Long Islanders For Educational Reform To Sponsor School Tax Symposium
School Taxes have become a Quality Of Life issue
And we can't count on School Boards to do anything about It
WHEN: Thursday, April 6th, 7:30 AM to 9:30 PM
WHERE: Huntington Hilton
598 Broad Hollow Road, Melville, NY
Long Islanders For Educational Reform (LIFER) is holding a public forum lay aside the myths of how we fund our schools and who is responsible to pay for what, to help taxpayers (and, hopefully, legislators) understand Albany's role in the school financing process, and to form a strategy that will allow homeowners to live on Long Island, if not affordably, then at least without fear of being forced to move.
This is a homeowner civic meeting. ALL homeowners are invited and encouraged to attend!
The Speakers will include:
NYS Senators Ken LaValle & John Flanagan
NYS Assemblymembers Marc Alessi & Charles Lavine
Business Leaders Bruce Bent & E. Christopher Murray
Civic Leaders Pat Byrne, Laura Pandelakis & Frank Russo
The Moderator will be Peter Kohler of Cablevision
LIFER has no affiliations with unions or School Boards.
If you want to remain on LI and want our children to line here also, check out LIFER. It is time to take control over the quality of education and taxes. Homeowners must organize the same way teachers and administrators do. Membership is LIFER is free.
LIFER, Long Islanders for Educational Reform, was organized in 2005 to address the issue of escalating school taxes, while maintaining excellence in our educational systems. Drawn from business, education, civic organizations and other groups of concerned citizens, the organization is committed to finding an equitable solution to the problem of burdensome taxation.
Visit LIFER at www.lischooltax.com or Contact info@lischooltax.com
LIFER offers free start up, recruitment & organizational expertise, websites and support to any homeowners' group or individuals that want to start a civic association.
If your group consists of 10 or more people and you wish to reserve seating at the April 6th forum, call 516-767-9179. For directions to the Huntington Hilton call 631-845-1000.
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Click HERE to read The New York Times article on the State's School Aid Formulae, School Aid: Meet The New Math, Same As The Old
Click HERE to read the Newsday report on the April 6th forum, Turning The Wheels of Education
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Friday, March 31, 2006
Friday, June 01, 2007
LIFERsuction And The Dismantling Of Public Education
A Report On the Recent Forum Held By Long Islanders For Educational Reform (LIFER) -- Or, If Frank Russo Only Knew That Thomas Jefferson Was An Ardent Advocate Of The Seperation Of Church And State, And, Arguably, An Agnostic
Brian Brennan of Northender.com reports (republished below) on the May 7th meeting of LIFER.
LIFER supports an expansion of the charter schools in New York, as well as tax credits/rebates for private school parents, tantamount to the wholesale diversion of tax dollars from our public schools.
They haven't formally come out with a whitepaper denying evolution, calling for the teaching of creationism in our public schools, and banning homosexuals from the classroom, but something tells us LIFER is working on it.
LIFER's goals, at least on the surface, may appear lofty, but lurking just below in the muddy waters of the school finance debate, is one Frank Russo, Director of the New York Chapter of the American Family Association -- the folks who dissed the American Girl doll and urged us all to boycott businesses that refuse to endorse Christmas.
Yes, the same hate-spewing, ignorant, arrogant nut jobs -- the holy rollers who, following the Virginia Tech Massacre on April 16, 2007, released a video in which "God" tells a student that those killed on campus were not saved because God isn't allowed in schools anymore [the video claims that the shootings at Virginia Tech, Columbine, and elsewhere, are the result of, among other things, no spankings, no prayer in schools, condoms, and a woman's right to choose] -- are now in the business of "reforming" the education system on Long Island.
Yes, the followers of Falwell, Dobson (the guy who "outed" Sponge Bob), and George W. Bush's Leave Every Child Behind dogma, are now at the schoolhouse gate.
God help us all!
With the likes of LIFER taking up the cause, can the dismantling of our public schools, the very foundation of free-thinking and the backbone of democracy, in the name of "family values" and "moral decency" -- let alone as a tax-saving measure -- be far behind?
- - -
School Daze: Funding Education
By Brian Brennan
A panel of minds met at the Hilton Long Island in Melville last Monday evening to discuss Long Island’s school taxes. The five-member panel took turns addressing the crowd and then fielded questions. First to speak was conservative Newsday columnist Raymond Keating. He was followed by Dr. Charles Murphy, superintendent of the Sachem Central School District (which has a tax levy decrease in its proposed 2007-08 operating budget). The third speaker was Edmund J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, followed by Suffolk County Legislator Lynne Nowick (R-Smithtown), and Nassau County Conservative Party Chairman and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Roger Bogsted. Moderating was Peter Kohler, editorial services vice president for Cablevision Systems Corp.
With school budget votes looming, the panel was assembled by Long Islanders For Educational Reform, or LIFER. LIFER’s website has the banner statement “Educational Excellence and Fiscal Responsibility” and describes the organization as “Long Islanders dedicated to improving educational quality while getting better control of our runaway school costs.”
In a nutshell, these people feel that Long Island’s property taxes are too high and that irresponsible spending on the part of school districts is at the root of it. And while it was a very rightward leaning panel, the criticism they expressed was bipartisan. “We have a state legislature that is absolutely addicted to spending,” Roger Bogsted said. He added that legislators lose sight of their priorities while negotiating over pork barrel member items. And he agreed with Raymond Keating that New York’s Republicans have failed to live up to conservative fiscal principles.
Mr. Keating actually praised the frugality – as he did in a recent column – of Suffolk County’s Democrat county executive, Steve Levy. And it was former Governor George Pataki’s bending to pressure from his fellow Republicans, Edmund McMahon said, that allowed for the implementation of a watered down STAR local property tax relief program in 1997.
NYSUT
The body that received the most criticism from the panel was NYSUT, the New York State Union of Teachers. At least some on the panel felt that it is disproportionate influence wielded by the union at state and local levels that has stifled tax reform. Roger Bogsted called NYSUT “the 500-pound gorilla of New York State”.
Asked why there hasn’t been a cap on annual state tax levies, Edmund McMahon said, “In a word – NYSUT.” Superintendent Murphy said that school boards have too often put the desires of teachers ahead of the needs of a community. Teachers, he said, have a powerful and well-financed union looking out for them; it is students, parents and taxpayers first who need the school boards to be thinking of them.
Raymond Keating said that school boards need to be tougher when it comes to negotiating teachers’ salaries and benefits, and that the union’s “monopoly” needs to be broken.
Keating’s Big Four
Mr. Keating then went on to outline what he says are four myths that hinder reform in education spending and funding in New York State.
The first is that “you get what you pay for”. “You get what you pay for in the private sector. You don’t get what you pay for in government,” he said. The private sector is consumer-driven, with payment based on performance. Mr. Keating said that the government pattern is all too often to throw more money at underperforming schools, and that teachers’ pay scales are not based on performance.
The second myth, he said, is that aid from the state is great for taxpayers. He reiterated an analogy made in a recent column saying that elected officials have too often regarded state aid as “manna from heaven”. The reality, he said, is that the government simply recoups tax relief by raising other taxes. He argued that Long Islanders should not expect to pay smaller taxes if aid from Albany causes them to see their property taxes reduced. He added that looking at the rise in both school aid and tax revenue from 1994 to 2004 illustrates this.
Mr. Keating’s third myth is that district consolidation would provide tax relief. “Is bigger government really going to save you money?” he asked. He and Edmund McMahon addressed the issue again when the panel was asked by an audience member why consolidation wouldn’t weaken unions’ power. Mr. Keating said that there would still be competing elements in government to contend with. Mr. McMahon pointed to New York City public schools, which make up the largest district in the United States and have a powerful teachers union. The biggest fans of regional consolidation are unions, Mr. McMahon claimed.
