Gov. Spitzer's battle to tame Medicaid - a fight from which he must emerge victorious - is the main event in Albany, but much more is at stake for New York City in the budget war of 2007:
School aid - Spitzer claims credit for upping city school aid by a healthy $639 million, more than 9%, as a down payment on a $3.2 billion increase over the next four years. All the money should be used to provide services such as prekindergarten education, but Spitzer diluted it by including $90 million in construction aid. That wasn't supposed to happen under a landmark deal struck last year with the goal of more fairly dividing education aid between the city and the suburbs. Albany should live up to the bargain.
School mandates - Spitzer would give Mayor Bloomberg the flexibility to use the extra school aid as he thinks best. But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver tied it with strings sought by United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. These include a requirement to cut class sizes, which may or may not be the best use of dollars but would surely boost the number of teachers. Drop the mandates.
Charter schools - Spitzer would authorize opening 150 charter schools, adding to the 100 or so across the state, almost uniformly providing superior educations. Charters are public schools - open to all students by lottery - that operate independently of the traditional system. They do a good job or they get closed.
Parents love charters, as shown by the thousands who apply for admission. The UFT fights them because, in most, the teachers opted not to join the union. Silver has lined up with Weingarten. He purports to back the opening of 50 more charters, but he would cut their funding and force unionization, in effect killing them.
New York needs every possible charter.
Tuition tax deduction - Spitzer would let private-school parents deduct $1,000 of tuition bills from state income taxes, an $80 break for families making huge sacrifices. Cardinal Egan says the measure could help invigorate the Catholic schools, but Silver's Assembly is balking. Spitzer should hold firm.
Revenue sharing - Spitzer's budget wipes out $330 million a year in unrestricted aid to the city. This is patently unfair to a place that sends Albany upwards of $11 billion more in tax revenue than it gets back in services. Thanks, gov