Politics on the Hudson

Gov. David Paterson today rejected the Legislature’s compromise proposal on a plan that would grant new powers to New York’s public colleges.

Paterson spokesman Morgan Hook said in a statement that “more needs to be done and more details need to provided” before the governor can sign off on the plan, known as the Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act.

The program has become the centerpiece battle in finally completing the 2010-11 state budget, which was due on April 1, the start of the fiscal year.   The Legislature has been wary to sign off the college proposal, which would allow individual colleges to set their own tuition rates, undertake economic-development projects and borrow money. The power to raise tuition currently rests with the state Legislature.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, and Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, said this week that a broad outline for the proposal had been agreed to.

Legislative leaders were hopeful that their proposal sent to the governor last Tuesday – which included an expiration date for the program and caps on tuition increases – would be approved.

Lawmakers are scheduled back in Albany on Tuesday.

“Senator Sampson is trying to bring the Assembly and governor together to build toward a final agreement,” said Austin Shafran, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, today.

Sisa Moyo, a spokeswoman for the Assembly Democrats, said talks continued at the staff level on Friday, but no specific deal is in place.

“The Assembly never said there was an agreement,” she said. “There have been positive conversations and those conversations continue.”

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Westchester
April 28
Eastchester, 1:30 p.m.
Chappaqua, 2:30 p.m.

April 29
Harrison, 1:30 p.m.
Scarsdale, 2:30 p.m.

May 3
Bedford, 1:30 p.m.
Katonah-Lewisboro, 2:30 p.m.

May 4
Lakeland, 1:30 p.m.
Port Chester, 2:30 p.m.

May 5
Ossining, 1:30 p.m.
Briarcliff Manor, 2:30 p.m.

May 6
Byram Hills, 1:30 p.m.
Hendrick Hudson, 2:30 p.m.

Rockland
April 28
East Ramapo, 10 a.m.

May 1
Nanuet, 10 a.m.
Clarkstown, 11 a.m.

May 4
Nyack, 10 a.m.

May 5
Pearl River, 10 a.m.

Our colleagues in Gannett report that Gov. David Paterson was the first person to shake hands and speak with President Barack Obama after Obama landed in Albany to give a speech at a local community college.

Over the weekend, reports had surfaced that Obama – through emissaries – had urged Paterson not to seek election. U.S. Rep. Paul
Tonko flew in on Air Force One. Other local notables, including Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings and U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, waited at the bottom of the stairs and also shook hands with Obama.

The president introduced Jill Biden, and educator and the vice president’s wife. Obama’s motorcade then slowly left, totaling 30 vehicles. Paterson’s car was ninth in the motorcade.

The president, in his first trip to upstate New York since he was elected, is expected to discuss the use of stimulus money to bolster education and create an innovation economy. The stage at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, Rensselaer County, where the president will speak has a backdrop of computer chips and other hi-tech equipment behind the podium.
The president is expected to tour a classroom and give his speech at about 11:30 a.m. He is then headed to New York City to tape an interview on David Lettermen’s “Late Show.” He will begin three days of meetings at the United Nations on Tuesday.

   The State University of New York doesn’t have a new chancellor yet, but the 64-campus system now has an officer in charge. SUNY’s Board of Trustees’ Executive Committee voted unanimously today to appoint John O’Connor, vice chancellor and secretary of the university, as officer in charge.

   O’Connor will act on behalf of the chancellor’s office until the Board of Trustees appoints a permanent chancellor or takes other action. He will maintain his current responsibilities as vice chancellor and secretary, and his salary will be $245,669 a year. He is not a candidate in the search for a permanent chancellor and serves as staff to the chancellor search committee, according to SUNY.

   Former Chancellor John Ryan left at the end of May 2007, and Interim Chancellor John Clark recently announced he was resigning from the post Dec. 31. (Trustees appointed him as a visiting professor at an annual salary of $195,000.) A search committee has been looking for a permanent replacement. The job pays $340,000 a year, plus the use of a car, drive, a residence in Albany and an apartment in New York City.

   “During this period of transition, SUNY needs a steady, knowledgeable leader,” SUNY Trustees Chairman Carl Hayden said in a statement. “I have great confidence in John O’Connor’s ability. He has more than 25 years of senior level service in higher education and has stepped in to meet a variety of challenges in times of need.”

