In the second year of the state’s property tax cap, voters have reason to question whether the tax cap is good for Long Island.
It’s understandable why the law, which limits year-to-year property tax hikes to 2 percent, was at first popular, especially here.
Nassau County residents pay some of the highest property taxes in the country. They are looking for relief.
Voters can override the cap by a vote of 60 percent. The New York State United Teachers union has challenged the tax cap in court. They argue that any requirement beyond a simple majority rule is unfair. It’s certainly undemocratic.
They of course have a vested interest in allowing the local school boards to control their own budgets. Proponents of the tax cap say raises for administrators are part, if not much, of the reason why budgets and property taxes go up every year.
A cursory look at the budgets in our coverage area shows this is not the case. The superintendents of these very successful school districts note that in any given year there can be fixed costs that are out of their control.
That begs the question: how did the state legislators in Albany arrive at the cap of 2 percent?
Was it as completely arbitrary as it appears? And why is a “60 percent supermajority” needed to override the cap? Why not 51 percent?
In a letter to the editor, Laurann Pandelakis, a strong supporter of the tax cap, notes that only seven school districts on Long Island failed to come up with budgets under the 2 percent tax cap and, sadly she says, Manhasset where she lives was one of them.
“Only those institutions that are led by inspired leaders and skilled managers flourish,” she writes. “It is time for the Manhasset School Board to show the leadership and skill for the task ahead.”
She assumes that people voted against the proposed budget in Manhasset because they questioned the leadership or the quality of the schools. Could it not just as well be that many of the voters opposing the proposed budget knew nothing about the schools, have no children attending these schools and had only one driving interest – lowering their taxes?
It is just as likely that most of the people voting for the school budgets in all of the districts did not take the time to read the lengthy documents that were published on the Internet.
In another letter to the editor, Maureen Lavin, also of Manhasset, writes, “By voting no in the Manhasset school budget, you are only hurting our children. The politicians who could help don’t even know that you voted no.
“Your no vote is silent to them, but it will be screaming at our children next year… For those parents who didn’t bother to vote or who voted no, blame yourself when your child’s program is cut or his class size is increased.”
To be fair, other school districts in our coverage area came in under the 2 percent cap. Roslyn barely fell in under the state-mandated figure. The $209 million schools budget in Great Neck was approved by a vote 1,183 to 321. The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Board of Education adopted a $35,525,755 budget that allowed the district to stay below the state-mandated tax cap.
All of these districts are doing an outstanding job.
But situations change from year to year and we believe it is not in anyone’s best interest to force these districts to set their budgets under an arbitrary cap that cannot be overridden by a simple majority vote.
