Gov. vetoes school bills |
On Board Online • August 10, 2009
By Eric D. Randall
Editor-in-Chief
In April 2008, officials at the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery school district in Orange County got a piece of disturbing news: the State Education Department (SED) had overpaid the district about $835,000 in building aid. SED had mistakenly double-counted construction debt after a refinancing and discovered the error seven years later.
Faced with a state law that requires such overpayments of state aid to be repaid within three years, school officials turned to their elected representatives, Sen. William Larkin Jr. (R-New Windsor) and Assembly member Nancy Calhoun (R-New Windsor). Larkin and Calhoun managed to get both their houses to pass a bill to give Highland Falls six years to repay the money.
But, in late July, Gov. David Paterson vetoed that bill and several others that would have helped school districts in similar situations. Paterson explained that the legislation was just too expensive.
“This is the time for fiscal responsibility, and that means vetoing bills that increase costs to taxpayers,” Paterson said. “While these bills address important causes, government has to live within its means – just like regular New Yorkers do every day. That means making difficult choices so we can lay the foundation for our economic recovery.”
In other action, Paterson also vetoed bills that would have:
- Authorized transportation aid for a student to attend the state school for the blind.
- Allowed the Mount Vernon school district to received a one-time “spin up” or advance of lottery aid.
The governor’s staff has told NYSSBA’s governmental relations team that similar bills await the same fate. Prospects for a legislative override of the vetoes are slim, according to David Little, NYSSBA’s director of governmental relations.
Little said the governor’s action was largely symbolic. “The financial savings are negligible in terms of the state budget,” Little said. “But the impact of the vetoes on affected school districts is severe.”
To Highland Falls, which just cut 5 percent of staff, the governor’s veto was a piling on of bad news. It was denied Title I stimulus money as a result of U.S. Census figures showing the district lacks the requisite number of poor people – a finding that “left everyone who knows the district in disbelief,” according to Superintendent Debra Jackson. And the MTA tax will affect the district, located about an hour’s drive north of Manhattan.
Meanwhile, the district has contractual obligations to educate high school-age sons and daughters of West Point personnel to a certain standard, making curtailment of the high school programs virtually impossible. The result, Jackson said, is that cuts have been targeted mostly at the district’s elementary program.
“This is a really difficult year for us,” Jackson told On Board.
The good news is that the district budgeted conservatively, and that voters approved a budget with a 16.5 percent tax levy increase. Jackson and school Business Official Patrick Cahill said the big disappointment is the district cannot give taxpayers any tax relief, which they said would have occurred had Paterson signed the bill.