The fourth myth prevalent in the public’s mind, Mr. Keating said, is that schools should be funded in some way other than property taxes. There are those who advocate funding schools through income taxes rather than property taxes. Mr. Keating said that this would create at least as many problems as the current system, and probably more. According to him, income taxes have historically acted as fuel to government spending, and increased income taxes would hurt the state by scaring away prospective residents, businesses and investment. STAR,
McMahon’s Missing Link and Proposition 2½
The State Senate this week passed a bill – which has yet to be voted on by the Assembly – to increase STAR rebates for lower- and middle-income seniors. Governor Eliot Spitzer opposed the bill, which otherwise received wide bipartisan support. Governor Spitzer feels that the state can’t afford the reforms.
Edmund McMahon feels that the state couldn’t afford the STAR program to begin with. According to him, STAR was dead in the water after the four percent cap on annual levy increases authored into it by Governor Pataki were filtered out of it during pre-vote budget negotiations in 1997. He faults the Republicans then in the legislature with failing to support the cap, and the former governor with only half-heartedly trying to save it from being struck.
Since then, Mr. McMahon insists, STAR has only treated some of the symptoms of high taxes, but none of the causes. By 2010, he claims, $6 billion will have been spent on the program, though taxes and spending have continued to rise. The “missing link” in school policy, according to him, is that policymakers have yet to realize that the “surefire” way to control spending is to cap the rate at which property tax levies can increase from one year to the next.
As evidence of this, he points to the experience of Massachusetts. In 1980, Massachusetts had the second highest state and local property tax burden in the country, with New York State occupying first place. But that year, Massachusetts implemented Proposition 2 ½, which decreed that municipalities could raise property taxes no more than 2 ½ percent each year (barring several types of exclusions, or a majority of a municipality’s voters opting for an “optional override”). In 1982, Massachusetts’ tax burden ranked 13th in the nation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and it has continued to drop ever since. It is currently 28th in the nation, and has dropped as low as 35th. Meanwhile, the state has remained – with New York – among the nation’s top per-pupil spenders.
Mr. McMahon asserted that Massachusetts’ income tax rate is lower than it was in 1980. He did not mention, however, that the state remains among the highest in terms of its personal and corporate income tax rates.
As NYSUT sees it “If schools were supposed to be lowering taxes, LIFER would be the in the right place. But if schools are supposed to be educating, then I’m confident NYSUT is in the right place,” NYSUT president Richard Iannuzzi said over the phone.
“I guess it’s the lens you look through,” Mr. Iannuzzi said. As he sees it, education necessarily costs money, and there’s no getting around that the money required is increasing. He attributes this in part to the number of special needs children in schools, the number of students who are not fluent in English, and to government mandates such as President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, which outlines various testing and monitoring initiatives that schools must fund themselves.
Mr. Iannuzzi believes the majority of Long Islanders are looking through the same lens he is. “The difficulty here is that you have an organization and a panel that assumes that property-tax-payers are looking for one thing only and that is how to cut property taxes, and looking to use the school system as the vehicle to do so,” he said. “The reality is that many of those taxpayers…are also parents and grandparents and progressively-minded community members who understand the value of a quality education.”
NYSUT strongly advocates against both charter schools and private school tuition tax rebates, which LIFER supports. LIFER’s belief is that the competition would spur school districts to improve on both their academics and their cost-effectiveness, and would also help alleviate their burden.
“If they were really interested in lowering taxes and that truly was their only issue, then it fascinates me that they’re okay with charter schools that drain money and cause increases in local taxes,” Mr. Iannuzzi said.
In addition to diverting much-needed resources from public schools, NYSUT argues, charter schools often have under-enrollment of special needs students and students who are not fluent in English. The union claims that private school tax rebates are a stepping stone to private school vouchers (which it also opposes) and use public money for institutions that are often exclusionary. LIFER also supports reducing tenure and coming down harder on teacher salaries.
Mr. Iannuzzi said that NYSUT supports Governor Spitzer’s objective of tightening tenure guidelines, and that salary increases reward teachers for hard work. He also noted, “The salaries on LI that always make the paper are the ones that come with thirty years of teaching and Masters degrees, plus 60 or 75 credits.”
The superintendent speaks
Dr. Charles Murphy’s presence on the panel was owing to the Sachem School Board’s proposed budget including a decreased tax levy. This is Dr. Murphy’s second year in his position. Last year, the Sachem budget included a 1.5 percent levy increase.
A successful (i.e. reduced) budget, according to Dr. Murphy, requires a clearly-defined, long-term plan; transparency with the public; tax sensitivity; and a good relationship between the school board and the superintendent. “They gave me the tools to do my job,” he said of the board he worked with. The board was strong, he said, in the face of opposition from parents and teachers to program cuts.
Other keys to smart budgeting he highlighted were realism, frugality and a savvy bargaining ability. Nothing was done simply because it always had been. The budget was started over from scratch and programs cut that had been in place for 30 years. Dr. Murphy stressed several times that a board’s objective is to do what is “appropriate” rather than do what is “best”, and that it is important to remember that the words are not synonyms. As an example, he said the district should refuse to pay for alternative schooling for a special needs child when the district offers the child an education that is good, if not the best.
Dr. Murphy said that boards should look closely at what they spend on special ed, making one of the few references to that costly and contentious topic during the event. He personally approves every purchase made by the district, and said that furniture and technology are two major sources of waste. Technology soon becomes obsolete, he said, and faculty requests things such as computerized “smart boards” – or “glorified chalk boards”, as he called them – that they can just as well do without.
Dr. Murphy points to the deal struck over one software program – it was initially offered to the district for $300,000 and was eventually obtained for $60,000 – as proof that boards should always be prepared to haggle and to walk away from a prospective deal after the first offer. A key thing to remember about state aid, he said, is that there is no knowing that it will be around from one year to the next, and should be handled cautiously.
A few more suggestions
The panel indicated that a key to reforming school funding and spending is to get the message out. All too often, they complained, school budget votes are not adequately publicized and a disproportionate number of voters are parents. Raymond Keating said that parents of children who attend private schools should be reaching out to each other more and uniting in their effort to obtain tax rebates.
As it stands now, school districts whose proposed budgets are rejected by districts must fall back on contingency budgets with automatic 3.6 percent increases. Roger Bogsted wants to see the increase done away with.
Legislator Lynne Nowick was on the panel in her capacity as founder and co-chair of the 17-member Suffolk Homeowners Tax Reform Commission. The exploratory commission examined numerous methods of reforming taxes. Some – such as funding schools through additional income taxes and sales taxes – were deemed unfeasible. Others are still being kicked around.
Among these are increasing state aid to 50 percent (it can be assumed others on the panel weren’t thrilled to hear this put forward), raising caps on the amount of money districts are allowed to have in reserve, creating a one-percent luxury tax on purchases of homes valued at over $1 million, and introducing VLTs (video lottery terminals), which Ms. Nowick says reaps hundreds of millions of dollars annually for Yonkers.
Ms. Nowick said that although she has no jurisdiction over school policy, she and the other commission members felt obligated to explore ways to raise money that could be earmarked for education. NYSUT’s Richard Iannuzzi might think it would be better for everyone if they hadn’t bothered. “We’re in a time where the Governor and the [state] legislature have made historic commitments to education and they’re looking for a system where those resources drive reforms and results,” he said. “NYSUT supports that and it’s not going to help achieve those goals if we’re going to be distracted by charter schools, tax credits and LIFER.”
Brian Brennan of Northender.com reports (republished below) on the May 7th meeting of LIFER.
LIFER supports an expansion of the charter schools in New York, as well as tax credits/rebates for private school parents, tantamount to the wholesale diversion of tax dollars from our public schools.
They haven't formally come out with a whitepaper denying evolution, calling for the teaching of creationism in our public schools, and banning homosexuals from the classroom, but something tells us LIFER is working on it.
LIFER's goals, at least on the surface, may appear lofty, but lurking just below in the muddy waters of the school finance debate, is one Frank Russo, Director of the New York Chapter of the American Family Association -- the folks who dissed the American Girl doll and urged us all to boycott businesses that refuse to endorse Christmas.
Yes, the same hate-spewing, ignorant, arrogant nut jobs -- the holy rollers who, following the Virginia Tech Massacre on April 16, 2007, released a video in which "God" tells a student that those killed on campus were not saved because God isn't allowed in schools anymore [the video claims that the shootings at Virginia Tech, Columbine, and elsewhere, are the result of, among other things, no spankings, no prayer in schools, condoms, and a woman's right to choose] -- are now in the business of "reforming" the education system on Long Island.
