Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney, shown in Hempstead on Feb. 20,...

Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney, shown in Hempstead on Feb. 20, 2018, on Tuesday called the plan "a direct attack by Governor Cuomo on our way of life on Long Island."

Hempstead Town and village officials on Tuesday decried the plan in Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s proposed budget that would disqualify Long Island towns and villages from nearly $19 million in state aid.

“This is a direct attack by Governor Cuomo on our way of life on Long Island,” Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney said at a news conference, flanked by other town councilmembers, town tax receiver Don Clavin and the mayors of Freeport and Hempstead villages.

The Town of Hempstead stands to lose $3.8 million it was expecting from the Aid and Incentives for Municipalities program.

Freeport would lose more than $900,000, and Hempstead Village would lose close to $650,000, according to figures presented at the news conference.

The governor’s office directed a request for comment to the state Division of the Budget. Morris Peters, a spokesman for the division, said the governor’s proposal “impacts towns and villages for which AIM represents less than 2 percent of their budget. For the town and village of Hempstead, the impact is less than 1 percent, and it is offset by the $225 million in the budget to match local government savings through the shared services program and $390 million in new local sales tax revenues by eliminating the internet tax advantage.”

Cuomo’s administration has said previously that it no longer wants to provide the aid to communities where it covered less than 2 percent of expenditures in 2017 and that such communities did not need the aid.

The town and village leaders said the funding cuts may require tax increases or a reduction in services in the future.

“AIM is something we expected," said Hempstead Village Mayor Don Ryan. "To lose it is extremely painful.”

The officials called on Cuomo to reverse the plan and restore the funding.

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