By Associated Press
Buffalo, NY – Gov. George Pataki proposed increasing state school aid by $8 billion a year, with $6.1 billion annually going to New York City and other high-needs, urban schools.
The plan to increase state, local and federal school aid by more than 50 percent would include $1.5 billion more in spending by New York City for its schools. That would maintain the current breakdown in which City Hall pays for 40 percent of New York City schools' operations while the state pays 60 percent, Pataki said. The city has steadily paid less since 1995, when the city funded 60 percent of the bill.
The proposal is Pataki's response to the landmark 2003 Court of Appeals decision ordering the state to have a plan for overhauling education funding by July 30, 2004.
After five years, Pataki's plan would provide $4.7 billion more in state, local and federal aid to New York City schools and $3.3 billion for the state's other 700 school districts.
Pataki said his plan would be affordable yet provide far more than the $2.5 billion additional spending he had thought would be necessary under the court order. The state now spends about $14.6 billion a year in school aid, 50 percent more than in 1995.
Assembly Education Committee Chairman Steven Sanders called the proposal "smoke and mirrors."
The Manhattan Democrat said Pataki is counting on a projected $2 billion increase in federal aid, which is mostly bound to special education; $2.5 billion more in traditional state school aid after five years, which Sanders said is the current average; and $1.5 billion from New York City, whose dire school needs were the basis of last year's Court of Appeals lawsuit.
"The plan, like an onion, when you strip away the layers ... all you are really left with is a pretty foul odor," Sanders said. He noted that Pataki calls for 60 percent of high-needs funds to go to New York City, where the schools account for 67 percent of high-needs students.
Pataki said he hoped the public release of a fiscal plan he presented nearly two months ago to legislative leaders in closed-door negotiations will force action by Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver before the July 30 deadline. Silver promised Tuesday to release the Assembly's school funding plan next week.
Pataki said Silver has been irresponsible by failing to provide his own detailed proposal during negotiations.
"The Assembly, at best, can do one thing at a time, it seems. And I'm not sure they can do that," Pataki, a Republican, said.
On Tuesday, the Republican Senate called for a $6.29 billion increase over five years.
Despite Pataki's plan of $4.7 million more for New York City schools, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city needs $5.3 billion more from the state.
As for low-needs, often wealthy suburban schools, Pataki would guarantee a minimum $100,000 annual increase in aid plus a share of video lottery terminal revenues, which the governor projects to be $2 billion in five years. If the revenues exceed that _ and Pataki said they could rise to $2.7 billion _ the surplus could help reduce school taxes in high-tax areas such as Long Island and the Westchester-Rockland suburbs.
Sen. David Paterson of Manhattan said the Republican plans don't provide enough money for schools that need it most. Patterson, leader of the Senate's Democratic minority, proposes adding $10 billion over five years.
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity, the group that won the Court of Appeals case and calls for $9.5 billion more in school aid over four years, saw little new since Pataki's budget proposal in January.
"He came up with unrealistically low numbers and he's rehashing them now," said CFE's Michael Rebell