Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren was in Albany on Tuesday, along with other mayors from around New York, looking for more help from the state.
Specifically, Warren asked the lawmakers at a joint legislative budget hearing to provide an additional $31 million in municipal education funding, in order to offset the city's obligation to the Rochester School District.
“The bottom line, the state request that Rochester give 69 percent of its tax levy to its school district, that means that 31 percent is left for critical city services, and to be frank, it’s just not fair.”
Another thing that Warren says is not fair is that unlike Buffalo and Syracuse, Rochester gets less in so-called "AIM" funding from the state than the amount it is required to give the school district.
She asked the legislators to, “right this wrong that only affects the taxpayers in the city of Rochester and fully fund our request for municipal education funding. By considering this one request you have the opportunity to change the lives of 210,000 residents in the city of Rochester.”
Warren says if Rochester could get the additional aid that it needs to fund city schools, the city could spend more of its money on services like infrastructure, libraries and jobs programs.