Yes, the followers of Falwell, Dobson (the guy who "outed" Sponge Bob), and George W. Bush's Leave Every Child Behind dogma, are now at the schoolhouse gate.
God help us all!
With the likes of LIFER taking up the cause, can the dismantling of our public schools, the very foundation of free-thinking and the backbone of democracy, in the name of "family values" and "moral decency" -- let alone as a tax-saving measure -- be far behind?
- - -
School Daze: Funding Education
By Brian Brennan
A panel of minds met at the Hilton Long Island in Melville last Monday evening to discuss Long Island’s school taxes. The five-member panel took turns addressing the crowd and then fielded questions. First to speak was conservative Newsday columnist Raymond Keating. He was followed by Dr. Charles Murphy, superintendent of the Sachem Central School District (which has a tax levy decrease in its proposed 2007-08 operating budget). The third speaker was Edmund J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, followed by Suffolk County Legislator Lynne Nowick (R-Smithtown), and Nassau County Conservative Party Chairman and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Roger Bogsted. Moderating was Peter Kohler, editorial services vice president for Cablevision Systems Corp.
With school budget votes looming, the panel was assembled by Long Islanders For Educational Reform, or LIFER. LIFER’s website has the banner statement “Educational Excellence and Fiscal Responsibility” and describes the organization as “Long Islanders dedicated to improving educational quality while getting better control of our runaway school costs.”
In a nutshell, these people feel that Long Island’s property taxes are too high and that irresponsible spending on the part of school districts is at the root of it. And while it was a very rightward leaning panel, the criticism they expressed was bipartisan. “We have a state legislature that is absolutely addicted to spending,” Roger Bogsted said. He added that legislators lose sight of their priorities while negotiating over pork barrel member items. And he agreed with Raymond Keating that New York’s Republicans have failed to live up to conservative fiscal principles.
Mr. Keating actually praised the frugality – as he did in a recent column – of Suffolk County’s Democrat county executive, Steve Levy. And it was former Governor George Pataki’s bending to pressure from his fellow Republicans, Edmund McMahon said, that allowed for the implementation of a watered down STAR local property tax relief program in 1997.
NYSUT
The body that received the most criticism from the panel was NYSUT, the New York State Union of Teachers. At least some on the panel felt that it is disproportionate influence wielded by the union at state and local levels that has stifled tax reform. Roger Bogsted called NYSUT “the 500-pound gorilla of New York State”.
Asked why there hasn’t been a cap on annual state tax levies, Edmund McMahon said, “In a word – NYSUT.” Superintendent Murphy said that school boards have too often put the desires of teachers ahead of the needs of a community. Teachers, he said, have a powerful and well-financed union looking out for them; it is students, parents and taxpayers first who need the school boards to be thinking of them.
Raymond Keating said that school boards need to be tougher when it comes to negotiating teachers’ salaries and benefits, and that the union’s “monopoly” needs to be broken.
Keating’s Big Four
Mr. Keating then went on to outline what he says are four myths that hinder reform in education spending and funding in New York State.
The first is that “you get what you pay for”. “You get what you pay for in the private sector. You don’t get what you pay for in government,” he said. The private sector is consumer-driven, with payment based on performance. Mr. Keating said that the government pattern is all too often to throw more money at underperforming schools, and that teachers’ pay scales are not based on performance.
The second myth, he said, is that aid from the state is great for taxpayers. He reiterated an analogy made in a recent column saying that elected officials have too often regarded state aid as “manna from heaven”. The reality, he said, is that the government simply recoups tax relief by raising other taxes. He argued that Long Islanders should not expect to pay smaller taxes if aid from Albany causes them to see their property taxes reduced. He added that looking at the rise in both school aid and tax revenue from 1994 to 2004 illustrates this.
Mr. Keating’s third myth is that district consolidation would provide tax relief. “Is bigger government really going to save you money?” he asked. He and Edmund McMahon addressed the issue again when the panel was asked by an audience member why consolidation wouldn’t weaken unions’ power. Mr. Keating said that there would still be competing elements in government to contend with. Mr. McMahon pointed to New York City public schools, which make up the largest district in the United States and have a powerful teachers union. The biggest fans of regional consolidation are unions, Mr. McMahon claimed.
The fourth myth prevalent in the public’s mind, Mr. Keating said, is that schools should be funded in some way other than property taxes. There are those who advocate funding schools through income taxes rather than property taxes. Mr. Keating said that this would create at least as many problems as the current system, and probably more. According to him, income taxes have historically acted as fuel to government spending, and increased income taxes would hurt the state by scaring away prospective residents, businesses and investment. STAR,
McMahon’s Missing Link and Proposition 2½
The State Senate this week passed a bill – which has yet to be voted on by the Assembly – to increase STAR rebates for lower- and middle-income seniors. Governor Eliot Spitzer opposed the bill, which otherwise received wide bipartisan support. Governor Spitzer feels that the state can’t afford the reforms.
Edmund McMahon feels that the state couldn’t afford the STAR program to begin with. According to him, STAR was dead in the water after the four percent cap on annual levy increases authored into it by Governor Pataki were filtered out of it during pre-vote budget negotiations in 1997. He faults the Republicans then in the legislature with failing to support the cap, and the former governor with only half-heartedly trying to save it from being struck.
Since then, Mr. McMahon insists, STAR has only treated some of the symptoms of high taxes, but none of the causes. By 2010, he claims, $6 billion will have been spent on the program, though taxes and spending have continued to rise. The “missing link” in school policy, according to him, is that policymakers have yet to realize that the “surefire” way to control spending is to cap the rate at which property tax levies can increase from one year to the next.
As evidence of this, he points to the experience of Massachusetts. In 1980, Massachusetts had the second highest state and local property tax burden in the country, with New York State occupying first place. But that year, Massachusetts implemented Proposition 2 ½, which decreed that municipalities could raise property taxes no more than 2 ½ percent each year (barring several types of exclusions, or a majority of a municipality’s voters opting for an “optional override”). In 1982, Massachusetts’ tax burden ranked 13th in the nation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and it has continued to drop ever since. It is currently 28th in the nation, and has dropped as low as 35th. Meanwhile, the state has remained – with New York – among the nation’s top per-pupil spenders.
Mr. McMahon asserted that Massachusetts’ income tax rate is lower than it was in 1980. He did not mention, however, that the state remains among the highest in terms of its personal and corporate income tax rates.
As NYSUT sees it “If schools were supposed to be lowering taxes, LIFER would be the in the right place. But if schools are supposed to be educating, then I’m confident NYSUT is in the right place,” NYSUT president Richard Iannuzzi said over the phone.
“I guess it’s the lens you look through,” Mr. Iannuzzi said. As he sees it, education necessarily costs money, and there’s no getting around that the money required is increasing. He attributes this in part to the number of special needs children in schools, the number of students who are not fluent in English, and to government mandates such as President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, which outlines various testing and monitoring initiatives that schools must fund themselves.
Mr. Iannuzzi believes the majority of Long Islanders are looking through the same lens he is. “The difficulty here is that you have an organization and a panel that assumes that property-tax-payers are looking for one thing only and that is how to cut property taxes, and looking to use the school system as the vehicle to do so,” he said. “The reality is that many of those taxpayers…are also parents and grandparents and progressively-minded community members who understand the value of a quality education.”
NYSUT strongly advocates against both charter schools and private school tuition tax rebates, which LIFER supports. LIFER’s belief is that the competition would spur school districts to improve on both their academics and their cost-effectiveness, and would also help alleviate their burden.
“If they were really interested in lowering taxes and that truly was their only issue, then it fascinates me that they’re okay with charter schools that drain money and cause increases in local taxes,” Mr. Iannuzzi said.
In addition to diverting much-needed resources from public schools, NYSUT argues, charter schools often have under-enrollment of special needs students and students who are not fluent in English. The union claims that private school tax rebates are a stepping stone to private school vouchers (which it also opposes) and use public money for institutions that are often exclusionary. LIFER also supports reducing tenure and coming down harder on teacher salaries.
