Among the proposals in Hochul's budget:
Semiconductor industry. Hochul called for creating the the Office of Semiconductor Expansion, Management, and Integration, or GO-SEMI. The new office will support Micron Technologies' plan to invest up to $100 million over 20 years in a chip-making plant near Syracuse.
"We have to build the pipelines of supply chain opportunities," Hochul said. "That's who I'm talking to now — suppliers of companies like this. There's companies from Long Island to Buffalo that want a piece of this action."
In addition to Micron, the new GO-SEMI office will also develop a strategy for tapping into growth opportunities in the semiconductor industry.
Tax credits. The budget calls for extending tax credits for rehabilitation of historic properties by five years, through the 2029 tax year.
Minimum wage. Hochul called for pegging the state's minimum wage to inflation after it reaches $15 an hour. "When prices go up, so will wages," she said.
The plan would cap the potential increases, but Hochul has not said what that would be. It also would include an unspecified "off-ramp" that would provide flexiblity "in the event of certain economic conditions."
Economic development. Hochul's budget calls for $845 million for economic and community development funding.
That includes continued support for regional economic development councils, which identify priority projects on a regional basis. The governor's budget calls for $150 million in new capital grants and $75 million in Excelsior tax credits through Empire State Development.
The budget calls for $100 million each for the Downtown Revitalization Initiative and the New York Forward program. Dunkirk and the villages of Lancaster and Wellsville recently received awards from those programs.
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