Say what you want about Same Hoyt, he's suggested that NYS teachers give up their "step" raises for next year to help deal with the budget crisis. He says it will save ONE BILLION dollars. In raises alone. I think the response from their union leader says volumes:


You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, as they used to say in the days before the invention of Raid’s Flying Insect Killer. A letter from Assembly members Sam Hoyt, Ginny Fields and Michael Benjamin to NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi takes the honey approach to deficit closure by heaping praise on New York’s teachers while at the same time noting that they are among the highest-paid in the nation, and asking them to consider foregoing this year’s planned raises in order to lighten the effect of potential budget cuts on their schools and students.

The letter, dated today, asks the union and its local affiliates to “assist school districts in meeting their funding challenges by considering the voluntary postponement of scheduled base and step pay increases for the 2010-11 budget year. We estimate that this action would save our school districts a total of just over $1 billion, thereby nearly canceling the worst impact of the proposed budget cuts.”

” … We hope that you will consider this suggestion in the spirit in which it is offered, a spirit of cooperation and sincere admiration. We realize that this would be an unprecedented step for your organization to take, but these are unprecedented challenges we face. We are confident that such a sacrifice by NYSUT would win the lasting respect and appreciation of all New Yorkers and teach a lesson that will not be lost on the next generation.”

In a phone interview, Iannuzzi began by noting that NYSUT has no blanket power over the contracts negotiated by its member units. His main point, though, was that teachers around the state have already been taking hits of a non-financial kind.

“The letter misstates or at the very least understates that sacrifices that teachers have made,” Iannuzzi said. “More than 5,000 positions have been eliminated last year; we anticipate thousands more will be eliminated this year.”

Iannuzzi said the state still hasn’t been looking seriously at “revenue-side sacrifices.” He singled out the Senate’s “unconscionable” unwillingness to go along with Gov. David Paterson’s plan to limit the personal income tax STAR benefit to the first $250,000 of income.

“What we have is a lot of conversation about working people making sacrifices,” he said, “and not a lot of talk about asking people who are doing well in this economy to make their sacrifices.”

The letter cites a report from the state School Board Association that finds that last year’s average base and step increase for teachers outside of New York City was 5.6 percent. Iannuzzi takes issue with that number.