Westchester on the 'Altar of Expediency'
Some of Eliot Spitzer's budget decisions are not going down so well in Westchester.
Here's part of a dramatically worded letter sent today by Democratic Assembly members from Westchester to Paul Francis, the governor's budget director, about the new school funding formula:
"We racked our brains to find a single example of the use of the education formula to harm an individual municipality. We often find ways to single out a community for help. Never before, never before has a community been singled out for harm. It is a terrible precedent that once unleashed, can be turned against a community that has fallen from political favor, or which is sacrificed on the alter of expediency, even if that expediency is a timely budget, as you suggest in your letter."
The entire letter is here.
-- Azi Paybarah
What a petty, poorly written letter. While I agree with their arguments, they are acting like children -- not a surprise when Amy Paulin and Brodsky are involved (and I am sure leading the pack). I am willing to bet that this letter was actually written from one of their two offices, and the rest just signed on.
This entire fight shows what's wrong with Albany. Westchester got an increase in school aid this year. But these guys are bitching because the increase was not as much as Nassau got. No thought is given to the merits of what communities need more aid.
I guess Senator Stewart-Cousins turned out not to be as persuasive with her pal Eliot as, say, a Senator Nick Spano might have been.
Hey, you're right Elections. A freshmen senator in the minority not having as much clout as two majority assembly members in the leadership? Shame on that freshmen for not doing more.
Brodsky and Paulin should have been in Shelly's office screaming bloody murder, but you know what? I bet they didn't even KNOW Westchester got jacked until the press brought it to their attention.