parts of the state?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Yeah. Aquaculture upstate, we're interested in that. That's agriculture as far as we're concerned. Yeah, it was great to be on Long Island, celebrate two great events down there. And certainly, the access to our shell fishermen there and the program that was invested in big time there very important to the governor as well. So yeah, I think the cuisine trail, we got one going on the southern tip, and then we're going to have one on the North Side as well. That's great. I think we need to continue the discussion and continue the partnership. This was one of the dramatic lessons, I think, that came out of COVID-nineteen was Long Island, where they produce so many great agricultural products, but they lack the processing capacity to get them to market, or they lack the refrigeration to hold them when the restaurant business was hurt so badly. So I think those conversations are ripe and continuing. The governor is very committed to the prerogative, so are we.

[Assembly Member Tommy John Schiavoni]: Thank you. And I'd like to invite everyone when you go to taste in New York to have the oysters from the Pecanic Base.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Thank you. Awesome.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: You. Assembly Member Ragh.

[Assembly Member Ed Ra, Ranking Member, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you. Commissioner, you answered earlier regarding the dairy grant, modernization grants, and the twenty one point four million dollars that was awarded last year. I know we've kind of staggered this amount of funding over the last few years. We had, I think, 24,000,000 a few years ago, dollars 10,000,000 last year, and now this proposal proposes 15,000,000 So can you give me just a sense of when the next round of grants might be going out the door and whether this number of $15,000,000 in this year's budget reflects the need? What have you seen in terms of the number of applications that have come in versus what the department's been able to give out in terms of the grants?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: J. Yeah, it's oversubscribed. There's tremendous interest in this, helping our farms get up to speed for the demand we see coming. We've got record infrastructure, legacy plants, really, in the state now with Great Lakes Cheese, with Fairlife, with Chobani, with our partners at Cayuga Milk Ingredients, with AgriMarc Hood, they're all growing. And I have, I think, about eight projects at the department right now that are looking at opportunities to expand their production because we're very good at milk in the state and we're very close to all the markets. So the interest on the farm side to be able to keep up with that, to keep up with the demand that all the farmers see coming, is very high. So this is the right answer for the right group of people that need to produce these raise these animals, produce that milk, get it to our manufacturing facilities. I feel it's right sized right now because it's coming in increments, because we're reaching a wide section of the dairy industry from smaller farms to larger farms. Couple that with the investment tax credit, the refundable investment tax credit, which was just extended in the governor's proposal. Those are things that are going to help our farms keep up and produce what we need for milk with these new plants.

[Assembly Member Ed Ra, Ranking Member, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: So would there be, with this additional allocation, you're, say, a farm you said it was oversubscribed. So say a farm has previously applied, are they still potentially in the hopper for these future grants, or are they going through that process over again?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: They would be able to stay in the program. Yes, absolutely.

[Assembly Member Ed Ra, Ranking Member, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Some woman Lupardo for a follow-up.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Yes, thank you. Just a couple of quick questions on the Farmland Protection Program, Commissioner. So the first one is, do

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: you have

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: a breakdown as to how much of that funding is going to local municipalities and counties or some report on how that's been distributed that we can get access to.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Okay. You're not talking about the funding to preserve farmland but to support the farmland protection programs by county? Both. J. Both? Yeah. We can get you that number on the number of entities that have farmland protection boards on them.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: J. That'd be

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: helpful. That's a daily occurrence for me to sign off on their plans. We get a county municipalities request all the time. And this year, we have a record level of funding to protect farmland and preserve farmland.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Just to follow-up right at that point. So last year, there was a $1,000,000 sub allocation going to capacity building. Has that started to be implemented? And if so, who are getting those capacity building grants? And what's it being used for, and are they being effective? Any background on that.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: R. That was for the entities that actually do the work in preserving farmland, the trusts, the land trusts in each community. There's dozens of them across the state. They actually do the work, help the farmer figure out what they want. Then the plans are submitted to us, and our people review them. For many years, they were concerned. They didn't think we had the infrastructure to be able to turn the grants out fast enough. It's really the individual capacity of these land trusts to work on more than one project at a time, to have the attorneys, the technical expertise to process the grant in a timely fashion. So we saw the vulnerability there, and we wanted to help them apply for this grant to hire the additional staff they need to get the program to us so we can approve it. We have added an RFA process internally at the department, which is much faster than an RFP process. We can get a farmland application through our process. And my staff will cringe, but I'll say within a year. We can do it very quickly. It used to take four or five years between the land trust and the department and the issues. Now with the RFA process, we can process things very quickly. But the individual trust needs some help in capacity building. That's where that $1,000,000 was going.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Great.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you. Acting Commissioner Moser, I want to thank you for all that you do. And I'm sure that the I can't speak for my colleagues to my right to call the Senate, but I'm pretty sure that they will your hearing will come out well. Okay. But Commissioner Ball, just one question for you, and it's an easy question. Have you ever been to France?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I was in the airport for about an hour and a half.

[Bill Ketzer, ASPCA]: You're in

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: the airport? Okay. So why you were there? They have fine restaurants there, don't they?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: They do.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Yeah. And when you were there, did you ever order Cheval or Chavalin?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I did not because.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Okay. You know what Chavalin is.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I know where we're going with this.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Okay. New York State is producing a lot of Chavalin for France. For those of you who don't know or don't speak French, it's horse meat. And I have an indication that hundreds of horses have been sold illegally at the what do you Unadilla?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: What do Unadilla.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: D. Auction House. I do know you have signs there talking about it's illegal to sell horses for human consumption. And but I also know that there are trucks going up Route 87 constantly full of that net full packed with horses in inhumane or in horseane conditions and being shipped to kill facilities in Canada. The state police had charged with stopping this illegal activity. And their excuse for not stopping these trucks of horses that are going off to slaughter for human consumption is that they have no place to put them once they stop them. And there was a request for a million dollars where we could get some land or whatever to put these horses in until they can be taken care of properly. And that is not in the governor's budget. We passed legislation. I think it was earlier this year or maybe the latter part of last year. And nothing's been done with it. Horses are still being slaughtered. And I'm just wondering why the Department of Agriculture hasn't seen fit to put money in this year's budget to actually fulfill what the law requires you to do?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: R. Right. The issue is bigger than the Department of Agriculture. And I know you know as much about this as I do, probably. But it sits at gaming. In the chair of gaming, I get to sit on the advisory committee for the standard red and the thoroughbred industries. So we've been able to do things about aftercare and finding homes for horses after their career is over in racing. The issues largely sit at the gaming table. And we have, within our laws, done to the extent that we can with our jurisdiction. We don't have police to be at Unadilla or any of the livestock auction places. But we do have the warnings in the teeth. We've suggested changes, and we're still following through on those changes.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: You mentioned the racing horses. I do know that NIRA has a program in place for aftercare. The standard breads seem not to have something in place. But what happens, the horses, when their career is over at a racetrack, they either become carriage horses in New York or slave horses on farms in New York. And there's groups that are probably in this facility right now. They're going to talk about carriage horses and how cruel they're being treated, which is totally untrue. But I'll get to that when they get to the seat that you're in. But right now, the horses that I'm referring to are the ones that it's called amishing a horse. And I hope it's not too derogatory a statement, but it probably is. But they beat the horses to death. And when they neared death, they sent them to Unadilla to be auctioned off. They had $5 $15 $20 $100 for them. And those horses are shipped up to Canada, slaughtered, chopped up, and sent to Europe and Asia for human consumption. And all that I was asking when they did the legislation was that the state do something to stop that from happening. And it's not just racing horses. A standard thoroughbred horses, they're kind of taken care of. But the other horses, they go from the racetrack to the farm are the horses that I'm referring to now. So it's not really a racing issue at this point. It's a farm issue.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: R. Or they come to my farm. My wife just adopted a standard bred. So aware of the issue, fully aware of it. It's an issue that needs to be dealt with at the gaming level, and we're working with gaming to do that. Appreciate

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: your R. Input. Could I request of you that when the governor does her thirty day amendments that you request that she put in at least a million dollars for the aftercare of these horses until they can find better homes rather than be sent off to slaughter?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Let's talk about that.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you. Thank you. I believe that concludes the hearing. Oh, no. I'm sorry. No, no, no.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: We're on the first panel.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: That concludes panel one.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Don't panic. But we will thank you all for your extended time

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: I just with want to highlight my colleague here who's new to state government. Thank you for being kind to her. J. B. You

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: both, and your agencies, for your hard work on our behalf. Thank you for being with us.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: J. Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: L. Again, if there's any materials we've asked you for during this hearing that you think you have something to share with us that you couldn't in person, get it to Gary and I, and we will make sure all the members of our committees get copies of what you're submitting.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: R. Always look forward to our conversations.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: R. Thank you.

[Bill Ketzer, ASPCA]: R. I remember them all.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: I'm not sure what that says about either of us, but fine. Anyway, thank you very much. Now, for everyone else in the room, we still have all the panels that were people who requested to testify And the rules of the road during that part of the hearing is everybody gets three minutes to testify. And anybody who wants to ask some questions, whether you're a chair or a ranker, You also only get three minutes to ask and get answered your questions. And people are on panels. So first off will be panel A, Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, and Parks And Trails New York. Each of those people will testify back to back. And then any legislator can ask them a combination of three minutes worth of questions. And then we move on to panel B, panel C, etcetera. So it goes much more quickly for those of you who thought, oh my god, two people took four hours. But that's how it works around here. So I'm going to ask you each to introduce yourselves, test out the little button to make sure you learn the sweet spot where that circle that's red becomes green. Well done. And you can start in why don't we go in the order where is on the piece of paper? Peter Mullen from Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, and then Will Coat of Parks and Trails, New York. Good afternoon.

[Peter Mullan, President, Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail]: Good afternoon. Thank you, Chair Kruger and Chair Pretlow. And thank you, Senator Serrano and Assembly Member Kim and all the esteemed members of the legislature here today. It's an honor to be here with you, and I thank you for your leadership. My name is Peter Mullen. I'm the president of the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail. We are a nonprofit subsidiary of Scenic Hudson that is building a new public landscape in the Hudson Highlands through an extraordinary partnership with state parks. I'm excited to be on the same panel with my colleague from Parks and Trails of New York, fantastic organization, great partner of ours. So great to be here with you. First of all, I just want to thank you for your steadfast and passionate support for our state parks and natural resources. Now, maybe more than ever, we desperately need to provide people with opportunities to connect with nature. As we watch what is happening nationally, it is painfully clear that we need to find a way to stitch our communities closer together, and that's exactly what parks and trails do. Nature doesn't see division. It only welcomes us and helps us realize we are part of something bigger than ourselves. I loved Senator Serrano said earlier, state parks are nature's medicine. I think that's exactly right. Parks and trails are really the most efficient investment we can make in our public health system. The benefits of access to nature for physical and mental health, in particular for all people and for all, particularly our children and seniors, is very well documented and they serve everyone. I also I wanna express our support for the investment, in the governor's proposed budget. This is a robust set of investments to provide critical social infrastructure we need in our communities.

[Assembly Member Steve Otis]: I

[Peter Mullan, President, Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail]: am here to ask that you include support for the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail in your senate and house budgets. The Fjord Trail embodies and encapsulates many, if not all, of the aspirations of our state park system. The Fjord Trail will renew our relationship with the Hudson River and the Hudson Highlands, providing unprecedented access to New Yorkers of all ages and abilities and nurturing environmental protection through stewardship and engagement, where people and land sustain one another within a single balanced ecology. So this is not about people and nature being separate. This is about people and nature being together and thriving as a result of that. Encompassing 500 acres along the Hudson River, the Fjord Trail spans four distinct eco zones. Within one visit to the Fjord Trail, you'll be able to experience the entire unique ecological transect of the Hudson Highlands region. And there's some some unique things about the Fjord Trail. The Fjord Trail is connected by public transit with three Metro North stations directly connected to the trail. So there may not be another park in our system that is as connected by a public transit.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Is that

[Assembly Member Ed Ra, Ranking Member, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: my time?

