Last week Governor David Paterson vetoed hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding for many Jewish groups including Agudath Israel of America, Ohel and countless JCC’s in New York. Each of these groups had thousands of “pork barrel” dollars allocated to them that they will no longer receive.
Even worse, the much celebrated TAP program for Yeshivas, that was slated to bring in millions of dollars, was vetoed as well. The news came as a huge shock to yeshiva leaders who only last week were celebrating TAP’s passage , “It’s really sad that the Governor, who introduced this proposal for our yeshivas when he was running for re-election, was the one who ended up killing it after he decided not to run anymore,” said one yeshiva administrator who suspects that politics may have been to blame.
Insiders, who defend the Governor, say he had no choice but to veto the TAP funding because it was attached to a larger spending bill rather then being introduced on its own. Those insiders were holding out hope that the Governor would not “deliver” the vetoes to the legislature but would instead negotiate a new budget package which would include the restoration of TAP and “pork barrel” funding. That hope disappeared last week after Governor Paterson made a show of “delivering” the nearly 7,000 vetoes to the desks of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Leader John Sampson, as required by law.
Despite the apparent grim situation, there may yet be some hope. One legislator close to the Governor insisted that the Governor is still committed to TAP and will agree to the restoration of these funds if the opportunity presents itself this summer. Of course, that would require the consent of all three Albany leaders – the Governor, the Speaker and the Senate Leader. As of now, any deals between those three appear elusive.
(Simcha Katz – YWN)
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13 Responses
I wonder if the governor would have been so swift to veto similar funding to Muslim groups.
Your sister, cut out the paranoia and neurosis. New York State is on the edge of financial bankruptcy along with 25-30 other states and the federal government. Does that mean something to you? Where are they supposed to get more money? Where???? It doesn’t come out of thin air you know.
I wonder if the governor would have been so swift to veto similar funding to Muslim groups.
In this fiscal environment, absolutely.
The Wolf
Wake up, fellas. The party’s over!
Maybe, now that the bribery days are over, we may get to vote for some decent people, instead of the low-life promoters of immorality we are constantly urged to support, in order to “help our mosdos.”
I’m just wondering, if we take all the taxes paid by frum yidden (including businesses) and then subtract out the all the benefits received by choice (i.e. section 8, medicaid, vouchers received because someone has made a choice to either work illegaly off the books or to sit and learn) will we at that point as a community be net providers or users of tax revenue. Maybe we are already using up taxes paid by frum yidden and don’t deserve more.
YW reports this as bad news. Does money come from Government or from Hashem? Are we believers? Do you honestly believe that the yeshivos will have less money then Hashem wants because of these clowns in our government?? C’mon Yidden!
I’m shocked that YOU’RE shocked. What did you expect? The economy is bad & programs like this that target one group are the first to be cut.
Frankly, I wouldn’t want to see my taxes go up to fund this program. If money was cut from, say, the parks dept, that’s OK. One less tree per Yeshiva student is fine by me.
Let us not fool ourselves, we lost a major benefit and neccesary grant. Yes, these programs get funded by the taxpayers and gets paid through tax increases but, why should we be different? Why do all minority groups receive so much more programs etc.? Do you rather want this money, your hard earned money to go to some minority group other than your fellow brothers? Let’s face fact. We live in a liberal state. This state will forever be a tax and spend state (hopefully only until bankruptcy), why not get our portion?
The only place I think we got this wrong is, we shouldn’t get TAP (which benefit a small portion of those who stay here for college-grade Yeshiva and Kollel), we should get free tuition. Do we pay taxes that include school tax? Is it our right under the constitution to receive free education? Fine, you have an issue with religion and Jewish studies, give us vouchers for the general education. We asked for too little and therefore got nothing! We should demand what we deserve and no less. Do they really want all of us to enroll into the Public Schools? They might as well save themselves the money for new buildings and more hiring, let us continue and be no different!
With all due respect to the posters, you are wrong. We were PROMISED this money by some of our most important askanim. I am certain that they were honest with us when they told us only ten days ago that they were successful in securing these TAP funds. That most mean that the Governor lied to them about his support and subsequent veto. For that, he should be held accountable.
AronZev, when you say honest, you mean Hikind?
Rescue37, you think way to good of the community, you forgot to mention: Daycare, Head Start, WIC, Lunch Program. Youth Core where everyone gets a check but doesn’t work. etc…
Das Bal Habayis has it right. Hakol Biday Shomayim. Everything comes from Hashem one way or another. Daven for everything from Hashem.
#4: Great point! Let’s finally wake up and do what was always right!
Sinaipres:
I only listed the few I could think of, I have no clue what else is out there because I decided to become a shlub and actually make sure I could do all the hishtadlus I could to provide for my family and did not learn in kollel