In 2013, Governor Cuomo proposed a $2 billion bond titled The Smart School Bond Act. These general obligation bond funds, to be paid for by tax levy dollars, were earmarked for the construction of new schools and upgrading technology across the entire New York State school system. It was a major funding plan, usually reserved for new highways or dams. There was just one problem: non-public schools were excluded from the bond proposal even though the Bond Act would be funded by our tax dollars.
In November 2013, the Sephardic Community Federation leadership received a call from the Catholic Conference. The Conference and Agudath Israel were focused on passing a School Tax Credit bill. They decided that the tax credit would be the only request from the State Legislature and Governor Cuomo, on behalf of non-public schools. That strategy precluded them from advocating for the inclusion of non-public schools (and yeshivot) as part of the Smart School Bond Act. For this reason, the Catholic Conference reached out to their friends, The Sephardic Community Federation (SCF). They asked us to spearhead securing the inclusion of funding for non-public schools in the proposed Bond Act. It is well known that a request like this usually takes months of lobbying by all of the affected constituents and most often, the efforts are not successful.
In this true “David versus Goliath” challenge, the road to success began with jelly donuts. SCF President Sam Sutton along with Co-Chairman Ron Tawil, received an invitation through the good auspices of our Assemblyman, Steven Cymbrowitz. The invitation was to enjoy a Hannukah morning get-together with the then Speaker of The State Assembly who truly enjoyed sufganiyot (jelly donuts). The Speaker would allow us to discuss one pressing issue with him.
Sam and Ron routinely nurture strong relationships with dozens of elected officials to promote the benefit and welfare of our community. Essentially, they were being called upon to persuade the Speaker (the second most powerful man in New York State) to include an additional $75 million of funding to the Smart School Bond Act.
To their pleasant surprise, only four weeks later, the New York State Assembly proposed budget added $200 million to the Smart School Bond Act, and included non-public schools. The final version which was passed by the State Legislature in March 2014 (and approved by a public vote in November 2014) remained at $2 billion but was revised to include technology funding for all schools, including non-public schools.
From the date of that vote, it took four years to finalize the allocation details. The Sephardic Community Federation, along with Agudath Israel, were repeatedly called upon to ensure that our schools would not be excluded on any technicalities. The final result was that every school is eligible to apply for $196 per child for technology assistance from the state, in the same manner as they would receive aid for textbooks.
This is how two men, aided by the power of sufganiyot and working L’shem Shamayim, were successful in securing $28 million for yeshivot throughout the State of New York.
The SCF develops relationships with legislators, and advocates on behalf of policies that benefit our community. Through cultivating these relationships, the SCF succeeds in making great strides for our community.
