The Board of Regents’ decision last week to delay full implementation of the graduation requirements was welcome news but still doesn’t go far enough. Few take issue with the idea that we should raise learning standards in our schools and the idea of the Common Core is to do just that. The problem in New York and elsewhere has been with the implementation of this curriculum.
The Governor’s 2014-15 proposed budget contains, among other things, details relating to his funding and programmatic requests in regards to environmental conservation.As with much of his proposed budget, there are some good ideas and some not so great ideas in regards to environmental conservation.
As I stated last week, this state budget was a status quo budget that does not change the state aid distribution formula which puts lower-wealth school districts at a disadvantage. The Governor proposes to spend $21.9 billion in total state school aid out of the $137.2 billion total budget.
As he is constitutionally required to do, the Governor proposed his 2014-15 budget last week. It was a status quo budget proposal that did not contain any revolutionary ideas or reforms but it does keep spending in check and does contain some positive proposals.
It should be noted that this budget proposal is a starting point for negotiations with the State Legislature.
Session is in full swing. There are many pressing items that need to be addressed. Here are my legislative priorities for 2014. We need to clean up Albany and pass ethics reforms. I’m tired of the misconduct and unethical behavior.
This past week, Governor Cuomo presented his 2014 State of the State address. For the first thirty minutes of the approximately one-and-a-half hour speech, the Governor reviewed what he saw as successes during his first three years in office. During this part of his speech, his main point was that state government, which has often been labeled by the media as dysfunctional, is now working again thanks namely to his leadership.
The Governor recently signed a number of bills into law. I wanted to take some time this week to make you aware of a few new ones that will or have recently become effective.
The Tax Relief Commission issued its final report this month. The commission was established by the Governor and was charged with providing recommendations to cut $2 billion in state taxes over three years. Included in its final report were property tax relief recommendations that the Governor will consider.
This past election, voters were asked to authorize that our State Constitution be amended to allow for the construction of up to seven casinos in New York State. Voters approved the measure by a 57% to 43% margin. It was one of the most controversial referendums in recent history. Not only was the measure itself controversial, but the language explaining the referendum was also controversial.
On any given week, tens of thousands of unsolicited checks end up in New York residents’ mailboxes, making these checks easy targets for criminals looking to capitalize on someone else’s line of credit. Last month, the Governor signed a bill into law that will put the onus on those issuing checks if they are lost or get into the wrong hands.
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