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Archbishop: NY'ers face higher taxes if more Catholic schools close

By JOHN MCLOUGHLIN

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Archbishop Timothy Dolan warned Tuesday that New Yorkers could get clobbered with even higher taxes if the state continues to default on its school aid promises to Catholic and independent schools.

Dolan, who succeeded Cardinal Egan as head of the New York Archdiocese, says lawmakers have failed to honor a statute requiring the reimbursement for all costs incurred in meeting state mandates.

Dolan, fourteen bishops and twelve-hundred Catholics from around the state were in Albany for the annual Public Policy Day of the New York State Catholic Conference.

Besides funding for parochial schools, the conference also is lobbying for and against a number of controversial social issues. Among them, the Reproductive Health Act that was introduced as a Governor's program bill last year but not acted on. The Catholic group calls it the ":Radical Abortion Act," claiming it will "permit all third-trimester abortions (even) partial birth abortion."

NEWS10's John McLoughlin asked Archbishop Dolan if he favored denying the Church's Sacraments to politicians, like Governor David Paterson, who are Roman Catholic but also pro-choice and pro-gay marriage. The prelate acknowledged that some of his fellow bishops might favor such a ban, but Dolan said he does not, preferring to follow the lead of Popes John Paul II and Benedict the Sixteenth, who said it was better to try to persuade them than to impose sanctions.