   The search committee expects to appoint a new chancellor in the near future, SUNY officials said. (more…)

Lawmakers did not take action last week on a budget-cutting measure that would have made mid-year education reductions of $836 million this school year, as Gov. David Paterson had recommended. The education cuts are still on the table, but Paterson said today he is withdrawing his proposal because “it is unlikely the Legislature will consider them anytime soon.

“Therefore, we would be well into the final quarter of our fiscal year and even further into the school year before any action would likely occur,” the governor wrote in a letter to school board presidents and superintendents. “Unfortunately, this timing renders the proposal impractical for this fiscal year and I am withdrawing it.

But that means the state will need deeper reductions in education spending next year to close the budget deficit, which is $1.5 billion now and is expected to be $12.5 billion for 2009-10 and a combined $47 billion over four years. Paterson is scheduled to release his 2009-10 budget proposal Dec. 16, a month earlier than the tradition release date.

“I acknowledge that your costs are rising, but I believe all levels of government must reduce spending,” Paterson’s letter to school boards and superintendents said. “This year, I have reduced state agency spending by more than 10 percent. In this unprecedented fiscal crisis, school districts, like all levels of government, will have to take a similar approach and find ways to reduce costs and improve the efficiency of their operations on behalf of taxpayers.”

School leaders have said they expected to take a greater hit because the mid-year budget cuts were not approved, and districts have been planning their budgets conservatively.

Paterson’s letter said essentially that there are no sacred cows when it comes to cuts. (more…)

   The State University of New York’s student enrollment has reached a new high this year, despite having a net loss of $210 million in cuts by the governor and lawmakers. The student population at the 64-campus system grew by 12,226, almost 3 percent over last fall, to 439,624.

   In the past decade, SUNY has experienced a 20 percent boost in enrollment.

   “This record enrollment is more evidence that students recognize the educational excellence offered by our SUNY campuses,” Carl Hayden, SUNY Board of Trustees chairman, said in a statement. “In a time of difficult economic challenges for students and their families, SUNY clearly is the right choice for an accessible, affordable and high quality higher education experience.” 

   Earlier this week, SUNY trustees approved a plan to gradually increase tuition each year, with the intent of making tuition more predictable and paying for increased expenses at the school. The last time SUNY tuition went up was in 2003, when it increased 28 percent to $2,350.

   Gov. David Paterson has recommended a tuition hike of $300 a semester, starting in the spring. Trustees have endorsed upping tuition by $310 a semester under the same timetable. The governor will take the trustees’ tuition and budget recommendation into consideration before submitting his budget proposal next month.

   The enrollment growth shows there is a growing demand for access to public higher education in New York, which “must be met with the resources required for the continued delivery of educational opportunities that make SUNY a great public institution,” said SUNY Provost Risa Palm.

   Elected officials, members of the Kennedy family and other heavyweights gathered today to officially rename the Triborough Bridge—which connects Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx—the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. The Triborough opened in 1936 and includes three bridges, a viaduct and 14 miles of approach roads connecting the boroughs, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

   In January, then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed the name change, calling Kennedy a “bridge builder” in a metaphoric sense because he dreamed of a country where “all individuals work diligently to help the poorest among us to life themselves out of poverty.”

   Robert F. Kennedy was a U.S. senator from New York between 1965 and 1968, when he was assassinated during his campaign for president. He was U.S. attorney general under his brother, President John F. Kennedy, and resigned after his brother was assassinated in 1963. In New York, Robert Kennedy created programs for underprivileged and disabled children.

   Robert Kennedy is the subject of a new lesson plan in New York, called “Speak Up, Speak Out: Robert F. Kennedy, Champion of Social Justice,” which was developed by New York State United Teachers in collaboration with Gov. David Paterson’s office and the state Education Department. The impetus for the project was a call from Kerry Kennedy, the seventh of RFK’s 11 children, to NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi.

   “Robert F. Kennedy’s legacy lives on in countless individuals who fight for justice around the world—and in every child who is inspired by his legacy to, ‘speak up, speak out,’” Kerry Kennedy wrote in a letter to educators around the state.

   In a letter about the RFK education project, Paterson called him a great American with a humanitarian vision. He cited a quote from RFK: “Each time a man stands up for an idea, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope…”

(Photos: MTA, Time Life Pictures/Getty Images.)

