In a victory to avert state midyear cuts, Governor Paterson and the state Legislature have deferred acting on the state's $12 billion budget deficit for now. More than 1,000 members from the One New York Fighting for Fairness coalition and hundreds more from the Coalition for a Better Budget rallied on the state Capitol steps yesterday, the day of the emergency session convened by the governor, to call on Albany lawmakers to maintain core services for children, seniors and the infirm.
With no agreement on cost-cutting reached, Paterson announced that he would release his preliminary state budget for the coming fiscal year on Dec. 16. He said that budget plan would also come with significant education and health care funding reductions. To plug the $1.5 billion deficit that has opened up in this year's state budget, Paterson had been seeking $2 billion in midyear spending cuts, including a $585 million cut to school aid statewide —$252 million from city schools. Coalition members, who took UFT-chartered buses to Albany yesterday to make their voices heard, feared wholesale cuts would destroy the state's social safety net of public services. Education advocates pointed out that midyear education cuts would be especially disruptive since school budgets were set last June.
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