Public Employee Press

State budget favors rich, funds pre-kindergarten

New York State's budget for 2014-15, approved by the Legislature March 31, allocates $300 million for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's universal pre-K initiative, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo killed the mayor's proposal for a small extra tax on wealthy city residents to guarantee more adequate funding for pre-K and expand after-school programs for city teens.

The city plans to add full-day pre-kindergarten classes for more than 4,000 4-year-olds beginning in September and include up to 73,000 in 2015-16.

The $138 billion budget requires the city to provide rent-free space in public school buildings for some charter schools and hands hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to banks, businesses, real estate interests and the wealthiest New Yorkers, but it failed to include funding to hire more school drug prevention counselors.

"This budget clearly favors business, banks and the rich over working-class and poor families," said DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido, "but it fails to meet important public service needs."

"After-school programs offer academic assistance and help keep kids off the streets, and our Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention Specialists provide important services for students and their entire families. Maybe if charter schools had to pay rent there would be more money for services for most kids," said Local 372 President Santos Crespo Jr.

The budget includes the promised $5 million to fund health insurance for retired employees of the Off-Track Betting Corp., which closed a couple of years ago.

The governor's budget failed to include any funds for the Dream Act, which would let state college aid include students raised in the United States but whose parents are undocumented immigrants.

"We're not giving up on the Dream Act, which would help these young people become productive members of society," said Local 374 President and DC 37 Citizenship Committee Chair Cuthbert Dickenson on March 17 at a City Hall rally organized by the New York State Dream Act Coalition, which includes DC 37.

The proposal came within two votes of passage in the state Senate this year.