ALBANY- In a 30-minute floor speech, State Senator James Skoufis (D, Cornwall) slammed fellow Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul for what he called “broken promises” to Orange County communities impacted by flooding in 2023 in the recently adopted state budget. Skoufis believes that special funds to localities impacted by the storm should have been allocated in the budget, but were not.
“Back on July 9th of 2023 the Eastern wing of Orange County was the epicenter of a massive, massive storm that was national news,” he said. “The entire Village of Highland Falls was wiped out.”
Skoufis said that the small village of around 3,600 residents suffered damage totaling $37 million.
The day after the storm, Governor Hochul visited Highland Falls to survey the damage, speak with residents, and meet with local officials. Hochul returned a second time, on July 18th, to announce financial support. Skoufis says the funds pledged were for a “very small amount of state funding that wound up helping very, very few people.”
In his critique of Hochul, Skoufis quoted her July 18th speech in which she stated, “We stand united in our commitment to not just be there the day after when all of the attention is on a community, and then walk away.”
Skoufis said that Hochul’s support of Highland Falls was completely absent during budget discussions and that the Governor failed to enact a plan he put forward that would have delivered aid to the community. In a highly atypical move for a member of the majority party, Skoufis voted against the budget bill containing the missing aid for Orange County.
“While I was proud to fight for the best interests of local residents and taxpayers, the final 2024-25 budget leaves too much on the table and blatantly ignores the needs of many New Yorkers,” said Skoufis. “The communities impacted by the catastrophic flooding last July are left high and dry in this budget despite the Governor’s previous promise to stand by them. I won’t stop fighting to get the resources and funding we need to carry through on our commitments to my constituents.”
The federal government has provided financial support to Highland Falls following the disaster, however, not all expenses associated with storm damages have been covered. Absent state funding, municipalities would be required to raise funds through property taxes to cover unreimbursed expenses.
