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Daily Point

School districts get more answers on reopening

When Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo gave the state’s schools the go-ahead to reopen for in-person learning on Aug. 7, he also made demands of school districts that left many Long Island education officials dejected and furious. Cuomo said the districts had to post on their websites explanations of how they’d handle coronavirus testing (with specifics, including quarantining) and how they’d do contract tracing if someone tests positive for COVID-19.

The consensus among superintendents, BOCES leaders and Long Island Regent Roger Tilles was that school districts have approximately none of the expertise needed to design such plans, and that the state or county health departments needed to be in charge of that task. 

Now the Nassau and Suffolk health departments have released a list of frequently asked questions and answers on reopening schools during COVID-19 that have satisfied many educators. After seeing the plan, one superintendent who had been extremely upset before the guidelines were released, said: “It’s good, it has everything we need.”

Read on to see why some parents and teachers are still worried about their children returing to the classroom.

—Lane Filler @lanefiller

Talking Point

Writing in the sky

If residents and beachgoers from Westhampton to Montauk look upward on Thursday, they might see a Cessna 305 Birddog plane tugging the following sign: “Tax the Rich, Fund Workers.” 

The Hamptons flyover is arranged by advocacy group Make the Road New York, The Point has learned. It’s part of a campaign in New York State to increase taxes on the wealthy and fund workers in the country illegally who often fall through social safety nets. The group and others are supporting state legislation that would increase levies on billionaires and create a “worker bailout fund.” 

The Hamptons was perhaps the inevitable location given recent remarks by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, that he was talking to people “all day long” who had decamped to their Hamptons or Hudson Valley or Connecticut houses. 

Those remarks came after Cuomo was asked about various proposals to hike taxes in the state given New York’s deep pandemic-related fiscal hole. 

Progressive activists and lawmakers — and even a Republican state senator — have indicated support on this general issue. Beyond the plane, there has been an Albany breadline, protests at Hamptons residences, and a Wednesday caravan to areas like Wyandanch and Brentwood to highlight residents hit hard by the pandemic. 

Cuomo has argued that the federal government should help to cover the state’s pandemic budget gaps.

The bill creating a worker bailout fund is co-sponsored in the Assembly by Long Islanders Philip Ramos, Michaelle C. Solages, Kimberly Jean-Pierre and Fred Thiele, but there are no state senate cosponsors from Long Island.

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Brought to tears

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Final Point

Will Bloomberg have a House account in NY?

Here’s the intriguing tidbit from a blind-sourced Washington Post article Monday regarding $60 million in House campaign spending expected to come from Mike Bloomberg, a re-up on the millions he spent to help flip the House in 2018. “We are going to be looking at the same kinds of places, which is to say suburban, swing districts,” said the unnamed adviser, adding, “There will be some overlap with presidential contest states.”

Despite what President Donald Trump says, it’s unlikely that New York will be in play for Electoral College votes in November. But could any of Bloomberg’s money be coming to Long Island’s swing districts CD1 and CD2? Both races have been shifted to more competitive statuses by the Cook Political Report and drawn increasing national attention as they could switch from red to blue.

On the surface at least, they are the quintessential suburban districts that Democrats hope to win on Election Day. 

The article notes that the Bloomberg outlay will go to defend freshman Democrats but also would be aimed at “defeating additional Republican incumbents.”

Lee Zeldin has been fending off challenges in CD1 since his first reelection fight in 2016. In CD2, Bloomberg was a fundraiser for Republican Pete King, born out of a working relationship over some gun control issues. The former mayor’s gun-safety group, Everytown, endorsed King in 2018 over blue wave hopeful Liuba Grechen Shirley. 

Now King is retiring and Everytown has in CD2 endorsed Democrat Jackie Gordon,  whose “Gun Violence” page is one of seven “Issue” sections on her website. 

Bloomberg reps were mum this week about the possibility of his money being spent on Long Island. A high-ranking Republican source had this argument against Bloomberg using his money here: “I imagine he will spend his money where he thinks it will do the most good … a dollar goes a lot further in other states’ media markets than [the] NYC media market.”

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano