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Updated 03/15/2011 05:58 AM

Education funding sticking point in state budget

By: Mike Whittemore

The budget deadline of April 1st is only a couple weeks away. Over the weekend, we got a chance to check out the Senate and Assembly's one house budget bills and one sticking point is education funding. Our Mike Whittemore reports.

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ALBANY, N.Y. -- Quietly introduced over the weekend, the Senate and Assembly unveiled their respective budget bills, mostly mirroring the governor's proposal, with a couple adjustments.

"More goes to the districts that get hit the hardest," said John Flanagan.

As expected, both houses of the legislature have plans to restore some of the education funding proposed to be cut by Governor Andrew Cuomo. In the Senate, it's a $296 million restoration, all going to Upstate and Long Island.

"On a percentage basis, there are plenty of rural districts in Upstate New York that are 15 percent, 18, 19, 20 percent cuts. They're pretty reliant on state aid. There are others on Long Island, some that I represent, but others throughout Long Island that take a disproportionate hit," Flanagan said.

Meanwhile, the Assembly has a controversial plan to restore even more money for education. The bill includes an extension of a tax on New Yorkers making a million dollars or more. But not an extension on those making between $200,000 and a million, as the old law stated. Assembly leaders say this would create $700,000 in revenue, which they would spend mostly for schools. But because it's a tax, Republicans want no part of it.

So with these points of contention now very clear, it has many wondering if a compromise can be reached by the April 1st deadline. And if not, will Governor Cuomo use the tactic Governor Paterson employed and force the legislature to choose between his budget or a government shutdown?

"I would hope not. I would hope that the governor believes that negotiating with both houses of the legislature is the way to bring about a budget," Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said.

Both houses have also mostly maintained the governor's proposed $2.3 billion in cuts to Medicaid. However, the Assembly plan removes a key plan to cap medical malpractice settlements at $250,000. It is not likely to have any major impact on the budget's bottom line, but if removed, it could anger health care interests that helped draft the Medicaid reforms.