New twists expected in battle for school aid
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, in January with Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, center, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Credit: AP
With new elected players comes the prospect of new twists in the coming annual battle over state school aid.
Word is out that the pickings will be far from fat.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, due to unveil his budget Feb. 1, gets his first chance to carry out a broad campaign pledge of "reining in the growth of spending on education" - some guess to as low as 1 or 2 percent, others to as high as 4 or 5 percent.
Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) gets his first opportunity as majority leader to react - and to try to steer the regional distribution of the funds that become available amid deficits and tax pressure.
One public-schools advocate wondered aloud: "Will the Senate want to assure Long Island its regional share of a disaster - or try to mitigate the disaster?" Less starkly, a local political source put it this way: "Senate Republicans are telling superintendents on Long Island not to expect too much."
Traditionally, the patchwork of state aid categories is complex enough to allow the executive and Legislature to bicker over just what the governor's proposal contains. That's one annual dance; others may lie ahead. Look for strains between upstate and downstate within the Senate GOP conference, and more openly, between Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), who's expected to try to keep New York City whole.
Watch also for Cuomo to sidestep the regional strife, saying all face sacrifices.
WAIT - THEY'RE STILL COUNTING!: The inaugurations are a memory. The governor already addressed the Legislature. Both Albany houses are in session. But in the Hudson Valley's 100th Assembly District, the election remains undecided. On Friday - after absentee and affidavit ballots were opened - Republican Tom Kirwan led Democrat Frank Skartados by either 24 or 15 votes, depending which side you believe. A court fight still looms.
Note the difference in urgency from November, when Governor-elect Cuomo asked, and Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman agreed, to resolve Senate ballot disputes ASAP. There, the Senate majority was at stake, which Republicans had in hand by New Year's. The impact of this 100th AD race is subtler: It determines if Silver's Democratic conference has 100 members - a veto-proof two-thirds - or only 99.
