After spending a day lobbying lawmakers in Albany, at least one person came away from several meetings less than enthusiastic about the prospects of this bill passing.
“The governor is making a tremendous effort but he’s very unpopular in the Assembly and that makes it more difficult,” said Leon Goldenberg, a board member of Agudath Israel of America and the chief executive officer of Brooklyn-based Goldmont Realty. “They don’t like this shoved down their throats, so that makes it very difficult with what he can do.”
At least one Assembly member, a staunch proponent of the measure, is skeptical of the governor’s motives.
“I think the governor has an agenda here,” said Phillip Goldfeder (D – Far Rockaway, Queens). “Sadly, there are too many agendas in this debate. It should only be about the parents. It shouldn’t be about charter schools, it shouldn’t be about us sending messages to unions, it should be about providing relief for parents who need it and the governor needs to focus on that.”
Opponents in the Assembly are from across the state and have various reasons for not wanting to support the governor’s proposal.
“I don’t think it’s going to go through this year because no one is willing to remove the rich people from this [bill],” said Tom Abinanti (D – Greenburgh, Westchester County). I think some of this rhetoric is coming from the Wall Street investors who are trying to find a way to direct the money to their charter schools.”
One opponent of the Cusick-Cuomo plan said the Silver plan comes close to getting her support but not quite.
“Right now one of the counter proposals is to have a $500 cap on the tax credit. I think that one has merit but I have not cosponsored that, “said Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy (D – Albany). “Even billionaires would be eligible for the $500 tax credit, so on principle until that changes I’m not going to support a $500 tax credit because generally our tax credits for individuals really do top out for someone making $50,000. You have to income-limit who is eligible for this before they get my support.”
Assemblyman Michael Simanowitz (D – Electchester, Queens) said Fahy’s assertion that it’s a tax giveaway for the rich is the biggest misconception. “The governor has said that is patently, blatantly untrue. The misnomer is that the wealthy wouldn’t be giving more than they would have without this. That’s not true because the scholarship funds would be flush if that were the case. It’s not the case. The tax credit would be prioritized for smaller, lower-income people and only if the smaller contributors didn’t max out on the tax credit then the wealthy millionaires would be able to take advantage of it.
“I think this bill is a no-brainer. There’s been a tremendous effort to mislead people and the teachers in my district don’t know that there is a benefit to them in this bill. This would provide a way for someone to make a contribution to a public school and get a tax credit for it.”
Advocacy groups opposed to education tax credits say the 500,000 children going to private or parochial schools should fend for themselves and the 2.8 million children going to public schools should get a properly funded education. The state spends approximately $20,000 per pupil in the public school systems across the state.
“We’re opposed to it because we feel public dollars should go for public education,” Karen Scharff, executive director of Citizen Action of New York, said on The Jewish View, a television program taped in Albany.
“Parents can make their own choices. People can do what they want in terms of their kids’ education, that’s every parent’s right. In terms of public dollars, our public schools are grossly underfunded. I don’t feel we can spend money on nonpublic schools when we haven’t adequately funded our public schools.”