Hochul still pressing for school aid changes

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Mar 07, 2024 View in browser   By Katelyn Cordero With help from Irie Sentner Gov. Kathy Hochul is doubling down on her school aid plan and today posted a video on her website justifying the changes. | Gov. Kathy Hochul Lawmakers and education advocates want Gov. Kathy Hochul to pare back school aid cuts to 337 districts. Hochul is doubling down on her plan. The latest efforts include a video on the governor’s website justifying the changes. In addition, her office noted that her proposals include a $100 million supplementary fund for school districts with needs that may not be met by her proposed changes to the foundation aid formula. The greatest point of contention has been two proposals that would eliminate “hold harmless,” a policy that protects districts from foundation aid cuts, and a change to the inflationary factor in the formula. “We look forward to continuing conversations with the Legislature and the public about why the school aid formula must be modernized so it serves the needs of the next generation of students,” Hochul spokesperson Katy Zielinski said in a statement to POLITICO. The video points to increased property taxes and a record rise in state aid in recent years, combined with a decrease in student enrollment in many districts. The video narrator notes that money should be funneled from districts with reserves to those with growing enrollments and less money. “This year our financial situation has changed, and we are facing a $4 billion deficit. We can’t kick this can down the road, and we don’t want to raise taxes,” the video narrator said. Still, there’s a sign that Hochul is amenable to a compromise. Hochul’s budget director Blake Washington earlier this week indicated that revisiting the budget proposal on school aid is “fair game” as the sides work toward an on-time deal for the fiscal year that starts April 1. Education groups aren’t taking any chances on what the final product might look like. Leaders from the powerful American Federation Teacher participated in a roundtable discussion today with school districts slated to receive cuts, raising another round of concerns over the proposals. Union president Randi Weingarten said she is surprised to see the governor continue to push for the school aid proposals. “I'm very puzzled and really disappointed that they haven't looked at the data and adjusted their proposals,” Weingarten said in an interview with Playbook. “There’s something wrong with the way in which this has progressed, and we have to fight it out. We are going to fight it out.” — Katelyn Cordero From the Capitol MTA Chair and CEO Janno Leiber (left) and Gov. Kathy Hochul, who today announced that the MTA has pledged that at least $1 billion in contracts will be awarded to minority- and women-owned businesses and disadvantaged businesses. | Marc A. Hermann/MTA MTA CONTRACTS: Hochul announced today the MTA has signed a pledge to support the “Equity in Infrastructure Project” to support underutilized businesses. “My commitment to equity, to expanding transit opportunities, and to minority- and women-owned businesses is a commitment to building our state in a way that lifts up all New Yorkers,” Hochul said in a statement. The pledge will ensure that a combined price tag of at least $1 billion in contracts will be awarded to minority- and women-owned businesses and disadvantaged businesses. They will receive $813.5 million and $392.3 million, respectively. The pledge will also increase discretionary contracts for minority- and women-owned businesses by 20 percent annually. “Once we eliminate the final hurdles to congestion pricing, we intend to quickly rev the engine back up on vital State of Good Repair projects and we will look to MWBE firms to help complete that work,” Janno Leiber, the CEO and MTA chair, said in a statement. — Shawn Ness FROM CITY HALL The $25 million facility at Brooklyn Navy Yard is focused on helping BIPOC and woman-owned businesses produce health and beauty products, Mayor Eric Adams said. | Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office BEAUTY FACTORY: Mayor Eric Adams said today a $25 million facility at Brooklyn Navy Yard will be focused on helping black, indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) and woman-owned businesses produce health and beauty products. It’s projected to create about 900 direct and indirect jobs in the next five years. AYO Labs, developed by R.F. Wilkins Consultants, will include a 26,000 square foot manufacturing operation to be used by entrepreneurs hoping to develop and scale their products, which is expected to be completed in 2025. An additional 14,000 square feet of manufacturing space is expected to go online by 2026. “We’ve known from the days of being a kid flipping through my sister’s Essence Magazine how much women of color in general but specifically Black women have spent so much of their resources and economics into beauty supplies,” Adams said. “But in the beauty industry, there’s an ugly reality and truth [that] we buy the products but there’s no support for us to produce the products and to share the wealth of this multibillion dollar industry. That ends today.” The project was funded by $1 million from Adams when he was Brooklyn Borough president; $2 million from the City Council in 2019 and an additional $3.5 million