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Plan to Raise Taxes on the Rich Is Gaining Momentum
A group of Senate Democrats plans to introduce a bill on Tuesday that would impose an income tax of 10.3 percent on the highest-earning New Yorkers, a rise of 3.45 percentage points, and increase taxes on all households that earn more than $250,000 a year. The plan, which supporters estimated could bring in up to $6 billion annually to the depleted state treasury, is one of several options Albany lawmakers are considering as an alternative to the reductions in social services and smaller, more focused tax increases that Gov. David A. Paterson has proposed. State legislators and the governor are finding themselves under increasing pressure — from the state’s powerful labor unions and liberal groups in particular — to raise taxes on the wealthy. Although an income tax increase on the state’s highest-earning residents passed the State Assembly last year, its fate in the Senate is less certain. Republicans, who controlled the chamber until January, blocked it last year. With the Democrats now in control, the bill seems to stand a better chance of passing. But not all 32 Democratic members have signed on, including Malcolm A. Smith, the majority leader, who said on Monday that he was not convinced a tax increase was the right solution for New York’s budget crisis. “Let’s talk about what the problem is,” Mr. Smith said to reporters as he was leaving a conference of the New York Bankers Association in downtown Albany on Monday afternoon. “The problem is foreclosures. The problem is a $15 billion deficit. The problem is trying to figure out how do we create jobs in this economy. So in that regard, I’m not sure if taxes is the way you do that.” Among the bill’s supporters, there is a sense that they face considerable — but not necessarily insurmountable — skepticism from Senate Democrats. “By introducing this bill, we are opening the conversation,” said Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Democrat who represents parts of the Upper West Side and the Bronx and is the bill’s lead sponsor. “But this is an issue that gathers support the longer people think about it.” Called the Fair Share Tax Reform Act of 2009, the plan laid out in Mr. Schneiderman’s bill is an expanded version of the so-called millionaires’ tax the Assembly passed last year. It would create three new tax brackets at the highest end of the state’s income tax scale and apply to taxable income, not gross income. Starting this calendar year, New York households that earn more than $250,000 in taxable income a year would see their tax rate rise to 8.25 percent from 6.85 percent — the highest rate currently paid. Those who earn more than $500,000 would pay 8.97 percent; and those who earn more than $1 million would pay 10.3 percent. Although the previous debate in the Assembly has centered on raising taxes on people who earn more than $1 million a year, it appears that Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, is open to the idea of expanding the Assembly’s proposal to people who earn less. On Monday, Mr. Silver said he planned to discuss that question with Assembly Democrats. “The real question becomes how broad-based is the tax,” Mr. Silver said. “It’s conceivable that in the end result we adopt something that may include people who earn less than a million dollars.” Another question mark concerns Governor Paterson. He has sent mixed signals in private and in public on the matter, saying on the one hand that he thinks raising taxes would cause wealthy people to move out of New York, and on the other hand that all options to plug the budget gap have to be on the table. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Paterson on Monday was noncommittal. The governor has proposed a range of tax increases, including a tax on sugary sodas and juice drinks and sales taxes on music and video downloads, “As with every piece of legislation, Governor Paterson will review it if it passes both houses of the Legislature,” said the spokeswoman, Marissa Shorenstein. “The best way to close our $13 billion deficit and return this state to fiscal health is to focus on recurring reductions across every area of spending.” Senate Republicans do not appear to be giving any ground. “There’s not a lot of excitement in the conference for any tax right now,” Thomas W. Libous, the Republican deputy minority leader, said on Monday. The bill was still circulating on Monday evening. To try to persuade Senate Democrats and Republicans, supporters of the tax increase said they would frame their debate in philosophical terms, an approach they said appears to be working. “No one likes to pay taxes, but this is the group that is able to bear a little bit more of the burden,” said Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party, which has been aggressively lobbying for the tax increase. “It’s common sense and its morally just.” He added: “We know there’s a big fight ahead.”
