Governor approves New York budget
Governor David Paterson and top legislative leaders Sunday finished negotiations on the proposed budget for the state of New York. The governor, along with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcom Smith rolled out the $131.8 billion package.
Yes new taxes
Critics, of course, had plenty to say about the governor’s proposals. The package raises taxes and ups spending. Paterson says taxes must be raised to rectify a $16 billion budget gap. The budget also eliminates a property tax rebate. In total, the plan brings in $7 million in new taxes and fees.
But before you New Yorkers run out and get payday loans, CBS reports that taxes will only be raised for the wealthiest New Yorkers.
A little help from the feds
New York state will receive $7.2 billion from the federal stimulus package. The biggest spending boosts are for education, although there are some pretty big cuts to education as well.
Less for the little guys
The budget includes cutting funding for community colleges in New York by $49 million. However, it adds $125 million in funding for the State University of New York. That will put the total funding for that university at $2.5 billion. It also give $86 million more to the City University of New York, for a new total of $1.4 billion.
It also adds $50 million to the tuition assistance program.
More on schools
As for primary education, public school funding will increase by about $1.1 billion. The new version of the budget does not contain the $700 million cut in school spending Paterson proposed in December. The new spending will make New York one of the highest spenders in the nation on education.
Bottling up taxpayer money
5 cents
The budget adds to the state’s bottle bill. It requires a 5 cent deposit on water bottles in addition to the 5 cent deposit already required for carbonated drink containers. It ups the cigarette tax on cigarillos so it is equal to the regular cigarette tax.
I think in an age where we want higher education to be available to more people, I think that cutting community college funding isn’t exactly the greatest move in the world. Community colleges are where a lot of people that ordinarily may not have gotten into a 4 year institution can get an education, be it vocational or getting general ed requirements out of the way to transfer, and they are indispensable. Giving the lion’s share of funding to where the lion’s share of students do not attend doesn’t really make a lot of sense.
There is plenty of money in NYS ,unfortunately it is in the hands o a few.
Instead of bailing out greedy Bankers/Finance the Fed should provide the finance backing to policies they impose on states but do not adequately fund. ( housing/health care /education).