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: That's it.

[Peter Mullan, President, Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail]: Anyway, we hope you will include us in your budget this year. Thank you very much.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: And even though we're only giving everyone three minutes, remember you're submitting your full written testimony. And it's all going on our websites for everyone to be able to take a look at.

[Christopher Green, New York State Park Police PBA]: So Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Good afternoon.

[Will Cote, Deputy Director, Parks & Trails New York]: Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all today. My name is Will Cote. I'm Deputy Director of Parks and Trails New York. PTNY is the statewide advocate for New York's public lands. We believe public lands are for all and that everyone deserves access to high quality outdoor recreation opportunities. And

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: this

[Will Cote, Deputy Director, Parks & Trails New York]: is why we strongly support the governor's proposed state parks capital plan in this year's proposed budget totaling $340,000,000 We endorse everything acting commissioner Moser said earlier today during testimony, but to have 200,000,000 dedicated in New York Works funding to maintain the system and welcome patrons, as well as essential projects like High Falls State Park, Riverbank State Park, Lake Welch, and the Historic Preservation Resource Center just in time for the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary are critical for New York State. These investments help to meet rising visitation, expand accessibility, help all New Yorkers feel seen in the broad tapestry that does encompass New York State history, and also simply strengthening livability here in our state. We also support the Environmental Protection Fund. Key programs within that fund that are near and dear to our heart are the Park and Trail Partnership Program, the Connect Kids to Parks Program, and Municipal Parks Program. All strive to welcome and engage visitors, foster public private partnership, educate, promote, and steward our precious public lands and outdoor spaces. We're happy with the $425,000,000 that's been proposed, but I want to encourage you all to recognize the need to expand the Environmental Protection Fund to 500,000,000 especially with federal environmental leadership being under threat. I would be remiss to not mention DEC's Adventure New York money. I know we did not hear from DEC today, but most New Yorkers who are seeking outdoor recreational opportunities don't differentiate between DEC lands and state park lands. We'd love to see their $90,000,000 Adventure New York pot expanded to 100,000,000. They're doing a lot of great projects to open up appropriate public lands for visitation. Unfortunately, Assemblymember Tague and Assemblymember Miller are not in the room, but I wanted to pick on a couple of comments that I heard from them earlier today where they mentioned a pattern in the budget where something is capital dollars are directed towards a project, and then there is no long term investment or funding available for that. And I'm speaking specifically about the Empire State Trail and the Greenway system. That was constructed in 2020 with a ribbon cutting. And yet, after all of these years, there continues to not be any capital funding in the budget for this major outdoor recreation system. That is something that we feel strongly, along with our network of supporters and partners, that that needs to be remedied. The Greenway System and the Empire State Trail specifically are a nation leading resource. They support tourism. They enhance livability, connectivity. They attract investment. And I just want to make a note that mid year this year, we'll be releasing an economic impact report that Parks and Trails New York is conducting on the Empire State Trail. We hope to share that with all of you and demonstrate the value and impact that it has on our state.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you very much. Would any of the members here like to ask questions?

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: There you go.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: Thank you so much for your testimony today. I had the privilege of visiting and spending time with Peter at the Hudson Highlands, Fort Trail, and it was quite something. The community, the local stakeholders, the pride, everything, It was an amazing experience. Can you just expand a little bit more, Peter, on the exact project and what it is that we are trying to execute?

[Peter Mullan, President, Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail]: Thank you, assembly member. Yes, so the Fjord Trail is a section of the Hudson Highlands between Cold Spring and Beacon. So it's 500 acres and has a seven and a half mile trail connecting those two municipalities. And we are a nonprofit partner with state parks, so we are working with them to design and build the park. And then we will also be responsible for long term maintenance and operations. So one of the great I mean, I think it's a model of public private partnership in the sense that we have the opportunity to work together to build something but then not add additional burden to the state park system long term. But again, given where we are and our connection to public transit, we're also making the entire trail accessible to people of all ages and abilities, so people in wheelchairs, which is unique within this kind of a landscape.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: Yeah. I've always been kind of timid of public private partnerships when it comes to public space because I just always feared we might inch toward privatizing public space. But in this case, I've learned by being on-site and learning through so many stakeholders that there is a balance that could be achieved to nudge the state to do more, to invest in public space. So I applaud you for that work, and I hope that we can continue to support what you're doing. I've got one minute left. For Will, I know that we've had economic impact studies in other areas involving parks. Can you just review some of that data points?

[Will Cote, Deputy Director, Parks & Trails New York]: J. Yes. Is in my testimony. Parks and Trails New York is part of the centennial celebration for the New York State Park system completed an economic impact report on what that system provides. And essentially, there's a lot of strong numbers. But for essentially every $1 invested, you get a $10 return. So it goes to show essentially what we already know, that parks and public lands are a critical part of the New York state economy. They are on par with the agricultural sector. And there's certainly a lot more that can be gleaned from continuing to support that system and public private partnership there.

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: J.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: Thank you. Thank you both.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: J.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: L. Thank you. And thank you both for being with us today and for waiting so much time before you got to testify. Very much appreciated. Thank you. We're going to call up oh, hello. We're going to call up panel B, New York State Animal Protection Federation, Libby Post, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, ASPCA, Bill Ketzer, Humane World for Animals, Brian Shapiro. That's panel B. Good afternoon. Let's start with Libby, because that's the order you're in on the agenda.

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: Thanks for having us. I'm going to talk about two things. One is the companion animal capital fund, which you all thankfully last year included your legacy allocation of $5,000,000 in the budget so that we had a total of $10,000,000 for the RFP that's actually due on Friday. And we expect it to be once again oversubscribed. And we provide low cost grant writers for our members. And we're working with 15 organizations right now to make sure that their grants get in on time. Just so you know, the capital needs survey that we do every year, 42 shelters across the state have a need of $114,000,000 So while $10,000,000 is great, we just we know that it's a drop in the bucket, but it's a great way for organizations to start their campaigns. I can say when Susquehanna, SPCA got their money in the first round, they got $500,000 They kick started a $5,000,000 capital campaign. And they were able to build a state of the art shelter. So it's been a great program so far. And, you know, we just want to make sure that it continues and it's complementary with the Companion Animal Care Standards Act, which, by the way, had a three year effective date. So everyone had the opportunity to do the work they needed to do to meet the standards at this point. We've been working very extensively with ag and markets. We raised close to half $1,000,000 to provide low cost or no cost consulting services as we promised the legislature. And we've worked with close to 90 organizations so far. The other thing I want to talk about is the Animal Crimes Fund. We proposed this last year, dollars 2,500,000.0, to help offset the costs of holding live evidence at animal shelters as a result of animal cruelty and animal crimes cases. We are now working closely with the state police who have asked us to provide training for their folks across the state, which we've done a couple of. And we're going to be doing more once everything melts and we can go places. But, you know, the money that shelters spend to care for these animals is not necessarily recouped. They have to raise money privately to make that happen. And I can tell you that an incident just happened this week where Allegheny SBCA went in for a security bond posting. It was approved. The judge then cut it dramatically and said, well, the ASPCA on their ads say it only costs $0.65 a day, which is great. But that's not the case that the ASPCA is not saying it's going to cost $0.65 a day to care for an animal. They're saying, give us 65¢ a day to care for these animals. So it's really important that we also move forward on the Animal Crimes Fund because of the impact it's having on our shelters.

[Bill Ketzer, ASPCA]: Hi, good afternoon. Good afternoon to the chairs, members of the committee. I'm Bill Ketzer. I'm with the ASPCA. And I'm here primarily today to voice the ASPCA support for the Companion Animal Capital Fund in Governor Hochul's executive budget proposal. This is the fifth year the fund has been proposed by the governor, and we're incredibly grateful for that support. But as many of you know, this initiative first became a reality in 2017 as a proposal advanced by the legislature. Since that time, it's delivered $48,000,000 as Libby said, to almost 100 shelter organizations for much needed capital improvements. And what's also been said is this funding has taken on a new significance over the past few years with the rollout of the Companion Animal Care Standards Act, which was enacted into law in 2022 but became effective about thirty days ago. So the department is just rolling into that. This uniform facility and operational standards law was badly needed in New York. But it did highlight the vast amount of outstanding capital need for animal shelters and rescue organizations across the state. The ASPCA is a member organization of the New York State Animal Protection Federation. And to date, we've dedicated approximately $200,000 to support their free on-site consultation services to help shelters comply with the new standards. We also provided $100,000 in direct grant support ourselves to organizations for the record keeping and veterinary care components of that law. But brick and mortar needs continue to be the most significant, by far, and an outstanding issue for New York shelters as they modernize their facilities. According to the Federation surveys, there is at least $114,000,000 in outstanding capital needs. And those are the shelters that responded to the surveys. So there's probably likely a lot more than that. And that's why we're asking that you support the governor's $5,000,000 proposal, but also to renew your legacy commitment with a $5,000,000 match, bringing the fund to a total of $10,000,000 for 2027. And in closing, this legislature set the standard on this issue in The United States. There are a handful of other states that have programs that support animal shelters for sure. But nothing comes close to this in terms of level of commitment. And you just heard from an agency that's doing absolutely great work in that regard, Commissioner Ball, the Division of Animal Industry. You have the strength of your animal welfare partnerships here and the overarching effectiveness of this program. It's being actively promoted and pursued as a model in other states right now. And with your support, hopefully it'll influence the way state governments look at animal sheltering and animal welfare for years to come. And with that, thank you very much for your

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: time. Thank

[Brian Shapiro, Humane World for Animals]: you so much, Senator. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, honorable legislators. Brian Shapiro, Humane World for Animals, formerly known as the Humane Society of the United States. We'd like to thank the legislature, governor, Department of Ag and Markets for supporting the Companion Animal Capital Fund with a lifesaving 48,000,000 since its inception in 2017 to help our state's animal shelters maintain and improve facilities. These investments strengthen our shelters and make for better, safer communities. I'm here with my wonderful colleagues. I join them in respectfully asking and requesting continued support for the Companion Animal Capital Fund from the legislature for the fiscal year budget in the form of a $5,000,000 allocation to match the governor's $5,000,000 allocation. And as Libby pointed out, our shelters have a lot of needs. And we are very appreciative for the support. We would like to request this additional support for the upcoming fiscal year budget. I also want to give a plug for the Animal Crimes Fund. I believe Chair Prentlow spoke very well in giving as an example the situation with these horses and when law enforcement says, we don't have anywhere to put them. We face those kinds of challenges every day. I think this is the only example I could think of where not for profits take the responsibility to hold on to live evidence, and then the bill and the responsibility falls on that not for profit. We all agree law enforcement has to be done. It has to be done right. Animal cruelty is a crime. And there's no reason for this to fall on the backs of our shelters. So we do want to advocate for at least a $2,500,000 allocation in that. In my written testimony, I did touch on an issue with the Department of Ag and Markets and certificates of veterinary inspection and an issue with the DEC. After I submitted this testimony, I did find out it is not a budgetary issue. So offline, if anyone would like to talk about that, I would love to have a conversation, but just sticking with what's germane today. Again, we have all animal champions here. We are very thankful for the continued support and for your leadership on this issue. Thank you very much.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Hi. Thank you all. Nice to see you. In December 2025, this past December, there was a hoarding case in my district where dozens of animals were removed from incredibly deplorable conditions. It included 18 dogs, six cows, 12 goats, and at least two cats, and a dozen fowl. They're now, the property owner is facing charges of animal cruelty. Can you just estimate in your experience, how much would that cost one of your shelters to take care of those animals without the fund that you're asking for? How much would that cost you

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: now? We

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: can hear you.

