NYSCUT has announced that with 566 school districts reporting, voters adoped 558 school budgets and defeated just eight, for a pass rate of 99 percent. In 2014 98.2 percent of the budgets passed, and in 2013 the passage rate was 95.3 percent.
NYSUT Executive Vice President Andrew Pallotta said a $1.3billion state aid increase is enabling school districts in some parts of the state to begin restoring programs and staff, but the increase still was not enough to overcome the impact of many years of state aid cuts imposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Meanwhile, he said, the undemocratic tax cap is denying
This week, the Senate passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula that determines Medicare physician payments and extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for two years. Congress has acted 17 times to temporarily prevent drastic payment cuts resulting from use of the SGR formula. The “doc fix” bill replaces the SGR with alternative, value-driven payment strategies. This is good news for people with Medicare, who need to know their doctors will be there when they need them.