   The Campaign for Fiscal Equity could pursue reopening its court case or new litigation if state lawmakers and Gov. David Paterson implement the governor’s $836 million in cuts this school year to elementary and secondary schools in the state, Geri Palast, CFE’s executive director, said today.

   The reduction would hamper the state’s four-year plan to provide equitable funding in under-served districts statewide by boosting state education aid by more than $7 billion. (This is the second year.) The increase in funding was the state’s answer to a longstanding lawsuit filed on behalf of New York City schoolchildren. (CFE filed that lawsuit in 1993 and it wasn’t fully resolved until a few years ago.)

   The courts decided that all children in New York deserve a “sound basic education.” Lawmakers and the governor implemented a plan to boost funding to cover the whole state, although the courts prescribed that New York City schools receive a minimum increase of $1.93 billion over the four years plus inflation, Palast said.

   “Certainly, if the numbers were to fall below the court minimum we would certainly be able to go back to the court under the current case, and … we’re looking at all options,” she said. “I think our first choice is to try to resolve this with the governor, not in a litigation situation.”

   There is a potential for new litigation if the New York City numbers don’t work out or there is no solution worked out with Paterson and legislators, Palast said.

   She and other education and community advocates spoke out Monday against planned budget reductions to education. Under the Paterson proposal, the average classroom would lose $6,371, with some districts set to lose as much as $12,000 per classroom, according to an analysis by the labor-backed Fiscal Policy Institute. (more…)

   The state could could put a big dent in what it pays for funding school districts by changing employee contributions to health-care premiums and public pensions, 80 percent of school-board members said in an informal poll conducted by the state School Boards Association.

   In responding to an e-mail poll, 409 school-board members named the deficit-reduction measure that would have the most impact in their districts, rather than slashing $836 million this budget year, as Gov. David Paterson has proposed to help reduce the state budget. These are the results:

  —39 percent said requiring a minimum health-care contribution in employee contracts.

  —38 percent said requiring employee-pension contributions throughout the duration of employment.

  —23 percent said eliminating salary-step increases under expired contracts.  

   As for what individual school boards could do that would have the greatest effect; 26 percent said joining a health-care consortium; 20 percent said sharing services with other districts; 19 percent said joining a regional transportation agreement; 18 percent said participating in a regional energy-purchasing cooperative; and 17 percent said merging with another district.

   “These results indicate that Governor Paterson and state lawmakers should be trying to help school districts during this time of economic crisis, rather than making devastating mid-year cuts to education,” Timothy Kremer, head of the School Boards Association, said in a statement.

   As anticipated, State University of New York students are protesting the state’s budget cuts this year and their effect on campuses—fewer class offerings, larger classes, unfilled faculty positions, etc. Perhaps less expected are the calls by a number of students for regular, predictable tuition hikes. SUNY’s Student Assembly voted last month to back tuition increases. Student leaders at SUNY Geneseo in Livingston County are organizing a pro-tuition increase rally at their campus. They have collected more than 1,000 signatures to back up their case (see photo).

   Here’s an excerpt from the letter they’re sending to Gov. David Paterson:

   “The students favor a responsible and reasonable tuition policy that will provide predictable increases that directly benefit the students. Due to the budget cut’s impact on SUNY Geneseo, which has added up to a total of over $2 million, students are now in fear that the academic opportunities that were once promised to them could now be in danger of diminishing. The students are taking a stand to protect SUNY Geneseo’s integrity and to preserve it for prospective students.” 

   Presidents of the 30 state-operated SUNY campuses recommended their own plan yesterday for regular increases in tuition. They want tuition boosted $1,090 a year to begin with. The first half of that would be due in the spring semester. The last time SUNY’s tuition was increased was in 2003, when it went up to $4,350.     

SUNY’s state funds have been cut a few times this year, with a net impact of $210 million on the school, and the 64-campus system could face more cuts before the fiscal year ends March 31. Paterson has called a special meeting of the Legislature Tuesday to cut $2 billion out of the state’s spending plan because of New York’s economic crisis.

   Meanwhile, the New York Public Interest Research Group continues to oppose a system of gradual annual tuition increases. Tuition hikes don’t necessarily guarantee that the university will receive additional funding or enough funding, says Fran Clark, a spokesman for the student-directed group. (more…)