Dozens of Long Island school districts face potential losses of state financial aid during the 2024-25 fiscal year, under a proposed budget announced earlier this week by Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Newsday review finds.

Details of the governor's plan, which includes nearly $35 billion in school assistance statewide, were released in Albany late Tuesday.

Some local school leaders remained hopeful yesterday that the NYS Legislature will restore funding for the upcoming school year.

A Newsday analysis found that while at least 77 districts will gain more than $182 million in state assistance under the proposal, 44 districts will lose state aid in the coming year — including at least 18 districts facing cuts above 10%. "The proposed cut is very disappointing, but we remain hopeful that the legislature will restore the funding we need to continue to provide high quality education to East Hampton students,” Superintendent Adam Fine said.

The East End district faces a cut of more than 20% in state aid. Newsday's review of plans for local districts drew on statewide data generated by the state Education Department. Those computerized lists, known as "runs," provide breakdowns for distribution of nearly $5 billion in total proposed aid for Long Island. The reductions would be a result of Hochul’s proposal this week to end to the provision in state aid called "hold harmless," which has been in existence for decades. That provision has meant school districts could depend on getting at least as much school aid as in the previous year.

On the east end, proposed state-aid for Amagansett will be reduced by 16.78%, Bridgehampton by 4.85%, East Hampton by 20.17%, East Quogue by 3.30%, Montauk by 13.22%, Sag Harbor by 16.99%, Southampton by 14.23%, Southold by 12.42%, Springs by 4.50%, Tuckahoe by 16.48%, and state aid to the Westhampton Beach School District would be reduced by 6.88%.

State Budget Director Blake Washington told Newsday that after increasing school aid by $7 billion over the last three years, with an additional $13 billion increase in federal aid during the same period, it’s now time for the state to provide a more sustainable level of funding. The change is needed to make sure high-needs schools get the funding they need, he said.

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The Southampton Village Board voted unanimously last week to declare a more than 300-year-old beech tree situated on a triangle of grass where Hill Street meets East Gate Road, at the western edge of Southampton Village, abutting Shinnecock Territory, as a heritage tree of the Village of Southampton. Cailin Riley reports on 27east.com that the board made the designation in response to concerns raised by members of the Shinnecock Nation, who had been camped out in protest at the tree for weeks, worried that work done recently around the tree by National Grid to install a gas main check valve — to service and support an existing natural gas pipeline in the area that runs down nearby Tuckahoe Road and along Hill Street — could have caused harm or damage to the tree. Peter Grealish, an arborist and member of Southampton Village’s tree commission said that while he does not think any of the work that was done by National Grid will ultimately cause any short- or long-term damage to the tree, the Shinnecock Nation was right to raise concerns. “The tree should be protected in any manner it possibly can be.”

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Representatives of Stony Brook University, speaking at an Express Sessions panel discussion last week, said they were committed to the Southampton campus and looked forward to the construction of a new hospital and the opportunity to provide affordable housing at the site, as well as draw in the broader community with new educational and cultural offerings. Stephen J. Kotz reports on 27east.com that plans for building a new hospital on the campus were discussed. The idea was first aired more than a decade ago when Stony Brook University Hospital and Southampton Hospital merged.

Ken Wright, the chairman of the Southampton Hospital Association, which is responsible for building the facility, said the COVID-19 pandemic slowed progress, as did last year’s departure of Robert Chaloner, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s former chief administrative officer, who was the lead fundraiser for the project.

“When we started, I thought this would be a five- or six-year process,” Wright said. “It turns out building a hospital is about a 15-year process.”

Nonetheless, Wright said the plan remains in place and that he was hopeful the hospital would be built on the Stony Brook / Southampton campus within six years.

The Southampton Hospital Association has already raised about $60 million of its $250 million target, he said, and separately, it had raised $40 million for the East Hampton emergency department and another $30 million for the Phillips Family Cancer Center on County Road 39 in Southampton.

Wright said a new push would begin soon. “We’ll be announcing in the next month a new hire at our foundation who will be dedicated to the capital campaign,” he said.

