Lawmakers Return Tuesday With Tuition Aid in Balance

A series of proposals to break the Assembly logjam on a potentially historic tuition aid bill circled the Capitol on Monday, a day before lawmakers are set to return to an extended winter session.

Assembly Democrats are still refusing to consider Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s education bill, which would allow tax deductions after donation to a scholarship fund for low-income parents of non-public school students and grant those parents a $500 a year per child direct tax credit.

But they are willing to provide some form of tax credit.

Cuomo on Monday suggested adding an expansion of mandated services, an annual bulk payment to yeshivos for performing work on behalf of the state. This includes taking attendance, distributing state tests and giving immunization shots.

That plan was quickly knocked down after Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie met with his chamber in the afternoon. Senate Republicans were also against it since it would be a one-time payment, and the state already owes non-public schools hundreds of millions of dollars from previous years.

Legislators return to Albany on Tuesday for more talks in what appears more likely to extend until the weekend. The session had officially ended last week Wednesday.

“There is a chance — they were very close today,” said one tuition bill advocate very close to the negotiations. “When they’re so close on an issue you could always get back to it. But nobody knows at this point how things will work out.”

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan appears willing to trade a two-year extension of both the New York City rent regulations and mayoral control in exchange for the education tax credit.

The Assembly wants the 70-year-old rent regulations law, which expired last week but was extended through Tuesday, to clear the legislature with no added “poison pills.” The poison pill is a Republican insistence on more stringent income verification for the 2 million tenants currently on the rolls.

And Mayor Bill de Blasio has been pushing his allies in the Assembly to renew his control over the New York City school system for at least three years, rather than the one year the Senate currently wants.

Flanagan would agree to both of the Assembly demands if they would agree to pass either education tax bill currently in the pipeline.

In related news, it appears that a vote on any version of the East Ramapo school board bill will not take place this year.

Opponents of the Orthodox-led school board passed a bill in the Assembly to impose a veto-empowered monitor who could nix any of the board’s budget decisions.

A bill proposed in the Senate by Sen. David Carlucci, who had promised to get a similar bill through his chamber, initially called for an observer instead of a monitor, and oversight by the state Comptroller’s office. That was in line with what the board had asked for. But following an outcry by Democratic groups, Carlucci strengthened the bill to include a veto-strong monitor. That has no chance of passing the Senate.

“It’s dead,” a person following the debate told Hamodia. “There are no other words to describe it.”

This means that school board opponents will attempt to push their bill through the legislature again next year. If Carlucci’s original bill would have been passed, it would have settled the issue permanently.

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the June 23rd, 2015 edition of Hamodia.