Mr. Iannuzzi said that NYSUT supports Governor Spitzer’s objective of tightening tenure guidelines, and that salary increases reward teachers for hard work. He also noted, “The salaries on LI that always make the paper are the ones that come with thirty years of teaching and Masters degrees, plus 60 or 75 credits.”
The superintendent speaks
Dr. Charles Murphy’s presence on the panel was owing to the Sachem School Board’s proposed budget including a decreased tax levy. This is Dr. Murphy’s second year in his position. Last year, the Sachem budget included a 1.5 percent levy increase.
A successful (i.e. reduced) budget, according to Dr. Murphy, requires a clearly-defined, long-term plan; transparency with the public; tax sensitivity; and a good relationship between the school board and the superintendent. “They gave me the tools to do my job,” he said of the board he worked with. The board was strong, he said, in the face of opposition from parents and teachers to program cuts.
Other keys to smart budgeting he highlighted were realism, frugality and a savvy bargaining ability. Nothing was done simply because it always had been. The budget was started over from scratch and programs cut that had been in place for 30 years. Dr. Murphy stressed several times that a board’s objective is to do what is “appropriate” rather than do what is “best”, and that it is important to remember that the words are not synonyms. As an example, he said the district should refuse to pay for alternative schooling for a special needs child when the district offers the child an education that is good, if not the best.
Dr. Murphy said that boards should look closely at what they spend on special ed, making one of the few references to that costly and contentious topic during the event. He personally approves every purchase made by the district, and said that furniture and technology are two major sources of waste. Technology soon becomes obsolete, he said, and faculty requests things such as computerized “smart boards” – or “glorified chalk boards”, as he called them – that they can just as well do without.
Dr. Murphy points to the deal struck over one software program – it was initially offered to the district for $300,000 and was eventually obtained for $60,000 – as proof that boards should always be prepared to haggle and to walk away from a prospective deal after the first offer. A key thing to remember about state aid, he said, is that there is no knowing that it will be around from one year to the next, and should be handled cautiously.
A few more suggestions
The panel indicated that a key to reforming school funding and spending is to get the message out. All too often, they complained, school budget votes are not adequately publicized and a disproportionate number of voters are parents. Raymond Keating said that parents of children who attend private schools should be reaching out to each other more and uniting in their effort to obtain tax rebates.
As it stands now, school districts whose proposed budgets are rejected by districts must fall back on contingency budgets with automatic 3.6 percent increases. Roger Bogsted wants to see the increase done away with.
Legislator Lynne Nowick was on the panel in her capacity as founder and co-chair of the 17-member Suffolk Homeowners Tax Reform Commission. The exploratory commission examined numerous methods of reforming taxes. Some – such as funding schools through additional income taxes and sales taxes – were deemed unfeasible. Others are still being kicked around.
Among these are increasing state aid to 50 percent (it can be assumed others on the panel weren’t thrilled to hear this put forward), raising caps on the amount of money districts are allowed to have in reserve, creating a one-percent luxury tax on purchases of homes valued at over $1 million, and introducing VLTs (video lottery terminals), which Ms. Nowick says reaps hundreds of millions of dollars annually for Yonkers.
Ms. Nowick said that although she has no jurisdiction over school policy, she and the other commission members felt obligated to explore ways to raise money that could be earmarked for education. NYSUT’s Richard Iannuzzi might think it would be better for everyone if they hadn’t bothered. “We’re in a time where the Governor and the [state] legislature have made historic commitments to education and they’re looking for a system where those resources drive reforms and results,” he said. “NYSUT supports that and it’s not going to help achieve those goals if we’re going to be distracted by charter schools, tax credits and LIFER.”
Monday, April 17, 2006
Unsustainable Spending
While State Aid To Education Increases, School District Costs Skyrocket
Guest blogger George Rand makes it short and sweet: Long Island's school districts are not doing enough to cut costs, and the taxpayer can no longer afford to pay the bill. Read on. . .
During the recent media blitz for more state aid by Long Island public school administrators, it was incredible that the topic of cutting school costs was never mentioned. Neither was there any comment on the key problem: soaring teachers salaries and benefits which are driving school budgets to unsustainable levels.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that if school districts continue spending at current levels, many retirees will be forced to leave Long Island. School taxes are projected to rise six to eight percent or more this year, on top of similar increases in past years. The average Social Security retiree currently receives $1002 per month in benefits, a net increase of $29 over last year. This retiree will need to use half of those benefit checks to pay school taxes while the other half will go for medical insurance and drugs.
Meanwhile, the average Nassau County public school teacher will get araise in pay and benefits of $4,600 this year regardless of how well or how poorly he or she performs and the school superintendent's salary will be boosted by about $8,400, pushing that administrator's paycheck way above the pay of the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
George Rand
- - -
The New York Times reports on at least one Long Island school district where the Superintendent is earning more than $300,000 in salary and benefits. [Click HERE to read, Schools Practice Higher Math To Pay Leaders.]
"In all, at least 114 school administrators in Nassau and Suffolk are making $200,000 or more in salary and benefits combined, and 28 of them are assistant, associate or deputy superintendents," say the Times.
- - -
Politics And The Strange Bedfellow
Often, the story behind the news is far more fascinating than the news itself.
Take LIFER, Long Islanders for Educational Reform. Frank Russo, one of LIFER's organizers, is the president of Port Washington Educational Assembly. Mr. Russo is also aligned with the New York chapter of the American Family Association (the folks who outed Sponge Bob and told you not to buy the American Doll, among other oddities). In fact, Frank Russo IS the New York chapter of AFA -- he is the group's president, and his personal e-mail address is the contact for www.afany.org.
Okay, the AFA, it's New York affiliate, and Frank Russo himself, are entitled to their homophobic, "God told us to boycott Ellen and Saturday Night Live" views. At least they're straight up about it.
But beware the back-door approach to reforming New York's education system by a group that has "links" (on it's website, and otherwise) to the New Yorker's Family Research Foundation ("The Christian Educational Voice for New York Families") and Citizens for Educational Freedom (fighting for "parents' rights to choose where their public educational funds are spent"). Both groups endorse school vouchers, scholarship tax credits, and other methods of using public tax money to finance private and parochial education. [Frank Russo himself publicly advocates tuition tax credits (the equivalent of public tax dollars up to half the cost of a public school education) for parents who incur out of pocket costs for tuition, books, etc.]
And that's fine, too, if you want your tax dollars diverted from our public schools to pay to send someone's child to private or parochial school. Just be upfront about it all when you hold LIFER's agenda out to John Q. Taxpayer.
Face it. For most of us, it is all about the school property tax, and how we can best use public money to finance a public education in the public schools. To some extent, this holds true for LIFER -- at least in it's public persona. It doesn't take much digging beneath the surface, however, to find that LIFER -- or at least it's organizers -- have a less publicized (if publicized at all) agenda, and would use public money, whether in the form of vouchers, tax credits or direct aid, to fill the coffers of private, and predominantly religious, institutions. And where would that leave our public schools? Even deeper in the fiscal morass, we're afraid.
Yes, support those who would challenge the school property tax, and who would seek alternative means of funding our public schools. Just be very careful who you get into bed with!
Guest blogger George Rand makes it short and sweet: Long Island's school districts are not doing enough to cut costs, and the taxpayer can no longer afford to pay the bill. Read on. . .During the recent media blitz for more state aid by Long Island public school administrators, it was incredible that the topic of cutting school costs was never mentioned. Neither was there any comment on the key problem: soaring teachers salaries and benefits which are driving school budgets to unsustainable levels.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that if school districts continue spending at current levels, many retirees will be forced to leave Long Island. School taxes are projected to rise six to eight percent or more this year, on top of similar increases in past years. The average Social Security retiree currently receives $1002 per month in benefits, a net increase of $29 over last year. This retiree will need to use half of those benefit checks to pay school taxes while the other half will go for medical insurance and drugs.
