Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders agreed to a nearly $138 billion state budget that hands Mayor de Blasio a victory in his drive for universal pre-kindergarten but deals him a setback in his push to rein in charter schools.
The election-year plan also imposes ethics reforms, provides tax relief for businesses and some city renters and makes changes — demanded by many parents — to the controversial Common Core education curriculum, officials said Saturday.
Total state spending will increase less than 2%, while state school aid will increase by $1.1 billion, or 5.3%.
“The state budget … maintains the fiscal discipline that the state government has shown,” Cuomo said.
De Blasio’s first budget battle with Albany yielded mixed results. The mayor ran last year on expanding pre-K, and the budget’s $300 million a year for five years will help him deliver on that promise. But Cuomo and state Senate leaders rejected de Blasio’s request to hike taxes on the wealthy to pay for the expansion. Instead, the funding will be provided by existing state revenue.
In a statement, de Blasio put a positive spin on the outcome: “With the investment announced today, this state has made a powerful and historic decision that will change the lives of tens of thousands of children.”
In another win for City Hall, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) successfully pushed to allow a planned $2 billion education bond act to be used to create new school space so the city can close down some trailers that house regular classes.
However, de Blasio was rebuffed in his request for a $200 million appropriation to expand after-school programs.
And the mayor’s attempts to corral charters blew up on him. After the mayor cut $210 million in capital funding for charters and axed agreements with three of the schools run by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, Cuomo and Senate co-leaders Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx) and Dean Skelos (R-Nassau County) vowed to protect the publicly funded but privately operated schools.
The budget agreement includes a boost in per pupil funding for charter schools and requires that the city provide a paid-for alternative if it rejects an approved charter’s bid for space in a public building.The budget also gives charters that want to offer prekindergarten an end run around de Blasio. It would allow charters that are not part of de Blasio’s pre-K plans to apply directly to the state Department of Education for approvals.
The mayor did get a language change in the budget that can unlock funding to address housing for the homeless, but he lost — for now — his push for 160 additional red-light and speed cameras throughout the city.
For Cuomo, who got his key priorities, and the legislators, the budget offers plenty to highlight as they hit the campaign trail.
But liberal critics complained the overall plan favors businesses and the rich, and they griped about the lack of a statewide public campaign financing plan — something Klein said he will continue to push for. The budget does create a limited public financing plan, but it only affects the state Controller race. Government reform groups, and Klein, ripped it for not including all statewide and legislative offices.
The system would go into effect for this year’s race, leaving Controller Thomas DiNapoli — who so far has no declared opponent — to question “whether this proposal can be fairly and reasonably implemented in such a short time frame.”
The budget also attempts to address many parents’ concerns about the Common Core curriculum. It prohibits standardized tests for students below third grade, restricts how much time can be used to teach toward the tests and bars, for a few years, Common Core test results from being a main factor in student grade promotion decisions. The scores can be used for teacher evaluations.
The Legislature is set to take up the budget bills Monday, a day before the new state fiscal year begins.