ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- There are a lot of reasons why you should care about the $120 billion-plus budget proposal that will affect New Yorkers personally, and none has to do with politics, arcane funding formulas or lobbyists.
The budget will affect:
Your local property tax bill or, indirectly, your rent. Gov. Eliot Spitzer wants to increase the state's STAR tax subsidy to school districts and aim most of it at middle class families. He said that would mean a $170 break for a middle class household in New York City; $763 in Suffolk County, $421 in Erie County and $558 in Onondaga County.
The Senate's Republican majority, however, wants to cut rebate checks directly to taxpayers -- about $500 to $600 to most taxpayers and $800 to more than $1,000 to senior citizens.
Upstate cities could also ease local tax burdens under Spitzer's $500 million, four-year program to provide more aid to "distressed'' cities, towns and villages. That would mean $12.8 million to Buffalo, $9.7 million to Rochester, $5.7 million to Syracuse and $5.1 million to Yonkers in the next fiscal year.
Your kids in school. Spitzer wants to add $1.4 billion in school aid directed mostly to high-needs, urban schools. Every district would get at least a 3 percent increase, more than inflation.
Assembly Democrats would increase Spitzer's proposal by $532 million over four years for pre-kindergarten for every child in the state by 2010-11, which education experts say gives students a big boost. The Senate's Republican majority would add $358 million to Spitzer's school aid proposal to make sure schools in high-taxed suburbs, including Long Island, don't see a cut in funding.
Your private school tuition or your concern about the separation of church and state. Spitzer wants a $1,000 tax deduction for taxpayers who pay private and parochial school tuition, saving a typical family about $80, according to Catholic bishops.
Your opportunity to send your child to a public charter school, or potentially your school tax bill. Spitzer wants to increase publicly funded charter schools to 250 -- from the current 100 -- without the ability of the traditional public schools to oppose them. He also proposes "transition aid'' to help ease the loss of per-pupil state aid to public schools that lose students, but the Democrat-led Assembly wants more aid and more restrictions on charter expansion.
Your family's hospital or nursing home. Spitzer would cut most state aid to hospitals by 1 percent and to nursing homes by as much as 5 percent. He is trying to ``pivot'' the most expensive item in the state budget to direct more aid to more cost-effective at-home and community based care and preventive care.
The Assembly would restore some of the cuts to the facilities that say the cuts would be too deep, too fast and result in thousands of layoffs from what is often a community's biggest employer.
The Senate would restore all of Spitzer's proposed cuts, avoiding any layoffs.
Your college tuition bill. The State University of New York and the City University of New York would see one of the biggest operating aid increases in years under Spitzer's plan. There is no plan for a tuition increase.
Your public or private college financial aid. There is legislative support for Spitzer's plan to increase the Tuition Assistance Program by $857 million to fully fund the program.
Your bottle recycling bin and wallet. Spitzer wants to expand the bottle bill to include non-carbonated drinks. That will mean another nickel deposit added to the cost of your bottled water, Snapple or V8.
On the Net:
Spitzer's budget: http://www.budget.state.ny.us
Senate: http://www.senate.state.ny.us
Assembly: http://www.assembly.state.ny.us
Citizens Budget Commission, http://www.cbcny.org
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