| Gov. Cuomo and state legislative leaders annnounced an agreement on a 2011-12 state budget today that largely tracks Cuomo's proposed budget.
According to Joseph Spector of the Journal News, "The deal is a major victory for Cuomo," who got "a two-year deal to cap the spending growth for schools and Medicaid, the two most expensive items in the budget."
More, below. |
| The agreement added some money to Cuomo's original proposal -- $272 million for education, $91 million for human services, $86 million for public colleges and universities, and about $33 million for local governments and agriculture programs.
But all of those programs will still be cut -- education by more than $1.2 billion -- in a budget that reduces state spending for the first time in 16 years.
And, evidently, high-income New Yorkers will not be asked to share in the many sacrifices in the budget, as the "millionaire's tax" will not be extended this year.
Billy Easton of the Alliance for Quality Education had a quick response:
Governor Cuomo's first budget makes heartlessly large cuts to our schools to finance tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires and students in poor and middle class districts will lose the most educationally.
Nobody who cares about students is celebrating this budget. Make no mistake about it: this budget will reduce the quality of education in New York.
There will be more responses, and details, tomorrow, but two things are clear now -- Cuomo is the big winner politically, and unions representing public employees -- teachers, state workers, prison guards, etc. -- are the big losers. |
