Still no budget deal at the Capitol
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- November
- 23
  After saying they would take the weekend to complete negotiations and print a bill, lawmakers and Gov. David Paterson are beginning the new week without a plan to close the state’s $3.2 billion budget gap.
  Both the Senate and Assembly are scheduled to go into session at 2 p.m.
  Paterson had harsh words for legislators during a news conference Saturday and in an open letter he released Sunday, emphasizing that New York is running out of time to fix the budget.Â
  “Unfortunately, this failure to act has put New York at risk for a number of dire fiscal consequences and raised serious questions among independent financial monitors,” he wrote.
  The governor has warned that the state might run out of money next month if the Senate and Assembly don’t make spending cuts. Potential consequences include furloughs, layoffs, service cuts in pre-kindergarten programs and other areas, and a downgrade of the state’s credit rating.
  The governor offered a $3.2 billion plan to close the deficit, which includes about $1.3 billion in cuts—$686 million from education this school year and $471 from Medicaid, which would result in a total reduction of $747 million because the state would lose federal matching funds.
  But lawmakers don’t want to cut school aid in the middle of the year and want to slash health care by about $100 million, which Paterson said doesn’t work for him.
  The governor proposed reducing the school cuts by using some of next year’s federal stimulus funds for education. Senate Republicans said the state should use $391 million of the stimulus money. The governor argued that using that much would push the problem to a later date and leave a hole in school spending in 2010-11.
  New York State United Teachers, which has 600,000 members, has launched an advertising campaign against mid-year cuts to education.
This entry was posted
on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 11:15 am by Cara Matthews.
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IF they do cut education, (which is really not a cut at all, but merely a slicing of INCREASES) the local school districts, which are even MORE dysfunctional than the legislature, will gear up for the biggest whopper of tax increases on already overburdened homeowners than ever has been seen or even in wild dreams contemplated. We are abandoned between the devil and the swelling, angry seas.
both parties are a disgrace..they covett the support
of the unions and that means they can’t cut anything..
but state workers and uniformed services get to retire
at the equivalent of what a multimillionaire would get
from the interest on three million….i hope that the
people that vote for these jerks realize that they are
subsidizing the unions….forget about welfare that
pales in comparison
ed1 – wrong again, as usual. The cuts in aid are real cuts to many Westchester districts. Aid did not increase in 2009’s budget to a slew of districts from Bronxville to Blind Brook, so Paterson’s cuts reduce the amount to those districts that were held flat in the budget heretofore. Call the NYS School Boards Assn – they’ll give you the hard number before you speak erroneously again.
As for local districts, a number of them came in with record low increase #s this year, below the 4% cap so touted by Paterson and his conservative apologists. Rye City Schools, for one, is having a vicious battle with their school union, trying to keep wages down. So don’t generalize. If you have a district you think is bad – just identify them specifically, and don’t tar everyone with a broad bush.
“e.g. All bloggers are conservative know-it-alls who hide behind anonymity in order to insult Democrats with impunity”
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Gov. David Paterson is now taking $1.6 billion worth of temporary, emergency measures to cover the state’s December bills. That’s while he’s continuing to try to get the Legislature to agree with $1.4 billion more to address a deficit.
Most of the immediate action involves shifting money from state agencies to the general fund, which must be returned to the agencies within four months under law. He also says he will temporarily use some cash from previously scheduled borrowing for capital projects.