The Great Neck School Board always takes is fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers – those who have children in the schools and those who do not – with utmost care and consideration.
Board President Barbara Berkowitz has stated unequivocally the board’s overriding budget philosophy: the school district never asks for a penny more from taxpayers than it absolutely requires to fulfill its mission of providing a quality education that enables each and every child fulfill his potential. I have seen the budget process over the past 2 decades and know this to be true.
In fact, even before the property tax cap became a mandate, our school board kept its tax levy increase to below the CPI, 1.9%. The community was in the midst of tough economic times, though I can barely remember when that hasn’t been the claim. That year, teachers and administrators gave up salary increases they would otherwise have been entitled to.
And in recent years, with the squeeze of state mandates and property tax cap, I have also seen the district cut out programs, reduce its allocations for technology improvements and capital projects, and essentially cut the budget to the bone. Each year, it has become a painful process to watch. And you wonder how soon before this district, like every other one, has to begin to abandon one of its most essential principles, low class size.
This year, despite the fact that the terrible economic times have ended (though people still complain), the board is applying an unexpected windfall to lower the tax levy a full percentage point below the allowed cap, while retaining $1 million in cuts that had already been put into the budget in order to stay below the cap.
But is this the right thing to do?
In fact, Gov. Cuomo’s property tax cap makes doing the “right” thing the “wrong” thing to do.
Here’s what happened: the school board cut $1.3 million from budget in order to keep under the allowed property tax cap, 2.39 percent. Then a judge ruled against Nassau County’s attempt to shift liability for its failed assessment system onto school districts. Losing that case would have cost the district $2.2 million – 1 percent of its education budget.
Think of how many teachers’ salaries could be paid for with $2.2 million. Great Neck was one of the few districts that had set aside money in its budget in the event Nassau County prevailed, so that it wouldn’t be forced to fire teachers.
So, when the school board learned that the county lost its appeal (and now intends to go after towns to pay the tax refunds), it decided to use $1.9 million to reduce the amount of revenue raised through property tax, bringing the tax levy increase down to 1.37 percent – a full percentage point – and only $300,000 to restore some of the cuts.
In a normal world, that would be a proper and appropriate course of action for the School Board.
But that is the wrong thing to do when the governor is working to starve public schools of funding, wiping out reserves in order to push privatization and ultimate consolidation.
The court ruling that freed up $2.3 million is a one-time event, but cutting $1 million from the budget this year will mean that going forward, year after year, the district will be $1 million down and forced to make additional cuts next year and the year after, and so on.
So far, this district has managed to avoid the disastrous cuts that have forced other districts to cut sports teams, arts, music, theater programs; extra-curriculars, science, and finally, forcing school districts to fire teaching staff – until nothing is left that isn’t specifically mandated under the state’s high-states testing regimen.
But last year, this budget process came dangerously close to impacting our classrooms, when the budget process forced the school district to cut 40 full-time-equivalent positions from the staff.
The tax cap, mind you, does not take into account increasing enrollments in the schools or in the district. For 2014-5, we are expected to have 40 more students in our school buildings – an increase of 0.63% to 6432 students for the 2014-5 school year. In fact, there are 1,000 more students enrolled in our district schools than there were in 1992-3.
Nor does the property tax cap take into account who these students are – the demographic shifts that take place in a community, or even the fact that secondary education is more expensive than elementary (which is why for-profit charter schools always target elementary grades), or what number are special needs or English Language Learners, which also carry extra demands.
The property tax cap does not care about any of this. To the state, students are widgets not individuals with individual needs or potential.
And who knows how many other school-age children in the district attend parochial and private schools for whom the district is obligated to provide transportation (almost $5 million for private and parochial students) plus nursing care, testing materials and textbooks.
This year, though, there is absolutely no reason to cut $1 million out of the budget – money that we will then have to cut again next year and the year after, in perpetuity – because if the budget stays at the cap, 2.37%, Cuomo says the state will rebate the increase to homeowners (the State Assembly seems to be balking at this notion, but says it will send back money in some form).
In fact, in the same way that Great Neck sends way more income tax to the state than we get back in state aid (remembering only 3 percent of our budget is funded from state aid, versus 30-50 percent of most other school districts), if the budget comes in under the cap, it would cheat taxpayers out of the rebate from the state.