Mayor Mike Bloomberg says stimulus may save teaching and police jobs
BY ERIN EINHORN
Under mayor's control, the schoolkids are doing all right
BY THE REV. JOHNNY RAY YOUNGBLOOD
Rochester woman accused of stealing education for kids in Greece schools
MEAGHAN M. MCDERMOTT • STAFF WRITER That's the message the Greece Central School District sent this week with the arrest of a Rochester woman accused of falsifying documents about where her five children lived in order to send them to Greece schools. "If your children are going to Greece schools, you had better reside in Greece," said Don Nadolinski, the district's deputy superintendent. "And if you don't, there are consequences." On Monday night, Yolanda Miranda, 33, of 39 Morrill St., was charged with third-degree grand larceny and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, both felonies. She was arraigned in Greece Town Court and remanded to the Monroe County Jail on $25,000 cash bail. The charges are the first of their kind for Greece schools, but other local school districts including Rush-Henrietta and East Irondequoit have in the past had parents arrested for lying about where their child lives. Under state law, children are entitled to a free and appropriate education, but only in the school district in which they live. Parents found to be misrepresenting their addresses may face criminal charges and civil charges in an effort to recoup tuition costs. Educating a single student in a New York school costs an estimated $15,000 a year and Nadolinski said the services Greece schools provided to Miranda's children since the beginning of the school year have an estimated dollar value of more than $28,000. "This is a serious matter and when you have a number of kids attending your schools that don't reside there, it all adds up," he said. "We have a responsibility to taxpayers here to ensure that the children who attend our schools actually live here." If convicted, Miranda could face a prison term of up to three years. Greece officials said four of Miranda's children still attended various Greece schools as recently as this week. Nadolinski would not say which schools, but said the children range in age from elementary students to high-schoolers. The children have attended Greece schools for at least three years. Private investigator Kevin Degnan, who looks into residency issues for Greece schools, said during his four-month investigation, he routinely witnessed Miranda's children being driven from a home on Morrill Street in the city to their grandmother's residence on Harmony Drive in Greece. Once there, the children later boarded school buses and attended various Greece schools. After school, he said, the children were picked up at the Greece home and returned to Rochester. "I found no evidence the children lived at the Harmony Street address, and neighbors said there were no kids living at the house," Degnan said. No one answered the door at the Harmony Drive or Morrill Street homes on Tuesday afternoon. Last year, due to Degnan's investigations, 28 students who did not live in Greece were transferred to schools where they do live, saving Greece taxpayers as much as $500,000. He said no other case has merited prosecution because a simple home visit to explain residency law usually convinces parents to enroll their child in the right school. "But this family did not want to say they did not live in Greece," he said. Ron LaForce, who lives next door to the Harmony Drive home in a quiet subdivision off of Long Pond Road, said it was apparent to him that the children did not live there. "There's no doubt about it," he said, adding that he feels badly for his neighbor, the children's grandmother, who he said is a "nice lady, maybe taken advantage of by her kids." However, LaForce said he supports making sure students attending Greece schools live in the district. "To see them take action like this restores a little of my faith" in the school district, he said. Miranda is scheduled to appear in Greece Town Court at 1 p.m. today.
Study urges more arts classes
By James Vaznis The report, done in collaboration with school leaders, is the first attempt to evaluate the availability of arts programs in the district's 143 schools. It was released as arts programs are facing cuts because of budget constraints. Arts offerings are particularly sparse in high schools, where a greater emphasis is put on passing standardized tests in English, math, and science, a state high school graduation requirement. Only a quarter of high schools offer arts education to more than 25 percent of their students, while just 48 percent of middle schools deliver weekly arts instruction to all students. Conversely, more than three-quarters of elementary and K-8 schools provide instruction at least once a week, which is the school district's standard. The results, the authors of the report say, highlight the need for money to expand programs, even as the district faces a budget shortfall of more than $100 million next year. While the report did not examine the benefits of an arts education, specialists at a Boston Foundation forum this morning will discuss how the arts can promote creative thinking and instill an interest in school for students at risk of dropping out. "These are definitely challenging times, but one of the impacts I hope the report will have is reminding us how important the arts are to urban education and encourage school principals not to make cuts in the arts," said Ann McQueen, senior program officer at the Boston Foundation, which is a major funder of urban education initiatives. To aid in the effort, the foundation and city school leaders are planning to announce creation of an "arts expansion fund" for the Boston public schools, which will seek $1.5 million from private philanthropists over the next three years. Already $1.1 million has been raised in cash and pledges. The goal, the foundation and school leaders say, will be for all students in kindergarten through Grade 8 to receive arts instruction at least once a week by 2012. "Obviously, with the budget situation, we have concerns about maintaining the high-quality programs that exist," said Carol Johnson, superintendent of Boston public schools, who announced last week the possibility of more than 400 teacher layoffs. "We'll do everything we can to maintain the [arts] faculty we have." Just 18 months ago, the city's school system was poised to enter a sort of arts renaissance. Johnson had just arrived and wanted Boston schools to better reflect the city's vibrant cultural life. Last spring, she formed a group to conduct a top-to-bottom inventory of art programs with an eye toward expansion. Working with the foundation, 93 percent of the district's school principals responded to an online survey, on which today's report is largely based. Across all grade levels, 70 percent of students receive some type of arts education, but some schools are far more committed than others. At the elementary level, four schools provide twice-weekly arts instruction, double the district standard, but a handful of schools do not give any weekly instruction. The school system has a $15 million budget for the arts this year and nearly 157 full-time equivalent positions. Many schools have partnerships with organizations such as the Boston Ballet, the New England Conservatory, and the Museum of Fine Arts.
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The Snap Schott is distributed by the Schott Foundation for Public Education. For more information, please visit www.schottfoundation.org. |
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