By Dana Klosner-Wehner
Focusing on slashing state spending, Paterson has proposed a two-year, $5.2 billion deficit reduction plan to the state Legislature. His targeted cuts are spread across most areas of state spending, including education, health care, human services and the state’s work force. The impact of Paterson’s proposal on local school aid is drastic.
If Paterson’s plan is enacted as is by the Legislature, the reductions in previously budgeted spending plans would include a cut of nearly $2.9 million in the Sewanhaka Central High School District, a $1.2 million reduction of the Elmont Union Free School District budget and a cut of just over $444,000 for the Franklin Square Union Free School District.
Al Harper, superintendent of the Elmont Union Free School District, assured residents that district officials would do their best to minimize the cuts’ effects on students. “If this does happen … we will not touch the actual educational program,” Harper said. “We would have to sit with the board and bring the budget to the public. That’s how we would attack it. The last thing we want to touch is instruction.”
Sewanhaka’s superintendent, Warren Meierdiercks, expressed grave concerns about the proposed cuts. “If the governor’s proposal is enacted by the state Legislature, we will be forced to consider drastic cuts in all areas,” Meierdiercks said in a statement. “I am concerned about the impact these cuts may have on our district’s students, staff and taxpayers. I have immediately contacted our various legislators to express my deep concern, as well as the concerns of all members of our school communities. They have assured me that they will represent our interests in upcoming budget deliberations.”
The Franklin Square district, meanwhile, would face midyear cuts on the heels of reductions in state aid already totaling about $660,000 due to overpayment by the state. “We are still hoping against hope that [these cuts] don’t happen,” said Franklin Square Superintendent Dr. Thomas Dolan. “We would have to tighten an already very tight belt. We would look to reduce expenditures immediately. We would try not to impact the educational program.”
The Legislature was due to reconvene on Tuesday. Then, Dolan said, “We would have the month of December to figure out what to do. We’re not eager to make more cuts.”
Paterson’s education aid proposal is shocking and unacceptable, Assemblyman Tom Alfano said. “It’s a frightening prescription of taking an ax to school aid and a tax increase on working families and seniors,” said Alfano. “Instead of slashing, cutting and looking for easy answers, what we need to do is create jobs, expand the local economy and bring in business. We have Belmont racetrack right on Hempstead Turnpike, which is an oasis of revenue in a desert. We need to get to work, and not balance budgets on the backs of children.”
“New York state is facing some tough financial times, but I have said for months that the Senate majority does not support midyear cuts in school aid,” said Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Republican from Rockville Centre. “These cuts would force school districts to increase property taxes to cover the sudden loss of funds, and our already overburdened families simply cannot afford it. The governor wants to hack away at our school district budgets, and that’s just not an acceptable approach.”
Franklin Square’s own state senator, Democrat Craig Johnson, had this to say: “After years of out-of-control spending and government bloat, New York state government is long overdue for a diet. I am reviewing Governor Paterson’s recommendations on closing the current budget deficit and I thank him for his leadership on this issue. However, as I said before, I cannot support midyear education cuts. Cutting this funding midstream will lead to a decrease in the quality of our children’s education and an increased burden on taxpayers. Hard decisions are going to have to be made, and I stand ready to work with Governor Paterson and legislative leaders to do what is needed to put New York state back on the right track. But, once again, I do not believe this should be done at the expense of our children’s future.”
