2% Tax Cap?
The New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) has just issued a 12 page report on what a 2% tax cap will do to schools statewide.
The report – “Property Tax Cap: Pass or Fail for School Districts” – highlights the impact of a tax cap and offers seven alternatives that would be more effective than a property tax cap at lowering the cost of public education and reducing the property tax burden.
This is an excellent summary of the issues and 7 reasonable alternatives that the State legislature should consider. Here is the link:
Posted in Around the District and School Closings 13 years, 4 months ago at 12:49 pm. 7 comments
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Here’s an idea. Maybe John should move into the Herricks district and run for the BOE there. Once he has everything squared away and running fiscally sound like he did here over the past 10+ years we can enter into a merge study………………NAH!
Over this past weekend I was reading the Williston Times and the article I was reading discribed a very unfortunate situation. It seems that a local school district was in deep financial distress. That the district had a six million dollar hole in it’s 2011 budget. That the district superintendant was deeply concerned about layoffs and cuts in student programs. That there was significant discord between members of the local teachers union and and local tax payers and parents of this district’s students ! Imagine that . But the most surprising part of the story was that it wasn’t about the Mineola School district ! This story was telling the unfortunate tale of our neighbors just to the northwest. The Herricks school district . The very same district that John McGrath suggested we merge with. There’s nothing like doing your homework first. Kudos again to the members of our board and Dr. Nagler who would not be misled by this nonsense. Is consolidation the future ? Certainly, but districts should have their fiscal houses in order before pursuing such a course of action. Welcome to new reality.
Two more Races to the Top could be coming to New York — this time courtesy of Governor Andrew Cuomo.
In his first State of the State speech today, Cuomo proposed creating two new competitive grant funds for state school districts, worth $250 million each.
The first grant would reward districts that boost students’ academic performance. The second would go to districts that find ways to cut costs that don’t affect the classroom.
“Competition works,” Cuomo said, pointing to the state legislature’s passage of a charter cap lift bill as part of its (eventually successful) bid to win Race to the Top funds.
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Sounds to me, Mineola will be right in the running for it’s proactive approach to cost cutting.
After what our school district has been through the last 6-12 months attempting to put our fiscal house in order it should come as no surprise to anyone that the world is a very different place. The crisis that we face is not local, statewide, or national but global. And the solutions to these problems are going to be painful because all the sources of the easy money have dried up. And judging by the article that Dr. Nagler included there is going to be a lively debate as too how to solve our problems here in New York. But as the expression states…”think global..act local.” So I’d also like to thank the three members of the school board that made the difficult decisions and acted responsibly. To Mr. McGrath and Ms. Parrino I’d like to say thanks for the comedic relief in the unsuccessful attempt to merge with our unsuspecting neighbors in Herricks . So, what I will propose at the next school board meeting will be a surprise direct assult against the Wheatly school district. With the Varsity and Jv football teams ,supported by the Marching Band, all in full dress uniform, we will march down Hillside Avenue and declare our control over their district and all the spoils that go with it. They’ll never see it coming . Why waste our time with the Herricks school district, the real dough is in Wheatley ! You ever see those big houses over there ?
Very promising ideas. Chock full of great ideas directly addressing the economic crisis affecting our school budgets. Much better than the tax cap, don’t you think? I wonder if it can make it through all the bureaucracy in time to really make the difference we desperately need.
After reading the NYSSBA report, I want to thank the Board Majority and the Superintendent for being pro-active in addressing the issues facing the district.
Anyone with any doubts about supporting the consolidation efforts should carefully read the report. The escalating costs described are real issues that all districts will face. Even if the Governor and Legislature take some of the recommended actions, the changes won’t occur overnight and will face severe lobbying efforts.
Ahh yes, the unfunded mandate. Tell the schools they can only increase their tax levies by 2% and at the same time provide no additional state aid. School districts will be hamstrung and unable to sustain their current programs.
It would seem that Mineola’s proactive approach to making difficult cuts outside of programs will go a long way towards weathering this latest storm.