This year’s report cards on proposed school spending shows that districts would increase spending by an average of 2.35 percent, and the average tax levy would go up 1.89 percent. Both figures are well below what they were in recent years, according to New York State United Teachers, the state’s largest teachers union:

   Average spending increase:

   2004-05—6.29 percent

   2005-06—6.1 percent

   2006-07—5.86 percent

   2007-08—5.94 percent

   2008-09—5.27 percent

   2009-10—2.35 percent

   Average statewide tax levy increase:

   2004-05—8.26 percent

   2005-06—6.94 percent

   2006-07—5.91 percent

   2007-08—3.79 percent

   2008-09—3.26 percent

   2009-10—1.89 percent.

 School districts are required to submit these report cards to the state before the school budget vote each year. It is being held May 19 this year. So far, 661 districts have filed their report cards. The Big Five city school districts don’t have to do this because residents don’t vote on their school budget.

The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is urging Republicans to keep state GOP chairman Joseph Mondello, who is under fire for the party’s losses with some calling for his ouster.

Democrats say they like Mondello’s ability to lose state races, including the recent loss of an open congressional seat in the Albany area. Mondello backed Republican Jim Tedisco’s failed candidacy.

“The recent chorus of Republican officials calling for Joe Mondello to step down as State GOP chair is disappointing and a step backwards for New York,” said Shams Tarek, DSCC spokesman.

“With the New York GOP’s recent loss of both the State Senate and the overwhelmingly Republican 20th Congressional District to Democrats, we couldn’t be more pleased with Chair Mondello’s work.”

“For the benefit of a population completely fed up with years of GOP cynicism and dysfunction in both Washington and Albany, Chair Mondello should remain in place and continue to remove Republicans from office in New York.”

Gov. David Paterson today indicated he plans to reach out to legislative leaders on some “new ideas I have” on trying to reach an agreement to bail out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Paterson wouldn’t disclose the details of his latest pitch, but talked optimistically about trying to get a deal early next week.

“Hopefully that will end the process by the beginning of next week,” he said. “It all depends on the ability of the Legislature to come together right now and recognize that there has to be a compromise struck.”

Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, initially hoped to get an agreement this week, but he was unable to secure the 32 votes necessary to get a deal.

“The Senate is always open to discussions,” Smith spokesman Austin Shafran said when asked about the governor’s new proposal, which he said the Senate hasn’t seen.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced today that $263 million was recovered by the state in 2008 through Medicaid fraud cases, the most in recent years.

The office’s Medicaid Control Fraud Unit got about 150 convictions in 2008, the most in five years. The payments to the state surpasses the $113.8 million in 2007 and $59.3 million in 2006, Cuomo said.

Investigations into the home-health industry netted civil settlements with certified home health agencies, totaling $27.7 million.

Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, wondered today whether Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, is critical of Republicans over the MTA gridlock because he misses them not being in the majority.

“When you’re frustrated sometimes you lash out at those who you love the most and who you, deep in your heart, wish were still in the majority, that know how to govern, have governed in the past, have made tough decisions in the past and have worked in the end with the speaker and with the governor,  no matter who it was to get some sort of result.”

“So I think in his comments he is yearning for those days once again. And the way Albany is functioning right now, in Jan. 1, 2011, he’s going to have that pleasure of working with us once again” because he predicted Republicans will win back the Senate majority.

After failing to get the property-tax rebate checks restored in the 2009-10 state budget, Senate Republicans have started an online petition—www.iwantmystarcheck.com—to push Democrats in control of state government to restore the checks, which average about $385 a household.

Said Sen. Joseph Robach, R-Greece, Monroe County: “”At a time when families and seniors are making sacrifices to make ends meet, the last thing we should be doing is cutting a source of relief for these citizens. Taking these checks away is yet another example of how the issues pertinent to Upstate New York are being ignored by the state’s downstate leadership.”

Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, is pushing to restore the rebate checks, but he has been rebuked by Gov. David Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, who said the state doesn’t have the $1.7 billion to restore the checks.

The Assembly continues to chip away this evening on a package of bills to combat gun violence. The legislation would help police investigate illegal firearms, prohibit felons from buying guns, require child-proof devices on guns, and banning advanced firearms and ammunition used to kill police officers, according to the Assembly.

   A number of Republicans, who in the the minority in the Assembly, have spoken out against Democrats’ legislation. 

