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Nixon and Cuomo Spar Over School Funding

Democratic candidate for New York governor and actor Cynthia Nixon came to the capitol on Monday to discuss education aid and what she says are Governor Andrew Cuomo’s failings in that policy area. Meanwhile, Cuomo’s campaign says it’s Nixon who is being inconsistent.

Nixon spoke before the Small City Schools District Association, a group that’s suing the state to obey a 2007 court order that said billions more dollars need to be spent on the state’s schools.

Nixon says Cuomo’s Republican predecessor, former Governor George Pataki, fought the original court case, known as the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, or CFE, for 12 years. She called Cuomo a “closet Republican,” saying the Democratic governor has also resisted the court order for eight years. She also says the system, which favors wealthier schools is “broken.”

“Point of fact, New York is the second most unequal state when it comes to school funding,” said Nixon, who said there’s a $10,000 gap between funding for the pupils in the state's wealthiest schools versus those in the state’s poorest schools.

Cuomo’s campaign fired back at Nixon, saying she was being inconsistent on her position as to whether a property tax cap for schools and local governments should continue. Cuomo campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said that Nixon is “not ready for prime time.”

Nixon says the Cuomo campaign charges are “100% untrue.” Earlier in the spring, she said the governor’s self imposed state spending cap was “disastrous,” but says she’s never opposed the tax cap outright. She says the tax cap rules need to be eased, though,  to make it less difficult for schools and municipalities to override the cap if they believe it’s necessary.

“I support the property tax cap, I think we have far too much burden placed on our property owners across New York State,” Nixon said. “I have said, though, that if a locality wants to increase taxes on itself to pay for something like schools, then we should not make it so onerous.”

Nixon says the state needs to take over a greater share of school funding and the state health care Medicaid  program, so that districts and local government don’t have to collect high taxes to pay for them.

Governor Cuomo was in Albany but did not appear in public. He called in to the cable news channel New York 1, where he agreed that there is inequality in school funding in New York. The Governor says he needs to know more, though, about how much each school district is spending  on each school.

“Not overall funding, not the myth of CFE court cases, those are non-facts,” said Cuomo. “We spend more money than any other state in the union. Who is getting the money, rich versus poor, black versus white, that’s the question.”

Nixon says Cuomo often says the state spends more money than any other state.

“That sounds to my ear like he’s saying we spend too much,” she said. “And that we should actually spend less.”  

Nixon is also pushing for higher taxes on the state’s millionaires to obtain more funding for schools and other priority items, like the subway system .

Cuomo, on New York 1, says that’s a “non-starter” with the legislature and that the votes are not there.

“It’s politically very popular, I get it, and it’s a great slogan and it polls very high,” Cuomo said. “Because the only people who are against are the millionaires.”

The governor says he supports congestion pricing to fund mass transit.

Nixon says she thinks if new Democratic lawmakers are elected in Nove  mber , the millionaire’s tax could pass, and she says many Democrats already in the Senate and state Assembly support it.

Karen DeWitt is Capitol Bureau chief for New York State Public Radio, a network of public radio stations in New York state. She has covered state government and politics for the network since 1990.
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