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Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM) and Temporary Municipal Assistance (TMA)

AIM

In each State fiscal year, the Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM) program provides state aid to all of New York’s cities (other than New York City), towns and villages. While AIM payments to cities are made at various times throughout the year, towns and villages receive their AIM payments annually in September.

This website will be updated if there are changes to the AIM program.

The 2019-20 Enacted State Budget eliminated aid for 1,325 towns and villages determined to be less reliant on AIM. At that time, the State established AIM-Related payments which continued funding for the impacted towns and villages in the amounts that they had previously received through AIM in State Fiscal Year 2018-2019. The Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) was required to withhold certain county sales tax revenues and to make AIM-Related payments, paid in December and May each year, pursuant to Chapter 59 of the Laws of 2019.

The 2020-21 Enacted State Budget established in law a process for making AIM-Related payments to towns and villages in Erie County and Nassau County. Officials from the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority (EFSA), the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority (BFSA) and the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority (NIFA) were required by Chapter 55 of the Laws of 2020 to return to OSC the amount of sales tax distribution needed to make AIM-Related payments to towns and villages in Erie County and Nassau County each May and December.

The 2022-23 Enacted State Budget eliminated AIM-Related payments and the withholdings from county sales tax collections used to fund them.

Beginning in July 2022, all cities (other than New York City) and 1,465 towns and villages received AIM payments from the State, pursuant to Chapter 55 of the Laws of 2022. All towns and villages that previously received AIM-Related payments now receive AIM payments, in the same amounts, beginning in September 2022 and each September thereafter. Cities, towns and villages that previously received AIM payments will continue to receive these payments in the same amount and month.

For more information related to AIM and AIM-Related payments:

TMA

The 2024-25 Enacted State Budget included additional, one-time TMA funding for all cities, towns and villages that receive AIM. TMA funding of up to $50 million is allocated to these municipalities in the same proportional share of their total aggregate AIM amount.

The only exception is that no municipality shall receive TMA greater than $5 million. In practice, this only impacts the Cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers – who will receive $5 million each. According to the TMA appropriation, any amounts in excess of $5 million that these cities would have received is to be reallocated proportionally to the other AIM-recipient cities.

Municipalities will receive TMA payments in August and can use account code 3089 - State Aid, Other (Temporary Municipal Assistance) to record the receipt of TMA revenue.

For more information related to TMA payments: