In the end, the draft budget restored 70 percent of the first-grade teaching assistants. It also restored two-tenths of a librarian’s position at Altamont Elementary School, another cut that had spurred protests from a committed Altamont contingent.
The withdrawal came as a surprise to both IDA board members and staffers as attorneys for the agency were negotiating with Pyramid over the subsidy right up until the day before IDA Chief Executive Officer Donald Csaposs received the March 20 letter informing him that Pyramid would forgo the multi-million dollar exemption.
In 2024, New York state had just 15 cases of measles, Hochul said. “But nationwide, we’re seeing very concerning trends — 350 measles cases around the country,” she went on. “Eighty-one percent right now are part of an outbreak in West Texas and of those … three-quarters are unvaccinated.”
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