LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: Legislature Saves Education Programs. April 28, 2006. New York State United Teachers.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: Legislature Saves Education Programs

April 28, 2006

The New York State Senate and Assembly continued to demonstrate strong leadership by overriding the Executive's public education and health care vetoes. The bold actions taken by the Legislature will restore critical teacher programs; Teacher Centers, the Mentor Teacher-Internship Grant program, and the Albert Shanker National Certification Grant program. By overriding the Governor's vetoes of higher education funding; and restoring operating and capital budgets at SUNY and CUNY, the Legislature showed its commitment to the value of public higher education.

K-12

The Legislative overrides restored the following teacher initiatives:

A $26.6 million restoration in Teacher Center funding for a total of $37 million.
An amount of $4 million was put back for the Mentor Teacher- Internship Grant programs restoring the total to $6 million. And;
The $ 500, 000 Albert Shanker National Certification Grant program was reinstated.

Taxes

The Executive vetoed the child care tax credits and property tax rebates in order to revive tuition tax credits and to cap school spending at contingency budget levels. The Legislature rejected the Executive's attempt by restoring the child care tax credits and property tax rebates.

The Legislative overrides restored the following Revenue measures:

Child Tax Credit
School Tax Star Rebate program ($805 million in 2006; $960 million in 2007-08)

Higher Education

The Legislative overrides restored the Governor's over $1 billion vetoes of the following higher education including:

SUNY

State-operated Campuses Operating Assistance = $ 56.7 million
State-operated Campuses High Needs Programs = $ 2.0 million
State-operated Campuses Capital Funding = $415.8 million
Community College High Needs Programs = $ 1.8 million
Community College Contract Courses = $ 1.0 million
Community College Capital Funding = $ 22.5 million

Total Amount of SUNY Funding Vetoed = $499.8 million

CUNY

Senior College Operating Assistance = $ 49.5 million
Senior College Capital Funding = $264.0 million
Community College Contract Courses = $ 1.0 million
Community College Capital Funding = $ 99.6 million
Students with Disabilities Services and Equipment = $ .25 million

Total Amount of CUNY Funding Vetoed = $414.4 million
Total Amount of SUNY/CUNY Funding Vetoed = $914.2 million

HESC

Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) = $119.5 million

SED

Liberty Partnership Program = $ 1.1 million

Total Amount of Higher Education Funding Vetoed = $1.034 Billion

HEALTH CARE

The Legislative overrides included following initiatives:

$ 1 billion in Medicaid funding
$ 3.3 million for school based health centers
$ 25 home health workforce recruitment, training and retention program.