Reflections On the 2011 School Budget Season…

Another school budget season has come and gone and Long Islanders have again shown their support for maintaining a strong education system.

While those that voted in the affirmative for spending plans for the 2011-12 school year applauded the outcome, there are many who are disappointed by passage of most proposed school budgets.

Obviously, high property taxes are a concern for all across Nassau and Suffolk counties, and school costs account for nearly two-thirds of all property tax bills.

But while more than half of property taxes collected go to cover school costs, is the anger that was directed in an at times vile way at school board trustees and teachers misdirected?

Perhaps.

The issue facing boards of education across the island this year was having to overcome some dramatic reductions in state aid. As our representatives in Albany looked to refrain from raising taxes, they cut state aid to school districts. The result? They (state officials) indirectly raised our taxes.

How? Well it’s quite simple actually.

Our local assemblyman and state senators will tell you they held the line on taxes. While there may be some truth in that statement, what Albany politicians did is in fact redirect the tax burden. They washed their hands of their responsibility to provide funding to local schools and put more of the burden square on the property tax payers.

“We didn’t raise your taxes, it was the out-of-control school boards,” they could be heard saying.

But, if each school district across Long Island would have received state aid this year equal to that of last year, tax rate increases would have been much lower. Perhaps each of us would have paid a few dollars more in state income tax, but there’s a good chance that the increase in state taxes would have been far less than the increases local property taxpayers are now facing.

This past November, State Sen. Brian Foley was tossed out of Albany by voters for his support of the MTA Tax, something that impacted businesses and did not have a direct impact on local taxpayers. But the fact that he voted for a new tax angered voters in his district and they made a change.

Perhaps it’s time to do the same elsewhere.

Maybe if voters across Nassau and Suffolk told their state elected officials that they’re tired of the state shifting the tax burden down stream, maybe things will change and the property tax burden would lessen a bit.

Or maybe it’s time to elect a new crop of state representatives in the hopes of finding a person courageous enough to find another way to fund our schools or at least fund local schools in a more equitable way.

But for politicians focused mainly on self-preservation, that might be asking just a bit too much.

Advertisement