A team of auditors from the state Comptroller’s Office announced they found inaccuracies with the Manhasset School District’s retirement incentive program; specifically one teacher was overpaid and four were underpaid, resulting in a $29,564 error (Manhasset Times, Audit of school district reveals payment errors, Chris Adams, 8/12/2016).
Unfortunately, state auditors missed an $8.3 million “error” which a local grass roots organization, Manhasset Proponents for School Accountability, was able to uncover by simply reviewing the school district’s annual reports.
According to MPSA, the Manhasset School Board underestimated revenues and overestimated expenses in crafting annual budgets.
In 2012-2013 the school budget surplus was $1,537,000.
In 2013-2014 taxpayers were overcharged by $3,042,000 and in 2014-2015, the overcharge was $3,717,000.
Taxpayers were effectively over taxed by $8.3 million over a three-year period.
When a school district pads a budget by 3 percent, circumvents the tax cap by 1 percent (as did Manhasset school district via the capital bond) and then adds up to 2 percent allowed by the tax cap, property taxes effectively rise 6 percent and the process is compounded annually.
According to MPSA, rather than return the overcharges to the taxpayer, many Long Island school districts inexplicably hire more staff despite declining enrollments and raise salaries 3-5 percent annually, while announcing a budget within the 2 percent cap.
Taxpayers rely on certified public accountants to verify the accuracy of school budgets.
They expect the comptroller’s office to investigate potential abuses and the Prosecutors Office is charged with enforcing the law.
The timidity of our officials to take on the educational establishment is a sad sign of the times.
Laurann Pandelakis
Manhasset
Readers Write: School district taxing too much
