Gambling with Destiny: Rethinking NYS Funding Priorities
by State Senator Liz Krueger
Over the past
several months, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity
(CFE) and the Alliance for Quality Education
(AQE) have been calling on the state legislature
and Governor Pataki to provide a $2 billion
down payment in response to the state court
of appeals mandate that education funding inequities
be remedied. In response, the Governor has
dedicated $325 million of revenues generated
from “video lottery terminals” to increase education funds. In so doing, the Governor continues to disregard the rights of our children. Banking on state sanctioned lottery terminals to fund public education is yet another example of misguided priorities and bad public policy. We have learned from past experience that revenues generated from the lottery have simply replaced existing state education dollars, despite promises to increase funding. There is no reason to believe Albany will discontinue this game of smoke and mirrors with the video lottery terminals, and there is also no guarantee that the VLT’s, many of which have yet to even be installed, will generate the promised revenue. Further, the lottery preys on lower income earners, misleading the public with a promised “dollar for a dream.” The lottery and VLT’s will not help many New Yorkers escape poverty, but a sound basic education and access to higher education—can.
Yet the Governor again proposes cutting Tuition
Assistance Program (TAP) funding in this years
budget, decreasing access to higher education
for low-income families. Education is a proven
route out of poverty, and far more realistic
than winning lottery games. Yet ultimately
it is lower-income people who will play the
lotto in hopes of escaping poverty, paying
for the states failure to adequately fund public
education through sound fiscal policies.
Various advocates
and lawmakers continue to propose alternative
revenue streams and progressive tax policy
reforms, such as closing corporate tax loopholes
and a targeted personal income tax surcharge,
rather than rely on regressive taxes and gimmicks
that cannot guarantee needed revenue. This
is an incredibly complicated problem demanding
a real and lasting solution, yet our governor
proposes to respond to the lawsuit with hypothetical
revenues that may be generated from video lottery
terminals that prey on poor people. I have
also been very disturbed by proposed bonds
and tax breaks totaling nearly $2 billion for “Destiny USA”,
a mega-mall project planned for Syracuse. This
huge giveaway to private developers by the
state is cause for serious concern on many
levels, but consider the mind-boggling irony
of the CFE decision and advocates demand for
$2billion, as the state stands poised to give
over $2 billion for a project that has no proven
nor detailed plan to create jobs nor strengthen
the economy.
That the state
has refused our city schoolchildren their fair
share of education funds until being forced
to act by the courts speaks volumes to the
overall lack of government commitment to public
education. The proposed solution to rely on
gambling and gimmicks and the failure to directly
appropriate and guarantee education funds cannot
be accepted as a solution. I would argue giving
$2 billion as a down payment for CFE and looking
to progressive tax reforms to generate revenue
is infinitely wiser than giving $2 billion
to private developers for a conceptual mega-mall
and, consequently, gambling with our children’s
future.#