Budget blues

This week, Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled his budget plan for New York, which is designed to close a $10 billion gap without raising taxes. 

This means cuts, cuts, cuts.

Local schools districts stand to see their budgets sliced by ten to twenty percent under the plan, the Daily Freeman reports. In an editorial yesterday, the New York Times expressed special concern about the education cuts:

We are particularly concerned about his deep cuts in education spending, which will reinforce the deep gap between poor and wealthy school districts.

Meanwhile, local governments are doing their own painful budget math. Tomorrow, Sullivan County will reach for the axe to save $2 million. According to the Daily Freeman and the Times Herald-Record, county officials powwowed on Tuesday to plan layoffs, and the County Legislature will meet tomorrow to put them into effect. The THR also reports that Sullivan County unions have are running ads and planning a rally to oppose the layoffs.