LI school districts could see benefits from stimulus plan

ELIZABETH MOORE, Newsday, January 28

(noto bene- King and all other Republican members of Congress voted against the Refinance and Recovery Act)

The New Deal it ain’t.

But the American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to be voted on today by the House of Representatives, could deliver significant benefits to Long Island’s school districts and taxpayers, advocates say.

Just 5 percent of the federal stimulus money, or about $43 million, pays for highway, mass transit and bridge projects like those set in motion across the nation by FDR during the Great Depression with programs such as the Works Progress Administration.

Instead, this recovery plan puts a heavy emphasis on tax cuts and credits to individuals and businesses: Roughly a third of the $825 billion is accounted for this way, in a tacit bid to win Republican support.

Another third of the plan goes to a smorgasbord of federal initiatives, ranging from $20 billion to modernize health record-keeping to $32 billion to update the nation’s electrical grid and $400 million to fund high-risk research on energy sources.

And just over a fourth of the money goes to the states, much of it passed through to local school districts to cover costs of special education, remedial education and constructing “green” buildings.

The school money, totaling $107.8 million on Long Island, would go a long way toward making up for Gov. David A. Paterson’s proposed cuts to state education funding. New York is also slated to receive $4 billion for its “state fiscal stabilization fund” to ease its looming budget gap, along with heating aid, block grant money and $9 billion to $11 billion in additional Medicaid money that Paterson could use to make up for health cuts or balance the budget.

In Washington, some Republicans are complaining that the plan has become a Christmas tree for teachers and other Democratic Party interest groups.

“The oldsters are thinking of WPA guys with picks by the side of the road building highways, but that’s just a side show,” said E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow for tax and budget studies at the conservative Manhattan Institute.

“This is basically about public-sector union members continuing to get their pay raises and not being laid off . . . I think this is a vast, poorly thought-out spending blowout that is going to be largely wasted.”

But Long Island educators say the funding could help avert catastrophe for property taxpayers. “We are trying to get some kind of guarantee that if the stimulus package is put in place that (funding) actually makes it to suburban schools,” said Gary Bixhorn, chief operating officer of Eastern Suffolk BOCES.

Some Long Island officials are working to seize the opportunity the stimulus plan presents for improving local infrastructure.

Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) has proposed an amendment to the act that would increase funding to build sewers and upgrade treatment plants. And John Cameron, chair of the Long Island Regional Planning Council, said his organization is working with the congressional delegation to pick out the local proposals for “stimulus” funding that have real merit.

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