We were quite an intimidating group.
One hundred of Long Island’s Tea Party members, traveling to Albany by chartered bus, just to support Gov. Cuomo and his 2 percent tax cap legislation. Idealistic? You bet.
Don’t listen to Chris Matthews, the Tea Party will fight for a fabulous bill even if it’s proposed by a Democrat.
For many in our group, this was their first experience participating in the democratic process. But as we found out later that day, expressing our first amendment rights was not all that easy or safe as we had anticipated.
Many of us are veterans or retired seniors. Some took an unpaid day off to attend. All were Tea Party loyalists and united in their support for Gov. Cuomo’s innovative 2 percent tax-cap legislation.
How appropriate it was that a tax issue was the one that unified all of us. You see, the modern Tea Party movement was founded in part to lower taxes and put the money back into the hands of the taxpayers, where it could be spent not only more economically but exactly where the local community wants and needs it.
Actually, our Tea Party stands for T.E.A., or “taxed enough already.”
Some of you have listened to Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner and Peter King rant against the Tea Party as totally disruptive, un-American, right-wing extremists who should be banned from the political arena.
Somewhere, lost in their rhetoric and their own political agenda was the fact that they have finally met a group of citizens actually ready and willing to fight for their cause.
Why is it so irritating to both political parties when issues such as constitutional rights, individual freedoms, national security, and personal responsibility are defended?
Can you blame us for opposing the hierarchy of both Republicans and Democrats alike?
What happened to us in “the well” or lobby of the New York State Senate building was truly frightening.
As we sat there, patiently listening to the speakers, all of a sudden, the Capitol police totally disappeared and we were surrounded by several hundred screaming, threatening, violent, union thugs, all trying to intimidate us into leaving the building.
I guess this 68-year-old senior-citizen, all five foot, eight inch, 148 pounds of Brooklyn-born toughness, must have really surprised them. They screamed at us. They threatened to beat us up. They called us bigots, racists, haters of children and right wing extremists.
It didn’t work. We stayed, we remained calm and professional. We were convinced that it was our constitutional right to be there.
To make matters worse for those union tough guys, by the end of the day not only did this group of Long Island old geezers like me defy them, but we actually won.
The 2 percent tax cap had passed and is now the law.
We knew that our kid’s education would not suffer one bit if schools were limited to a 2 percent increase in their school budget. Not even a decrease, just less than a 2 percent tax increase. Is that so much to ask from our teachers? I guess it is. We also knew that higher taxes were strangling many Long Island residents. Many were leaving and moving to less expensive areas.
I truly will never forget that day. The 2 percent cap was signed into law in 2011 by Gov. Cuomo and must be renewed by the state Legislature after five years. It caps the limit on yearly property tax increases to 2 percent.
In typical New York politics, the powerful teachers union pressured the legislature into adding certain exemptions or cutouts which took much of the clout out of the bill and sometimes allowed more than a 2 percent increase. But it was a start and the ever rising trend of tax increases had been reduced.
The most important part of this bill is that if a school budget pierces the district’s 2 percent tax cap, it must be approved by a subsequent 60 percent vote of the electorate.
So as our kids return to school, all of which are bound by this tax cap, I ask all you parents the following:
1 – Do you actually see any difference in your kid’s education now that your multi-million dollar school budget only increased by 2 percent or less?
2 – This year, the Nassau County election features candidates who are finally running on a platform of not raising taxes. Is this really harming your kids education or, in this economy, could it be a little easier for you to now pay your tax bills?
3 – Maybe politicians have gotten the message, that in spite of the lobbying efforts of the teachers union, a lower increase in your school budget may not effect your kid’s education at all. School boards are finally examining their bloated budgets and extravagant teacher contracts.
4 – Do you know that last year, the second year that the tax cap was in effect, of the 28 school districts statewide who attempted to override their caps, 21 were voted down?
5 – This 2 percent increase is not a reduction in your school budget at all, but just a lower increase in them.
6 – Just because school boards spend more of your taxpayer dollars I doubt it automatically insures a better education.
7 – Higher taxes reduces the number of couples with children who could afford moving into our area. This results in fewer children entering our school system.
8 – Gov. Cuomo’s new tenure and teacher evaluation reform is, by far, the most important improvement in our kid’s education this year. For once, the process of removing incompetent teachers has really been simplified and made more realistic.
But now, two years later, it’s quite startling to watch how two different school districts have handled this tax cap. First, lets see how Rocky Point has done. A new contract between the Rocky Point School District and it’s teachers’ union has the most amazing formula to determine future salary raises. They will be based on the tax cap.
They are the only district in the state to adopt this type of precedent setting agreement. Congratulations must go to the Rocky Point school board and to their teachers’ union. Your formula will probably spread throughout the state.
Then there is the embarrassment of the Brentwood School District. After blaming the teachers’ union for part of their financial plight, the union responded by taking out an ad in the local paper, of course blaming the school board.
What childish behavior, sounds like Obama. Always blame someone else for your failures.
Their district surely has enough blame to go around. Sounds like a no-brainer. All the union had to do was to agree to a wage freeze for 2013-2014 and the school board agreed to avoid any layoffs in their attempt to balance the budget. In typical union fashion, union president Kevin Coyne refused any wage freeze and demanded a deferred pay-raise instead.
What chutzpah. Another brilliant union demand.
Just give the bill to their grandchildren to pay instead. Just kick the tax bill down the road. The school board stuck by its guns this time and followed through with it’s threatened layoffs.
Seats at union meetings are really easy to get these days as the new budget included 82 positions which were lost. This included 21 assistant coaching positions.
The union leadership must now explain to the families of these unemployed teachers why it was better not to accept a one year salary freeze rather than lose 82 teachers. What do the union officers care? They still have their jobs while their members are stuck with unemployment and very few available teaching positions.
Maybe the union will offer the 82 unemployed teachers jobs as union thugs to threaten Tea Party members instead of teaching our children. What great role models.
Dr. Stephen Morris
North Hills
