  |
| |
End-of-year push
June 8, 2006 Sen. Ken LaValle, R-Port Jefferson, with, from left, Pamela Julian, Middle Country TA; Thomas Laraia, Elwood TA; Andrew MacAvoy, Patchogue Medford CT and Ellen Schuler Mauk, FA Suffolk County CC. Pensions, health care and the charter school debate led discussion at the final legislative push by New York State United Teachers lobbyists-for-a-day. "We have a lot of really tough issues still on the table," said NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin. Nearly 600 in-service and retired members took to the Capitol May 23 for the union's Committee of 100 lobby day. In office after office, they thanked legislators for overriding most of the governor's 207 budget vetoes and made sure their last month in session was put to good use. "You've been a friend from the beginning," Patrick McCarthy, Sullivan County Boces TA president, told Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, D-Sullivan. He thanked her for securing funds to save the federal Even Start program. Charter school expansion was a hot topic, with lawmakers and NYSUT members showing support for Assemblyman Ron Canestrari, D-Cohoes, who has been the subject of a vicious pro-charter ad campaign. The financially strapped Niagara Falls schools are already facing the loss of 30 teachers due, in part, to declining enrollment. Payments to the local charter school will cost an additional $1.2 million and may force even more layoffs, said Joe Catalano, president of the Niagara Falls Teachers. Bill Ritchie, president of the Albany PSTA, called the infiltration of the experimental schools in his district, "the most outrageous oversaturation that you can imagine." Albany is paying more than $14 million to charter schools this year. On the retirement front, NYSUT lobbyists pressed for pension equity for higher ed members of the Optional Retirement Program, an increase in the Cost-Of-Living Adjustment, and permanent legislation to protect retiree health insurance. "It's not fair for someone in their 70s or 80s to have to worry every year about their benefits being cut," said Barbara Barosa, Riverhead FA president. Assemblyman Peter Abbate, D-Brooklyn, said lawmakers are still weighing an early-retirement package for members at least 55 years old with 25 years of service. "Everybody's working on it," said Abbate, who chairs the Governmental Employees Committee. Thomas Laraia of the Elwood TA said mandatory nurse overtime creates potentially dangerous situations for nurses — like his wife — and their patients, a sentiment shared by Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse. "It's been one of my priorities," DeFrancisco said. "It's foolish to put nurses in that situation." — Clarisse Butler Banks and Kevin Hart |
| |
| | ||