Cuomo’s idea for next year’s property tax freeze comes with an additional requirement that the district show some manner of consolidation or increased efficiency. But this school district already works in concert with other districts on cooperative purchasing through BOCES, and even inter-municipal cooperation with other entities in the town, such as the Great Neck Park District.
What is more, our district does such a superb job with students who have special needs or who need alternative settings, that districts pay tuition amounting to $2 million to send their students to our special education classes, SEAL Academy and Village School.
Now, Cuomo is getting push-back from the Assembly on giving a tax rebate (they prefer a circuit breaker based on income). But even if taxpayers do not get the $1 million back, it is still in my view a bad policy to cut out the $1 million in spending instead of meeting the cap.
Great Neck Superintendent Thomas Dolan says that on March 31, when he reviews where the $1 million in cuts are being made, we won’t be upset – for example, they will cut the print advertising budget because it isn’t necessary since most of the district’s advertising is online, and they will not be replacing the retiring Attendance Registrar, saving $104,000.
But I am remembering that the district was saddled with $200,000 in unanticipated expense by virtue of the scandalously flawed Common Core testing which caused 30 percent of our students (versus maybe 5 percent in a typical year) to be mandated to undergo Academic Intervention Services. Dr. Dolan says that there is sufficient funding in the budget to cover such an eventuality again.
On the other hand, it seems to be that areas that had been neglected for these many years of slashing the budget to the bone, could be fleshed up again – neglected repairs, technology acquisition which had been set aside, and the capital budget which enables us to avoid going for bonds as other districts have to.
During his presentation of the proposed budget, John Powell, the district’s business manager, put our budget into context – something that is rarely appreciated. Some of the key points:
Out of nearly 5,000 municipalities in New York State, only 23 have been rated AAA by the key Bond rating agencies like Moody’s, and of these, only a handful are school districts – Byram Hills, Chappaqua, Mamaroneck, Manhasset, Rye, Scarsdale, Southampton and Great Neck Union Free District. (Interestingly, Manhasset is now designated as in financial stress because of low reserves low, and taxing at capacity).
When you live in your own bubble, you don’t know how to relate our school spending and tax levy in context.
Mr. Powell offered charts which show where Great Neck places among 15 comparable school districts (such as Jericho, Manhasset, Port Washington) in budgeted spending, school tax levy, school enrollment and undesignated fund balance.
We rank No. 1 in budgeted spending, undesignated fund balance and school tax levy, and No. 2 in enrollment size.
But when you look at spending compared to enrollment, Great Neck was No, 7, at $30,387 per enrolled student (Jericho is No. 1 at $37,000); No, 5 in tax levy by enrollment ($28,654), and No. 4 in undesignated fund balance by enrollment ($1,256) in the 2012-13 budget year.
In the 2013-14 budget year, Great Neck is again No. 1 in total size of budget, school levy and No. 2 in enrollment, but by enrolled student, we fall to No 6 ($32,854), No. 5 in tax levy per enrolled student ($30,218), and No. 6 in undesignated fund balance per enrolled student ($1,314).
Great Neck is No. 2 out of the 15 districts in “charges for services” per enrolled student ($578.26) but dead last, No. 15, in the amount of state aid per student ($1034.10) and No. 14 (though it is not clear why this isn’t No. 15) in the amount of federal aid per student ($0.00).
Essentially, we have a large enrollment, a quality program but are basically on our own with minimal amount of state and federal aid.
In the 1979-80 year, Great Neck received 12.80 percent of its funding from state aid – the percentage has fallen steadily since then. These days, we do not even get in absolute dollars the amount we got from the state in 1990-01 (let alone factoring in inflation), when there were only 5,311 students in our schools, more than 1,000 fewer than today (all this information is provided in the budget book).
What is more, after the financial crisis of 2009, the New York State arbitrarily cut school aid – it cost Great Neck millions of dollars – and even though New York State’s economy has recovered from the recession, there is still a gap in the state aid Great Neck receives of $1.6 million.
The cost over a three-year period, noted trustee Don Ashkenase, who is a member of the Finance Committee, is $4,982,365 – money that is never returning to the district, and each year forces the district to cut more out of our budget.
Now let’s look at what is being proposed for the 2014-15 budget:
Actual spending (the budget) will increase just 1.94 percent, to $213,502,695 – that seems like a paltry amount. The difference in the percent raised from the tax levy is how much of the fund balance is being allocated from reserves and also a significant increase in revenues the school district is now getting from charging back the cost of allowing groups to use its facilities; and from tuition for students from outside the district to enter the SEAL Academy, the special education program and the Village School, the alternative high school.
