{"id":1002,"date":"2014-03-24T13:57:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T17:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2015-05-12T06:46:03","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T10:46:03","slug":"the-final-push-on-the-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/the-final-push-on-the-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"The Final Push on the Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Governor Cuomo and state lawmakers are coming down the homestretch in the budget negotiations for the fiscal year starting April 1st<\/sup>.\u00a0 The budget negotiations have, so far, been typical in some ways and highly contentious in others.<\/p>\n

The process has been typical in the way that virtually all decisions are being hammered out behind closed doors, with only an occasional public glimpse obtained during sham public joint conference “meetings.”<\/p>\n

The substance of the budget has been contentious \u2013 at least in some areas.\u00a0 For example, the debate over the so-called New York DREAM Act has been marred by extreme political posturing.<\/p>\n

The New York DREAM Act would allow college students who are not legal residents of the state to be eligible for awards if they meet certain qualifications. The student must have either: (1) attended and graduated from New York high school; or (2) otherwise be eligible for a State University of New York (SUNY), the City University of New York (CUNY) or one of the state\u2019s community colleges.<\/p>\n

These students will also be required to file an affidavit with the college that he or she has filed an application to legalize his or her immigration status.<\/p>\n

New York State already allows these students to qualify for in-state public college tuition, assuming that they otherwise qualify for college.\u00a0 This provision was signed into law by former Governor Pataki.<\/p>\n

In short, the New York DREAM Act allows students who are undocumented immigrants and who already have been accepted to a public college and are paying in-state tuition, to be considered for college financial aid.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

Yet in the poisonous politics of America today, such an idea is considered by some to be scandalous.\u00a0 The legislation passed in the Assembly along partisan lines and when it came up for a vote in the state Senate it was defeated with 30 Senators in support and 29 against.\u00a0 However, with open seats and absences, the bill failed to get the 32 votes needed for passage.<\/p>\n

The fate of the plan now is a top issue in the budget.\u00a0 The Assembly advanced the DREAM Act in its budget and the governor has stated his support.\u00a0 But the Senate has said no.<\/p>\n

Another key issue in the budget debate is campaign finance reform. The governor had proposed in his budget sweeping changes in the state\u2019s campaign finance system: lower contribution limits,more expansive disclosures,enhanced enforcement, and a voluntary system of public financing.<\/p>\n

The Assembly\u2019s version of the budget established a system of public financing, but did little else.\u00a0 The Senate\u2019s version of the budget did virtually nothing other than state that it was considering reforms.<\/p>\n

The fates of both of these issues are now under consideration in the budget talks.\u00a0 Whether college students who are in families in which the parents are undocumented immigrants and whether New York State sets up a system of public financing make it into the final budget agreement hinges on whether the governor makes it a priority.<\/p>\n

New York State vests enormous budgetary power in its executive.\u00a0 Governor Cuomo can force the legislature to adopt his budgetary plan.\u00a0 Whether that\u2019s a good idea or not is for another day, but he has the power to make things happen in the budget.<\/p>\n

Whether he is currently applying his extraordinary powers to reform Albany and help college students is unclear.\u00a0 As mentioned earlier, the budget talks are being held in secret.\u00a0 But with the budget deadline in one week, we\u2019ll know then if the governor flexed his budgetary muscle on these proposals.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all for now. I\u2019ll be keeping an eye on the Capitol and will talk to you again next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governor Cuomo and state lawmakers are coming down the homestretch in the budget negotiations for the fiscal year starting April 1st.\u00a0 The budget negotiations have, so far, been typical in some ways and highly contentious in others. The process has been typical in the way that virtually all decisions are being hammered out behind closed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[38,61,69,60],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-budget","tag-cuny","tag-dream-act","tag-suny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1004,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions\/1004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}