“The hospital is the key to the future of the campus,” added NYS Assemblyman Fred Thiele, who pointed out that he and former State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle had sponsored the legislation that made it possible in 2018.

But the assemblyman stressed that it was important for both Stony Brook University and the Southampton Hospital Association to reassure the public that plans for the hospital were not dead.

“I think we all need to reengage on the issue of the new hospital with the public at large and let them know that, ‘Hey, things got slowed down, but we’re ready to go now.’”

Republicans in Albany blasted Gov. Kathy Hochul as soft on crime one day after she released a budget proposal that included proposals to shutter up to five correctional facilities. Vaughn Golden reports in THE NY POST that GOP senators also said Hochul’s idea to tackle retail theft with special “task forces” did not go far enough as they laid out the Republican priorities for the state’s legislative session yesterday. 

“Our colleagues continue to stick their heads in the sand when it comes to crime,” GOP minority leader Rob Ortt said. In her budget proposal, Hochul laid out plans to use $40 million of state funds to set up task forces of state police and district attorneys meant to focus on stopping and prosecuting retail theft. 

“They have created the conditions that retail theft has spiked and now their answer to that is a task force,” Ortt said. “This task force will produce paper and not results.” Groups representing grocery stores and other shops were quick to react to the governor’s plan as well, saying it doesn’t do enough to support local cops. “We’d like to see more money go to local police forces. I don’t see state troopers dealing with shoplifting in local communities. She’s going in the wrong direction,” said Nelson Eusabio, from the National Supermarket Association and the Collective Action to Protect Our Stores (CAP) coalition. The Governor also included a few lines into her 144-page budget briefing book calling on the state to shut down up to five prisons. Ortt and the Republicans took the opportunity to criticize the proposed prison closures, too.

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Legendary Long Island investigative journalist Karl Grossman will be the major speaker at a conference this coming Sunday, January 21st on current threats involving nuclear war. It has been organized by Long Island peace groups and will be held at the Huntington Cinema Arts Centre from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. this Sunday. There will be the showing of the film “The Vow from Hiroshima” about Setsuko Takeuchi, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima active with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Grossman for 20 years was a member of the Commission on Disarmament Education, Conflict Resolution and Peace of the United Nations and International Association of University Presidents. Books he has written include Weapons In Space. The conference is being sponsored by the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives among other groups. For more information visit https://cinemaartscentre.org 

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A triple-whammy of strong nor’easters in the last month, following a stormy autumn, has left portions of the Ditch Plains neighborhood vulnerable to flooding and extensive property damage if something is not done to bolster the shoreline almost immediately, residents said this week, pleading with the East Hampton Town Board to find some way to protect the area. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that East Hampton Town officials said they have reached out to state and federal agencies and that the Army Corps of Engineers had said on Tuesday that it would “expedite” review of conditions in Montauk and on Fire Island in the wake of the recent storms and are exploring options for other actions that can be taken as a stop-gap. 

“We, the residents and recreational users of Ditch Plains … urgently appeal to the East Hampton Town Board to take immediate and decisive action to address the critical loss of the protective dune at Ditch Plains,” Laura Michaels, the president of the Ditch Plains Association, said, reading from a petition that she has circulated. “We urge the town to find a comprehensive initiative for sand replenishment and dune restoration to safeguard the future of Ditch Plains.” 

“The last three storms have been back-to-back, leaving us with no beach at Ditch and it’s only January,” echoed Kay Tyler, the executive director of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk.

But the beaches in front of the neighborhood are in dire need of the sort of massive replenishment of sand and rebuilding of dunes that is unlikely possible on the small scale the town can muster, Michaels and Tyler acknowledged. They spotlighted frustration that the federal Army Corps of Engineers is due to spend $11 million this winter to pump more than 600,000 tons of sand ashore along Montauk’s downtown waterfront, but has refused to direct any effort at Ditch Plains. 

Michaels said the Town of East Hampton should renew its plea to the Army Corps to reconsider Ditch in its plans warning that if another severe storm were to come ashore in conjunction with a high tide, like the storm that hit on January 10 did, the flooding could reach residential neighborhoods inland.