Letters: State budget shortchanges schools

In reference to "LI schools see NY aid slipping" [News, Feb. 7], Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's proposed budget falls short of the educational needs of Long Island schools.

The story states that 84 percent of Long Island schools are receiving less state aid than in 2008. Schools have been forced to cut or reduce sports, music, art and other learning programs, as well as lay off teachers.

It's unfair that my child and other first- through third-grade students who attend Brentwood schools have music class only every other week and have never had an art class.

Cuomo's proposed budget will continue this trend until there is nothing left to cut.

Melanie Mejia, Bay Shore

Newsday correctly points out that Long Island is again being shortchanged. What the article fails to mention is that Long Island's community colleges are again being shortchanged as well.

Like last year and the year before, the governor's executive budget provides flat funding for SUNY community colleges from one year to the next. Fortunately, for the past two years, community college faculty and administrators were able to persuade the State Assembly and Senate to increase state aid by $150 per full-time equivalent student.

Community colleges received $2,675 for each full-time equivalent student in 2008-09, but just $2,260 by 2010-11. We have been working hard to get funding back to 2008-09 levels, at the very least. The 2014-15 executive budget provides $2,422 per student.

Community colleges open our doors to everyone; we want to give everyone an opportunity to get an education. We transform students' lives and empower them to make a difference in their communities. The state needs to adequately fund its community colleges.

Kevin Peterman, West Islip

Editor's note: The writer is a professor of media services and president of the Faculty Association, which represents the full- and part-time faculty at Suffolk County Community College.

Merchants need to shovel sidewalks

Some businesses are not clearing the snow from sidewalks in front of their stores . Who's responsibility is this?

I live by Hempstead Turnpike, one of the most dangerous roads on Long Island, and some merchants are actually plowing their parking lots and pushing the snow onto sidewalks, blocking pedestrian access.

Other pedestrians and I have to walk in the street. People are forced to avoid going out or to risk their lives by walking into a busy road.

Mark Matthieu, East Meadow

Melodrama in Smithtown politics

The attempt by Conservative Smithtown Clerk Vincent Puleo to change the overwhelming results of our town's recent election is an abuse of power .

The clerk's duties should include presenting the elected board members with the forms and instructions necessary to formalize their oaths of office.

Puleo seems to have put his personal politics and loyalty to Republican Councilman Robert Creighton ahead of the wishes of a large plurality of voters who re-elected Republican Supervisor Patrick Vecchio and elected Republican Councilwoman Lynne C. Nowick. Creighton ran against Vecchio for supervisor and lost.

Did Puleo purposely neglect to forward the forms and then seek to use his omission as a reason to overturn a town-wide election? Smithtown's democratic process should not turn at the whim of a single official.

Ronald D. Weiss, St. James

My community has been trying for years to get the Prisco property on Jericho Turnpike, home of Reliable Tree Services, cleaned up and brought to town code . Deadlines come and go, and town officials seem to turn a blind eye.

Then the town clerk claimed that the seats of the supervisor and a councilwoman, who were overwhelmingly voted into office, were vacant because a 30-day deadline came and went? Shame on Smithtown for the way it conducts business.

These political games only hurt the community. Enforcement of deadlines is a joke and obviously only for a chosen few.

Ann-Marie Most, Smithtown

Public campaign cash would be democratic

Bravo to Eric Lane and Michael Waldman, writers of "Time ripe for tax-financed campaigns" .

Matching small campaign contributions with public funds is the only way to break up the concentration of power that resides almost exclusively in the hands of the wealthiest campaign donors.

Public campaign finance systems give candidates the incentive to appeal to the needs of the ordinary voter, and at the same time encourage ordinary voters to make small contributions, the impact of which otherwise would not be felt by candidates.

Of course, most legislators whose campaigns were funded by special interests will fight hard to maintain the status quo. We should applaud Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's efforts to usher in public campaign financing, to stand up to the power elite and to work toward restoring the public trust in government.

Jodi Perlmuth Popofsky, Manhattan