ALBANY – Thousands of poor minorities and young Schenectady-area residents will be harmed by Gov. Spitzer‘s extraordinary action of blocking $300,000 in spending in Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco’s district, the Republican’s aides said yesterday.
Many of the uninsured poor people living in Schenectady, a once-mighty but now blighted industrial city, won’t get free health care at the city’s clinic because the program, slated to receive $100,000 in badly needed funds, will have to shut down, Tedisco predicted.
Hundreds of schoolchildren will be less secure because funding for video surveillance upgrades at the Scotia-Glenville School district won’t be available, said Tedisco’s chief of staff, William Sherman.
The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District will lose tens of thousands of dollars in funding to upgrade elementary school playgrounds.
“He’s hurting the children,” Sherman said of Spitzer.
Spitzer’s action will slice funding from a Pop Warner football program for poor boys in Schenectady.