State budget presentation comes to Baldwin

Roughly two-dozen Baldwin residents took an in-depth look at parts of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed state budget last week as Assemblyman Brian Curran (R-Lynbrook) brought his town hall budget presentation to Baldwin Public Library.

During the presentation, Curran explained the Albany budget process and said that Cuomo’s proposed budget contains an increase in state spending of 4.5 percent (general fund, not state operating funds) — a projection that will end 2015 with a $525 million surplus in the general fund. He also spoke about the infusion of one-time funds in the amount of $5.1 billion from legal settlements with financial institutions, a $1.1 billion increase in state education aid, or 4.8 percent over last year, and an increase in state spending for Medicaid by $3.8 billion.

 Curran said he is in favor of putting those one-time funds toward infrastructure, since that would not require annual spending and simply be used to cover the respective infrastructure projects.

One of the main topics of conversation was funding for schools. Curran said that Long Island schools can expect an increase in state education aid, but along with many parents, he is deeply concerned about the governor’s position on holding school aid runs in exchange for his reforms to education. Cuomo has not released the school aid runs this years, unlike in years past, which allows school districts to plan accordingly for the amount of state aid they will receive.

This budget season, administrators and Board of Education members have planned for no increase in state aid while mapping out their respective budgets, since nothing is guaranteed. Curran said he was “stunned and disappointed at the aggressiveness of the governor’s stance, because our children and their futures should not be used as pawns in the Albany budget chess game.”

Baldwin Board of Education members Karyn Reid and Mary Jo O’Hagan also brought up the topic of unfunded mandates — state lawmakers pass legislation saying that schools must fund new expenses, but do not provide money for those expenses. “Some are educationally sound,” Reid said, “but school districts really need the state to provide the funding for them.”