The new mayor of the Big Apple, Bill de Blasio, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo are duking it out. The mayor wants to slap his city’s millionaires with extra taxes — to fund the pre-K program the teachers’ unions want. (Note: pre-K is not for the kiddies. It is for more jobs for dues-paying union members.)

The governor says no way. He is not so crazy about whacking NYC millionaires with even more taxes — because these ever-higher taxes drive the millionaires away. “Away” is a place from which this state collects zero taxes from them. The state has already lost millions per day in taxes the rich used to pay. Before they moved to “Away.”

Cuomo also says that when we do tax NYC millionaires more, we should spread the money around the state. He says it’s a bad idea for the Big Apple to keep the new revenue for itself. In this case, for its own teachers. (Yeah, yeah. It is all supposed to be about the kids.)

In the middle of these fisticuffs, the governor reminded the mayor that he, the gov., represents more than the kids in the Big Apple. He also represents kids in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, etc. Dear reader, if you don’t live in one of those cities, consider yourself part of the etceteras.

Bottom line is as follows. The teachers’ unions have bought the mayor’s support for pre-K. They have bought the governor’s support for pre-K. The mayor says let’s pay for these new union jobs by whacking the rich more. The gov. says let’s go slow on whacking the rich. Especially in this election year. Besides, if you loot the NYC rich, Upstaters deserve some of that loot.

This makes the governor look good to Upstaters. He is a modern-day Robbing Hood. After all, he is trying to spread loot among us.

He also makes us feel good. By showing us he even knows we exist. You need proof? He actually spoke the words “Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse.” Rumor is that he is in training to speak the words “Utica, Jamestown, and Geneva” later this year. Next year: Norwich, Watertown, and that really difficult one — Oswego.

This is a big deal. My guess is that if you asked the new mayor to name 10 upstate cities, he could not. Try asking NYC guys in the state Assembly to name them. They would begin with Passaic and Hoboken.

I give the governor full credit — for standing up for Upstaters in this skirmish. However, he would be the first to admit he can afford to do this. Just look at this through political lenses.

The governor could fill the streets of the Big Apple with cow manure and not lose a vote. The upper East Side has some Republicans, but it is like a gated community. The rest of the city will vote Democrat no matter what the governor says or does.

So what does he have to lose by standing up for Upstate? What does he have to lose by embarrassing the Big Apple’s new mayor? Absolutely nothing.’ That’s what he stands to lose.

So, Cuomo is in a sweet situation. He knows nobody will beat him in this year’s New York gubernatorial election. The Republicans might as well run my dog in the election. Meanwhile, by making nice to Upstaters, he can pick up extra votes. Unless my dog is more popular than I think, the gov. may win by a landslide. Which will give him more clout in the party.

Maybe the extra clout will help him win the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency. You never know. Hillary could have a heart attack en route to the coronation. You know, when she is shocked by totally unexpected bombshell news — such as Bill has stopped chasing skirts. That might do it. And that would leave an opening for our governor. 

I can see it now. Cuomo addressing the Democratic National Convention. “And when the loot came in — in my beloved state — what did I do? Unlike some leaders, I spread that loot to the kids in Buffalo. And the kids in Syracuse. And the kids in … Os … Otswa … Ostral … to the kids in Etcetera!”

Here’s to you, governor. A toast from Etceteraville. With wine from the Finger Lakes.

From Tom…as in Morgan.

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home near Oneonta, in addition to his radio shows and new TV show. For more information about him, visit his website at www.tomasinmorgan.com

The New York State Board of Regents approved changes to Common Core recently, including delaying full implementation of the graduation requirements by five years — from 2017 to 2022. This means that instead of ninth graders being the first class to graduate with a Regents degree aligned with Common Core standards, it will now be this year’s fourth graders — the class of 2022 — that will be the first class with a Common Core-aligned Regents diploma.

The Board of Regents’ decision to delay full implementation of the graduation requirements was welcome news, but still doesn’t go far enough. Few take issue with the idea that we should raise learning standards in our schools, and the idea of the Common Core is to do just that. Indeed, 46 states including New York, adopted these standards. The problem in New York and elsewhere has been with the implementation of this curriculum.

Last year, my colleagues and I held 11 statewide public forums on Common Core. At these hearings, parents, teachers, students, and administrators expressed their concerns with, among other things: (a) the “one size fits all” aspect of the common core; (b) the lack of resources to help implement these new standards; (c) faulty and incomplete teaching modules; (d) over-reliance on high-stakes testing; and (e) the general unfairness of evaluating teachers on students’ success with a curriculum that has been rolled out quickly and contains numerous flaws.

The Board of Regents stopped short of removing the evaluation’s close tie-in with student performance. It stated it wanted the public to have more input and will comment on this aspect in April. Governor Cuomo criticized the Board of Regents for altering the course of Common Core and its tie-in with teacher evaluations. He believes they should be directly related. More will be decided on this in April.

I believe that there are positives to the Common Core standards, including teaching our children to think critically. However, we need to delay, for a time, evaluating teachers and students on their performance under the Common Core. Along with a number of my colleagues in the Assembly, I am sponsoring legislation that would create an independent commission to thoroughly review Common Core. This commission will examine how the Common Core is operating, how it is being funded, and provide recommendations on how to improve Common Core. Once these improvements are made, we can then start evaluating students and teachers on their performances under Common Core.

In the meantime, here are other changes to our education system that I support:

§   Eliminate the gap-elimination adjustment. Districts are being handed a big mandate with Common Core, on top of countless others they already have. We should fully restore funding for education that was removed in 2010 and that disproportionately hurt low-wealth school districts.

§   Restrict use of student data. While I’m pleased the Board of Regents has put this on hold for a year, I question whether the extent of information being shared with third-party vendors like InBloom is necessary at all.

§   Reinstate the full value of individual educational plan (IEP) by allowing disabled students to be assessed based on their instructional level and not their age. In order to reinstate this policy, a waiver from the federal Department of Education is needed. I’m pleased that the Board of Regents requested this waiver recently.

§   Provide enough funding and time for professional development. Teachers are expected to know and teach all new material with Common Core and it should come with more training.

§   Create alternate pathways to a high-school diploma including a career and technical education pathway by increasing state funds for BOCES.

A full report was published following the public forums our conference held in the fall. You can see this report at http://www.scribd.com/doc/201479293/At-the-Educational-Crossroads.

William (Will) A. Barclay is the Republican representative of the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. Contact him at barclaw@assembly.state.ny.us, or (315) 598-5185.