Budget Info
August 2001

WHAT WAS THE BUDGET AGREEMENT?

Here are the numbers that will apply under the laws just passed:

It should be noted that the final budget reduced certain line items that resulted in the net $382 Million increase. The Governor’s budget had originally reduced or eliminated several programs. There were cuts to such "categorical/grant" items as Teacher Support Aid ($52MM), Education Technology Incentive ($57 MM), Growth Aid ($27 MM), Aid to Small City School Districts ($13 MM), and Bilingual Education ($11 MM). Pre-Kindergarten Expansion was funded with new money at $23 MM, but districts like New York City, already receiving Pre-K funds, will not get any additional funding. Teachers of Tomorrow received an increase from $25 MM to $50 MM. Schoolwide Performance Incentive was funded at $7 MM. Building Aid went up by $170 MM. It had been $1.176 Billion in 2000-01, and was increased to $1.345 Billion for the 2001-02 school year. This was supposed to originally be accompanied by sweeping reforms in how it was distributed, but NO REFORMS WERE ALLOWED IN THIS BILL. For New York City, Building Aid was increased $61 million, from $365 million to $426 million. Building Aid is a reimbursement program, therefore the estimates are only that and could change. Needless to say this is a very small contribution to a very large capital program in New York City and will not provide meaningful financial assistance to the City in light of its overall capital requirements.

RESOURCES

If you want to see the Governor’s original computer runs, you can pull them up at http://www.state.ny.us/dob/localities/schoolaid/schoolaid.html. You can see the distribution of aid for any school district in the State. This is a 152-page document, so if you only want to see NYC go to the past two pages (pp. 151-152) and you can see them together with the Big Five.

If you want to see the bills mentioned above (S905B/A1305B–the Education, Labor and Family Assistance Budget —the "appropriations" bill, and S1145B/A1997B–the Article VII bill), both can be brought up at http://leginfo.state.ny.us/. Type in the bill number using either the Senate or Assembly citation, but remember to put in the B or else you’ll get the original bill.