Meanwhile, the average Nassau County public school teacher will get araise in pay and benefits of $4,600 this year regardless of how well or how poorly he or she performs and the school superintendent's salary will be boosted by about $8,400, pushing that administrator's paycheck way above the pay of the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
George Rand
- - -
The New York Times reports on at least one Long Island school district where the Superintendent is earning more than $300,000 in salary and benefits. [Click HERE to read, Schools Practice Higher Math To Pay Leaders.]
"In all, at least 114 school administrators in Nassau and Suffolk are making $200,000 or more in salary and benefits combined, and 28 of them are assistant, associate or deputy superintendents," say the Times.
Click HERE to read The New York Times article, Adding Revolt To The 3 R's.
Do you think things have gotten out of hand? The Community Alliance, as well as your friends, neighbors, and fellow taxpayers, would like to know. E-mail us at info@thecommunityalliance.org.- - -
Politics And The Strange Bedfellow
Often, the story behind the news is far more fascinating than the news itself.
Take LIFER, Long Islanders for Educational Reform. Frank Russo, one of LIFER's organizers, is the president of Port Washington Educational Assembly. Mr. Russo is also aligned with the New York chapter of the American Family Association (the folks who outed Sponge Bob and told you not to buy the American Doll, among other oddities). In fact, Frank Russo IS the New York chapter of AFA -- he is the group's president, and his personal e-mail address is the contact for www.afany.org.
Okay, the AFA, it's New York affiliate, and Frank Russo himself, are entitled to their homophobic, "God told us to boycott Ellen and Saturday Night Live" views. At least they're straight up about it.
But beware the back-door approach to reforming New York's education system by a group that has "links" (on it's website, and otherwise) to the New Yorker's Family Research Foundation ("The Christian Educational Voice for New York Families") and Citizens for Educational Freedom (fighting for "parents' rights to choose where their public educational funds are spent"). Both groups endorse school vouchers, scholarship tax credits, and other methods of using public tax money to finance private and parochial education. [Frank Russo himself publicly advocates tuition tax credits (the equivalent of public tax dollars up to half the cost of a public school education) for parents who incur out of pocket costs for tuition, books, etc.]
And that's fine, too, if you want your tax dollars diverted from our public schools to pay to send someone's child to private or parochial school. Just be upfront about it all when you hold LIFER's agenda out to John Q. Taxpayer.
Face it. For most of us, it is all about the school property tax, and how we can best use public money to finance a public education in the public schools. To some extent, this holds true for LIFER -- at least in it's public persona. It doesn't take much digging beneath the surface, however, to find that LIFER -- or at least it's organizers -- have a less publicized (if publicized at all) agenda, and would use public money, whether in the form of vouchers, tax credits or direct aid, to fill the coffers of private, and predominantly religious, institutions. And where would that leave our public schools? Even deeper in the fiscal morass, we're afraid.
Yes, support those who would challenge the school property tax, and who would seek alternative means of funding our public schools. Just be very careful who you get into bed with!
Monday, May 07, 2007
Long Islanders For Educational Reform Hosts Forum Tonight
A Discussion On School Funding, Property Taxes, And What Can Be Done About Both
Long Island School district taxes. Did you expect School Boards or Politicians to do anything about them?
Long Islanders for Educational Reform (LIFER) is holding a public Questions & Answers Forum to help you get the answers to some of the toughest questions facing New Yorkers.
Monday, May 7th
At the Huntington Hilton, 598 Broad Hollow Road, Melville, NY
From 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Free Admission (Available Seating 500)
The following guests will speak and then answer questions from the audience:
Ray Keating, Newsday columnist, Chief SBC Economist & sought-after spokesman on economic issues;
Dr. Charles Murphy, Superintendent, Sachem School District (the only LI School District to deliver a budget without a tax increase);
Lynne Nowick, Suffolk County Legislator & Co- Chair of the County (income) Tax Reform Commission;
Roger Bogsted, Nassau County Commissioner of Consumer Affairs and Conservative Party Chairman;
E. J. McMahon, renowned education expert, Empire Center for NYS Policy, Manhattan Institute.
The Moderator will be Peter Kohler, VP of Cablevision’s Editorial Services
Agree with LIFER's positions and proposals, or not, this public forum presents a great opportunity to express your concerns, your frustrations, and your ideas.
Like what the folks at LIFER have to say about taxes, school curriculum, school budgets, and "saving Long Island?" Then come on down and show your support.
Think pro-LIFERS got it wrong, in whole or in part? Then don't let them hijack educational reform on Long Island. Speak now or forever hold your wallets!
Long Island School district taxes. Did you expect School Boards or Politicians to do anything about them?
Long Islanders for Educational Reform (LIFER) is holding a public Questions & Answers Forum to help you get the answers to some of the toughest questions facing New Yorkers.
Monday, May 7th
At the Huntington Hilton, 598 Broad Hollow Road, Melville, NY
From 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Free Admission (Available Seating 500)
The following guests will speak and then answer questions from the audience:
Ray Keating, Newsday columnist, Chief SBC Economist & sought-after spokesman on economic issues;
Dr. Charles Murphy, Superintendent, Sachem School District (the only LI School District to deliver a budget without a tax increase);
Lynne Nowick, Suffolk County Legislator & Co- Chair of the County (income) Tax Reform Commission;
Roger Bogsted, Nassau County Commissioner of Consumer Affairs and Conservative Party Chairman;
E. J. McMahon, renowned education expert, Empire Center for NYS Policy, Manhattan Institute.
The Moderator will be Peter Kohler, VP of Cablevision’s Editorial Services
Agree with LIFER's positions and proposals, or not, this public forum presents a great opportunity to express your concerns, your frustrations, and your ideas.
Like what the folks at LIFER have to say about taxes, school curriculum, school budgets, and "saving Long Island?" Then come on down and show your support.
Think pro-LIFERS got it wrong, in whole or in part? Then don't let them hijack educational reform on Long Island. Speak now or forever hold your wallets!
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Permission To Say NO To School Budgets?
Permission DENIED!
Just weeks ago, Governor Chris Christie of the Garden State gave his blessing to voters to say NO to school budgets, and down they went in droves.
Not that voters were following Christie's lead into the darkness, but they certainly were upset enough with out-of-control property taxes to send school boards and district administrators in New Jersey back to the drawing board.
With Long Islanders set to vote on school budgets on May 18th, the perennial call has gone out to vote NO on this year's crop of school budgets, mostly under the guise that a NO vote will reduce the property tax (it won't) or send a message to both school and government officials that enough is enough (it hasn't).
To make matters worse, adding fuel to the fire, insurgent groups such as Long Islanders for Educational Reform (LIFER) have reached out to Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, asking him to give voters "permission" to vote NO on school budgets.
Leaving aside that none of us should confuse "reform" with the devisive, if not insidious agenda that lurks just beneath the facade of LIFERistas and their erzats Tea Party cohorts (who would take on not only budgets and school boards, but curriculum and textbooks), and that no one with a quarter of a noggin would give a hoot as to "permission" from either the County Executive or the Pope on such matters, the real issue here is what's behind a NO vote.
-NO to high property taxes. Of course.
-NO to runaway salaries, pensions, and administrators paid to excess. Yup.
-NO to a lack of transparency and accountability.You betcha!
Will voting down school budgets -- which, by the way, does absolutely nothing to lower the tax rate, and little if anything to reduce the tax levy -- resolve any or all of these issues that prey upon our solvency?
Not a one!
Vote down the budget, and the salaries, pensions, and sky-high administrative costs are still intact.
Vote down the budget, and school boards, teachers' unions, and district superintendents are no more accountable than they were the day, or year, or decade before.
Vote down the budget, and your property taxes still go up, up, and up some more.
So, what does happen when school budgets fail? Suffer our own children, that's what.
What gets cut? Instructional programs. Academics. After school activities. Athletics. Late buses.
Who gets hurt? The students, the parents, indeed, entire communities, still burdened with the evils voters sought to slay, with a system of education, not to mention the district's reputation, now in shambles.
Why, we ask, more than rhetorically, are we so quick to vote NO on school budgets, but barely raise an eyebrow, or offer up more than a smirk, when it comes to going after the real culprits of unsustainable property taxes -- elected officials and, dare we admit it, ourselves?