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: I can put you on. There you go. Okay, great. I would say anywhere, given the amount of animals and the fact they were farm animals as well. And Ulster County SPCA took most of those animals, but they're not equipped to do farm animals. So other people probably stepped up the local sanctuaries, probably between 50,000 and $100,000 to handle that case alone because of the amount of animals, but then the veterinary care that those animals will need to be able to be maintained and get healthy again. And then just the standard everyday costs of care, food, lights, heat, staffing, all of that.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: And how many cases are your partners picking up? I mean, that's just one from December in my district. There are more that we could cite. But how many are you dealing with, you say?

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: Well, when I did our 2025 animal crime survey, I got information on 47 cases across the state. I know Erie County SPCA just had three, right? Cataraugus just had a small one with a bunch of dachshunds. Allegheny was a bunch of Persian cats, right? And so they are all over the state when we're seeing these incidences. Every shelter steps up because it's our mission to do that. They're not going to say no to caring for these animals. So there are many, many, many more incidences of animal crimes across the state. It's one of the reasons why we're working with the state police so that they can take action against it. And our animal crimes conference for the last ten years has raised the awareness about animal crimes. And so law enforcement's taking it much more seriously.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Thank

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: you, Chairman. First of all, Libby, Bill, and Brian, thank you. Thank you for the work that you folks do. And Libby, you and I have a relationship outside of here. It's always an honor and a pleasure working for you. And I'll probably direct my question to you, Libby. But please, the other two gentlemen, don't be afraid to pipe in. Why are crimes against animals why do you feel they're on the rise? And what can we do to help you?

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: I don't think they're on the rise per se. I think they're being paid attention to more, Okay? I remember when I worked in the assembly back in the '80s for May, we talked about issues like marital rape and child sexual abuse. These were issues that were already happening. We all knew that they were happening. But May took the impetus to do the legislation that was needed. In the ten years since we've been doing our animal crimes conferences, the reality and the recognition of these crimes has heightened. So I don't know if there's any more, but I think that we're paying more attention.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: I'd love your opinion on this. Because it's like any other case. It's all by word-of-mouth of whether there's allegations that there's animal abuse or malnutrition for the animals. And people are afraid to sometimes report somebody. And I think too many times things get out of control and it gets to the person that's in so much trouble because they let it go for so long. What can we do better? And I think I know some of the answers to this and I think in rural Upstate New York, especially in Senator Henschon in my district, we have some sheriff's department that have actually now added to their force animal abuse officers that do this. And I'm wondering what can we do across the state? Because it's so tough to know what's going on at somebody's farm or at somebody's house if somebody hasn't had the opportunity to go in there? What can we do? And should we make funding available for our local sheriff and our village and city police to have units that are just I think they do in New York City, but in our rural areas. I'd like to have your opinion on that as well. Okay.

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: Yes, it would be lovely for there to be enhanced funding for our local law enforcement to be able to really pay attention to this and dedicate staff to these kinds of crimes. I've worked with a number of shelters in various counties to create an animal crimes task force so that things are a little more coordinated.

[Bill Ketzer, ASPCA]: Thank you. Sorry.

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: It's Okay.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Let's see. Senator Jim Cadesco. Thank

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: you. And thank you for your advocacy for what I believe are important parts of our family. Sometimes tragedies, unfortunately, have to take place before we take action. I don't think my perspective on animals and their unconditional love for us, the fact that they're a part of our family, tremendous service, canine units, our veterans. But the fact of the matter is the FBI put it up on an A level. People who abuse animals go on to hurt people. Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, Dahmer, the Caliban kids, all had a history of abusing animals. About twenty years ago, I put forth a bill called Buster's Law, one of the first animal cruelty felony bills in The United States Of America. The only reason it got passed is people were outraged that someone took a kitten, doused kerosene on it, lit it on fire. It languished at a facility for weeks. Suddenly, it died. They marched on the capital. Governor Petaki actually had to take us back into session during the summer in an election year to get that bill passed. Thousands of signatures on petitions, Buster's law. I developed the first animal advocacy day in the New York State Legislature. It continues. It all happened this year once again. Unfortunately, these atrocities are still happening. And I'll tell you in area they are. We have guidelines and mandates for shelters for veterinarians when they board. We don't have those guidelines for boarding facilities in New York State. The atrocity took place in Argyle. 21 dogs died overnight because of the lack of ventilation and really air conditioning. One family had three of those dogs die at the same time. So, I have put forth the Safe Pet Boarding Act. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but I wish you'd weigh in and tell me what your feelings on it. Because a boarding facility doesn't have the guidelines and mandates. You can take and take a vacation thinking, my animal is gonna be cared for

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Yep.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Whether it's a week, two weeks, two day. No guidelines on feeding. No guidelines on temperature. No lines on guidelines on health care in a boarding facility. This bill, s eight five one o, sponsored by senator Santa Barbara, a nine one two three in the assembly, would provide those guidelines at a minimal level for boarding facilities. Never should 21 animals die overnight because some boarding facility, a business wants to save money by shutting off the ventilation in that nursing home. I'd like to hear your

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: I agree with you. But I ask you this. Do not saddle the Department of Ag and Markets with this. They do not license kennels. It should be out of the Department of State. And they should be training their people to go out and do inspections if that's what ends up happening.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Well, I don't think we should be passing the buck to any other facility. We should get it done.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you, Assemblywoman Giglio.

[Assembly Member Jodi Giglio]: Thank you, Chair. And thank you all for being here. So my question is, since we have closed pet stores in New York State, have you seen an increase in animals being brought to shelters and for other things? Because we see it on the news every day I do where you see trucks on the side of the road. And I hear from people in my district that bought an unhealthy dog that now they were looking to surrender it to a shelter. And the shelter in my town doesn't have a surrender clause where you have to say why you're surrendering the dog. So nobody has heard from any shelters that people are turning in pets because they're ill and they bought them from a truck on the side of the road?

[Brian Shapiro, Humane World for Animals]: I have not received anything like that.

[Assembly Member Steve Otis]: Right.

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: People are redeeming their animals because of the economy, evictions. I can tell you that there was an influx of pet store animals after COVID. Once the restrictions were lifted, people spent a lot of money, thousands of dollars, to get a puppy from a pet store. Then they had to go back to work and realize they couldn't care for the animal anymore. And those animals ended up at the shelter. But we haven't seen any influx from what you're talking about.

[Assembly Member Jodi Giglio]: No. JAMES So you don't think that the puppy pipeline is coming into New York, puppy mill pipeline?

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: It's done. G. No, I

[Bill Ketzer, ASPCA]: think that when the law became effective, The not for profit organizations and the Department of Agricultural Markets worked for a period of time with the office of the attorney general. Essentially, had to happen was that the State Department of Agriculture no longer had jurisdiction over those entities because they weren't selling anything. And so then it had to become jurisdiction shifted to the Office of the Attorney General. We worked pretty closely with them. But at some point, it was really onto them to transition for MAGA Marks to help them transition into their new role. I think they've done a pretty good job. We haven't heard anything on the ground in terms of issues related to that law, passage of that law.

[Assembly Member Jodi Giglio]: Okay, thank you.

[Brian Shapiro, Humane World for Animals]: I would just have to agree with my colleagues. I think that passing the puppy mill pipeline bill, which addresses this influx of animals raised in substandard conditions into New York, it has been successful, in my opinion.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Other assembly?

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Yes, Assemblyman R. R.

[Assembly Member Ed Ra, Ranking Member, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: You. Just a question. You know, we've seen, obviously, when you have one of these situations where there's, you know, cruelty to animals and maybe there's a bunch of animals that some rescue comes in and takes the animals. And obviously, there is a cost to that, to feeding them, to housing them, to trying to train them so that they could get to a point that they could be adopted. So I'm just curious, how can we better support those entities to make sure they're able to take when you have one of these that there's a couple dozen animals, you know, the shelter really has to or the rescue really has to weigh whether they can afford to take them in. One of my colleagues has suggested the idea of maybe doing something with the crime victims fee where there could be when those type of convictions happen, that there could be a fund set up that could then help rescues when they're taking in animals after one of these incidents.

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: Well, that's why we're proposing the Animal Crime Fund. It's specific to that, to answer that that

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: need. Because

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: it is costly. And now that everyone in the state is licensed as an animal shelter under the new law, everyone will be asked to take part in this. And so it's unfair in a really real sense to ask the shelters to bear the financial brunt

[Bill Ketzer, ASPCA]: of

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: all of this. The security bond posting worked for a while, but it really doesn't work that well anymore. District attorneys are asking shelters to take these animals, but they're refusing to actually do the bond posting on behalf of the shelter. So the shelter then has to hire a lawyer to do that as well. So the Animal Crimes Fund, I think, will answer a lot of this. J.

[Assembly Member Ed Ra, Ranking Member, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Great. And then one other question I had. My colleague was just talking about licensing of kennels and stuff that are caring for dogs. But one of the other ones trainers, right? If we, in the absence of a very specific license, there seems to me like there's an issue both in terms of the care of the animal and, really the consumer side of it as well, to know what you're getting when somebody holds themselves out as being some type of trainer of an animal. So I don't know if you have any comment with regard to that.

[Bill Ketzer, ASPCA]: Well, I mean, that's like fraudulent behavior. I don't know that I mean, of whether we're talking about hoarding kennels or trainers or training facilities, think all that's appropriate. Just becomes the double just becomes in the details.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: You.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Who's going do

[Bill Ketzer, ASPCA]: it and who's going to pay for it.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: All

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: right. It's Senator Borrelo next.

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, thank you all for being here and for what you do to protect our animals. Obviously, I'm hearing from small shelters all across my district about new standards. I know this is a concern. It's a challenge. On one hand, we need to have standards, right? But what I'm hearing is the potential of increasing euthanizing animals because of this. I don't know if that's true or not. Please address that because it's a concern.

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: Right. It's not true. It's a red herring. It's fear mongering as far as we're all concerned. The organizations everybody had three years to get prepared for this. There was a three year effective date. It was passed in 2022. The governor signed it on 12/15/2022. It came into effect 12/15/2025. We've done lots of consulting, free consulting, with over 90 organizations to give them the roadmap of what they need to do. I don't think there is going to be an increase in euthanasia at all. I think what needs to happen is for the shelters to recognize and some of the rescues who like to hold on to their animals, right, that they need to get them out and get them adopted out. Do you want to say anything?

[Brian Shapiro, Humane World for Animals]: Yeah, Senator, this is the first that I've heard. And I know you're a champion of the animals, we thank you for that. I've never heard that. I've heard smaller rescues be concerned about costs to upgrade. I was the director of a shelter for many years in Senator Hinchey's district. That's why you do fundraising. That's why you have active board members. As Libby pointed out, there were many years for people to get it together and prepare for this. The days of stacking your animals in your garage on top of one another and calling yourself a rescue, they're over. Those days are done.

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: J. Yeah. And I wholeheartedly agree with that. There are people that, again, have good intentions but don't have the capabilities and the bandwidth to do those things. And yeah, so it's a balance, I guess. But I appreciate all that you do to speak for, quite frankly, the animals that can't speak for themselves.

