“Sacred” school-aid shares last big budget hurdle
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- March
- 26
 Turns out Joe Bruno had a good reason for not showing today at the editorial-writers’ meeting he was scheduled to address. He was meeting behind closed doors with his Senate colleagues discussing a potential budget deal.
   The most contentious issue: should the Senate hold out for more school aid for Long Island? That seems like the last big unresolved issue in budget talks.
  Sen. Dean Skelos of Nassau County, the leading contender to be Bruno’s successor when the soon-to-be-78-year-old leader decided to step down, told Spitzer last week that the 13 percent share of school aid that Long Island schools traditionally get is “sacred.’’
     Spitzer has proposed a hike of 8 percent, in a reordering of shool-aid distribution that he has never called “sacred,’‘’ but has said is very important in getting state money to schools that need it most. That means more to cities.
  A likely compromise: don’t change the formula Spitzer has proposed, but come up with some other way to funnel more cash to Long Island schools.
This entry was posted
on Monday, March 26th, 2007 at 3:36 pm by Jay Gallagher.
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