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BOROUGH PRESIDENT SAYS GOVERNOR PATAKI'S PROPOSED BUDGET WILL DEVASTATE NEW YORK CITY

Photograph by Kathryn Kirk

Borough President Marty Markowitz, joined Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields (far left), Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion (2nd from right), and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall (far right), in strongly criticizing Governor George Pataki’s budget proposal. Borough President Markowitz, and his colleagues, will be testifying about the state budget before a joint legislative committee in Albany on Monday.

“Since I was a State Legislator for 23 years, I realize that this is only the opening salvo of the state budget process, but there was no way I could stay silent about a budget that would be devastating for our City at a time when we need Albany’s help more than ever. This budget would hurt just about everybody from students and seniors to hospitals and nursing homes.

“Taking $450 million from our school system is a recipe for disaster. This will mean more crowded classrooms, fewer textbooks and other badly needed supplies, and no money to help pay teachers to work longer days. Our children will suffer enormously from these cuts and many of them have been suffering for far too long. The mayor is radically changing the way we educate our kids, and everyone wants him to succeed, but taking desperately needed money out of classrooms across New York City will mean our kids will be shortchanged yet again. Governor George Pataki, who has so skillfully promoted economic development across the state, needs to realize that our schools are an enormously important industry crying out for more funding. We must provide every single one of our children with a first class education because anything less is terribly shortsighted and will have a devastating impact, both economically and socially, on our society for years to come.

“The same can be said of the huge tuition hikes at both SUNY and CUNY, and the slashing of the state’s tuition assistance program. By making college so much more expensive and gouging the aid program, thousands and thousands of students will have to give up on their dreams of getting that diploma, which will severely limit their job prospects for the rest of their lives. In our high tech world, we need a better not a less educated workforce.

“Brooklyn would also suffer more than most with the governor’s cuts to Medicaid and other health programs. We have the most New York City residents living at or below the poverty line. Brooklynites continue to represent a disproportionate share of diabetes, cardiac disease and AIDS cases compared to the city and state. And we also have the largest senior population in the city. These are all vulnerable people who we need to help and they must not be abandoned.

“I realize the state is facing an enormous deficit, but there are ways the governor can raise revenue without sacrificing critical services. We must reinstate the commuter tax. Both Connecticut and New Jersey are raising the personal income tax rate on their top earners, and New York should definitely follow their lead. The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance reported that the governor’s cuts in corporate and personal income taxes will cost the state over $9 billion in fiscal year 2004 alone. Two-thirds of the income tax cuts the governor pushed through during the 1990s went to the richest 20 percent of New Yorkers. And two thirds of that went to the top five percent — those making over $185,000 per year. A recent state-wide poll shows that at least 70 percent of New Yorkers say it is time for corporations and wealthy New Yorkers to "pay their fair share."

“Virtually all of the new taxes that the governor has proposed, like reinstating the sales tax for clothing items under 110 dollars, will disproportionately impact moderate and low income families.

“All I’m saying is that we should take back three or four billion dollars from those New Yorkers who benefited most from the 1990s boom and from generous state, city and federal tax cuts - enough so class sizes won't grow, a CUNY or SUNY education won't be out of reach, the base subway fare stays at $1.50 and the token booths won’t close, prescription drug costs for seniors won’t skyrocket and universal kindergarten won’t be abolished. Times are certainly tough and cuts definitely have to be made, but they have to be implemented equitably and should not be shouldered by those who can least afford it.”