Instead of voting down budgets in May, sending messages of disgust and disdain to our kids, we should, by all reason, be voting out the politicians in November -- notably, in the NYS Legislature, who refuse to say --
-NO to cutting State Aid to eduction
-NO to unfunded mandates
-NO to the inequitable funding of school districts
-NO to taking tax dollars but returning only pennies
-NO to financing education through a regressive and unfair property tax
-NO to a pension system that is literally bankrupting New York
-NO to 124 separate school districts on Long Island, each with an administration that costs us millions
The list of NOs could go on, ad infinitum, but you get the idea.
We selfishly withhold our approval of sound educational initiatives, the pride of suburbia's past and the very foundation of Long Island's future, while granting elected officials carte blanche to maintain a status quo that, by its very nature, is a formula for our own economic and social demise.
Shame on them. Shame on us!
On Tuesday, May 18th, vote YES for your school budget. Save your NO vote for when it counts -- Tuesday, November 2nd!
- - -
From the Long Island Herald:
EDITORIAL
Vote with reason, not resentment
On New Jersey’s Election Day, April 20, Gov. Chris Christie wanted voters to reject school budget proposals in any districts where the unionized teachers weren’t willing to freeze their salaries for a year.
Christie said he saw no reason that teachers should be exempt from sharing in the sacrifices that others in the state are having to make these days. It didn’t seem right to him that while many residents in private-sector jobs weren’t getting any raises — and many others were getting laid off — taxpayer-funded public-school teachers’ pay would just keep going up.
A lot of residents apparently didn’t think it was right either, and 58 percent of the state’s school budgets were rejected, the most in 35 years.
So teachers’ salaries in those districts won’t increase, right? Well, not right. There’s another reality: Teachers work under contracts, and budgets aren’t contracts. Budgets are where spending plans get harmonized with revenue expectations.
School boards in districts with failed budgets can’t unilaterally abrogate contracts. Since Christie has said that New Jersey districts can’t look to the state for more aid, they will have to cut spending by dropping more instructional programs, curtailing children’s extracurricular activities, laying off teachers and other staff, charging — or charging more — for community access to district fields and facilities, and making other reductions in the services schools provide students.
In other words, failed budgets will not affect teachers’ pay, but will affect — negatively — student learning, educational quality and community well-being.
School districts here on the South Shore could suffer the same fate if enough voters hold budgets hostage to their resentments. In most local districts, teachers’ salaries start in the $45,000 to $50,000 range and top out at $110,000 to $115,000 for those with two to three decades of experience and multiple advanced degrees.
School administrators’ salaries run well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and include generous benefits packages.
Given that the nation is only starting to emerge from a deep recession — with unemployment still close to 10 percent and many of those who are employed receiving no pay increases or having to deal with reductions in salaries and hours — it’s little wonder that many folks believe teachers shouldn’t get raises next year.
While we agree that no public employees — including teachers and school administrators — should be exempt from the reality that district residents must cope with, we don’t believe that voting down budgets evens the playing field. We do believe that failed budgets will make other bad things happen, and that’s reason enough to consider approving reasonable, modest increases in school spending.
On May 18, when New Yorkers will vote on those budgets, they can also vote in school board elections. Voters need to recognize that board members are involved in contract negotiations — if not directly, then in approving or rejecting teachers’ and administrators’ contracts on taxpayers’ behalf.
Find out where the candidates stand on administrators’ and teachers’ compensation. Look into their backgrounds and find out which candidates you want on management’s side when contracts are negotiated, and which would be most likely to resist a change in the status quo where contracts are concerned.
The time to effect change in the largest category of school spending — teacher and administrator compensation — is when contracts are being negotiated, not when you have to decide whether the proposed budget meets students’ educational needs. But now is when you can let your board member candidates know your priorities.
Just weeks ago, Governor Chris Christie of the Garden State gave his blessing to voters to say NO to school budgets, and down they went in droves.
Not that voters were following Christie's lead into the darkness, but they certainly were upset enough with out-of-control property taxes to send school boards and district administrators in New Jersey back to the drawing board.
With Long Islanders set to vote on school budgets on May 18th, the perennial call has gone out to vote NO on this year's crop of school budgets, mostly under the guise that a NO vote will reduce the property tax (it won't) or send a message to both school and government officials that enough is enough (it hasn't).
To make matters worse, adding fuel to the fire, insurgent groups such as Long Islanders for Educational Reform (LIFER) have reached out to Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, asking him to give voters "permission" to vote NO on school budgets.
Leaving aside that none of us should confuse "reform" with the devisive, if not insidious agenda that lurks just beneath the facade of LIFERistas and their erzats Tea Party cohorts (who would take on not only budgets and school boards, but curriculum and textbooks), and that no one with a quarter of a noggin would give a hoot as to "permission" from either the County Executive or the Pope on such matters, the real issue here is what's behind a NO vote.
-NO to high property taxes. Of course.
-NO to runaway salaries, pensions, and administrators paid to excess. Yup.
-NO to a lack of transparency and accountability.You betcha!
Will voting down school budgets -- which, by the way, does absolutely nothing to lower the tax rate, and little if anything to reduce the tax levy -- resolve any or all of these issues that prey upon our solvency?
Not a one!
Vote down the budget, and the salaries, pensions, and sky-high administrative costs are still intact.
Vote down the budget, and school boards, teachers' unions, and district superintendents are no more accountable than they were the day, or year, or decade before.
Vote down the budget, and your property taxes still go up, up, and up some more.
So, what does happen when school budgets fail? Suffer our own children, that's what.
What gets cut? Instructional programs. Academics. After school activities. Athletics. Late buses.
Who gets hurt? The students, the parents, indeed, entire communities, still burdened with the evils voters sought to slay, with a system of education, not to mention the district's reputation, now in shambles.
Why, we ask, more than rhetorically, are we so quick to vote NO on school budgets, but barely raise an eyebrow, or offer up more than a smirk, when it comes to going after the real culprits of unsustainable property taxes -- elected officials and, dare we admit it, ourselves?
Instead of voting down budgets in May, sending messages of disgust and disdain to our kids, we should, by all reason, be voting out the politicians in November -- notably, in the NYS Legislature, who refuse to say --
-NO to cutting State Aid to eduction
-NO to unfunded mandates
-NO to the inequitable funding of school districts
-NO to taking tax dollars but returning only pennies
-NO to financing education through a regressive and unfair property tax
-NO to a pension system that is literally bankrupting New York
-NO to 124 separate school districts on Long Island, each with an administration that costs us millions
The list of NOs could go on, ad infinitum, but you get the idea.
We selfishly withhold our approval of sound educational initiatives, the pride of suburbia's past and the very foundation of Long Island's future, while granting elected officials carte blanche to maintain a status quo that, by its very nature, is a formula for our own economic and social demise.
Shame on them. Shame on us!
On Tuesday, May 18th, vote YES for your school budget. Save your NO vote for when it counts -- Tuesday, November 2nd!
- - -
From the Long Island Herald:
EDITORIAL
Vote with reason, not resentment
On New Jersey’s Election Day, April 20, Gov. Chris Christie wanted voters to reject school budget proposals in any districts where the unionized teachers weren’t willing to freeze their salaries for a year.
Christie said he saw no reason that teachers should be exempt from sharing in the sacrifices that others in the state are having to make these days. It didn’t seem right to him that while many residents in private-sector jobs weren’t getting any raises — and many others were getting laid off — taxpayer-funded public-school teachers’ pay would just keep going up.
A lot of residents apparently didn’t think it was right either, and 58 percent of the state’s school budgets were rejected, the most in 35 years.
So teachers’ salaries in those districts won’t increase, right? Well, not right. There’s another reality: Teachers work under contracts, and budgets aren’t contracts. Budgets are where spending plans get harmonized with revenue expectations.
School boards in districts with failed budgets can’t unilaterally abrogate contracts. Since Christie has said that New Jersey districts can’t look to the state for more aid, they will have to cut spending by dropping more instructional programs, curtailing children’s extracurricular activities, laying off teachers and other staff, charging — or charging more — for community access to district fields and facilities, and making other reductions in the services schools provide students.
