BY JEFF CHUDZINSKINorth Country This Week

CANTON -- State legislators have passed a bill to extend budget negotiations until Monday, April 8.

Assemblyman Scott Gray told North Country This Week that the extension runs until noon on Monday, saying it was not clear if the date selected was erroneous or not.

"We passed the extension and we will be back in session again on Sunday at one to pass another extender most likely. I'm not sure if there was any intention behind the date chosen or if it was just erroneous," Gray said.

This is the second consecutive year that state legislators failed to meet the April 1 deadline to pass the state budget.

Gray said the complexities of passing 10 bills to finalize the budget coupled with demands not in line with the executive budget have created delays.

"There has been a lot of pushback on punishments and criminalizing retail theft. Some Democrats have been very anti-criminalization in those regards," he said.

Another major sticking point comes with housing, Gray said.

"There's been a lot of pushback on the governor's plan so far and good cause eviction is part of that," he said.

Good cause laws are designed "to limit the ability of landlords to refuse to renew leases, and most else in the country list specific reasons landlords may decline to renew," according to reports.

One such cause that allows landlords to decline to renew a lease includes failure to pay rent but Gray said such a provision regarding eviction requirements "is sort of the final nail in the coffin for landlords."

Gray noted that such a provision could have a significant impact on the towns and villages of Canton and Potsdam, both of which have significant numbers of student renters throughout the year.

Another major topic of discussion in recent weeks has been the proposal to cut school foundation aid, which is funding provided to districts to help cover salaries, academic programs and emergency repair projects.

Though foundation wide would rise under the proposed executive budget, numerous districts in St. Lawrence County would see significant cuts, including Canton, Clifton-Fine, Madrid-Waddington, Massena, Heuvelton and Morristown.

Gray said nothing is concrete yet in regard to eliminating those proposed cuts.

"We also are discussing the hold harmless provision as well," he said.

Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed removing the hold harmless provision which stands as a safeguard of districts to ensure that they are able to at least receive the same amount of foundation aid as the previous year. If that provision were eliminated, state officials could entirely eliminate foundation aid for certain districts with each state budget.

"This complicates matters for our district however, because they are in the middle of negotiating school budgets right now and don't know how this will play out," Gray said.

Districts could take one of two approaches, he said.

The first would be to assume the district would have the same funding as last year and make cuts after the state budget is passed, if necessary.

The second option would be to cut expenses based on the governor's proposal and ramp up the budget in the event that foundation aid is restored in the future.

"The latter would obviously have a significant tax levy reaction, which further complicates matters for our districts," Gray said.

Gray said he is hopeful the budget will be passed in the next week or two, with state officials signaling that they want the process completed by the first day of Passover on April 21.

"That sounds like the tentative schedule right now but we will likely know more next week," Gray said.