[Brian Shapiro, Humane World for Animals]: GREGORY And sir, I would also add, from the perspective of Department of Ag and Markets, it's our understanding. No one's going out there to shut anyone down. This is a learning process to educate people because these rescues, which as Libby pointed out, are now considered shelters, they provide such an important service. And they're dedicated to this. So I view this as something that I'm looking forward to. I think it's going to grow in a great direction. And just pulling it all together, that's why it's important to support both the Companion Animal Capital Fund and also the Animal Crimes Fund.

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: And I agree. And a lot of these smaller shelters are the ones that are called on in the middle of the night when they have a situation where law enforcement needs to find a home. We want to support them as well. Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: I may be asking the same question in a different way. It's my understanding that the full effect of the new shelter law takes effect this year. And I just

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: Well, it came into being it took effect on 12/15/2025.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: This year? Okay.

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: Right. So, yes.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Within the month and three days. Anyway, what percentage, if any, do you think shelters are going to close because of the increased costs? And if there is a percentage, how many animals do you think were I just want rough estimates. How many animals we'll have to find a new facility to stay in that isn't already overcrowded?

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: I don't have the tea leaves, and I can't answer that question definitively. What I can say is that there are resources for these shelters to use to be able to meet the standards. ASPCA has put together a learning portal for the training. We've got all the policies and procedures that people need up on one of our websites in Word docs so they can just take them down. Where we might see some issues are some of the municipal shelters that have been woefully underfunded year after year after year and whether or not the municipalities are going to step up to do the work that they need to do for those shelters to meet the standards. I can tell you one example, the city of Elmira. Their shelter is not great. They are applying for a companion animal capital fund grant. This cycle, the RFP is due on Friday. That money is available. And the municipal shelters should really use it and upgrade their facilities.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Well, I got one of those two years ago. And it's still sitting

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: J. That's another somewhere story for another day.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: L. That's another story. The mayor has said that it's really not enough to fulfill what the requirements are. Then they need several million dollars more. And I just, for whatever the reason, I look at houses in my community. They go for a million dollars. And they're really nice houses, but why is it $4,000,000 for an animal shelter? It just doesn't make sense to me, but that's another story. I don't know if you, the three of you, were here with my talk with the commissioner Commissioner of of agriculture Agriculture about about horses and whatever. But I don't think that I was wrong. It's unfortunate that I don't recall ever getting any help from you guys in what my quest was, which was to keep these horses safe or find them a decent home. They seem to have fallen by the wayside. I know they're large animals, I know people really don't know what to do with them. But I do feel for them.

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: R.

[Brian Shapiro, Humane World for Animals]: Yeah, Assembly member, from the perspective of Humane World for Animals, we have supported. We've issued memos. And again, we know that you're a champion for horses. So we have weighed in. Are you talking about strictly the transportation component?

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Yeah, just because they're being transported. They're in trucks. They're stuffed in trucks. And the state police say they don't know what to do with them. R.

[Brian Shapiro, Humane World for Animals]: And you nailed it. It's the

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: state R. Can disregard that. Numb me. So finish.

[Brian Shapiro, Humane World for Animals]: GREGORY Thank you. That, as was pointed out, I think the state police, I mean, you have to have somewhere if they pulled over a truck full of stereo equipment that was stolen, they'd have a place to put it. So just because the state police or any leading law enforcement agency has not allocated the wherewithal to address this it's a crime. Those horses should not be on the highway going up to Canada. It's very clear. So more work needs to be done. And I think possibly if you look at something like an animal crimes fund, when a shelter runs into an issue, like where do we put the animals? You've got the fairgrounds. You have rescues. We have a whole network. So maybe we can tap into that. We do stand shoulder to shoulder with you and definitely want to help this. We've all supported that legislation. We want to see it be effective.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: But they also wouldn't be on the highway if the auctioneer didn't put them on the block to auction them off. And they know who these kill buyers are, and they still sell the horses to them. If they didn't do that, they would have to find another avenue for these horses to go.

[Brian Shapiro, Humane World for Animals]: L. A. It's only as good as it is enforced. And you know that through your years of experience, I'm sure.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: L. Well, thank the three of you for your testimony. Are there any senators that have anything to add? Any assembly people? Okay, Donna Lupardo, Assemblywoman Lupardo.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Hi, everybody. Sorry I missed your testimony, but I'm familiar and I will read it in-depth. I understand you're interested in seeing more money come into the Companion Animal Fund. Do you have any kind of a sense of how oversubscribed the current funding is? I mean, we usually try to match the governor's proposal with 10. But it would help if we had some idea of what are we looking at. J.

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: So last year, last year's money not the RFP that's due on Friday, but the year before there were 54 applications and 38 projects were funded. When there's only $5,000,000 there's still a lot of applications, but even less projects are funded. You So we

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: do know that it's

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: had 58 good applications. 58

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: applications. Whether they're good, it has to do with the scoring, right, that ag and markets does.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: And you were able to fund through that?

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: They did 38.

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: 38.

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: Right. And those awards were made in January 2025. And yes, we're still waiting for the contracts to be led.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: The rest of my questions were already asked. The

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: only other thing I wanted to just mention in the conversations about the standards is that these standards are based on the 2010 Association of Shelter Veterinarian Guidelines. So these standards as a whole have been around for now over fifteen years.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Got you. Thank you.

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: Thank you.

[Senator José M. Serrano, Chair, Senate Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee]: Thank you.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Thank you

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: so much.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Okay. Do we have anyone else waiting to ask questions? No. Then thank you so much for leaving us today. Greatly appreciate it. And I'm going to call up panel C to the New York State Park Police, PVA, Christopher Green, and the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement, Guillermo Maciel, I believe. Good afternoon. Almost evening. And who is who here? Because I'm not sure either is I'm sorry.

[Representative on behalf of Guillermo Alfonso Maciel, Columbia County Sanctuary Movement]: Hi, good afternoon. My name is I'm a community organizer with Columbia County Central Movement, and I'm going to be speaking on behalf of Guillermo. He had a medical emergency today, so he was not able to make

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: -I understand. Okay. And you are?

[Christopher Green, New York State Park Police PBA]: -Christopher Green with the New York State Park Police PBA.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: -Thank you. So why don't we have you start first so we'll go in order that you were named on the pieces of paper. Thank you.

[Christopher Green, New York State Park Police PBA]: Good afternoon, chairpersons and members of the legislature. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and for your continued commitment to the safety, preservation, and success of the New York State Park Police. My name is Christopher Green and I serve as the Park Police Sergeant's Director for the New York State Park Police. I appear before you today on behalf of the dedicated men and women of the New York State Park Police. As you know, the New York State Park Police play an essential role in safeguarding more than two fifty parks and historic sites across our state, serving over 88,000,000 visitors each year. Founded in 1885 at Niagara Falls, we are the oldest law enforcement agency in New York and one of the most specialized, versatile in the country. In recent years, the state of New York has made meaningful investments in rebuilding the Park Police. We are grateful for the support of the legislature, the governor's office, and state operations in restoring our staffing levels through multiple academy classes and revitalizing our ranks. Now it is time to protect that investment. To do so, we respectfully request two critical actions. First, restoring operational autonomy to the New York State Park Police by reversing then Governor Cuomo's 2019 executive memorandum placing the placing us under the operational control of the New York State Police, and second, continuing to support retirement equity for our members. Granting our command staff the full authority over the agency will improve efficiency, accountability, and morale. Retirement equity is equally essential to recruitment and retention. Without it, we will continue to lose highly trained officers to other agencies offering a standard twenty year retirement, wasting millions in training costs and impacting public safety. The men and women of the New York State Park Police protect our parks, our visitors, and our communities every day. We urge you to support these common sense measures and ensure long term strength of this historic agency. Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your continued support of the New York State Park Police, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you very much. Please.

[Representative on behalf of Guillermo Alfonso Maciel, Columbia County Sanctuary Movement]: Greetings Finance Chair, Senator Kroger, Ways and Means Chair, Assembly Member Gary Petlow, and members of the Agriculture Joint Budget Committee. My name is Guillermo Alfonso Maciel. I'm a New York Farm Bureau member and part of the coordinating committee for the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement. I am a first generation Mexican American. I am a farm worker in the Upper I am a farmer in the Upper Hudson Valley, and the first in my family to own farmland. I am also a small manufacturer of added food products, processing over 80,000 pounds of local produce this past year. And above all else, I am a family man. I am a husband and a father of two young boys. This last point is integral to my testimony because keeping families safe and together is at the heart of what I and countless New Yorkers are striving for this legislative session. To accomplish this, the legislature must pass the New York for All Act immediately. New York farm families across the state need our legislature to consider the budgetary and constitutional violations implications of the state of New York using state and local resources, municipal funds, and taxpayer dollars to be complicit in a cruel federal agenda focused on violence, terror, and the disappearance of families. Today, New York state and municipal agencies, including our law enforcement, are colluding with immigration and custom law enforcement to funnel New York families into the mass deportation machine, which includes New York farm workers, farmers, and their families. New York is in a crisis, and our farms and communities are suffering the consequences of not having protections like New York for all in place. Federal agents are colluding with state troopers at traffic checkpoints to target people on their way to work, dropping their kids off at school, or going to the hospital. We are also seeing an explosion of two eighty seven agreements being signed between ICE and county and local sheriffs, and police departments growing from one prior to 2025 to 14 as of today, and with more on the horizon. The agreement turns local officers into ICE agents acting as force manipulators to disappear New Yorkers from their communities through racial profiling and other violent tactics. All this is taking place throughout our state, diverting our New York State dollars away from funding the programs that actually keep our communities safe, and instead pulling it towards funding mass deportations. The despicable irony, when looking at the data from the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, which showed that over $3,000,000,000 in New York state tax revenue alone was contributed by undocumented workers. At the New York Farm Bureau, we believe that individual freedom and opportunity must not be sacrificed in a quest for guaranteed security. We believe that legislation and regulatory policies should prioritize the self employed farmers and businesses that are critical to our state's economy. According to the US thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you very much. Sorry, again, it's only three minutes. Of course. We get the full written testimony, and everybody who goes on our websites can also download your full testimony. Thank you.

[Representative on behalf of Guillermo Alfonso Maciel, Columbia County Sanctuary Movement]: Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Any senators like to ask questions? Senator Michelle Henschon?

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Hi there. Thank you both so much for being here. Of course, extend we our hope Guillermo's doing all right in sending our love to him. I have a question for both of you. I hope I can do it in my time. Starting with CCSM. Can you speak oh, thank you for the testimony. We'll read the rest of it. Thank you. But can you speak a little bit to farm workers and farmers specifically for the Mid Hudson Valley and Upper Hudson Valley? What have you seen there as it pertains to people being able to show up to work or even output from our farms?

[Representative on behalf of Guillermo Alfonso Maciel, Columbia County Sanctuary Movement]: Yes, of course. Thank you for that question. So what we're seeing in our region is that farmers are scared to death. They don't want to come to work. They're pulling their kids out of school. So that's causing a disruption within the services in the farms, distribution, the workload. So, that's what we're seeing right now as far as farmers. Also, we're seeing farmers being targeted. If they're driving a work van or something like that, you know, different places that they go in the morning. We're seeing mostly ice activity. So that's kind of what we're seeing right now.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Have you seen that in specific counties or more all over?

[Representative on behalf of Guillermo Alfonso Maciel, Columbia County Sanctuary Movement]: All over. All over.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: All Thank you. I want to make sure I can get to both, but appreciate it. Thanks for what you do. We've been fighting for parity for you guys for a really long time, and really appreciate everything that you do, especially in communities like ours. We did some improvements in the budget on the retirement system last year, if I'm remembering correctly. I'm curious how, what more do we need to do? How, what more in the retirement space do you need?

