Fair Share Tax to bring money to Syracuse schools?

March 26, 2009

Two education advocacy groups in Syracuse met with the City School Board to figure out a method for creating revenue for city schools. With Governor David Paterson’s proposed $2.5 billion cut in education funding for the upcoming fiscal year, many schools in Syracuse will find themselves struggling for funds.

The Alliance for Quality Education and Citizen Action of New York sent representatives to ask Syracuse City Schools Superintendent Daniel Lowengard to plead with lawmakers in Albany for a new way to generate revenue. Their message: enact a Fair Share Tax Reform that would combine with federal stimulus money to create revenue.

Lowengard is well aware of the lack of funds for education in Syracuse. “23 million dollars was due to come to Syracuse this year, and instead what was first offered up was an $8 million cut, creating a big hole,” he said.

The Fair Share plan would generate $6 billion by raising income taxes for New Yorkers making over $250,000 a year. Everyone in attendance seemed to agree that this plan is the best way to get the schools the money they need, because education comes first.

“If we invest in our education and our kids, we save money in the long run. The more money we divert to other things, the more our kids suffer,” said Kim Rohadfox-Caesar, a member of the Syracuse City School Board.

Whether the reform will be approved or not remains to be seen, but Rohadfox-Caesar says that the response from Albany so far as been that Syracuse needs to get in line like everyone else.