{"id":130121,"date":"2026-02-11T15:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/130121\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T15:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:51:08","slug":"yonkers-mayor-spano-to-testify-in-albany-advocating-for-additional-funding-in-new-york-states-2026-2027-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/130121\/","title":{"rendered":"YONKERS MAYOR SPANO TO TESTIFY IN ALBANY ADVOCATING FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDING IN NEW YORK STATE\u2019S 2026-2027 BUDGET"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/play.champds.com\/yonkersny\/event\/288\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">View Full Press Announcement<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/yms-1024x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50019\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>L-R Elizabeth Janocha, Deputy Finance Commissioner; John Liszewski, Finance Commissioner; Mayor Spano, Yonkers Public Schools Superintendent Anib\u00e1l Soler; Budget Director, John Jacobson<\/p>\n<p>Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano will travel to Albany today to testify before the State Legislature\u2019s Joint Budget Committee, advocating for critical funding priorities impacting the City of Yonkers in the proposed 2026\u20132027 Executive Budget.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen cities are forced to absorb growing state mandates without sufficient funding, education is often the first place that feels the impact,\u201d said\u00a0Mayor Spano. \u201cWe have an obligation to work together as partners. I look forward to continuing that partnership with the Legislature and Governor Hochul to deliver a responsible budget that protects education, supports municipalities, and respects our taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Spano will call on state lawmakers to take immediate action to protect public education and provide real relief to local taxpayers. Specifically, he is urging the Legislature to:<\/p>\n<p>Fix the Foundation Aid formula\u00a0by adopting the Rockefeller Institute\u2019s Comparable Wage Index for Teachers (CWIFT), so education funding reflects the true cost of educating students in high-cost regions like Yonkers.<\/p>\n<p>Increase state support for special education and transportation, including updating reimbursement formulas to keep pace with rising tuition, mandated services, and largely uncontrollable special education transportation costs.<\/p>\n<p>Restore and grow municipal aid (AIM)\u00a0to help cities meet rising costs and unfunded mandates without further burdening local taxpayers or putting education at risk.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Spano will highlight Yonkers\u2019 extraordinary local commitment to its schools, including a $298 million annual contribution, more than sister cities Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo combined, while noting that the City has been forced to break the tax cap, raise sales taxes, and absorb school deficits.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Spano\u2019s testimony underscores Yonkers\u2019 continued advocacy for a fair and responsible state budget that supports local communities across New York.<\/p>\n<p>Live testimony can be viewed\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nyassembly.gov\/av\/live\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"View Full Press Announcement L-R Elizabeth Janocha, Deputy Finance Commissioner; John Liszewski, Finance Commissioner; Mayor Spano, Yonkers Public&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-130121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-new-york-state","12":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}