[Christopher Green, New York State Park Police PBA]: So there was fixes. The fixes came at the eleventh hour for us, so we didn't really have time to digest it. But now that we've had some time and we're going on, you know, almost a year since the budget, our members are having a very difficult time navigating through the retirement system as is Nisler's and OSC. We've had multiple conversations with them. As of right now, we're working through we have two we have a recruit class right now in our academy and only two of the new recruits who would subsequently be on the mandated retirement system, their contributions those two are the only two that have contributions coming out of our 37 recruits. So there's still a lot of issues to be worked out there.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: I think something that would be helpful sorry, just because I'm going run out of time. I'm sure one of my colleagues will answer more. But what would be helpful is knowing what the where the differences are, how far you'd want to go pen to paper maybe it's in your testimony from what was done last year and the improvements that were made to what we should be fighting for in this year. Because I think there's some confusion on what more we need to do.

[Christopher Green, New York State Park Police PBA]: Yes, we're looking at cleaning, a cleanup legislation for those fixes, yes.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you. Follow-up. A summary will be Lupardo.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: No. Okay. Ms. Sullivan Kim.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: Thank you. Director Green, why is this so important to have the autonomy for the New York State Parks Police and have it separate from the state troopers?

[Christopher Green, New York State Park Police PBA]: R. Thank you, Asummy and Kim. You know, we have to look back at we've been coming here every year and talking about this, and we have to look back at the root cause of it. In 2019, it's my opinion that the 2019 executive memorandum by then Governor Cuomo was more of an emotional decision, and it was never meant to bolster public safety. And, you know, we have data to support that. And what our members have been through the past six years, you know, when it first started a month after the executive memorandum came out, our members were being instructed that they were gonna have to go through a background investigation again, subsequently take a physical fitness test. And the concerning part about that was is we had members that were, you know, having early onset symptoms of potential nineeleven related illness. But in order to continue their job, they were going to have to, you know, take a physical fitness test. So we've come a long way. Obviously, the 2022 executive memorandum that was revised by state operations, we just feel that we've met that criterium. Like the commissioner had stated earlier, our staffing levels right now are approximately two thirty. We have a 37 person recruit class. Our number is going to be at two sixty seven which are higher than the July 2019 staffing levels prior to this executive memorandum in 2019 becoming fruition. So we've checked the box since the 2022 revised executive memorandum And we just feel that it's important to, you know, become our own individual agency and autonomy from the state police.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: So it's been an administrative decision, not a legislative decision, to put the Parks Department under the state troopers, correct?

[Bill Ketzer, ASPCA]: R.

[Christopher Green, New York State Park Police PBA]: Correct. Through that executive memorandum in 2019, yes.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: R. L. Okay. Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Right. Other senators? Ah, Senator Tedesco.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Thank you very much for being here. This is a question both of you could weigh in at. Park police have some specific skills and training for our vast parks system in policing that system. What are is there any practices and policies to keep them here and leaving for local departments? Because we need to keep our park police in the parks, working for the parks, keeping our constituents safe in the parks. Are there any policies and practices to keep them there in the parks instead of leaving for local departments?

[Christopher Green, New York State Park Police PBA]: Well, I think that goes into both of our two key issues this year, and that's the pension parity that we've been working towards for several years. The our members now with this new pension system, they are the highest contributing members of the tier six system. And when we're talking about, you know, tier six revisions, you know, each year in the legislature. Now our members are paying a percentage and a half more than any state employee. Our tier two members are now contributing members of the pension system. So although it was, there was somewhat good intentions there, our members are paying the price for that now. And it's almost an, it's not an implementable retirement system and that's why we're going back, you know, to our legislature and to try to come up with those fixes hope that we have the support from the governor. To the second point of the park police and the state police, keeping them there or keeping our members with our agency, We look to we look at the beginning of their career. So our newest candidates are essentially they're going into a state police barracks. They don't necessarily see or interact with a state park police officer other than through the initial processing. But their entire background investigation is done by a New York State Police investigator. The first time that they might step foot into a park is the first night of the academy. So, again, I use the analogy, you know, if you apply for Walmart and you are told to go interview at Target, you're questioning some sort of dysfunction within the agency and the longevity of the agency. And these newest candidates from the beginning are questioning the longevity of our agency. And I compare that to a police department like Nassau County. You know, we know in ten years they're still going to be around. In twenty years they're still going to be around. And, you know, we've heard time and time again that the New York State Park Police aren't going anywheres, but we've checked the box, we've met that criterium to go back to that memorandum of understanding like the commissioner elaborated on earlier, So why aren't we doing it? And that's the main question we have for the executive chamber.

[Assembly Member Brian D. Miller]: Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you. Assemblywoman Giglio.

[Assembly Member Jodi Giglio]: Yes, thank you. And in past years it's been discussed that you train your recruits and then the minute they can get a chance to go in to become a state trooper they're leaving. So I'm happy to hear that your recruitment numbers are up. And I'm saddened to hear about the discouraged news about tier six and being able to actually recruit people and keep them. But back to my colleague's question about parity and what would it take to retain your officers so that they don't seek to jump on the first opportunity they get to become a state trooper.

[Christopher Green, New York State Park Police PBA]: I think the retirement fix. And through legislation this year we're looking to have a clean twenty year bill for all for all of our newest members and with the same contributions. That's what we're asking for. You know, to our newest candidates that are currently in the academy, to ask them to contribute a percentage and a half more on their paycheck, that's it's a lot of money. It's a percentage and a half but when you talk about, you know, higher figure numbers, it's a lot of money. So I don't even know if the candidates know that but when they, you know, start seeing their first checks, they're going to, you know, they're well aware that there's significant contributions coming out of there. So just fixing the pension parity with and getting to parity with the state police and their pension plan. That's our first fix. And like I said before, job security knowing that the New York State Park Police are going to exist in ten years, they're going to exist in twenty years. Like I said, we're the longest standing law enforcement agency and we would like to get back to that and have that sense of security that we're not going anywheres and giving our newest candidates and also our current members in the Park Police some sort of peace of mind that, you know, we're not going anywheres and rescinding that oversight from the New York State Police. And I will say that we had a memorandum of understanding prior to 2019 for several decades. We have a great working relationship and I and some of the things I said, I don't want to negate our working relationship with the state police. But at this point, we've checked the box on all the criterium that we've needed to. We can certainly go back to that memorandum of understanding. And when we need the state police like we had for decades in the past, we can always call them and we know that they'll be there.

[Assembly Member Jodi Giglio]: Yeah. I recall being a local legislator years ago when they were saying that they were going to bring the county police or the town police into the state parks. And there was a lot of pushback in Suffolk County. And I think that there should be pushback throughout the state because I think the park police are trained to know what to do in a park situation. So thank you for being out there on those dark, lonely nights. Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: J. Thank you. It's all in here. I

[Representative on behalf of Guillermo Alfonso Maciel, Columbia County Sanctuary Movement]: just had one more thing to ask. I think

[Libby Post, Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation]: it was

[Representative on behalf of Guillermo Alfonso Maciel, Columbia County Sanctuary Movement]: Senator Tedesco, I believe, you had aimed a question at both of us. And I wanted to just say that I think that, as far as the Park Police, I think one of the things that can happen is that you guys can adopt an internal policy where you guys don't collaborate with federal agents unless they have a signed judicial warrant. And I think passing New York for All would ensure that.

[Christopher Green, New York State Park Police PBA]: I would have to confirm that, but I believe that policy for all state agencies, state police agencies, is in place, that we do not enforce immigration law. Amazing.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you both for that. Right, I think we have covered everyone's questions. Appreciate very much your coming tonight and both testifying before us. And we have everyone's testimony. So thank you very much.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: All

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: right. I'm going to ask panel D to join us, the New York Farm Bureau, the food pantries for the Capital District, and the Northeast Dairy Producers Association. And then for people who are here for panel E, you might want to move yourself down towards the front because you'll be the last panel after this panel is complete, just to save yourself a little time when I do call you up. Thank you. Okay. Hello. All right. Good evening, everyone. I it's evening. I don't know. It's 05:20? It's evening. It's evening. Thank you. Okay, so who is the New York Farm Bureau? Great, we'll start with you then. Renee Zinjak? Thank you. Welcome.

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: Thank you. You're pronouncing my last name correctly. Yes. Hello. Thank you to the chairs and to our legislators here for having this opportunity to testify today and share some information on agriculture. I am Renee St. Jacques. I am director of public policy at New York Farm Bureau. And we are the voice of the farmers. We are the largest agricultural advocacy organization in the state. We represent farmers from all across the state, all size farms, all different commodities, as most of you know. I just wanted to touch on a few key points that are in in my test in my written testimony that I've submitted. Thank you to the governor for including some great start to funding in the in the state budget, And also wanted to point out, of course, extending the refundable investment tax credit, the 20% investment tax credit to 2033. We really urge the legislature to support that in the final budget. Also, the 5,000,000 for the dairy modernization grants. Of course, as we see more processing in the state, we need to support our dairy farms in increasing their capacity to produce more milk. The 30,000,000 for the helping farmers who have been impacted by tariffs will be interesting to see how that plays out into the final budget, and and we're looking forward to having those discussions. And we appreciate that support of our of our farmers across the state that have that might have been impacted. Cornell CALS, and to bring up the the funding that's proposed for capital funding for for their research farms, we support that, but we'd like to see that increase to 5,000,000 and also 5,000,000 for operational funds. Those are key to connecting academic research to commercial applications. And what we really just need in this budget is stable and predictable funding for agriculture. As you can see, there's been a lot of instability and unsure of what the future will bring for agriculture across the nation, but especially in New York. And we were just looking to the state legislature to ensure that we have that needed funding and and support to make sure agriculture thrives. I will also bring up the Environmental Protection Fund. There's a lot of key programs in there to help farmers with our water quality and our soil health, protecting our farmland, and we support the funding that's proposed. But of course, we'll always take more. And I'll just mention one thing that wasn't included in the budget but we've been talking about for a while is the clean fuel standard. This is this would really support our dairy farms who are taking by who are producing biomethane. They're taking manure and they're taking food waste and keeping it from going into our landfills and they're making biomethane that can produce biofuels and replace diesel fuel. So we need that create that market right now. Those carbon credits are going to California. They have a clean fuel standard. New York does not. We just want to see something that's workable for our farmers. So thank you very much for the time.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: You. Thank you. And our next speaker is Angie Pender Fox.

[Angie Pender Fox, The Food Pantries for the Capital District]: Yes, thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Food ANGIE Pantries for the Capital Business.

