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The
Five Borough Report
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Interesting Reports
“Bare Bones” School Budgets
A new report, “The State of
Our Schools: The Effect of the “Bare-Bones” Budget on New York School Districts”
refutes the governor’s claim that school aid increased during the 2001
legislative session. In fact, according to the report, which was issued
by the Alliance for Quality Education, per-pupil aid decreased for 63%
of the state’s school districts and four out of every five students in
the state attended schools where per-pupil funding was less than the previous
year.
Poverty in 2000:
Hispanics Gain, Blacks Lag
New York’s poverty rate declined
from its mid-1990’s highs, to 19.8 percent in 1999-2000, but blacks living
in the city continue to be two and a half times as likely as whites to
live in poverty. That’s according to a recent data brief by the Community
Service Society of New York. The report notes that Hispanic poverty rates
– once the highest of any minority group in the city - have consistently
declined over the course of the 1990’s, and are now statistically indistinguishable
from poverty rates for black city residents.
Federal Money and the
State Budget Gap
Federal policies will have an
unusually strong impact on New York State’s ability to balance its budget
in 2002, according to a new report from the Fiscal Policy Institute. “New
York and the Federal Fisc in the Aftermath of September 11th: The State
and Local Impacts of Federal Policy Options” analyzes the impact of federal
grants, which consistently make up one third of total state spending. The
report makes an interesting case for direct federal expenditures to make
up for the estimated $9 billion in tax revenue that was lost as a result
of the September 11 attacks. Instead of disaster relief, the report cites
Article IV Section 4 of the Constitution, which guarantees that the United
States shall protect every state in the union against invasion, and concludes,
“It is neither logical nor consistent with the federal government’s responsibilities
under the U. S. Constitution for a single state to have to run its economy
into the ground in order to deal with the fallout from a national defense
disaster.”
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