OUR VIEW: New York once again in a hole

Editorials

December 23, 2009

Anonymous The Tonawanda News Wed Dec 23, 2009, 12:10 AM EST

Well, surprise, surprise, New York, along with many other states, used federal stimulus cash to plug school district budget deficits.

Now, with the cash going away in 2011-2012, people like state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli are saying taxes could rise in New York and other states as school districts look to raise the necessary cash to keep the same number employed and make the same programs available.

While many states made the same bad decision to use temporary cash to Band-Aid a long-term problem, we’ll focus on good ol’ New York.

New York already has budget troubles, as we all know; now many districts will be faced with the same tough decisions they always had but decided to put off with the temporary cash.

So, the decision will be to either cut costs that have driven up expenses or raise the funds by raising taxes. Neither are great ideas. But they are the only options.

New York would have never been in this situation if the districts would have plugged the deficit with real cash that comes back each year as opposed to stimulus dollars or made the tough and necessary cuts to the budget.

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