BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York State's budget is now officially late.
State lawmakers and the governor's office will be back at it again Tuesday to try to work out an agreement on a spending plan. As we have been telling you, state education funding is still a very contentious issue in those negotiations.
In Albany's state offices, hallways, and chambers, the Governor's office and lawmakers will again seek a final budget deal on a spending plan of $230B or more with additional requests from the legislature.
Amidst challenging disputes over Medicaid funding, a retail theft crackdown, and affordable housing among others, school funding is especially tricky.
Brian Fessler, Government Relations Director with the New York State Schools Boards Association, says, "It would cut foundation aid for literally half the districts in the state - 337 districts would see a year over year decline in foundation aid under the Governor's budget proposal."
He points out it is an about-face from last year's budget boost in education funding. We reported then it was a 10% increase for a record additional $34B for schools.
So now coupled with the end of federal Pandemic relief funding for school districts, some like West Seneca are warning of a possible tax hike or even staffing cuts as they try to finalize their budgets for district voters in May. Fessler says some larger districts could end up losing hundreds of thousands or millions in funding from Albany.
"A state aid reduction at the levels we're seeing as proposed by the Governor is going to lead to difficult decisions like that for a lot of school districts," says Fessler.
State lawmakers have countered with a full restoration of those suggested reductions in their budget proposal.
The governor's office justifies its proposal with declining enrollment for some wealthier districts and pushing more aid to districts in economically distressed areas.
A spokesperson says, "Governor Hochul’s Executive Budget makes record-setting investments in New York’s future while ensuring the state remains on a stable long-term fiscal trajectory, and she will work with the Legislature to craft a final budget that achieves these goals.”
The state claims 48 of the 80 districts in Western New York will get more formula-based aid with the governor's plan. and specifically identifies Lackawanna as an urban/suburban district that has seen increases in school aid with a significant 14% enrollment increase since 2006.
"While the enrollment decline steady statewide is true.. not true for all districts - but in general is true just simply focusing on enrollment ignores the variety of other factors that have a meaningful impact on the education that school districts provide students and the resources necessary," says Fessler.
"The resources necessary to support those programs and services. You know the students today compared to 15 or 20 years ago are more needy. I think coming out of the pandemic it exemplified some of the growing challenges around student mental health and general health needs."
But Fessler also notes that these are negotiations.
"The Governor's Budget Director acknowledged that there is an agreed-upon increase in revenue that all parties are working around. So we're hopeful that the school aid package will end up at a figure that is meaningfully higher for all districts."