Archive: News

Senator Michael Nozzolio, along with his Republican colleagues, outlined a plan Tuesday to totally abolish the notorious Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) and its devastating impact on state funding to public schools.

Nozzolio and his colleagues are proposing the return of $1 billion to schools across the state by accelerating the complete and total elimination of the GEA as part of the 2015-16 state budget.

"Over the last several years, I have heard from hundreds of parents, teachers, school board members, school superintendents and administrators throughout my District, all with the same message; help us put an end to the disastrous Gap Elimination Adjustment," said Nozzolio. "While we have been successful in restoring millions of dollars to school districts in the Central Finger Lakes region and across Upstate New York, there is still more work to be done. I am proud to be here today with my colleagues to focus on this vitally important issue."


The GEA was first imposed on New Yorkers in 2010 by former Governor David Paterson and the Democrats who controlled the Senate and Assembly. The entire Senate Republican Conference voted against the GEA because it created severe cuts to the bottom lines for public schools. Since it was first approved, Nozzolio has been leading the charge to abolish the GEA while also delivering major funding increases to help mitigate its impact on education.

Last year alone, the Senate Republicans successfully negotiated an additional $602 million – 86 percent more than the Governor proposed and nearly seven times more than what the Assembly proposed – to help schools overcome the GEA challenge created in 2010.  That funding represented a major step towards lessening the GEA's burden on school budgets, but there is still more than $1 billion in GEA budget cuts anticipated for the upcoming fiscal year.

In addition to trying to abolish the GEA as part of this year's state budget, Nozzolio has introduced legislation, S. 512, which would eliminate GEA with settlement funds.  As a result of a landmark settlement between the French Bank BNP Paribas and regulators at the State and Federal level, New York State will receive over $3 billion from BNP Paribas for their repeated violations of U.S. laws and sanctions. Nozzolio's bill, S. 512, would take $1 billion from the settlement and fully eliminate the GEA.

"When the GEA was adopted in 2010, I spoke out against and voted against this ill-advised budget bill," continued Nozzolio. "From its inception, the GEA has cost schools all across my District and Upstate New York millions of dollars in badly needed state aid. Our schools have suffered enough, and I firmly believe there is no better use of these funds than to help our local school districts and local property taxpayers."

To date, Nozzolio's online petition to eliminate the GEA has received over 2,000 entries.

v11i7