STATE BUDGET INFO

EPP ALERTS
2004

Subj:   Letters to the Governor on his CFE plan

Date: 6/9/2004 7:13:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time
To:   EPPConnell
 
From Noreen: Below is the letter sent out by the NYC chapter of the American Association of University Women. Attached is a letter sent out by the NYC chapter of People for the American Way. Please send your organization's letter out this week. Timing is important. If the Assembly holds the line, I will prepare a letter to Assembly Majority Speaker for next week. Putting this letter on
your stationary and printing it and sending copies to the three other elected leaders takes about 15 minutes tops.
 
We've all been working on state funding fairness for more than a decade. Now is the time to make your voices heard. Send these letters out, then go to the June 17th rally.
 
 
June 9. 2004
 

Governor George Pataki

Executive Chamber
 New York State Capitol
 Albany, N.Y. 12224
 
Dear Governor Pataki,
 As an organization that supports a strong system of public education with equity for all students, the New York City Branch of the American Association of University Women is deeply disappointed in your proposal to remedy the inadequte funding of New York City public schools. The plans that you and Senator Joseph Bruno have developed in response to the New York State Court of Appeals’ ruling are woefully inadequate.
 
According to Standard and Poor’s estimate, the funding gap between city children and those in better-performing school districts in the State ranged between 74 percent and 87 percent. By the end of your $4.5 billion, five-year state spending plan, less than half of the new funds will go to close this gap. Under Senator Bruno’s $4.74 billion plan, only one third will go to closing the gap.

Over this same five-year period, the STAR property tax relief program, which disproportionately benefits affluent homeowners, will total $15 billion, exceedimg the cost of all proposed Campaign for Fiscal Equity proposals. Yet, your school aid plan includes an additional $1.5 billion contribution from New York City taxpayers. All tax payers in the State should be treated fairly, with tax relief for modest-income homeowners.
 
It is important, too, for you to honor Mayor Bloomberg’s request for $6.5 billion in State capital funding. Without these funds and the reform of Building Aid formulas, over a quarter of a million students will remain in overcrowded schools for the rest of this decade. New York City schoolchildren have been shortchanged for many years.
 
They have been waiting too long for a sound, basic education.
 
Sincerely yours,
Joan Jacobson
 
Program Co-Vice President
 
 
cc: Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno
Assembly Majority Speaker Sheldon Silver

Mayor Michael Bloomberg
 
 

(Last updated 07/07/04)

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