Governor Cuomo made several changes to his budget plan in 30 day amendments. The amendments range from imposing a teacher evaluation plan on New York City, to cutting the cost of hunting licenses.
Cuomo amended his budget to impose a teacher evaluation system on New York City. The Bloomberg Administration and the teacher’s union failed to reach agreement by a January deadline set by Cuomo, and the City stood to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in school aid.
“You will have this law in perpetuity,” said Cuomo. “If there’s ever a year that the City doesn’t have a teacher evaluation program this law would kick in.”
Cuomo says in the future, all school districts in the state will continue to have to complete a teacher evaluation agreement or risk losing some state aid.
The governor will also require that around 2800 gas stations on evacuation routes be wired for generators and make agreements to get a generator quickly if there’s a disaster.
“One of the issues we learned the hard way, it’s not as easy as just having a generator brought to the gas station,” Cuomo said. “The gas station has to be wired to accept that generator.”
The state will reimburse gas stations up to $10,000 to pay for the electrical wiring.
The governor will also cut the price for fishing and hunting licenses by up to one third. He says it has nothing to do with the recent strict gun control laws enacted in New York that has enraged some hunters.
The governor saw his first significant drop in public opinion polls after he championed the passage of the gun laws in mid January.
And to comply with federal requirements on Medicaid reimbursement, Cuomo will have to trim the health care portion of the budget, says budget director Robert Megna.
Megna says $120m would be cut from services to the disabled. $380m would be taken out by adjusting the spending cap on Medicaid programs.
A report by a Congressional sub committee found that New York has been overbilling the federal government for services for the disabled for decades. It found the state was overpaid by an estimated $15 billion dollars over those years. The adjustment in the new budget does not address the previous overcharges, Cuomo says.
One item that’s staying in the governor’s budget plan for now, is a proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage to $8.75 an hour. Although in recent days, the governor has been dampening expectations that Republicans in the State Senate will agree to the measure. Cuomo says President Obama’s advocacy to raise the federal minimum age to $9 an hour has given opponents an out.
“It makes the discussion more complicated,” said Cuomo.
The governor says while a minimum wage increase might not make it into the final state budget , which is due April 1st, he predicts there will be a deal closer to June 1st, when the legislative session is due to wind down.
Cuomo's announces 30 day budget amendments
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