School districts across Long Island will lose education funding under a budget proposed last week by Gov. Kathy Hochul. The spending plan renews the debate over local taxpayers sending money to Albany only to see it trickle back in diminishing amounts as it gets politically rerouted to other parts of the state.
“We are looking at a net loss of over $75 million in funding to Long Island schools, the bulk of which is coming from Suffolk County. It's very harsh,” said Senator Dean Murray, a Republican from East Patchogue. “While suburban and upstate schools are losing a very large amount of money, the winners are the big cities in New York—Buffalo, Rochester, Albany. We can't help but feel like she's targeting Long Island schools.”
Overall, Hochul’s budget calls for $35.3 billion in school aid, an increase of $825 Million over last year, an allocation she touted as the “highest investment in education in state history.” Long Islanders lose about 40 cents from every dollar they send to Albany. Her spending plan, 4.5% higher than last year, does not come with an increase in taxes, she boasted.
Hochul is abandoning the “hold harmless” rule where districts would traditionally not get less in state aid than the year before. Under her previous two budgets, schools received funding increases, in addition to long-promised “Foundation Aid” made possible by the infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal COVID relief monies, funds that will no longer be forthcoming.
Hochul’s hit to 34 schools in Suffolk and 10 in Nassau, areas that went for Lee Zeldin over the governor in the 2022 election, comes in a $233 billion budget plan that allocates $2.4 billion to services for illegal immigrants, $500 million of which would come from the state’s reserve fund. “Now we are seeing the real cost of Gov. Hochul’s Sanctuary State policy that welcomed in tens of thousands of illegal immigrants that we are now forced to pay for at the expense of educating our children,” said Assemblyman Joseph DeStefano (R-Medford). “It really is outrageous, and I hope the voters wake up to this sad state of affairs come November.”
Area schools on the short end of Hochul’s spending stick include Bayport-Blue Point, Center Moriches, East Moriches, Mount Sinai, Port Jefferson, Sayville, Smithtown, South Country, and Three Village.
DeStefano and his Republican colleagues from across the state staged a press conference Monday to point up the inequities of Hochul’s plan. “This is another example of New York’s hardworking families being left to pay the costs of Democrats’ misguided policy decisions,” said Assemblyman Will Barclay, a lawmaker from upstate Pulaski who leads the GOP Conference. The decision to pull from the reserve fund for immigrant services “demands closer examination,” said Barclay, who also railed against Hochul allocating $100 million to a public election fund that benefits incumbents.
In announcing her plan, Hochul stated: “This budget makes it clear that fiscal discipline can co-exist with progressive, people-driven policies. I am committed to fight the right fights on behalf of New Yorkers and to pursue the common good with common sense – by seeking common ground.”
A joint statement from Board of Regents Chancellor Lester W. Young and State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa lauded Hochul’s budget but recognized that the “electric bus requirement poses logistical challenges for some districts in our state.” They said they are “grateful for the Governor’s proposal to add three staff members to the department to support our school communities and deliver sustainable solutions through this transition period and beyond.” The governor’s mandate to school and fire districts to switch to all-electric buses and trucks is a budgetary bomb for districts that do not have the funds for the green energy conversions.
As budget negotiations move forward, the Board of Regents requested state support to serve students with disabilities until their 22nd birthday, adding an extra year, and provide stable funding for the Office of Cultural Education.
“I have yet to speak to anyone who supports this budget proposal regarding education,” Senator Murray said. “Both sides of the aisle seem to be against it. All of my colleagues in the senate are against it, and I know my colleagues in the assembly are very much against it. We're trying to figure out the rhyme and reason of how she's thinking,” Murray said, adding, “In her State of the State Address, the governor made it a point to brag about the fact that last year we fully funded foundation aid for the first time ever. But now, this year, she's going to completely upend foundation aid. It doesn't make any sense.”
Murray concluded, “We are resolute, as a conference; we are resolute in pushing back against this proposal.”