Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today (April 3, 2020) signed the FY 2021 Enacted Budget. The budget is balanced, includes no new taxes, continues to phase in tax cuts for the middle class, enacts the strongest Paid Sick Leave program in the nation, and advances other progressive priorities including the legalization of gestational surrogacy. Highlights of the FY 2021 Enacted Budget are available here.

Permanently Banning Hydrofracking: The Enacted Budget codifies Governor Cuomo’s ban on the Department of Environmental Conservation approving permits that would authorize an applicant to drill, deepen, plug back or convert wells that use high-volume hydraulic fracturing as a means to complete or recomplete a well. In addition, it places a moratorium on future gelled propane hydrofracking applications until the Department can conduct an analysis of the impacts of this completion method. This will protect the health of New Yorkers and ensuring permanently that our environment is not harmed by this practice.

The full Budget can be found here. The fracking ban is on page 375.

The Budget includes legislation enshrining New York’s 5-year-old fracking ban into law, backing a measure introduced by Sen. Jen Metzger, D-Rosendale and Assemblyman Steve Englebright, D-Long Island.

“The bill I introduced in December would have also banned fracking with gelled propane, and while the budget language doesn’t quite get us there, it puts us on the right path and would effectively head off any industry stampede for permits to use this destructive process,” Metzger said.