| For a lot of us, the budget debacle is mostly just another reason to weep when we contemplate being citizens of the state of New York.
But if you're a state employee--particularly a teacher--it's a reason to be terrified for your job. I have one friend who's a teacher who has already been laid off once this year thanks to the budget, only to have her funding restored basically the next day and her job saved.
Given the fact that most people are probably concerned with whether or not their kids' teachers are going to be let go and their schools be left unable to pay for programs, it seems quite... well, asinine, that a New York State Senator would casually dismiss the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in school funding.
Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), who faces a well-funded challenger in Democrat Regina Calcaterra, said most school districts had already made budgets without the school aid restoration and may not feel much pain if it's not restored. Still, he said, 'I haven't even contemplated a veto override yet.
Via Newsday.
Good thing there's an alternative:
"The budget passed by the state Legislature is nothing to celebrate, as Albany's lifetime insiders finally reached the end of their budget gimmicks and fiscal chicanery," Calcaterra said. "However, a failure to vote to override Gov. Paterson's veto would visit even more suffering, still, on the people and school districts of Eastern Long Island. Sen. LaValle says most school districts may not feel much pain if this important funding is not restored. Try telling that to the overtaxed, overburdened, out-of-work residents in our neighborhoods and communities from Port Jefferson to Mastic to Montauk.
"During the past 20 years alone of Ken LaValle's 34 years in Albany, Suffolk County property taxes have risen by more than 550 percent. That's too much pain already," Calcaterra said.
Regina Calcaterra for SD-1 |