Alternatively, if Great Neck does not restore the $1 million in cuts, we will forever be that much further behind, that much further away from being able to control our educational program – founded in providing the resources so that each every child can fulfill their potential – that much closer to exhausting our reserves and that much more vulnerable to being forcibly consolidated with other school districts.
But even if the state does not rebate the increase, I maintain the district is harmed over time by cutting $1 million. But hardly anyone will notice – or thank the district – for a $120 difference in a $12,000 tax bill.
The reality is, though, that even when the school budget keeps a tax increase to less than 2 percent, a big proportion of us see much bigger increases in our school taxes (which account for 65 percent of property tax bill). That’s because approximately one-third of your neighbors each year win tax certioaris, the rest of us pay for those refunds.
Also, each year, Nassau County decides the “base proportion” – what percentage of the total tax pie will be paid from the four different classes of real property, and over the years, there has been a steady shift from commercial property owners onto residential owners.
The is true with the county’s love of giving commercial enterprises tax incentives, like PILOTs (payment in lieu of taxes). A company may get the tax break, but you, the homeowner, pay for it.
As a result, last year, when the budget would have called for a 2 percent increase in school taxes, many people found their tax bills rise 8 or 9 percent.
I suspect the same will be true this year, whether or not the tax increase is 1.37 percent or 2.39 percent.
None of this figures into the Governor’s campaign against school districts. He continues to demonize local governments, especially school districts, as being the source of the crippling property tax (interesting that both New Jersey and New York claim the highest property tax).
Just last week Cuomo issued a statement on the 2014-2015 Budget Negotiations that showed his contempt for local governments, including school districts:
“The main budget issue will be whether we have the will to do what is politically difficult and attack the waste and duplication of local governments that drive up property taxes. Property taxes are the single largest and most devastating tax in our state. I understand the pressure from local officials who want a ‘business as usual’ approach, but I also understand the crushing burden of these property taxes on homeowners across New York. Providing a state subsidy as a bandage to temporarily alleviate the pain of ever rising property taxes is the kind of short sighted approach we left behind three years ago. We must reduce the dysfunction and waste – not enable and subsidize it.
“The future of charter schools must be protected in this budget, and I will fight to ensure that it is. Reforms to Common Core must be enacted to ensure that our students are not unfairly harmed by its implementation.”
Cuomo’s interest is to crush public schools – largely because he wishes to cripple the teachers union (and in both these things, he is following the line of right-wing conservatives who despite public education, teachers’ unions and common core – Cuomo only likes the part of Common Core that is used to penalize teachers).
Cuomo has made it clear – it is spelled out in his budget proposal – he wants privatized charter schools (think about how Eva Moskowitz, a former councilwoman and mayoral wannabe who runs Success Academy, earns $500,000 a year) and he pushes for computer-based instruction (Murdoch’s Amplify, headed by former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein are big beneficiaries), and he wants to force school districts to spend down their reserves until they go bankrupt or are forced to consolidate.
Here’s what Cuomo had to say in answer to a Crain’s Business prompt, “Advocacy groups say you’re underfunding education”:
“The educational groups [saying] we don’t spend enough money [are] funded by the teachers’ union, which has a vested interest in making the answer “It’s about more money; it’s about more salaries and more benefits.” That’s not what it’s about. [They have names like] the Blessed Virgins for Education, the Good Citizens for a Better Tomorrow. [They] should be called Lobbyists for the Teachers’ Union. Otherwise it’s misleading.”
Let’s understand Cuomo’s true intent. We need to arm our public schools, which at the same time will preserve our home values while doing the best possible thing in the world to help our children fulfill their potential.
I hope that as the school board goes forward in the budget preparations process, it will take these remarks into account.
The next board of education public hearing on the Budget is Monday, March 31 at Great Neck South High School (341 Lakeville Road), at 8:30 p.m.
Then, on Saturday, April 5, we all get to see zero-based budgeting in action, when the Great Neck Public Schools Board of Education conducts a line-item budget review with administrative staff – essentially asking for explanation and justification for every item in the budget. This meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. at South High School, 341 Lakeville Rd. (Info: 441-4001).
