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In a speech at Syracuse Hotel on Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke about education investments in her FY-24 budget, which provides $1.7 billion to public schools in central New York and marks the largest allocation in the state’s history.

The budget’s record-breaking $34.5 billion in public school aid includes funding for all educational levels, from pre-kindergarten through college. Among the investments are $24 billion for Foundation Aid — a program designed to ensure school district wealth and student need are considered in funding distribution — as well as a combined $900 million for initiatives within the SUNY system.

Hochul said she hopes the new budget, which is an increase of almost $170 million from last year’s FY-23 budget, will be effective in investing long-term to support current and future workers in CNY’s growing industries. Micron, the largest chip manufacturing company in the world, has contributed to Syracuse’s status as the “epicenter” of the world’s semiconductor industry, Hochul said. The growing industry continues to attract potential businesses and manufacturers.

“This is an opportunity for us to open the door to other companies to be part of the supply chain, whether you want to be right in the neighborhood, close by or anywhere in upstate New York. Anywhere in New York state for that matter,” Hochul said.

The budget also includes $11.2 million for renovation and maintenance to Onondaga Nation Schools. Hochul emphasized the importance of directing funding not only toward public education in the state, but toward Indigenous nations.

“When we think about schools, we also have Native American schools in Onondaga. And they’ve been neglected for far too long,” Hochul said.

Hochul also announced $36 million for Onondaga Community College as part of the budget, which includes $15 million for the college’s School of Health. An additional $5 million will go to the Micron Collaboration Classroom Supportive Construction, a space for training in industries related to semiconductor and microelectronic manufacturing. The pledge comes a month after Sen. Charles Schumer awarded a $2 million grant to OCC for a new healthcare training center.

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Hochul also spoke about Micron’s commitment to invest up to $100 billion over the next 20 years for its new semiconductor fabrication facility, as well as the impact of the estimated 50,000 jobs the facility is expected to bring to central New York.

“It’s really transformative, and that allows us to really write the next chapter of the upstate manufacturing story,” Hochul said. “It’s not just one region. It is a statewide-shared sense of pride that we’re going to be manufacturing something here that the rest of the world thinks about, and dreams about, and tries to compete with.”

Manish Bhatia, the executive vice president of Global Operations at Micron Technology, gave an update on the Clay, NY plant’s current status. He said project site preparation is underway, and that construction is expected to begin in 2024. He emphasized the growth Micron will bring to central New York industry.

“The ecosystem — whether it’s in education, local infrastructure and job creation — will really be focused on job creation for everyone, including those from historically underrepresented groups that have not been able to to participate in the in the the growth trends of the past and may have been disproportionately impacted as businesses left this area in the past, “ Bhatia said.

In addition to the projected workforce boom, Hochul pointed to Syracuse’s unemployment rate, which, at 3%, is lower than the state’s 3.8%. She noted growth in the city’s creation of over 15,000 jobs in 2022.

To ensure enough workers are able to occupy the new Micron jobs, Hochul is adding an additional $1 million to the Syracuse Build Pathways to Apprenticeship Program and Syracuse Surge High-Tech Careers Bridge Program. Both programs will create apprenticeships, support outreach, mentoring and exposure for careers in semiconductor manufacturing. She added that the budget provides $5 million for the Flexible Finance Program, which will help businesses direct spending.

Also at the event, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh spoke on Micron’s efforts to invest in the central New York community, pointing to its commitment to improving educational opportunities for local industry jobs.

“One of the things that I’ve been struck by as I’ve gotten to know Micron is that the company’s values are so well aligned with ours,” Mayor Ben Walsh said. “And when you look at the areas where Micron is making investments where they’re spending their time — whether it’s in our K-12 education system, investing in our community colleges, in our other institutions of higher education — we could not find a better partner and corporate citizen than Micron.”

Hochul also noted a need for new housing to accommodate the expected influx in the region’s workforce.

She spoke about the New York Housing Compact, which will build upwards of 800,000 homes over the next decade in an effort to meet the region’s rising housing demand. Hochul noted the desirability of New York communities, and emphasized the importance of reducing barriers to own and afford housing.

“We have to meet people where they are, and if we fail in that, we fail to provide what I promised Micron was, not just a workforce, but they have to live somewhere. They’re not all staying at the Syracuse hotel here — they have a place to live,” Hochul said.

Concerning Syracuse’s I-81 viaduct removal project and community grid alternative, Hochul will provide $10 million to public housing developments, including the new 15th Ward public housing, in a three-phase, multi-year project. The plan includes housing, shops, parks and community gardens.

The demolition of the interstate’s highway as part of the viaduct removal project was temporarily halted in November amid a lawsuit by the group Renew 81, which claims “environmental racism” in its push against the project’s fulfillment. Hochul, among other state and local leaders, has maintained her support for the viaduct’s removal and replacement with a community grid.

“Once again, we’re talking about a once thriving neighborhood, divided by a highway. And now it’s time to reconnect and bring people back home — bring back the beauty and the grandeur of a neighborhood that was so radically changed. And now we’re going to start fixing the wrongs of the past,” Hochul said.

Hochul said she looks forward to returning to Syracuse for ground-breaking ceremonies on upcoming projects, as well as to see developments in the investments she’s pushed to fund.

“Syracuse is literally geographically the heart of New York. It is the heartbeat of our state. And what happens here can be an incubator for what we do elsewhere,” Hochul said.

Published on February 8, 2023 at 12:44 am

Contact Kendall: kaluther@syr.edu