Skelos backs more state education money for Yonkers
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- August
- 7
On his second visit to Yonkers in three days, the new state Senate Majority Leaders Dean Skelos said today that he would back rewriting the state education funding formula to get more aid to Yonkers schools. At his side for a City Hall press conference this morning was Mayor Phil Amicone who has said the city is headed off a cliff financially without the big cash infusion.
Skelos also was in Yonkers to tout a local property tax cap, which the state Senate will taking up at a special session starting tomorrow. Also at Skelos’ side for the Republicans-only session, was Councilman John Murtagh, whose race against incumbent Democratic state Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins could be crucial for state Republicans holding on to their majority in the Senate – and Skelos holding on to his majority leader job.
In the face of likely belt tightening by the state which faces its own budget crisis, Skelos was asked about the odds that Yonkers schools would get anything approaching the $80 to $85 million that Amicone has said he would like. With a nod in Murtagh’s direction, Skelos said: “With good representation from the Westchester area in the state Senate, we’ll be able to adjust that formula and help out Yonkers.”
That didn’t sound much like morning line at Belmont, so we tried again. Would Skelos bet that a new formula helping Yonkers would be enacted. “I’m not a gambler,” Skelos said, keeping his cards close to his chest.
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on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 2:01 pm by Len Maniace.
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”...the new state Senate Majority Leaders Dean Skelos said today that he would back rewriting the state education funding formula to get more aid to Yonkers schools.”
Yup. And so did Bruno, and the SpaNOs, and Pataki, and Pretlow, and Cuomo, and Silver, ad nauseum.
Mayor Amicone’s spokesman David Simpson said Joseph Bruno did not speak out in support of revising the education funding formula for Yonkers.
it is true that only governor pataki publicly acknowledged
that yonkers was getting the short end of the stick
joe bruno was too busy making deals to care about the
city …and john spencer was too busy calling them
all names to get any serious attention..now with patterson
and skelos it is quite possible that the formula will
finally get a second look and be modified to conform
to the facts on the ground in yonkers..ie yonkers is no
longer a privileged district as it was when i attended
roosevelt..so it needs help as much help as the other
big cities get….
What does Spinson know? He doesn’t even live in Yonkers.