Bloomberg Says Layoffs Needed, Cuomo Says DOE Has $300 Million Surplus

The battle between the Mayor of Money and the Koch Brothers' second favorite governor continues:

Tensions flared between Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo on Monday over the state's $132.5 billion budget deal.

Bloomberg said the spending agreement announced Sunday by Cuomo and state lawmakers was an "outrage" - and insisted it fell far short of providing the $600 million the city needs to avert massive layoffs.

"Yes, some of the cuts were restored, we're told, but the final budget still cuts New York City education aid more than ever before," Bloomberg told reporters Monday.

Bloomberg has warned that without help from the state, he will be forced to lay off nearly 4,700 teachers.

He's also pleaded with Cuomo and lawmakers to change the last in, first out law governing teacher layoffs.

"Unless the state acts on the mandated relief and the pension reform quickly, the cuts that we're in the process of right now are going to be greater than people expected perhaps and more cuts to services," Bloomberg said.

Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto shot back, saying the city Education Department had a $300 million surplus and could weather the state budget cuts.

...

City officials deny having a surplus and claim Cuomo's team is using an outdated budget document.

"Albany wants to have it both ways: take credit for a budget with real cuts and take no responsibility for the consequences of those cuts," said Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna.

The budget deal provides an additional $272 million in education funding, only $160 million of which is for basic school aid, said state Budget Division spokesman Jeffrey Gordon.

The remainder will fund summer school special education and other items to be determined by the governor and the Legislature, Gordon said.

Lawmakers said it may not be known till Wednesday how much the city will receive in additional aid.

The budget deal provides $22.4 million to keep city senior centers open and restores $15 million for city homeless programs.

Of course there's a surplus at the DOE - but Bloomberg is pushing layoffs simply for political reasons.

Hell, there's an even bigger surplus if somebody made the Mayor of Money stop handing out all those yummy yummy no-bid contracts to outside consultants, especially the technology and testing contracts.

In this showdown, the Mayor of Money has a 38% approval rating, the Koch Brothers' second favorite governor has an approval rating of 69%.

Since Cuomo is saying that Bloomberg is "manufacturing" this financial crisis in schools, the Mayor of Money going to have a very hard time surviving the layoffs politically.

It seems that between these two men, the public is more likely to believe the Koch Brothers' second favorite governor over the Mayor of Money.

But Bloomberg is a stubborn man and he doesn't like to lose on anything.

So he may go to the brink on this anyway.

We'll see.

The UFT ought to be up with ads touting Cuomo's words - the DOE has a $300 million surplus.

Run that over and over and over...