Money for Our Schools

By Doug Geed

   The numbers are pretty staggering -- approximately 4-million dollars in Levittown, North Babylon, Elmont, Baldwin, Deer Park and Bellmore. 2-million for Amityville, Wantagh, Roosevelt, Plainedge and Kings Park. 11-and-a-half million for Hempstead, 12-million for Sachem and nearly 30-million for Long Island's largest school district, Brentwood.

   Those dollar amounts represent how much LESS in state aid school districts across the Island would get under the proposed state budget from Gov. Paterson.

   Even if you don't know much about politics or how our local governments work, it easy to see that it's bad news. If a school district is taking in less money, it usually turns to you, the homeowner, and imposes a tax hike to replenish it. And remember, school taxes make up about two-thirds of the average Long Islander's property tax bill. If you pay 6-thousand a year in taxes, 4-thousand of that goes to your school district. So a 5 or 10-percent increase in your school taxes is a lot more devastating than a 5 or 10-percent hike in your county taxes.

    Now there is some good news. I spoke with a long-time state legislator who's very familiar with the school aid process. He didn't want to be quoted because in these unprecedented economic times, it's hard to predict anything. But he feels certain that those aid numbers will get better.

   It's a political game that gets played every year in the state. The Governor -- whether a Democrat or Republican -- proposes a certain amount for school aid. Then state legislators (who have to face all those angry voters in their local supermarkets, fire houses and PTA meetings who feel like their district isn't getting its fair share) make sure they boost the amount of state aid that will be included in the final state budget that they vote on.

  Another wild card is the federal stimulus plan. A chunk of money (no one knows the final amount yet) will be given to states for the specific purpose of helping local school districts avoid program cuts, teacher layoffs and tax hikes.

   So the final figures should be a lot better than they are right now. Still, the legislator I spoke with says it's likely some districts will see a decrease in state aid -- some about the same -- and for a few, a slight increase.

   I wish the news was better, but unfortunately, the recession hits every aspect of our daily life. All you can do is urge your child to make the most out of everything your school district has to offer. Maybe they'll come out a lot smarter than we did and won't let the country slip into the mess we created.

  Click on this link for a list of the proposed cuts for each district on the island.

Comments

[SUSAN L.RUDNICK]

DEAR DOUG: READ THE BLOG I WROTE TO COLLEEN YESTERDAY IN REGARD TO THE INCOMING CHANCELLOR @ SUNY OLD WESTBURY.MORE MONEY FOR PERKS-BUT NO FUNDING-IN FACT TAKING AWAY FUNDING FOR OUR LOCAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS ACROSS THE ISLAND!THIS IS AN OUT AND OUT DISREGARD FOR OUR CHILDREN WHO WILL BE THE FUTURE LEADERS OF OUR COUNTRY.WHAT IS TO KEEP THEM HERE ON THE ISLAND ANYMORE?GOV PATTERSON WAS NOT ELECTED INTO OFFICE,HE WAS APPOINTED TO REPLACE A PERSON WHO WAS SHAMED OUT OF OFFICE.TIME TO ELECT A MORE CARING AND RESPONSIBLE GOVERNOR! SUAN L.RUDNICK OF AMITYVILLE

[Lisa]

I can't believe that the Governor's proposal to cut schools that much would even be a thought in his head. What is he saying about the future of our kids? It's bad enough that there isn't enough money to keep up with the changes in this world, but now, there's barely enough money to do what is mandated. Why is the government so insistant on controling all aspects of life? Not everyone's an expert in any field so why not leave it to the experts and let them do their jobs! Many new teachers, those who just graduated, those who are starting their families, those who want to buy their own houses, and those who are still paying off their college loans, have no where to go after they lose their jobs. What job will they get now when no one is hiring in the field they studied in college? No one's hiring so where will they go? Then there are those teachers who sit in the same chairs, at the same desks, who use the same "dittoes" that they used many, many years ago, as beginning teachers, who should retire, but who won't just for the principle of the matter. Make room for those who are just starting! If you don't care about the kids anymore and you're just trying to squeeze the life out of the district, you're wasting your time and the time of our kids! Save jobs! Make room for the newbies! Someone made room for you!

[John]

Isn't it amazing how the state always has money to maintain (for example) the Mental Retardation organization (not to be confused with the "Mental Health" office), the Office for the Aging, and the Division of Human Rights--each of which involves quite a few six-figure-salaried administrators--but squeezing out a few million extra to get the kids to learn something? Bah!

Better to go after the massive sweeping violations in human rights across the state (does overtaxing us into indenture count?) than get us someone who can run a company in five years, I guess.

(One can find every State salary at seethroughny.net--it's nice to know, for example, that LIPA's Kevin Law makes about twice as much money as the governor.)

Also, I'm reading the 2008 CAFR (the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report--Google will find it immediately on the NYS website, if you search "new york cafr"). I notice three items of interest:

1. Taxes account for a mere ten percent of the state's budget, twelve billion dollars (p31). Federal grants are half that. Remember, that's when the economy was supposedly good, just about eleven months ago.

2. The state owns seventy-four billion dollars in real estate (and paying off another half of that, also p31). Before cutting services and hiking taxes, perhaps Paterson could sell a small fraction of the land assets.

3. The state spends about twenty billion dollars on education (p36). Meanwhile, apparently left un-cut, is the three billion dollars in "Other Fringe Benefits."

I could go on, but instead I would recommend that somebody at News 12 consider reading up on this information (if you do your own taxes, you can probably follow the report) and maybe try to bring Comptroller Tom DiNapoli back down to Long Island for a quick discussion on where the large surpluses of last year went, if only tax and Federal revenue has decreased. You know, make him earn his hundred and fifty thousand bucks...