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Pataki vetoes would savage public ed, health care Union gearing up for legislative effort to restore nearly $3 billion
April 27, 2006 NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi, fourth from right, with members of the Nassau Community College Federation of Teachers at a NYSUT community college conference. In a "cruel and unusual" flick of the pen — actually, 202 flicks of the pen — Gov. George Pataki slashed nearly $3 billion from the Legislature's state budget, including a child tax credit for working families and tuition assistance for low-income college students. "These are the desperate acts of an administration yearning for relevance," said New York State United Teachers President Dick Iannuzzi. "The governor has chosen to deny New Yorkers' basic needs in order to satisfy his own base political needs." Smarting from the Legislature's rejection of his voucher plan, Pataki vetoed a broader child tax credit that would have provided most New York parents with $330 per child. "The governor is catering to private and religious school leaders who selfishly support disingenuously named 'education tax credits' — really, school vouchers," said NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin. "The tax credit the governor vetoed could be used by parents for tuition or new school clothes or even to help keep their children warm and well-fed." Parents, Lubin said, should have the choice to spend the tax credit "on what their children need, not what the governor wants." The lame-duck governor had proposed a $500-per-child education tax credit for families living in a district with at least one school in need of improvement. That plan would have overwhelmingly benefited parents who send their children to private and religious schools, pro-public education coalition members argued. Pataki vetoed more than $1.4 billion in budget appropriations he deemed unconstitutional, including $300 to $800 rebate checks for taxpayers through increases to the STAR property tax relief program. The governor wanted the rebates given only to homeowners in school districts that adhered to the contingency budget cap. Other education vetoes include:
"The Legislature did the right thing, working for months in public to provide all New York parents with meaningful tax relief and at the same time give school districts the state aid they desperately need," Iannuzzi said. "Now a cranky, absentee administration has finally shown up, just in time to wreck months of negotiations and progress." Higher ed hit hard Higher education was cut by more than $1 billion that state lawmakers had included for capital improvements and community college aid. Support for full-time faculty was also axed. Last year, according to the SUNY Chancellor, more than 7,500 qualified community college students were denied access to four-year SUNY schools because the colleges and universities lacked the resources and faculty to accomodate them. Specific higher ed cuts include $500 million in funding for the State University of New York and $414.4 million in aid to the City University of New York. Pataki also vetoed $119.5 million for the Tuition Assistance Program. He is seeking to require TAP recipients to take at least 15 credits to maintain their grants. "His hostility toward public education and higher education is, in a word, cruel," Iannuzzi said. Lubin added, "Our public colleges and universities are the engines that can drive economic development across the state — particularly upstate. But the governor has pulled the spark plugs from those engines." Lubin charged the governor had "eviscerated" higher ed funding and health care "He's making SUNY and CUNY parents and students pay for his tax cuts for the rich," he said. The Pataki vetoes include more than $1 billion in cuts to health care and Medicaid. "We're ready to work with the Legislature to reinstate all of these critically needed programs," Lubin said. "In 2003, the Legislature courageously overrode the governor's similarly reckless vetoes." As New York Teacher went to press, legislative leaders were preparing for possible overrides. It takes a two-thirds vote in each house of the Legislature to override the governor. The vetoes are yet another example of the governor trying to paint himself with a conservative brush as he gears up for a possible presidential run, Iannuzzi said. "I'm not sure where the governor would rather be — New Hampshire, maybe, or Iowa," Iannuzzi said. "But it's clear the governor is not in a New York state of mind." Pataki, he said, "just doesn't care about New York families. If you're a homeowner with two school-aged children, the governor just took $1,000 out of your pocket." — Clarisse Butler Banks |
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