In other words, failed budgets will not affect teachers’ pay, but will affect — negatively — student learning, educational quality and community well-being.
School districts here on the South Shore could suffer the same fate if enough voters hold budgets hostage to their resentments. In most local districts, teachers’ salaries start in the $45,000 to $50,000 range and top out at $110,000 to $115,000 for those with two to three decades of experience and multiple advanced degrees.
School administrators’ salaries run well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and include generous benefits packages.
Given that the nation is only starting to emerge from a deep recession — with unemployment still close to 10 percent and many of those who are employed receiving no pay increases or having to deal with reductions in salaries and hours — it’s little wonder that many folks believe teachers shouldn’t get raises next year.
While we agree that no public employees — including teachers and school administrators — should be exempt from the reality that district residents must cope with, we don’t believe that voting down budgets evens the playing field. We do believe that failed budgets will make other bad things happen, and that’s reason enough to consider approving reasonable, modest increases in school spending.
On May 18, when New Yorkers will vote on those budgets, they can also vote in school board elections. Voters need to recognize that board members are involved in contract negotiations — if not directly, then in approving or rejecting teachers’ and administrators’ contracts on taxpayers’ behalf.
Find out where the candidates stand on administrators’ and teachers’ compensation. Look into their backgrounds and find out which candidates you want on management’s side when contracts are negotiated, and which would be most likely to resist a change in the status quo where contracts are concerned.
The time to effect change in the largest category of school spending — teacher and administrator compensation — is when contracts are being negotiated, not when you have to decide whether the proposed budget meets students’ educational needs. But now is when you can let your board member candidates know your priorities.
Friday, April 14, 2006
In Search Of The Holy Grail
School Tax Forum Draws Crowd, Debate
Nassau County Civic Association Reports On April 6th Melville Meeting
This meeting was held in partnership with LIFER (Long Islanders for Educational Reform. www.lischooltax.com). The meeting was moderated by Peter Kohler of Channel 12 News.
The featured speakers were State Senator John J. Flanagan (R), Assemblymembers Charles Lavine (D) & Marc Alessi (D), Business Leaders Bruce Bent & Chris Murray (Nassau Chamber of Commerce) and civic leaders Pat Byrne (Nesconset-Sachem Civic Association), Laurie Pendelakis (Manhasset Civic Association), and Frank Russo (Port Washington Educational Assembly). County Executive Steve Levy (D) also appeared at the forum and spoke briefly at the end.
Senator John Flanagan discussed his efforts to secure more state funding for Long Island schools and acknowledged the burden of high taxes. He discussed the Medicaid savings to local governments due to the state's agreement to pick up a larger share of Medicaid costs. Senator Flanagan represents 7th District in Smithtown.
Assemblyman Charles Lavine discussed his efforts to secure additional state funding for Long Island School Districts. He then discussed what he viewed as decreasing federal aid and the effort to look for other ways to fund schools. He then asked the audience to vote in favor of their local school budget. Assemblyman Lavine, who represents the 13th AD, defeated incumbent David Sidikman in 2004 as a part of Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi's "Fix Albany" campaign.
Assemblyman Marc Alessi also discussed the agreement for more state aid to Long Island Districts. He then discussed his experience with the state Comptroller's office and the need for reform. After he spoke, he endorsed our efforts to require governmental entities to post their line item budgets.
Businessman Bruce Bent discussed the need for the state to decrease spending and reduce taxes. He indicated that the problem was so severe that he was considering moving his corporation to North Carolina and provided some numbers to illustrate the savings should he move. He then forcefully criticized the legislature for high taxes and ridiculed a plan to fund school taxes by a proposed local income tax which would replace property taxes. He made it clear that their is no other revenue stream to get the money and that the "someone else" is taxpayers.
Chris Murray of the Nassau Chamber of Commerce discussed the escalating cost of doing business in Nassau county due to school taxes. He noted that while businesses generally share 20% of the local school tax burden, they have no say in how the money is spent. He advised that audience that the Chamber of Commerce is a willing partner with taxpayers in their quest to reduce the burden of school taxes.
Pat Byrne discussed the need for school employees to share more of their benefits. He discussed the increasing costs of medical benefits and the increased longevity of retirees which are driving up school taxes.
Laurie Pendelakis discussed her career as a school teacher and administrator for 30 years while pointing flaws in our educational system. She addressed the problem of tenure as districts cannot fire poor teachers and why the system fosters medicoracy by giving both good & incompetent teachers the same raises. She discussed the fact that while teachers in a particular school district may receive a 3% raise, they may receive a 4% step increase with a total of 14 possible step increases with varying gradations A, B, C, D. She disagreed with Assemblyman Lavine regarding federal spending on education and made it clear that increased spending does not necessarily mean higher test scores. She then cited explicit examples and called for more accountability.
Frank Russo addressed the need for reform. He criticized the requirement that allows school districts two budget votes when the voters vote down a school budget and called for a change in state law that would allow one budget vote. He addressed austerity budgets which he felt still allow sufficient budgetary increases and should no longer be referred to as austerity budgets. He then discussed changing the day of voting for school board members (excluding school budgets) from May to November on separate voting machines. He also called for reform of the Wicks law that requires different parts of capital improvements be bid separately instead of using one contractor.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy (D) praised the audience for their edurance during a period of great privation and agreed that school taxes, and taxes in general, were too high. He then discussed his effort on a particular issue to streamline a particular department when he was accused of being against nurses. He encouraged the audience not to give up or be intimidated and asked for their help to stand behind those elected officials who stand up for the taxpayers.
- - -
Click HERE to read Newsday report, Turning The Wheels Of Education
- - -
New York State has the 4th highest income tax burden in the nation. Add in the property tax, and New Yorkers have the highest tax burden of any state.
As Bruce Bent considers a move to North Carolina, so to do many Long Islanders give thought to an exodus from skyrocketing taxes, unaffordable housing costs, and a declining quality of life.
Lots of talk. A good thing, as the debate must continue. Let's get the information, the ideas, and the incentives for change out in the public eye, and then, let's insist that our elected officials -- and especially, our State Legislators, who command the Holy Grail of taxation -- act in the taxpayers' best interests.
Nassau County Civic Association Reports On April 6th Melville Meeting
This meeting was held in partnership with LIFER (Long Islanders for Educational Reform. www.lischooltax.com). The meeting was moderated by Peter Kohler of Channel 12 News.
The featured speakers were State Senator John J. Flanagan (R), Assemblymembers Charles Lavine (D) & Marc Alessi (D), Business Leaders Bruce Bent & Chris Murray (Nassau Chamber of Commerce) and civic leaders Pat Byrne (Nesconset-Sachem Civic Association), Laurie Pendelakis (Manhasset Civic Association), and Frank Russo (Port Washington Educational Assembly). County Executive Steve Levy (D) also appeared at the forum and spoke briefly at the end.
Senator John Flanagan discussed his efforts to secure more state funding for Long Island schools and acknowledged the burden of high taxes. He discussed the Medicaid savings to local governments due to the state's agreement to pick up a larger share of Medicaid costs. Senator Flanagan represents 7th District in Smithtown.
Assemblyman Charles Lavine discussed his efforts to secure additional state funding for Long Island School Districts. He then discussed what he viewed as decreasing federal aid and the effort to look for other ways to fund schools. He then asked the audience to vote in favor of their local school budget. Assemblyman Lavine, who represents the 13th AD, defeated incumbent David Sidikman in 2004 as a part of Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi's "Fix Albany" campaign.
Assemblyman Marc Alessi also discussed the agreement for more state aid to Long Island Districts. He then discussed his experience with the state Comptroller's office and the need for reform. After he spoke, he endorsed our efforts to require governmental entities to post their line item budgets.
Businessman Bruce Bent discussed the need for the state to decrease spending and reduce taxes. He indicated that the problem was so severe that he was considering moving his corporation to North Carolina and provided some numbers to illustrate the savings should he move. He then forcefully criticized the legislature for high taxes and ridiculed a plan to fund school taxes by a proposed local income tax which would replace property taxes. He made it clear that their is no other revenue stream to get the money and that the "someone else" is taxpayers.