[Angie Pender Fox, The Food Pantries for the Capital District]: ANGIE Yes, thank you so much. So we are a coalition of 75 pantries in Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady, and Saratoga Counties serving more than 100,000 people food for 5,000,000 meals annually. And I'm here today to urge your full support for two critical lifelines in the upcoming New York state budget. We are asking that the Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program be funded at $75,000,000 and Nourish New York be funded at $75,000,000 Our network is currently navigating a prolonged crisis. Since 2019, the pantry network across New York has seen a staggering 70% increase in distribution. Locally, the numbers are just as stark. Our coalition saw a 42% increase in utilization in 2024. And current 2025 data shows an additional 5% rise on top of those record highs. Behind these statistics are the faces of our community, parents, grandparents, and children. Our members are reporting a surge in first time visitors, including working class families who simply cannot keep pace with the 39% increase in food inflation we have witnessed between 2019 and today. The reality is that the emergency food system has fundamentally changed. It has transitioned from a temporary safety net into a permanent pillar of support. Whether it was the COVID nineteen pandemic or the more recent SNAP benefit crisis, food pantries have sustained New Yorkers through unprecedented challenges. These services are no longer just supplemental. For many of our neighbors, these are essential for basic survival. To meet this demand, New York must invest in a resilient, robust food infrastructure. HipNap and Nourish New York are the cornerstones of that infrastructure. HIPNAP provides the foundation our pantries need to keep their shelves stocked. And Nourish creates a vital economic link by supporting our state farmers and producers and ensuring that nutritious, locally grown, and produced food strengthens both our residents' health and our regional economy. We are grateful for your past dedication to these programs, and we ask you to meet this moment of historic need. Thank you so much for your time and your support.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you very much. And our third guest on this panel, Alison Jones Brimmer, Northeast Dairy Producers Association. VERGEL:

[Alison Jones Brimmer, Northeast Dairy Producers Association]: Thank you, Chairs Kruger and Pretlow, for the opportunity to testify today, as well as Assembly Members Lupardo and Tague, and Senators Hinchey and Borrello for your steadfast leadership and really all that you have done for agriculture. You are really remarkable leaders and we thank you for your work. I'm here today to talk about New York's farm families. We have multi generational businesses that anchor rural communities, support thousands of jobs, and sustain a robust processing manufacturing sector across the state. Unfortunately, dairy farms are facing a year of low milk prices, so we appreciate Governor Hochul's leadership in proposing a strong budget for agriculture. We strongly support an extension of the refundable investment tax tax credit, another round of funding for the Dairy Modernization Grant Program, and investment in the Environmental Protection Fund. I'm going to spend a majority of my allotted time today talking about Cornell University and their need for funding. Strong research, extension, and applied technical assistance remain foundational to the success of New York's dairy industry. We respectfully ask the legislature to increase Cornell's Cornell Pro Dairy Program's funding by $1,125,000 over the executive budget proposal. Despite its critical importance to dairy farms across New York State, Pro Dairy's core budget funding has not increased since 2014. During that same time, the demands on the program have grown significantly as farms face increased economic pressure, evolving environmental expectations, workforce challenges, and rapid changes in technology. The core mission of Pro Dairy is to support dairy farms through improved productivity, profitability, and environmental performance. That mission has never been more important. As we've seen New York make historic investments in new and expanded dairy processing capacity, farms must be able to plan, invest, and adapt to meet processor needs while remaining environmentally and economically sustainable. Pro dairy provides the assistance needed for that transition. Increased funding would allow them to continue the climate leadership specialist positions, expand expertise in farm business management, dairy nutrition, animal well-being, and youth development, all areas that have been identified by farmers as high priority. The Pro Dairy team is also a critical component to helping farms apply research and innovation that is developed by CALS and at the Cornell University Ruminant Center. This investment will ensure that Pro Dairy can continue delivering high impact practical support that maximizes the return on New York's processing and infrastructure investments, reinforces long term competitiveness of the state's dairy industry, and these investments will help ensure that dairy farms remain strong economic anchors in their communities while providing a secure and reliable food supply for all New Yorkers. Investing in Cornell University is an investment in every New Yorker. Thank you for your time, and thank you for your continued support of agriculture.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: R. Thank you very much. Any senators? Michelle Hinchey.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Hi, everyone. Thank you for being here, for your testimony, and for everything I that you want to jump right in. So we've heard some issues and challenges with the overtime tax credit as it's structured right now. It was not in your verbal testimony, so I'd love to hear either from Nedpa or Farm Bureau what the challenge is, what you're seeing.

[Alison Jones Brimmer, Northeast Dairy Producers Association]: I think from our perspective for the overtime tax credit, a challenge that we saw previously was fixed last year. So we're just looking forward to seeing how that actually parts of it have been implemented for some farms, so just making sure that it rolls out as intended.

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: Yeah. I mean, as far as the overtime tax credit, the same thing. I think we're seeing, as the overtime threshold lowers, we're gonna see more farmers taking advantage of that if they can. And with having, as the commissioner Commissioner Ball said before, having to be able to get some payment in July, you know, another twice a year does help because you're putting, you know, you have to pay out the overtime in order for

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Right. But was there an issue with Sundays?

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: So that has to do with the day of rest. So it's Agriculture is the only industry in New York that has to pay overtime on the day of rest if the employee chooses to work that day, even if the overtime threshold has not been met. So as the overtime threshold goes down to forty hours, when it gets even it's right now it's at fifty two. Even if an employee does not work that many hours in those six days, but say that's a beautiful day and you have to get the hay done, you have to do the crops, and say, Okay, come in for a few hours, that employer has to pay overtime no matter what agricultural resilient industry that has to do that.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: And is that part of the state coverage for overtime, right?

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: Yeah. And that was part of the law that was passed a few years ago. Part of it. Okay. But as the overtime threshold goes down, we're seeing that why don't if you want it the same as other industries, why not make it the same for agriculture?

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Which would save money for the state, too, right?

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: Yeah, right.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Okay, thank you. Have a short sorry. No, it's Okay. I have a short I'm happy to well, I'll nourish New York for both. It'd be great to hear I didn't think I'd have enough time. But it'd be great to hear we've been fighting for 75,000,000. How would that impact our ag community? And how many more people could our pantries feed?

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: Alright, my next one. So I'll just say that we're certainly looking for that increase. I mean, that's going to help our farmers who are utilizing that program. And I'm sure that's going to be a big impact for the consumers as well.

[Assembly Member Jodi Giglio]: Go ahead.

[Angie Pender Fox, The Food Pantries for the Capital District]: Of course. It would be a huge impact. I do not have a specific number, but I could tell you the impact would be significant for sure.

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: Can get that information.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you. Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you. Assemblywoman Lupardo.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: JULIE Yes, thank you. Just a couple questions for the Farm Bureau. As you know, a number of us have been wrestling with the whole matter of solar on prime farmland. And I've talked to a lot of folks from the Farm Bureau who want us to do something and a lot of folks from the Farm Bureau who don't want us to do anything about restricting farmers' rights to do what they want with their land. So with that being said, I'm curious as to what is the Farm Bureau's overall attitude regarding agrivoltaics? Because the governor's pivoting and putting some thought into standing up agrivoltaics. As you know, I'm supporting, but I'm nervous about somehow checking a box that we've solved that problem. But we haven't. Right.

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: And that was a discussion at our annual meeting this past December. We do now have policy at New York Farm Bureau supporting a definition of agrivoltaics and also incentives as far as tax incentives for agrivoltaics. But something that was discussed as well was that hesitancy of making sure that the utility scale solar isn't, when it's already getting subsidies from the state to put in and a utility scale, a large scale solar installation, that they're not just saying, oh, and then we're doing agrivoltaics, and we're just doing the small thing that is going to get more incentives. So I think that there's a balance between that, and that shows up in policy that passed at New York Farm Bureau that the farmers want to support the option if farmers can make agrivoltaics work on their farm and utilize it and still be able to have a good farm business while also implementing some solar on their farm. That'll work. But I think going forward also, know that was talked about before the ATWIG, the Agricultural Technical Working Group. I sit on that group along with quite a few others who have farmers' interests in mind. And I think going forward, that group will be instrumental in trying to make sure that agrivoltaics can be utilized, but it's not being it's not going I get what you're saying, that we're not going too far and just allowing solar companies to say, Okay, agrivoltaics is happening, so we can do this huge, large scale solar

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: and take We up do suggest that prime the Bureau is leaning toward being reluctant to see tax incentives go to large corporations

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: That was for health something that was talked about as well, trying what's the difference between large scale and everything. But I think they don't want to see state subsidies go towards utility scale solar.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Great. Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Our Senate ranker on agriculture? Hello, Senate ranker.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: JAMES DAY:

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, thank you all for being here. I want to go back to the overtime rules again, because I think we're kind of on a collision course with a policy that would be wholly unfair. When you start talking about the day of rest and having to pay overtime on that day, right now the law doesn't allow any flexibility. Is that correct? As to when the day of rest could be?

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: Technically. And I think there's a little bit of discussion on, yeah, when you can take that day of rest, if it doesn't have to be the same day every week.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Right.

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: But you're taking a day of rest after working consecutive twenty four hour day, you know, six days, so.

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: So, I mean, I would think there'd be a concern of perhaps somebody, some people gaming the system also, you know, in order to get that overtime. Isn't that a concern?

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: I think it, from what I've heard, it's more of a concern where there may be employees, especially on a certain types of farms, doing agribusiness, they have a few employees who do not work a ton of hours during the week either, and or it's a really rainy week, and you're not able to get as much work done. And then all of a sudden, on that day of rest, they an employee has to choose to work. That's it. And they can't, the employee can't, or employer can't force them to do that. But they just need to get the rent. It's only for a few hours, but having to pay that overtime. Is, I mean, we expecting every other industry in New York to be doing that?

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: I think that's the point. You you and I've had this discussion. You know, we're gone from trying to, I guess, level the playing field to now tilting the other way. And it's going, particularly with agriculture. You know, we have a short growing season. You know, it's very weather dependent, the days you can get things done, like you said. You know. So I guess what I would ask is that, you know, I think ultimately we want to see this be a fair policy. I think that ultimately we know that when you add up, you know, the amount of time that is spent in a whole year on labor, that it's concentrated in a relatively short period of time. And many farmers keep their people busy with busy work just to So keep them a very different industry to begin with. So what would you suggest would be a modification so that we could make this fair? And I agree with you. We should be able to have more frequent payouts of that tax credit. What can we do to make this fairer in a simple way?

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: I think just plain and simple, we're looking for that if someone chooses to work on their day of rest works those hours that if they haven't met the overtime threshold, whatever that threshold may be, as it changes every few years, that the employer does not have to pay overtime.

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: I think that's fair and I think that's All in

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: common the same range with threshold.

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Great. Well, thank you all.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Appreciate it.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Assembly?

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Assemblyman Tague.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ladies, thank you for your hard work. It's been an honor and a pleasure to work with you through Farm Bureau and through the Ag Committee and my farm tours. You ladies are always there, I appreciate it. I just wanna go off what Senator Borrella just said. And you had brought it up as well, Renee. We've had a lot of discussion with regard to the Farm Labors Fair Labor Practices Act. Don't you think we'd have been better off if we put it all together and got it right at the beginning instead of worrying about all these things that have come up since? Why didn't we put together a plan? I mean, we had hearing after hearing after hearing, and seventy plus percent of the people that were involved in those hearings said that this practice was not the best way to move forward. So I guess my question is, don't you think we should get it right and then make it a law?

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: That would be great with every law to do that. And I think

[Brian Shapiro, Humane World for Animals]: I know.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: I put

[Kathy Moser, Acting Commissioner, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]: you on

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: the spot. I apologize. I'm not going to bring up anything about Cornell because I'm going to talk to the folks at Cornell about that. But I will say this. I appreciate all of you with your support for Cornell. Organizations like Farm Bureau and Cornell and any type of farmer in this country depends on Cornell being funded properly. It is the greatest agricultural school in the world and it's right here in New York State and we need to remember that. Lastly, I'm just gonna I'm gonna actually ask for your help. And I know that we've had this that Renee and I have had this discussion about a week ago. But I and I know it's gonna be a no brainer with NEDPA. So But I hope that we all can get together as legislators, ag and markets, Farm Bureau, NEDPA, anybody that's a pro and Cornell for that matter. And we need to do everything we can to educate and promote getting the whole milk and 2% milk back into our schools and other facilities, state owned facilities that took it out. It is going to make a huge difference. And there are still people out there that don't understand. So what I'm asking is, because Farm Bureau is very good at it and so is NEDPA and absolutely Cornell. We need to go in and educate school administrators, students, parents, the things that were wrongly said about whole milk and 2% milk and how great this product is gonna be having it back in our schools and hopefully how our dairy farmers are gonna flourish. So thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Senator Tedisco.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Well, first and foremost, thank you so much for supporting mine and Assemblyman Buttenschon's initiative and piece of legislation to give tax credits for farmers when they provide housing themselves for farm workers. We're very excited about that. And I'd like to hear more about what you think the impact is going to be for our farmers in terms of them doing the work they do and bringing the food to our tables to our constituents in New York State. What do you think the impact will be? How many will take advantage of it? Will several of them take advantage of it?

