The budget deal approved on March 31 – which includes a historic $1.33 billion cut to education and the possibility of massive citywide layoffs – has drawn admiration for its promptness and criticism for its stinginess.
Though the new budget addresses the $10 billion state deficit without raising taxes or borrowing money, elected officials and leaders from around the borough have weighed in regarding how spending cuts will directly affect them.
“This is the hand we’ve been dealt and the question is how do you do it responsibly?” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg on 1010 WINS. “Everybody is going to suffer.”
Bloomberg has been outspoken about the city being unfairly treated in the budget saying that they were shortchanged hundreds of millions of dollars. The mayor has also warned of layoffs of approximately 6,000 public school teachers as well as numerous police officers and firefighters.
United Federation of Teachers (UFT) president Michael Mulgrew called out the Mayor for not backing an extension of the millionaire’s tax as a stream of revenue that could help avoid layoffs.
“While we wish Albany could have done more, the mayor could have helped add $5 billion to the budget by backing an extension of the millionaire’s tax, but he refused to do so,” said Mulgrew. “Given this new revenue and the city’s continuing multi-billion-dollar surplus, as the governor and his staff have said repeatedly, no teacher layoffs are necessary.”
Bloomberg has also been a proponent of the end of seniority-based layoffs in schools, putting performance before longevity. Governor Andrew Cuomo has not been a supporter of this method.
“So many of our school’s best teachers will be the ones who lose their jobs,” said Councilmember Dan Halloran. “Class sizes, especially in the early grades, are bigger than they’ve been in over 10 years. Larger class sizes are unacceptable. I stand with my Council colleagues in opposing these irresponsible cuts.”
While public schools will undergo future sufferings, City University of New York (CUNY) students and community colleges are also facing a large cut. The deal hammered out between Cuomo and the legislature – which included $230 million in restoration of base operating aid for school districts – also contains a $91.5 million cut to senior colleges and $12.3 million cut to community colleges.
“Our students already face larger classes, a shortage of full-time faculty, fewer available courses and higher tuition,” said Barbara Bowen, president of the Professional Staff Congress, the union that represents over 22,000 faculty and staff at CUNY. “This budget will put educational quality at risk.”
While $22.4 million was secured for city’s senior centers, which will remain open after fear of closure, the war of words between city officials and the state legislature regarding the monumental budget cuts are sure to rage on for weeks or months to come.
