Sound Shore

Good afternoon. Here’s a digest of opinion content published since Friday in The Journal News:

Friday, April 29
School budgets: Editorial
We commented on news that most school districts in the Lower Hudson Valley are acting as if Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed property tax cap is reality — districts largely increased spending and tax levies on averages of two percent.

Good morning. Here’s a glance at the opinion content published in The Journal News today, Wednesday, March 2:

Superintendents’ salary cap: Editorial
We comment on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to cap the salaries of school superintendents at $175,000 for those leading large districts and $125,000 for those leading smaller districts. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie enacted a similar cap in his state. We write:

… It is anyone’s guess, however, what the Cuomo cap would do to the talent pool in the region, which in the past has attracted stellar school leaders from across the nation, and in many cases generated the results to match. The average superintendent’s salary in the Lower Hudson Valley is $241,255 — 37.9 percent higher than Cuomo’s proposed maximum. …

… Local communities would have the ability to vote to override the applicable cap, but that seems a nettlesome process sure to discourage talent leery of putting their careers on the line in a popular vote; we think that taxpayer-elected school boards, which in recent years have responded to the public’s call for fiscal restraint, are well-suited to determine what the market will bear to attract and hire quality superintendents, just as they now determine what to pay other administrators.

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Cuomo’s plan won’t make our students any smarter, or help deliver a better education product. It is likely, however, to antagonize a lot of superintendents, confound the market for top school talent in New York and forestall necessary discussions about overall student performance and school-district consolidation, two imperatives waiting for serious attention. … (more…)

Gov. Andrew Cuomo introduced legislation Monday that would cap annual increases in local property taxes at no more than 2 percent annually, unless local residents vote to override the cap. Budget experts say that a tax cap will surely force big cuts by schools, because so much spending is mandated by — but not necessarily funded by — the state and federal governments. What is your take on the issue?

Here’s a look at opinion content published in The Journal News since Saturdaya:

Saturday, Jan. 22
Medicaid Reform: Commentary
Joseph L. Guagliano, legislative advocate for the Westchester Independent Living Center, offers a Community View on recent calls for Medicaid in New York. Guagliano argues that while Medicaid is “broken” in New York, any reform must keep the elderly and disabled in mind.

Sunday, Jan. 23
New York’s economy: Editorial
We comment on President Obama’s visit to the historic headquarters of General Electric in Schenectady, where GE engineers are hard at work on a range of turbines. During the visit, Obama named GE CEO Jeffery Immelt to lead a Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. We write:

… New York’s unemployment rate dipped slightly last month, falling from 8.3 percent to 8.2 percent. The state lost some 22,000 private-sector jobs. Acknowledging the slow pace of recovery, Obama said the first two years of his presidency were about halting the free-falling economy. “The next two years, our job now, is putting our economy into overdrive,” he said. “Our job is to do everything we can to ensure that businesses can take root and folks can find good jobs and America is leading the global competition and will determine our success in the 21st century.”

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Here’s a look at opinion content published in The Journal News on Saturday, Jan. 8, Sunday, Jan. 9 and today, Monday, Jan. 10:

Saturday, Jan. 8
Health reform repeal: Commentary
Daniel Fass, director of the Institute for Image Guided Radio Therapy in Rye and a representative of Doctors for America, a national grass-roots organization that was an outgrowth of the Obama presidential campaign, offers a Community View in which he encourages Congress not to repeal elements of health-care reform passed in 2010. Fass writes:

… “Repeal and replace” was the rallying cry prior to the midterms. Now six months after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law and 18 months after the health-care debate began, there is no proposed replacement in sight. Repeal by itself will apparently have to do.

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