This is big.

Breaking news as of 5:26PM: Cuomo and the Legislature have agreed to a tentative budget.



When I saw this, my stomach went into an immediate knot. I started to read the (very short and not very informative) article. When I came to this sentence, my heart sunk: "But the 2011-2012 budget that Cuomo, Senate leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver stood behind Sunday would be nearly identical to the proposal Cuomo presented Feb. 1".

Pardon my french, but this is the truth. My instant reaction: Oh, shit.  Shit, shit, shit.
Literally, out loud. Very loud.

What I would have preferred to read is something like this: "This tentative budget addresses the public outcry to restore some of the proposed cuts to education, and redistributes the disproportionate percentage of cuts to Upstate school districts".
Yep, that sounds much nicer if I do say so myself. Not being one to rely on a single source (hello, librarian here!) I went farther, straight to the mouthpiece. I found this article on NY.gov. I took a deep breath. Okay, I thought, this seems a little better:
"Recent changes to the budget include an additional $272 million in education which includes restoration of funding for schools for the blind and deaf (4201) and summer school special education. Human services funding of $91 million was added and $86 million for higher education including SUNY hospitals, SUNY and CUNY community colleges".

So, restoring funding is good. But what will the funding be used for in education? Are there restrictions? How much will each district get? Is it weighted differently for Upstate versus Downstate? CAN YOU PLEASE JUST TELL ME IF I HAVE JOB NEXT YEAR FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!?

Whew. That helped a little. 

But then, there's also this from the same article:

"The approximately $132.5 billion budget will reduce spending overall by over 2 percent from the current year, eliminate 3,700 prison beds, establish regional economic development councils, bring performance funding to education, redesign Medicaid, and cap next year's education and Medicaid spending."

So, are we a little safer now? Are we safer just for this year? Or what?

Once again, what appears to be a step toward clarity leaves me more mystified than ever. I think the big answer is still "we don't know for sure"...so the waiting, and hoping, and praying continues, and the big questions are left to be answered another day.

Photo credit here.