Interesting article, puts things into a little focus.
The state budget affects you — really
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — There are a lot of reasons why you should care about the $120 billion-plus budget proposal that will affect New Yorkers personally, and none has to do with politics, arcane funding formulas or lobbyists.
The budget will affect:
_Your local property tax bill or, indirectly, your rent. Gov. Eliot Spitzer wants to increase the state’s STAR tax subsidy to school districts and aim most of it at middle class families. He said that would mean a $170 break for a middle class household in New York City; $763 in Suffolk County, $421 in Erie County and $558 in Onondaga County.
The Senate’s Republican majority, however, wants to cut rebate checks directly to taxpayers — about $500 to $600 to most taxpayers and $800 to more than $1,000 to senior citizens.
Upstate cities could also ease local tax burdens under Spitzer’s $500 million, four-year program to provide more aid to “distressed” cities, towns and villages. That would mean $12.8 million to Buffalo, $9.7 million to Rochester, $5.7 million to Syracuse and $5.1 million to Yonkers in the next fiscal year.
_Your kids in school. Spitzer wants to add $1.4 billion in school aid directed mostly to high-needs, urban schools. Every district would get at least a 3 percent increase, more than inflation.
Assembly Democrats would increase Spitzer’s proposal by $532 million over four years for pre-kindergarten for every child in the state by 2010-11, which education experts say gives students a big boost. The Senate’s Republican majority would add $358 million to Spitzer’s school aid proposal to make sure schools in high-taxed suburbs, including Long Island, don’t see a cut in funding.
_Your private school tuition or your concern about the separation of church and state. Spitzer wants a $1,000 tax deduction for taxpayers who pay private and parochial school tuition, saving a typical family about $80, according to Catholic bishops.
_Your opportunity to send your child to a public charter school, or potentially your school tax bill. Spitzer wants to increase publicly funded charter schools to 250 — from the current 100 — without the ability of the traditional public schools to oppose them. He also proposes “transition aid” to help ease the loss of per-pupil state aid to public schools that lose students, but the Democrat-led Assembly wants more aid and more restrictions on charter expansion.
_Your family’s hospital or nursing home. Spitzer would cut most state aid to hospitals by 1 percent and to nursing homes by as much as 5 percent. He is trying to “pivot” the most expensive item in the state budget to direct more aid to more cost-effective at-home and community based care and preventive care.
On the Net:
Spitzer’s budget: http://www.budget.state.ny.us
Senate: http://www.senate.state.ny.us
Assembly: http://www.assembly.state.ny.us
Citizens Budget Commission, http://www.cbcny.org
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1 user commented in " The state budget affects you — really "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe problem is total spending: local property taxes or monies sent to Albany to be redistributed only determine the funding source.
That said, there is, in my opinion, a very strong case to reduce property taxes to a level so as to pay only for services rendered: road maintenance, snow plowing, a portion of the police and fire services, and town govt. The rest should come from the income tax. With the property tax a large segment of the population is insulated from the business cycle. Would we agree to fund teachers and everyone else so lavishly if the funding wasn’t so certain. Would Albany agree to so many mandates if the funding came out of Albany: that is, they would be responsible for going to the taxpayer and asking for the money. Now we have the situation where Giambra can blame Albany and deflect attention from his own wasteful policies.
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