   A bill that is being debated now would require that semiautomatic pistols manufactured or delivered to any licensed dealer in New York be capable of microstamping ammunition. Microstamping means information that identifies the make, model and serial number of a gun is “stamped” onto a cartridge as the weapon is fired.

   The legislation is sponsored in the Senate by Eric Schneiderman, D-Manhattan, who is holding a news conference tomorrow with Assembly sponsor Michelle Schimel, D-Nassau County.

   For more of the Assembly’s release about its gun legislation, read on: Read more of this entry »

   Sen. Joseph Robach, R-Greece, Monroe County, is lashing out at Senate Democrats, whom he said blocked a bill he is sponsoring to protect domestic-violence victims from housing-related discrimination yesterday and shot down an amendment today to do the same thing. The debate was “abruptly cut off during floor deliberations yesterday,” and the Senate adjourned without finishing its business for the day, according to Robach.

   “Domestic violence is an issue that affects thousands of women across the state, and the state Legislature is doing everything in its power to combat discrimination against victims,” Robach said in a statement. “The Democrats’ refusal to take up this bill shows an arrogance to victims of domestic violence and to all New Yorkers.”

   Robach said he would continue to press the issue.

   Yesterday, Gov. David Paterson introduced legislation that would change a number of laws on domestic violence. Part of the bill would prohibit housing discrimination. Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson, D-Mount Vernon, Westchester County, said she would like to sponsor the governor’s legislation.

   Meanwhile, there is a bill sponsored by a Senate Democrat—Sen. Craig Johnson of Nassau County—that would prohibit housing discrimination against victims of domestic violence. It is currently in the Senate’s Investigations and Government Operations Committee.

   Advocates for redevelopment of contaminated land known as brownfields in New York today called on the state to release $6.7 million that has been set aside for 14 projects. Gov. David Paterson and the leaders of the Assembly and Senate must sign a memorandum of understanding to release the money, according to New Partners for Community Revitalization and municipal and community leaders from around the state.

   More state money is needed for pre-development activities to make brownfield sites more attractive for cleanup, Jody Kass, co-director of New Partners for Community Revitalization, said in a statement. More than 100 communities are participating in the program.

   There are communities throughout New York State that are waiting for these funds to revitalize neighborhoods and stimulate economic development as quickly as possible so that the nearly 5,000 acres affected by 534 known or potential brownfield sites can advance toward cleanup and productive reuse,” said Kass, whose group is holding a two-day brownfields summit in Albany this week.

   The group wants the tax-credit Brownfield Opportunity Program revamped because it believes too much money is going to projects that don’t need subsidies. Lawmakers capped the credits at $35 million per project last year. Sen Antoine Thompson, D-Buffalo, is sponsoring a bill that would make reforms.

   “While last year’s amendments stopped the worst of the hemorrhaging, too much money is still going to projects that don’t need subsidies, while affordable housing projects in Harlem, the South Bronx, Buffalo and Long Island continue to be excluded,” Kass said.

   Timely and flexible progression from the planning and assessment phases and actual cleanup and redevelopment is crucial to the success of the Brownfield Opportunity Program, said Mark Gregor, manager of Rochester’s Division of Environmental Quality.

New York’s budget analysts predicted today that the national recession will end in the third quarter this year, but the state’s finances will still take years to recover, particularly after federal stimulus aid dries up.

Estimates from the state Budget Division show modest budget gaps for New York government next fiscal year, but higher deficits in future years – as much as a $13.7 billion gap in the 2012-13 fiscal year when federal stimulus money runs out.

Gov. David Paterson’s budget analysts sought today to put a positive spin on the recently completed 2009-10 spending plan, which closes a $17.7 billion budget gap – the biggest deficit in state history.

“The economy is still very uncertain. We do hope we’re seeing a turning point, but we don’t know what the future holds for us,” said outgoing Budget Director Laura Anglin. “And we’re still very cautious as we move forward and believe that we are positioned well for the future.”

Paterson was widely criticized for a budget process that was deemed secretive and lacking in fiscal discipline. But Paterson’s aides said the budget cut spending and raised new revenue without eliminating vital services.

The 2009-10 fiscal year, which started April 1, hopes to raise $4 billion through increases in income taxes on the wealthy as part of $5.3 billion in new taxes and fees. It also eliminates a $1.7 billion property-tax rebate program that provided rebate checks to homeowners.

The budget uses $6.2 billion in federal stimulus aid to help balance the budget.