Governor says layoffs aren’t necessary

El-Wise Noisette

In an unusually impassioned budget speech, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Feb. 1 called on legislators to get a broken Albany budget process under control this year, and proposed a $1.5 billion — or 7 percent — cut to state education aid. The education cut is part of a proposed 2.7 percent reduction for next year, which if enacted would be the first time the state budget has been lower in 10 years.

Cuomo proposed no tax increases. But, in contrast to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s threat to cut 21,000 city teachers, the governor said his education cuts could be managed without layoffs.

Remaining federal stimulus funding and rainy-day reserves in many districts could absorb the education cuts, Cuomo said, as well as wage freezes or benefit contributions. 

“There will be absolutely no need for layoffs,” he vowed.

In New York City, the cut would come to $579 million, or a 2.9 percent reduction to its $20 billion schools budget once local contributions are factored in.

There was less bad news in the budget than many had expected, though the cuts are large. The state was on track to increase education and Medicaid spending by 13 percent each this year before the new governor stepped in, and he called on the Legislature to “change the culture” of a state government that has grown used to spending more every year. The state should not be supporting big bureaucracies, Cuomo said, but it should be sure its people, including its students, are well served.

 “The mayor has threatened to lay off a quarter of the teaching force, but Gov. Cuomo made it clear today that there is nothing in the proposed state budget that would require local layoffs,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said. “The governor’s planned cut to New York City schools amounts to about 3 percent of the school system’s budget. We have every confidence that Cathie Black, whose management skills the mayor has repeatedly cited, will be able to manage a reduction like this without laying off teachers and raising class sizes.”

Mulgrew added, “If the mayor continues to insist that cuts in Medicaid and education will lead to significant harm to the city, he should join us in demanding an extension of the millionaire’s tax, whose planned sunset will cost the state billions of dollars in lost revenue.”

In good news for students, the governor’s budget called for no tuition increases at SUNY colleges.

The governor said he would create a $500 million competitive incentive fund for school districts, half to reward improved student achievement and half to reward administrative efficiency. Details of the plan, which some likened to the federal Race to the Top grant competition, were left unclear.