Chris Murray of the Nassau Chamber of Commerce discussed the escalating cost of doing business in Nassau county due to school taxes. He noted that while businesses generally share 20% of the local school tax burden, they have no say in how the money is spent. He advised that audience that the Chamber of Commerce is a willing partner with taxpayers in their quest to reduce the burden of school taxes.
Pat Byrne discussed the need for school employees to share more of their benefits. He discussed the increasing costs of medical benefits and the increased longevity of retirees which are driving up school taxes.
Laurie Pendelakis discussed her career as a school teacher and administrator for 30 years while pointing flaws in our educational system. She addressed the problem of tenure as districts cannot fire poor teachers and why the system fosters medicoracy by giving both good & incompetent teachers the same raises. She discussed the fact that while teachers in a particular school district may receive a 3% raise, they may receive a 4% step increase with a total of 14 possible step increases with varying gradations A, B, C, D. She disagreed with Assemblyman Lavine regarding federal spending on education and made it clear that increased spending does not necessarily mean higher test scores. She then cited explicit examples and called for more accountability.
Frank Russo addressed the need for reform. He criticized the requirement that allows school districts two budget votes when the voters vote down a school budget and called for a change in state law that would allow one budget vote. He addressed austerity budgets which he felt still allow sufficient budgetary increases and should no longer be referred to as austerity budgets. He then discussed changing the day of voting for school board members (excluding school budgets) from May to November on separate voting machines. He also called for reform of the Wicks law that requires different parts of capital improvements be bid separately instead of using one contractor.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy (D) praised the audience for their edurance during a period of great privation and agreed that school taxes, and taxes in general, were too high. He then discussed his effort on a particular issue to streamline a particular department when he was accused of being against nurses. He encouraged the audience not to give up or be intimidated and asked for their help to stand behind those elected officials who stand up for the taxpayers.
- - -
Click HERE to read Newsday report, Turning The Wheels Of Education
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New York State has the 4th highest income tax burden in the nation. Add in the property tax, and New Yorkers have the highest tax burden of any state.
As Bruce Bent considers a move to North Carolina, so to do many Long Islanders give thought to an exodus from skyrocketing taxes, unaffordable housing costs, and a declining quality of life.
Lots of talk. A good thing, as the debate must continue. Let's get the information, the ideas, and the incentives for change out in the public eye, and then, let's insist that our elected officials -- and especially, our State Legislators, who command the Holy Grail of taxation -- act in the taxpayers' best interests.
Monday, February 13, 2006
The "Fiscal Danger Zone" ~ Taxpayers Beware!
Increased State Aid + Increased School Spending = Increased Property Taxes
In the latest installment of Rand-om Thoughts, George Rand takes a look at the last of the Pataki budgets, and its impact on our schools and our taxes.
The budget presented by Gov. George Pataki last month is his swan-song budget, his last before he moves on to what some predict will be a higher elected office. The governor's record breaking $110.7 billion proposed budget increases spending by 4.1 percent over last year.
No effort is made in the new budget to cut the deficit or reduce the state's $49.4 billion debt which has been called a "fiscal danger zone." In fact, the budget adds $1.5 billion to the debt load, already near the highest in the nation, second only to New Jersey.
Under the proposed budget, public schools would receive $634 million more in state aid, the biggest hike in school aid ever proposed by the governor. In his recent Newsday column, Raymond Keating noted that Gov. Pataki fuels runaway education spending by "hurling record amounts of state taxpayer dollars at public schools. These do nothing to reduce property taxes. Instead, pubic school spending simply mounts ever higher."
Gov. Pataki suggested a $600 million STAR-Plus program that would give a rebate of up to $400 to homeowners if their school districts adopt a spending cap of 4 percent of their budget or 120 percent of the Consumer Price Index.
Don't expect much from that idea; based on school budgets submitted last year, only eight of the 124 school budgets submitted last year on Long Island would fall into the above category. Besides, this is an election year for the entire Legislature and capping school spending is a third-rail issue in politics. Our Albany lawmakers won't go near it.
The STAR (School Tax Relief) program is great for legislators since they can all claim credit for it during election years, but STAR has actually masked the real problem: Long Island's bloated public school budgets have been soaring at four times the inflation rate, driven by skyrocketing teachers' salaries and the cost of their benefits. The Franklin Square school district is projecting a budget increase of 8.6 percent for the coming school year. That's on top of a similar surge last year. How long do they think they could keep this up before homeowners throw in the towel and real estate prices begin to plummet?
Over the past five years, spending by the West Hempstead school district rose by $12 million while the cost of teachers' benefits nearly doubled.
One teacher who coaches sports and supervises kids in the cafeteria has an annual paycheck of $122,700 for less than 10 months of work plus fringe benefits that could be the envy of every private sector employee.
Does this make sense to our legislators or to anyone else?
George Rand
The writer is a resident of Franklin Square.
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George Rand postulates on school spending, property taxes, and the state of education on our island. What's your opinion? The Community Alliance would like to know.
Coming up tomorrow. A teacher's point of view straight from the horse's mouth.
Coming soon: SCHOOL TAX REFORM FORUM. Thursday, April 6, 2006, 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM at the Melville Hilton (Route 110). Elected officials and community leaders will examine the issues and discuss practical solutions. MARK YOUR CALENDARS. Details to follow. SEE Long Islanders For Educational Reform (LIFER).
In the latest installment of Rand-om Thoughts, George Rand takes a look at the last of the Pataki budgets, and its impact on our schools and our taxes.
The budget presented by Gov. George Pataki last month is his swan-song budget, his last before he moves on to what some predict will be a higher elected office. The governor's record breaking $110.7 billion proposed budget increases spending by 4.1 percent over last year.
No effort is made in the new budget to cut the deficit or reduce the state's $49.4 billion debt which has been called a "fiscal danger zone." In fact, the budget adds $1.5 billion to the debt load, already near the highest in the nation, second only to New Jersey.
Under the proposed budget, public schools would receive $634 million more in state aid, the biggest hike in school aid ever proposed by the governor. In his recent Newsday column, Raymond Keating noted that Gov. Pataki fuels runaway education spending by "hurling record amounts of state taxpayer dollars at public schools. These do nothing to reduce property taxes. Instead, pubic school spending simply mounts ever higher."
Gov. Pataki suggested a $600 million STAR-Plus program that would give a rebate of up to $400 to homeowners if their school districts adopt a spending cap of 4 percent of their budget or 120 percent of the Consumer Price Index.
Don't expect much from that idea; based on school budgets submitted last year, only eight of the 124 school budgets submitted last year on Long Island would fall into the above category. Besides, this is an election year for the entire Legislature and capping school spending is a third-rail issue in politics. Our Albany lawmakers won't go near it.
The STAR (School Tax Relief) program is great for legislators since they can all claim credit for it during election years, but STAR has actually masked the real problem: Long Island's bloated public school budgets have been soaring at four times the inflation rate, driven by skyrocketing teachers' salaries and the cost of their benefits. The Franklin Square school district is projecting a budget increase of 8.6 percent for the coming school year. That's on top of a similar surge last year. How long do they think they could keep this up before homeowners throw in the towel and real estate prices begin to plummet?
Over the past five years, spending by the West Hempstead school district rose by $12 million while the cost of teachers' benefits nearly doubled.
One teacher who coaches sports and supervises kids in the cafeteria has an annual paycheck of $122,700 for less than 10 months of work plus fringe benefits that could be the envy of every private sector employee.
Does this make sense to our legislators or to anyone else?
George Rand
The writer is a resident of Franklin Square.
- - -
George Rand postulates on school spending, property taxes, and the state of education on our island. What's your opinion? The Community Alliance would like to know.
Coming up tomorrow. A teacher's point of view straight from the horse's mouth.
Coming soon: SCHOOL TAX REFORM FORUM. Thursday, April 6, 2006, 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM at the Melville Hilton (Route 110). Elected officials and community leaders will examine the issues and discuss practical solutions. MARK YOUR CALENDARS. Details to follow. SEE Long Islanders For Educational Reform (LIFER).
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