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State budget agreement averts cuts, layoffs
Apr 23, 2009 5:54 PM
The state’s yawning $16 billion budget shortfall got filled in earlier this month when the state Legislature and the governor agreed to a $131.8 billion budget plan that takes maximum advantage of the federal stimulus package to avert school aid and other budget cuts and layoffs while increasing taxes on the wealthy.
Public schools took a cut from what they expected to get under the Campaign for Fiscal Equity agreement, but will generally receive the same amount of state funds as last year.
But, where it makes cuts, the budget appears to spare the state’s most vulnerable residents — including public school children and their families.
That, in broad outline, was what the UFT-supported “One New York: Fighting for Fairness” coalition called for — a tripartite solution that balanced the budget while preserving critical services and avoiding layoffs. All three elements were critical, said UFT President Randi Weingarten, but she warned that the most difficult part, the city budget, still lay ahead.
In pursuing its strategy, the union used to good effect mass faxing to legislators, persistent member lobbying in Albany, as well as coalition work with service providers — including jointly organizing the largest demonstration in decades on March 5 — and in-person outreach to community boards, precinct organizations and hundreds of community groups.
For school spending statewide, the stimulus package alone provides $3 billion over two years targeted to education. While the health care industry also received a significant boost in funding, those funds are not similarly restricted and could be diverted from the help that health care providers need.
A snapshot of the final budget shows:
- $1.25 billion statewide for K-12 education, which restores any deficit reduction;
- The $362 million cut in the governor’s preliminary budget to New York City schools eliminated;
- Sufficient funds to allow the mayor to announce no pedagogical layoffs;
- The Teacher Centers getting their full $40 million in funding restored;
- A 1 percentage point increase (to 7.85 percent) in the state’s personal income tax rate for households whose taxable income exceeds $300,000, and a 2.12 percentage point increase (to 8.97 percent) on those earning more than $500,000. (Previously anyone earning $40,000 or more, including the state’s highest earners, paid the same 6.85 percent rate.);
- No Tier V pension plan, as the governor originally proposed; and
- Language on class-size reduction tightened by requiring detailed reporting identifying where Contract for Excellence dollars go.
An added budget feature is that charter schools are treated financially the same as district schools so that if district schools get level funding, then charter funding remains level as well.
On the minus side, Campaign for Fiscal Equity dollars stayed constant. Increases in education funding to meet this court ruling were deferred, and full payment was stretched over seven years instead of four.
Now another energetic budget fight is brewing on the city level, Weingarten said, as the mayor persists in pushing for health care premiums for city employees in an effort to copy the private sector’s race to the bottom.
“We also need to keep protecting the classroom,” said Weingarten. “We may not be able to prevent all cuts, but we must try to protect classroom services.”
