"...a group that has such a long and distinguished record in identifying and addressing crucial issues affecting the governments of the city and state of New York." Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke
Today is April 1 and the State has a budget in place to begin the fiscal year, a relatively rare occurrence and a good one. Governor Cuomo and the legislative leaders deserve credit for crafting a budget that is not only on time but fiscally responsible as well.
School aid is the State’s largest expenditure item, comprising fully $21.2 billion or one-quarter of the State operating budget.[1] To help close a $10 billion gap in the coming year’s budget, Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed reducing school aid by nearly $1.7 billion to $19.5 billion.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposals to cap property taxes and reduce education aid mean that New York State’s 676 school districts will need to manage with fewer resources; their biggest challenge is to reduce spending without hurting services for the more than 2.7 million public school children.
In early 2007 newly elected Governor Eliot Spitzer and the State Legislature responded to a court mandate to provide every child in New York with a sound basic education by adopting a plan to increase state school aid by about $7 billion over the next four years.