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: Well, we've been asking for years, you know, it seems like that of years to get the farm worker housing, any investment in farm worker housing eligible for that investment tax credit. And I think a lot of farmers utilize the farm worker housing revolving loan fund. That's certainly well used and very helpful. But certainly, an investment in our housing farm worker housing at our farms is an investment in our farms, we're surprised that that's not still not included in that. Do you want add

[Alison Jones Brimmer, Northeast Dairy Producers Association]: anything? Yeah. And I would add that our farmers report to us that workforce challenges are really the biggest challenges facing their business. So anything that they can do to recruit and retain a high quality workforce, they want to do that for their business. So being able to make investments in their housing is something they're doing on their own. It's something they're using the existing loan program for. But they do need more help as construction costs are rising. So this is something that a lot of our members want to do and would love to be able to take advantage of that as part of the investment tax credit.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Thank you. I'm very proud to have sponsored and authored that bill.

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: Thank you.

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: Have a good day.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Some of you will be Giglio?

[Assembly Member Jodi Giglio]: So with the ag worker housing, I know that we had several farmers on Long Island that had tapped into that program, but the timeframes to get the permits were just not fast enough in order to actually get it built and get the funding. So what do you think that we could do better in the ag worker housing from reports that you have from the farmers that have tried to tap into that funding and just had to just turn the grant back over to the state because they couldn't meet the time restraints?

[Alison Jones Brimmer, Northeast Dairy Producers Association]: I'm not familiar with those scenarios. I'm not sure if that's the revolving loan fund or if that's a past grant program. So I think I would need to know more details to be able to respond.

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: Now, you saying for as far as trying to get your I mean, utilizing the revolving loan fund, but then trying to get the permits and

[Assembly Member Jodi Giglio]: Yeah, it just takes a long time, especially in Suffolk County. Yeah.

[Renee St. Jacques, Director of Public Policy, New York Farm Bureau]: Someone who's trying to build a house now. Get it. It's a long process. And I think that the more that we can do to support our farmers, I think that's something we can continue to talk about. And I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, too, on what we could help on the local level when it comes to the process. And maybe having a longer timeline for the revolving loan fund would be something as well.

[Assembly Member Jodi Giglio]: Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Any other assembly members?

[Senator Jim Tedisco]: That's it.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you very much for your participation tonight. Thank you. Thank Appreciate it. We have what am getting? Green light on. We have one final panel, Scenic Hudson, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Science oh, we heard too much about them already. No, I'm sorry. I did that for you, Julie and American Farmland Trust.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: Good

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: evening, everyone. We're going to go just like you're numbered. Scenic Hudson, Carly Fraquerolli, Julie Suarez, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, who I knew from the Farm Bureau all those years. There we go. It happens. And Julian Mangano, American Farmland Trust. Great. Okay, let's start with Sina Cruz. Good evening.

[Carly Fracaroli, Government Relations Manager, Scenic Hudson]: Good evening. And thank you, Chair Krueger, Chair Pretlow, ranking member Senator O'Meara, and Assemblyman Ra, and members of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee for the opportunity to testify today. Thank you. My name is Carly Fracaroli, and I am the government relations manager for Scenic Hudson. Since our founding in 1963, Scenic Hudson's mission has been to sustain and enhance the Hudson Valley's health and beauty for generations to come. We have protected thousands of acres of land, advocated for our farming communities, and worked closely with both our coalition partners and members of the legislature to pass laws protecting New York's natural resources. Today, I would like to highlight three specific areas we've identified as high impact priorities for your consideration in upcoming budget negotiations. And I'm going to try to do it in three minutes, so wish me luck. We appreciate your attention to these priorities, as well as to the others noted in our formal written testimony. The first I want to talk about is Greenway Trail Connections. Our partner from Parks and Trails New York spoke about this briefly a little bit earlier in the hearing. And while many New Yorkers and visitors benefit from the dedicated efforts of the Hudson River Valley Greenway, there is no dedicated statewide funding in the budget for Greenway trails. So we are respectfully requesting the inclusion of Greenway Trail connections as a new line item under the Parks and Recreation account of the Environmental Protection Fund. An initial allocation of $10,000,000 in the state budget would provide the infusion of capital needed to advance the thousands of miles of trail projects across the state, improving access for all New Yorkers. The second program I would like to highlight is the Climate Resilient Farming Program within the EPF. I talked about this last year in my testimony. And I just want to thank chairs Hinchey and Lupardo, as well as the legislature at large for your support of this critical program. Thank you so much. It helps working farms advance sustainable climate smart practices while enhancing their economic bottom line. And with demand for assistance doubling available funds, farmers clearly value this program's role in helping them reduce on farm emissions, sequester carbon, protect water quality, increase food system resiliency, and support farm viability. And for this reason, we urge you to restore funding to last year's $19,500,000 baseline in the final budget to support both farm viability and climate goals. And finally, I want to talk briefly about the governor's proposal for a new sun and soil program. We were really excited to see that proposal in her State of the State. And we want to ensure that renewable energy and working farmland can coexist and complement each other, and we think that program can do that. We'd like to see the program get the funding it needs to be impactful, and we recommend that it prioritize establishing an incentive, codifying a definition for agrivoltaics, ensuring that farmers who do produce agricultural products as part of agrivoltaics do not lose the benefit of the agricultural assessment. And we're hoping to see financial and technical support for farmers. Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you very much. Ms. Suarez? I know, you have to press it

[Alison Jones Brimmer, Northeast Dairy Producers Association]: just There we

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: Thank you. Appreciate the opportunity to testify here today. I do have to start out by saying one of the best things about Cornell CALS is our students. I'm going to embarrass Carly by saying she's a 2018 Cornell CALS graduate, and I'm so proud. Thank you, Carly. So I'm Julie Suarez, associate dean at Cornell CALS College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, New York's land grant college for more than one hundred and fifty years. Our job from the very beginning has been simple and practical, to bring science to the places where New Yorkers live, work, grow, and eat food. When people think of Cornell, they often just think about Ithaca. But Cornell CALS actually lives across New York State in the impact we have on farms and forests, vineyards, dairies, orchards, and greenhouses from Long Island to the North Country and beyond. Our satellite research farms, coupled with our scientists and extension staff, are where science meets reality. That's where we help protect Long Island's sole source aquifer, where we test apple, grape, and vegetable varieties in different microclimates before farmers ever take the risk themselves, where we help our dairy farmers produce more milk and more protein with fewer cows, less land pressure, and better environmental outcomes, and where we support forestry and maple producers in some of the most economically challenged rural counties in the state. More also in our urban communities, through Catalyst Research and Extension, we work directly with urban growers supporting food production in places where land is scarce and public health matters deeply. We also support our urban schools through our ag education and STEM based learning programs. Whether it's testing soil for contaminants before food is grown, supporting controlled environment ag, or helping small food entrepreneurs meet food safety standards, this science shows up in our community gardens, greenhouses, farms, and food businesses all across New York's rural and urban communities. It isn't abstract research. It's problem solving science done side by side with farmers and extended into all of New York. And the results do matter. Across our satellite research farms and forests alone, Cal supports nearly 400 direct jobs, leverages $59,500,000 in research investment, and generates more than $1,200,000,000 in economic impact, along with millions more in savings and productivity gains. That's why New York leads the nation in products like table beets. It's why our fruit and vegetable varieties are grown statewide. It's why our dairy farmers have moved from eleventh to fifth nationally in milk per cow, outperforming all of our neighbors. I tend to be a little competitive. But I want to be very clear. Our college's ability to maintain the statewide footprint is under significant strain. SUNY operational funding has remained effectively flat for nearly two decades, even as costs have risen and federal research funding has become increasingly uncertain. We've reduced faculty, significantly reduced staff, reduced our footprint, and stretched every dollar. But there is a limit to how far our dedication alone can keep us. Governor Hochul's and the legislature's support over the years in the ag and markets budget has helped us significantly, and I thank you for that. And I'll simply defer the rest of my remarks and say that even though I timed this, I still exceeded my time.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: It's all right. We won't fire you for that.

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: Thank goodness.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Okay. Good evening is our last speaker.

[Speaker 18.0]: I

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: know you have to press it right in the sweet spot. There you go.

[Speaker 18.0]: Thank you. Good evening. Chairs, ranking, and honorable members of the legislature, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. New York agriculture is at a pivotal moment. Our farms are the backbone of an $85,800,000,000 farm and food economy and support nearly 300,000 jobs. Yet farmers are facing compounding pressures, rising development, more frequent extreme weather, and the urgent wave of farm transitions, and renewed market volatility that makes long term planning harder. In this environment, state budget decisions are not abstract. They are practical risk management. Today, I'm asking you to protect and strengthen four core pillars of resilience, land, ownership, demand, and energy, and to do it with a targeted with targeted improvements that increase the return on public investment. First, land. Please maintain $25,000,000 for the farmland protection line item within the environmental protection fund of at least $425,000,000. Demand for protection remains exceptionally strong, and sustained funding will help this program deliver more acres protected more quickly and equitably reducing avoidable delays. Second, ownership. Please restore and include $700,000 in funding for the Farmland for a New Generation program. FNG is a statewide program for land access and succession planning, connecting farmers with landowners, and helping families plan for retirement and transfer. Through 2025, FNG New York facilitated two thirty four matches on 11,000 acres of land with dozens more in progress and provided direct education to more than 1,700 farms and landowners in 02/2025 alone. Yet demand continues to outpace resources. Third, demand. Please maintain $10,000,000 for the 30% New York State initiative, 1,500,000.0 for farm to school grants, and modernize the 30% program so more districts can participate more and New York farmers can reliably sell in local institutional markets. For brevity, please review my written testimony for our proposed framework on the program. Finally, energy. As New York advances renewable energy development, we urge you to strengthen the governor's sun and soil proposal with guardrails for true agrivoltaics, projects that keep land and active agricultural production for the life of the array with clear standards, monitoring, accountability. In closing, these are practical proven investments. Together, they keep land and farming, support the next generation of farmers, and build stable in state markets that helps farms weather climate shocks and global disruption. We respectfully urge you to work with the governor Hochul to enact a budget that maintains these investments and makes targeted improvements needed to deliver the maximum impact statewide. Thank you.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Hi, everyone. Great to see you all. Thanks for your work. We know we need renewable energy. We needed it fifty years ago. But we also can't exchange a climate crisis for a food crisis. And so, agrivoltaics is a really important thing to be able to move forward. How important is it to get that definition right to make sure that we're talking about truly larger scale farming and not necessarily things like additional sheep grazing in apiaries? Do you agree and anyone care to elaborate?

