ALBANY (AP) -- New York's legislative leaders said after closed-door negotiations Friday with Gov. Andrew Cuomo that they will restore some of the school funding Cuomo proposed cutting from the state budget.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said $250 million will be restored in the budget expected to be settled within days. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said in a separate interview that Skelos' figure wasn't accurate. He called the restoration "significant," but wouldn't say whether it would be higher or lower than Skelos' figure.
The Democratic governor proposed a $1.5 billion reduction in school aid, equal to about a 7.3 percent cut. Even if the Legislature's position holds, the result would be a historic cut for public schools.
"That will mean a pink slip epidemic in our schools," said Billy Easton of the Alliance for Quality Education, which led opposition to Cuomo's proposal. School advocates, including teachers unions and administrators, pushed for a temporary income tax surcharge on millionaires to restore $700 million.
Skelos and Cuomo strongly opposed that proposal as sending the wrong message to employers and a threat to drive more wealthy New Yorkers out of the state.
Cuomo said the cut could be weathered without losing jobs if districts use reserves and attack waste and fraud.
Easton said news of the restoration is "a sad outcome for students and a happy day for the millionaire political donors who are partnering with Governor Cuomo and Senator Skelos."
Skelos, a Nassau County Republican, said the school aid element of the $132 billion budget is "pretty much closed down." He has predicted a conceptual agreement on the budget would happen Friday. School aid is traditionally the most contentious issue in budget talks.
Cuomo didn't comment during the negotiations Friday. The budget is due April 1, but the printing of massive budget bills would require agreement over the weekend or early next week for a budget to be adopted on time.
"I think we're very close," Silver said of the overall budget negotiations. "I don't believe we have a conceptual agreement, yet."
Cuomo has proposed a $132.5 billion budget that would cut $3.7 billion in spending to help deal with a $10 billion deficit.
Albany hasn't seen an early budget - one adopted before March 31 - since 1983. That was Gov. Mario Cuomo's first budget. Twenty-seven of the last 36 have been late.
Original story from Friday morning:
Legislative leaders said Thursday that a rare on-time New York state budget is just days away and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said it will restore "some" public school aid.
But it's unclear exactly how much.
Less than an hour after the latest demonstration calling for a so-called "millionaire's tax" to restore $700 million in school aid, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos declared the Assembly proposal is: "Off the table, it's gone, it's dead, it's not going to happen ... the governor has said it's dead."
Silver wouldn't say how much of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's $1.5 billion cut in school funding he believed would be restored. Assembly Education Committee Chairwoman Catherine Nolan of Queens said she's "very hopeful" of some reduction in Cuomo's proposal to cut schools 7.3 percent.
On Thursday, school aid advocates delivered 39,500 postcards to Cuomo's office opposing the funding cuts. They were signed by teachers, parents and administrators. Another 30,000 were delivered to state senators' office, arguing against cuts they believe would cost 14,000 jobs, according to the New York State United Teachers union, the Alliance for Quality Education, school superintendents and allied groups.
"Are you with the parents or are you with the millionaires?" said Harold Miller of New York Citizens for Change.
Skelos predicted a "conceptual agreement" on the budget on Friday, although Albany has a history of such "frameworks" falling apart. As in most years, the deal hinges on money for schools and how much suburban and rural districts - mostly represented by Republicans - get compared to New York City and urban districts, which are mostly represented by Democrats.
Albany hasn't seen an early budget since 1983, during then-Gov. Mario Cuomo's first term. Twenty-seven of the last 36 have been late.
Thursday's three-way, closed door meeting came a day after Cuomo released an Internet video telling New Yorkers that the Legislature was threatening to derail an on-time budget. Lawmakers, however, seemed surprised because by all public accounts the process has been proceeding more smoothly than usual.
"I campaigned on the notion of delivering a budget that works for the people of New York," Cuomo said in a Facebook posting this week. "It's time to deliver on that promise and pass a budget that reins in spending, cuts waste and creates efficiencies."
He also opposes extending an income tax surcharge on New Yorkers making over $200,000 a year that is due to expire Dec. 31 and the Assembly proposal to temporarily extend the tax on those making more than $1 million. Cuomo didn't comment after the closed-door talks Thursday.
Skelos wouldn't comment on any school aid restoration in the budget due April 1.
The specter of having to vote for some of the deepest budget cuts in decades, opposed by powerful interests protecting school aid, while rejecting the Assembly proposal to temporarily tax millionaires appeared to cause some lawmakers concern.
Republican Sen. John Bonacic told The New York Times he would introduce a bill similar to the Assembly's that would temporarily increase the tax on incomes over $1 million a year.
Bonacic, representing a district that includes Delaware, Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
In the Assembly, Democrat Robin Schimminger of Erie County in western New York lost his subcommittee chairmanship in budget negotiations after he voted against the Democratic majority's spending proposal, which included the tax.
"I recognize that actions have consequences," the longtime assemblyman said in an interview Thursday.
"He voted 'No,' so he didn't share the view" of the Assembly's Democratic majority, said Silver, of New York City, on Thursday. "The whole point is to get people there who espouse the house position."
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