Author: Dominic Carter

Governor Cuomo is riding high.

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Wow!

Normally this time of year with the budget and all, NY Governors are running for cover, but not Cuomo.

The latest Siena College Poll out Monday morning shows Cuomo with the highest approval rating ever for a governor during six years of the college’s statewide polling. A sky high 77 percent of New York voters, despite the problems of the economy and the possibility that 10,000 state workers may be laid off, feels Cuomo is headed in the right direction. That’s not all.

UFT ad blasts Bloomberg

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“Mayor Bloomberg sees things differently than the rest of us. Our schools are short of money. Yet he refuses to ask millionaires to pay their fair share. He says class size doesn’t matter.”

That’s how the teachers’ union starts it's new TV ad attacking Mayor Bloomberg for pushing to repeal the “Last In/First Out” state law that requires teachers be laid off based on seniority rather than merit during a budget crisis.

You have to give Cuomo credit on the budget. To critics, where would you cut.

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Yes it’s a budget that would cut year to year spending for the first time in a long time.

Yes it’s a budget that would cut projected spending on major issues like education and health care.

But isn’t it a bit refreshing to have a governor that is at least trying to finally tackle the problem rather than simply punt it to the future with lip service, or turn to the tax and spend policies of the past.

Doomsday or is it Real. Cutting 21,000 Teachers

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Formats for political debates must change.

The state has a 10 billion dollar budget gap, and as a result, Mayor Bloomberg just on Friday laid out a doomsday scenario where he says the city may be forced to slash 21,000 teaching positions.

It needs to be repeated, 21,000 teaching positions. We are talking about people that educate our children. People that are the only role models for many kids.

What did we get from that one general election debate, answers on how to deal with this fiscal mess. No, comic relief of “the rent is too damn high.”