State budget officials: Any school aid cuts would be announced in November
New York State United Teachers, a union umbrella group, said Wednesday it has filed a lawsuit seeking to block state aid cuts. Credit: Sipa USA via AP/Ron Adar / SOPA Images
Any potential move by Albany to cut financial assistance to school districts probably would be announced in November and take into account the economic needs of individual districts, state budget officials said Wednesday.
With this latest announcement, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his budget division moved closer to cuts in state aid, even as districts struggle with the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Long Island, state assistance totals $3.3 billion annually, or about 25% of school revenue.
New York State United Teachers, a union umbrella group, issued its own statement Wednesday, saying it has filed a lawsuit seeking to block aid cuts. Economic pressures are triggering layoffs of teachers and other school personnel, including 54 job losses announced in Copiague this month, the union said.
Cuomo has warned for months that aid cuts of up to 20% might become inevitable, should Congress not provide enough financial relief to New York and other states to make up for losses in tax revenue. The Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House appear deadlocked on the issue.
Across-the-board aid reductions would fall most heavily on low-wealth districts, which are the most dependent on state assistance. But a representative of the state's budget office said Wednesday for the first time that any cuts would take needs of individual districts into account, suggesting reductions would be proportional to wealth.
The spokesman, Freeman Klopott, said that "in the absence of federal funding, any future actions will take school district need into consideration." Klopott described the union's lawsuit as "frivolous" and a distraction from the state's efforts to obtain more federal dollars.
The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court, Albany County, seeks release of aid money already withheld in July, August and September, and an injunction against future withholding or delayed payments.
A state budget deal worked out in April authorizes the governor to cut aid for school districts and municipalities, should this become necessary to balance the state's budget. Plans for any such reductions must be submitted to the State Legislature, which then has 10 days to come up with an alternative approach.
So far, the state's Division of the Budget has withheld relatively small amounts of aid from localities, while warning that the temporary withholdings could become permanent.
Kishore Kuncham, superintendent of the Freeport district, which depends heavily on state aid, said in an interview that the primary question was not whether aid cuts should be proportional or across the board.
"We need every dollar of that money," Kuncham said.
John Hildebrand is Newsday's senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years.