[Speaker 18.0]: Yes, I certainly agree. I think that ensuring a practical and definitive definition of agrovoltaics allows for that feedback loop of accountability and monitoring so that you don't see folks try to slip under the radar and not truly engage in dual use agriculture.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Right. Use the term agrivoltaics but swap out, you know, good soil for apiary spaces, If their

[Carly Fracaroli, Government Relations Manager, Scenic Hudson]: I could add, too, I think as we're starting to look at creating incentives for agrivoltaics, a definition, a good definition is important so that we're funding the right kinds of projects. So having that codified in law, it will just make everything easier and safer for farmers to make sure that they're meeting their bottom line and their farms are viable.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Do you think that definition should be part of the new soil and sun program or should be done separately or either way?

[Speaker 18.0]: I think it would be beneficial if it was under the sun and soil program. But I think whatever route we can get to a solid statutory definition for agrivoltaics, that's going to help produce the most positive outcomes with agrivoltaics deployment.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Great. Thank you. We have one. We would love to do it.

[Assembly Member Ron Kim, Chair, Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee]: JULIE: Yeah.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: Julia, know you're coming out. I was going to ask you a Cornell question, but if you want to jump in there.

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: Yeah. I'd just say that we're seeing from some of our scientific results based on part of the Center for Agrivoltaics, we're seeing some really positive impacts on fruit crops. This past year, it's a little bit tough because we want to give a better scientific perspective with generally three years of growing seasons. But this past summer was really hot. It was a really dry season. You may remember that. And all of our other fruit crops that we grew under solar actually did better than underneath the control projects. So I just want to point out that our experience at Cornell, our first year, we had some fall vegetable crops that did terribly. We would not recommend farmers that they do those based on that one year. But fruit crops are growing really well.

[Senator Michelle Hinchey, Chair, Senate Agriculture Committee]: And I think that speaks really well to the importance of the research that Cornell is doing for agriculture, especially with changing climates and changing structures and a new energy system. I was going to ask you how federal impacts have changed some of your investments in agriculture. And maybe someone, one of my colleagues, will pick that up or send that to us in writing.

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: No, I'm happy to do so either in writing or now, whatever your preference is.

[Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets]: Thank

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: you, Senator. Assemblyperson Lupardo?

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Do you want to finish that thought?

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: No, that's Okay. Go ahead.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Okay. Had you finished your testimony, you would have mentioned that you've seen a $100,000,000 cut to federal aid, you're looking for $5,000,000 in capital support, dollars 5,000,000 in operational. The governor proposed 2.5. I have a question about the operational. Does that come from the higher education SUNY side, or is that part of the conversation for the ag budget?

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: For us, we would prefer that it be part of the conversation for the ag budget. And I think thank you so much for the partnership, Donna. As long as I've been doing this, I can never confine myself to three minutes. So my point is the world needs more science, not less. And we've lost $100,000,000 in funds last year, which is very, very difficult for us to maintain our land grant operations. The SUNY budget is excellent at supporting teaching. It is not great at helping us support our research stations, which are in Long Island, the Hudson Valley, Western New York, and beyond. So that's what the operating funding would do.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: And can you just say a few words to our colleagues who might not be familiar with the new pro livestock program that we have to look to restore? Because the funding was cut from the budget. Would be nice to know how that's working out.

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: JULIE Yeah, I have to say I'm so excited by that program. We have two new staff who I'd love to bring to Albany to introduce you to, if you'd like. One is working in the fiber community, hand in hand with New York State Ag and Market textiles working group because we see so much demand for taking sheep and sheep wool and products. So she's been a strong asset there. We've brought back several conferences working with the sheep growers sheep farmers association. And then we have one who's working in beef and doing a lot of aggregation. So how do we work with farmers to help them aggregate their beef supply, pasture raised, grass fed, and sell for more money? So that's been going really well. We have a very small farm beef sector, so it's an important program to continue.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Very good. Thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Tom O'Meara.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: Good evening. Thank you all for your testimony and hanging out with us all day. Appreciate it. Saved the best for last, right? Julie, you and I had a chance to speak a little bit earlier after some testimony with Commissioner Ball on the spotted lanternfly. What is Cornell and Cal's involvement in research on that right now? And what do you think more we should be doing on that issue?

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: Absolutely. It's a huge issue for our growers, particularly in the Finger Lakes area, Senator, so I'm glad you asked, and also in Long Island. We just published an economic analysis, and this is what I was going to share with you, that indicates that growers within the specific wine industries could lose up to $8,000,000 in revenue. And that's just on grape sales, not on added value wine sales. So hugely significant economic impact. What we're doing on the research end is working hand in hand with New York State Ag and Markets and DEC on making sure that we're mapping and tracking the spread of spotted lanternfly. We have teams that are going out and actively working with citizen volunteers, training farm employees, training farmers on how to identify those egg masses so that they can eradicate them before they spread. But I refer to the spotted lanternfly as kind of like the bug apocalypse. It is a really nasty infestation. I've been down in the city on an urban garden, tried to stomp them myself. They move around like you would never believe. They were really hard. And so we're also working on a bacterial spray that would naturally target the spotted lanternfly without using a conventional control. So definitely more research into this pest is needed so that we can develop more sustainable control options. Huge challenge for growers.

[Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee]: Well, thank you for your work on that and all the great work that Kelles does for our ag industry throughout the state. It's so important. And hopefully that work that you're doing on that helps stave that off. Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you. Assemblywoman Giglio?

[Assembly Member Jodi Giglio]: Yes, thank you all for being district we recently opened the new molecular lab at one of your research facilities. And that lab is essential to help detect new and emerging invasive species like the Laurel Beach Disease and the oak wilt, and to help deploy and test new control options for the spotted lanternfly. So what other support do you need so that this research I know that you just answered my colleague's question, but I know that we have a giant greenhouse that's been out of service for a long time that could potentially be used for this research. Can you please elaborate on that and what we can do to provide better operational costs for you. I know the farmers are kicking in money, but it's just not enough.

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: Yeah, absolutely. I could not be more thankful to the growers. Growers on Long Island have contributed $80,000 to help us reglaze this greenhouse. This is why I'm thankful for Governor Hochul's support for the $2,500,000 in capital, and I'll say exactly how we'd use that. You know, one of our problems is actually maintaining our facilities so that we can keep them up to speed so that we're working directly for our growers. You know, we found out growers raised money to help us reglaze a greenhouse. We discovered asbestos. You can't reglaze a greenhouse now when you have asbestos for $80,000 So when you have a place on Long Island that's been built since it's 75 years old now actually, I think it's 76 we have challenges with maintenance and infrastructure. So that capital funding is deeply needed, deeply appreciated. And if we can maintain our infrastructure better, we can serve the community better. It's not just about Cornell. It's about who we're serving.

[Senator Nathalia Fernandez]: So thank you.

[Assembly Member Donna A. Lupardo, Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Osama Bin Tague.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of quick questions. First of all, Julie, the $21,800,000 for the CALS program, it's $1,800,000 less than last year. Have you been given any type of explanation why?

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: I think that's probably just the standard legislative restorations. I admittedly did not actually add up the total. So the 1.8 is a little bit new to me, but that sounds about right. We think about the solar, pro livestock, other things that we normally rely on the legislature for.

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Okay. And then the 2 that's 500,000.0 for facility rehab at the state fair?

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: Not at the state fair, actually. I think that's lined out from the normal state fair capital money. But that would come to Cornell, and we would do it for things like Long Island's greenhouse that we need

[Senator George M. Borrello, Ranking Member, Senate Agriculture Committee]: to

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: repair, Hudson Valley, Western New York

[Assembly Member Chris Tague, Ranking Member, Assembly Agriculture Committee]: Well, I I do wanna say something and I don't want anybody at Cornell to be offended. But as you know, you worked very hard with my staff and some of the people sitting right here today when we did my farm tour. Folks, we gotta do something because Cornell needs our help. I was a little offended at some of the conditions that the people at Cornell have to work under. Some of the buildings, the science that they do, the work that they do, the research, the greatest agricultural college in the world, we have a responsibility to make sure that place lasts forever and that the people that work there and most importantly, the people that go there to get educated have the proper facility to do that. I was there back when I was milking cows as a 17, 18 year old kid and I was surprised that a lot has not changed, especially with the technology. So I would ask everybody that sits on this panel and when we talk to our colleagues and those that are in leadership, that we really look at ways to get more funding to preserve Cornell and to give them the resources they need for maintenance and for new projects that need to be built. This is about our kids and this is about our future and it's about the food that we eat. So I just I wanted to throw that in there. And also your colleague to your left, I just briefly wanted to ask you a question. Are you educating local town and village governments on the work that you folks do? Because I think it's very important if you're not. When we have these projects that are using productive farmland and there are people within the community that are against it, they really don't have a resource to go to to say why they should be or why they're against it. So I just thank you.

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: Thank you.

[Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, Chair, Assembly Ways and Means Committee]: Thank you. And Assemblywoman Kelles has the last word.

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: Getting difficult to make that happen. Thank you all so much. I really appreciate it. Obviously, only three minutes, but I just wanted to say, know, is doing such astounding work. So thank you so much. I loved the emphasis on promoting native plants because climate change and the destruction of our natural ecosystems, such in decline. And of course, that's the pollinators, which lead to the farmland protection. And it's all circular. So thank you, as well as the distributed solar. And a question, of course, we've spoken previously. You talked about the loss of, I think, what, 364,000 acres of land, farmland. The 25,000,000 that we've had in the last, I think, thirty years has preserved one 134,000, And yet we keep putting in 25,000,000. Seems to me that this is nowhere close to is it money? Is it just the loss because people are aging out? I'm curious if is it true the amount is, like, way more than this, the need?

[Speaker 18.0]: I would say yes. The need is, like, profoundly more. I think we benefited this past RFA cycle with receiving a record $67,000,000 in funding for the FPG program.

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: And we still lost farmland.

[Speaker 18.0]: Yes. Well and then I think there's an opportunity to tap into the $150,000,000 Environmental Bond Act funding specifically for farmland protection. But this year, we didn't want to overkill with getting the win of $4,000,000 last session. And because it was considered to be a potentially dismal budget year Yeah. We didn't want to ask for more money considering the insensitivity to other needs that might exist Well, across the

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: I just want to, like, point out and I have a question for Cornell as well. But, you know, it seems to me that it's an issue of tremendous deferred maintenance Yes. That we've waited until our farmers are, like, average 70 years old. We need to do succession planning. We need to find the new farmers. You happen to be doing all of that work, So, you know, the fact that that funding was cut for you is insane. But I do, you know, appreciate that because the need is phenomenal and I think it's more in the billions if we want to really slow this down. But, Julie, just the last question for you. One of my greatest frustrations has been the lack of understanding among my colleagues, among the state of what a land grant college actually is, that it is a federal law, that you are required by law, that a lot of the work that you do is state required yet we only pay you what, like 25% for laboratories, diagnostic labs for, you know, a lot of the work that you do. Can you describe to us, like, what would you want us to know about what is a land grant college?

[Julie Suarez, Associate Dean, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]: Yeah, I love that question, Anna. Thank you. I think the biggest thing for me that resonates in my heart is that we are generational. If you think about it, we have been a land grant for over one hundred and fifty years in New York State. We predated the SUNY system. We are both part of an Ivy League, but we are also part of the SUNY system. And so we exist to serve New York State to make sure that people can have the best foods all throughout the state of New York produced by the best farms.

[Assembly Member Anna R. Kelles]: Yeah. Thank you so much for all the work that all you do. Well Thank

[Senator Liz Krueger, Chair, Senate Finance Committee]: then, thank you very much for being our last panel tonight. And everyone who's left, I hope you don't think you're testifying, because I don't think you are tonight. But you could come back at 09:30 tomorrow morning and start a whole new day on a whole new set of critical issues environmental protection, energy, climate. So come join us in the morning, same place, slightly different time and day. Thank you all, and thank you all the staff who worked so hard today.