Charter-$chool war holding up budget
A fierce dispute over charterschool funding and two other nagging issues have held up adoption of the $163.5 billion state budget, Gov. Cuomo announced Wednesday night.
“This is in many ways an unprecedented situation,” the governor said at a press conference to announce the stalemate.
Less than two hours later, senators left Albany for a two-week Easter recess, leaving the chances of completing the budget before the last week of April at slim to none.
Sticking points also arose over the timetable for extending the 421-a tax break for affordable housing, and whether correction officers or family-services workers should supervise 16- and 17year-olds under the new “Raise the Age” law.
When ironed out, the plan will increase spending by 4.7 percent over last year’s $156 billion.
CHARTER SCHOOLS
They proved to be the major flashpoint. A freeze that began in 2009 on the aid formula for charters expires in June.
Without action, the state’s charter schools — which now get $15,920 per student — would get $1,500 more per pupil. For New York City, that’s an extra $200 million a year, Cuomo said.
The Democratic-controlled Assembly, with close ties to teachers unions, wants to block the “windfall,” as the governor describes it.
But the Republican-led state Senate is balking at extending the freeze. “That is an area that needs to be compromised,” Cuomo said.
Education funding for public schools, which now get an average $21,152 per student per year, would increase by at least 3.9 percent.
MAYORAL CONTROL OF SCHOOLS
For the third year iin a row, Albany agreed to extend Mayor de Blasio’s authority to run the city publicschool system for just one year.
The move is a payback by Republicans still fuming that the mayor supported candidates against them in 2014 in an attempt to win Democratic control of the Senate.
“That’s all he will get and I don’t even want to give him the one year!! It’s about trust!!” Sen. Terrence Murphy (R-Westchester) told The Post via text message.
421-A TAX ABATEMENT
Thehe tax-break program for affordable housing got hung up on the expiration date of the law.
Assembly Democrats want the law to expire in two years, the same time as rent regulations, so they have a lever to retain rent controls. Cuomo wants four years.
“You can’t have a program for only two years,” the governor said. “We took two years to negotiate it.”
RAISE THE AGE
For mostst alleged crimes, 16- and 17-year-olds will no longer be treated as adults. One outstanding issue: whether the state Department of Correction or the Office of Children and Family Services monitors the teens following incarceration.
MILLIONAIRES’ TAX
All parties have agreed to extend the added income-tax surcharge on high-income taxpayers for two years, keeping the top rate at 8.82 percent instead of 6.85 percent.
COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY
There’s agreement to expand state financial aid to cover students of families with annual incomes up to $125,000. Tuition would be free for nearly all students attending CUNY and SUNY.
Students who attend private colleges will benefit from an increase in the Tuition Assistance Program.
WATER INFRASTRUCTURE
Someome $22.55 billion will fund nenew water-infrastructure projects following the contamination crisis in Hoosick Falls near Albany.
HOUSING AUTHORITY
Thee city’s Housing Authority scored $200 million for repairs, money not released last year.
ETHICS REFORM
Cuomoo acknowledged that despite a cascade of corruption scandals, he was unable to enact new ethics reforms.
The budget negotiations were the most contentious of Cuomo’s seven-year tenure and the first in which talks extended beyond the April 1 deadline, the start of the new fiscal year.
After discussions on key issues stalled, lawmakers passed a sixweek stopgap measure to prevent a government shutdown.