EDITORIAL: Cap unions' budget influence

Editorials

August 17, 2008

Staff Reports The Niagara Gazette Sun Aug 17, 2008, 12:25 AM EDT

NIAGARA FALLS — It didn’t take long for special-interest politics to stick its ugly nose into the attempt to close a widening state budget deficit.

New York’s powerful teachers union last week withheld its endorsement and support from 38 senators who voted for Gov. David Paterson’s proposal to cap the growth of school taxes, which are among the nation’s highest.

New York State United Teachers union put pressure on lawmakers by saying the endorsement could still be made if the lawmakers flip-flop. NYSUT will review its decisions after Tuesday’s special session of the Legislature called by Paterson, if the tax cap proposal comes up, or any time before Election Day.

“This is perhaps the most critical issue facing public education in a generation,” said NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan B. Lubin in announcing what he called the suspension of endorsements. “NYSUT members are property taxpayers, too, and they, too, want relief, but not at the expense of their schools and school children.”

There they go again. The teachers union is using children as human shields in order to promote their selfish, wasteful ways.

Now we’re not thrilled with the whole property tax cap idea. But our concern with it is about 180 degrees opposite of the greedy unionists. We worry that state legislators will pass a cap and say that they’ve done what they needed to do to control spending, then continue to raise taxes every year.

We would like to see Albany meet the problem head on: Cut state spending, cut state taxes and force school districts and local governments to do the same.

But the union folks want none of that. They want no restraints, no controls and certainly no end to the goodies they get from Albany and local school districts, all in the name of “school children.”

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, a strong advocate of the tax cap, put it this way: “New York is No. 1 in taxes and in some cases No. 34 in test scores. So something is backwards here.”

Again, the cap may or may not be an answer. The ultimate answer is fiscal responsibility. But since this is New York, that’s probably not going to happen anytime soon. So if the crutch of a tax cap is needed to instill discipline, so be it.

One thing we cannot do is to let the teachers and other public employee unions dictate the terms of our fiscal future. We’ve allowed that to happen in the past. Look where that’s brought us.

In fact, let’s be financially responsible in New York, if not for us, for the children. Otherwise, there won’t be any children in New York. They’ll all be in North Carolina with their parents who moved there to escape the former Empire State’s tax burden.

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