from the council’s women’s caucus in 2022, according to a City Hall spokesperson. R.F. Wilkins raised the rest of the funding independently. — Irie Sentner On the Beats The number of private sector of jobs in the increased, and the state as a whole is outpacing the nation in job growth. | Department of Labor JOBS UP: The Department of Labor said the private sector grew by 47,000 new jobs in January — bringing the state above pre-pandemic levels for the first time. Hochul said the new numbers get the state’s private-sector job count to more than 8.3 million — the highest level on record. “New York is back, and with our historic recovery and record-breaking 8.3 million jobs, my administration is moving full-steam ahead to keep creating good-paying jobs that help New Yorkers build a future here in our state,” Hochul said in a statement. Overall, the state has recovered 1.9 million jobs since the height of the pandemic in April 2020 when the state reached a 30-year low of just 6.4 million jobs. The increase comes after a slight decrease in jobs in December. The new figures, which were seasonally adjusted, also found that the state’s unemployment rate decreased from 4.3 in 2022 to 4.2 in 2023. New York outpaced the rest of the nation in job growth by 0.4 percent. — Shawn Ness TWU VS BARNARD: The Transport Workers Union of America today sent a letter to Barnard President Laura Rosenbury slamming an administrator at the college for allegedly suggesting two union security officers should instruct students to remove their hijabs when going through security checks on campus. In November, an assistant director of community service allegedly told two officers “If a student could remove her hijab to take her ID photo, why couldn't she do the same when showing her ID at the main gates?” according to the letter. The administrator then allegedly told one of the officers he could ask students to remove their hijabs if he wanted. “Her comments demonstrate either a startling insensitivity to Islamic religious beliefs and traditions, complete ignorance, or an indefensible bias against followers of the Islamic faith,” the letter said. The officers notified the college’s management, which then referred the case to the school’s Title IX office, which has not interviewed either officer, according to the letter. “Barnard’s lack of action is not acceptable, especially since it is an institution portraying itself as a citadel of enlightened thinking,” the letter said. Barnard College said in a statement to Playbook it could not comment on personnel matters, but “can confirm that action was taken upon receiving the inquiry. We are nearing the conclusion of our investigation and have interviewed a number of people with information as part of this process.” “We are unwaveringly committed to providing an environment free of unlawful discrimination, harassment, or retaliation and are staunchly against all forms of bigotry, including antisemitism and Islamophobia,” the college added. Barnard has come under fire in recent months for what some students and faculty characterize as its chilling of academic freedom and free speech in relation to the Israel-Hamas war. The college in December removed a statement expressing Palestinian solidarity from a department website. Last week, Barnard began removing all decorations from students’ dorm room doors, many of which are political in nature. Meanwhile, Columbia University, of which Barnard is an affiliate, is the subject of a congressional investigation into allegations of antisemitism on campus and one of several universities being investigated by the Department of Education for antisemitic and anti-Muslim harassment. — Irie Sentner WATCHDOGS WANT MORE FOIL: Reinvent Albany, a watchdog group that advocates for a more transparent government, now wants the state to treat Freedom of Information Law requests as a core government service. The group published a new report that examined the FOIL requests to six different government agencies: the MTA, Empire State Development, New York Power Authority, the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying of Government, Board of Election, and the Division of the Budget. Their findings led them to believe that GovQA, the digital public records software that is used for FOIL requests, is not being used properly. Reinvent Albany wants the Hochul administration to adopt a new policy of “release to one, release to all,” meaning the completion of all FOIL requests should be made public. They also found a difference in response time to requests, as well as the number of submitted requests — finding that the MTA received large quantities of requests that have created a backlog dating back one year. Across all six of the agencies, on average, they took longer than the 20 required days to respond to a request. — Shawn Ness AROUND NEW YORK — Transmission permitting changes in New York are getting more support. (POLITICO Pro) —  Many New Yorkers are flocking to Texas, but some Texans are relocating to New York. (Times Union) — As New York’s older adult population soars, home care workers are pushing to ban 24-hour shifts. (The New York Times) — New York’s public financing system is proving popular so far. (POLITICO Pro)   Follow us on Twitter Joseph Spector @JoeSpectorNY   Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters Follow us

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