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Post by Wantagh Parent on Apr 29, 2009 9:13:45 GMT -5
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Apr 29, 2009 11:41:11 GMT -5
...as the cheerleaders raise the chant--listen now, you can hear it building--reverberating through the crowd, resonating to the rafters:
"We're NUMBER ONE!"
"We're NUMBER ONE!"
"We're NUMBER ONE!"
Listen, I do support passing this budget. Failing the budget this year is NOT the best way to bring about a new vision for the finances of our school district, especially with a new administration about to take the helm in Wantagh.
What is the correct solution for THIS YEAR?
Pass the budget; dump the school board incumbent and his stale, rigidly entrenched and wrong ideas, and, elect someone new, someone with solid, real-world financial experience to the school board.
Let's get on this!
Chris Wendt
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Post by dotherightthing1 on Apr 29, 2009 12:09:05 GMT -5
Looks like we are the highest budget (year to year ) increase in Nassau, 2nd highest on LI. Tax levy increase is 7th highest in Nassau and 16th highest( out of 119 total districts) on LI.
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ducky
Junior Member
Posts: 34
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Post by ducky on Apr 29, 2009 13:58:14 GMT -5
This budget is clearly excessive and unfairly burdens the community with little gain for the kids since the VAST majority of the money is going to Administrators, clerical staff and teachers all of whom get 12 month salaries for 180 days of work, and not a full day in most cases. The median household income of $89000, can't continue to pay $10,000+ in taxes. The median salary in the schools is higher than the median HOUSEHOLD income in the community. That ia impossible to cintinue.
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Post by taxpayer on May 1, 2009 11:54:39 GMT -5
I have been a Wantagh taxpayer for over 30 years and have always believed in a progressive school system including a robust sports program. However, this year’s proposed tax increase is absurd given the economic downturn and its corrosive impact on all of us. The Board’s budget power point presentation tries to neatly justify the tax hike but FAILS to explain why Wantagh ranks first in Nassau in terms of a budget increase. I am sure that while other districts care as much for the educational well being of their children they seems able to do so with less. Does Wantagh have more sport teams than other comparatively sized districts? If Wantagh’s cost per student ranks so low compared to other districts why we are unable to realistically contain expenditures while persevering educational quality and taxpayer fairness. Hopefully someone can provide clarity on why our district is Nassau Counties tax hike champion!
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Post by Chris_Wendt on May 1, 2009 12:14:53 GMT -5
You have two (2) great opportunities to ask this question:
1. Monday night at 8:00 at the High School Auditorium is Meet the Candidates Night. One of the two candidates is Ralph Spagnolo, President of the Board of Education, and therefore he is also the authoritative spokesperson for the entire board. I would suggest you frame your question the way you would like it to be asked of President Spagnolo and write it down on a 3x5 card or similarly sized piece of paper.
2. On Thursday night at 8:00 in the auditorium the entire Board of Education will be presenting the budget powerpoint. This will be part of the state-mandated "Budget Hearing". There, you will have the opportunity to address your question directly to the entire board and senior administrators. Again, I would suggest you write out your question and bring it to the microphone and read it to the board. If you are not comfortable speaking in public or with a microphone, look for me at the meeting and perhaps I can present your question to the board, depending upon how it is phrased. (This is NOT an open invitation to anyone to have me present questions other than my own).
If you miss these opportunities your only other choice will be to express yourself at the polls on May 19th. Now, I am encouraging everyone to VOTE FOR THE BUDGET, so I am really hoping you will avail yourself of one or both of next week's meetings to get your questions answered.
Even if you don't like the answers, I urge you to focus your reaction on voting President Ralph Spagnolo OFF the school board but approving the budget. I know that passing the budget may be a tall order for some people, but you identified yourself as a "believer" in progressive education and a robust sports program, so I would like to think you will do the right thing and VOTE YES for the budget.
Sincerely, Chris Wendt
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Post by bnjasper on May 1, 2009 13:18:03 GMT -5
Not sure if this is the right thread but...did you see todays Citizen. Great reporting on page one..."the BAC presented the proposed budget to the BOE..." then ..."Dr. Bonuso reported that Wantagh was lower..." The letter supporting a yes vote talks to propaganda and inaccurate information. Does that include the 1.3 million the BOE told the community was going to reduce the tax rate and then was pulled back after the second vote (w/o telling the public)? How does the education system explain to students that the community voted no but the BOE called for a re-vote without any change. Why pick on the seniors when the BOE should be the first place frustration should be pointed.
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Post by taxpayer on May 1, 2009 19:27:05 GMT -5
I intend to get answers to my questions but intuitively believe ( based in part on your recommendation to void Ralph's tenure on the Board) the explanations will be underwhelming. I have several concerns about the budget process and its lack of clarity regarding the issues that concern me ( I have reviewed the budget power point presentation). Why is Wantagh so overwhemingly dependent on tax increases compared to other districts?On its surface Wantagh's committment to sports (pound for pound) seems excessive when stacked against comparatively sized districts. Is this true? Are our computers as new and updated as our sports facilities? Newsday's listing of tax increases by district may be inconvenient to promoters of the budget but we have a right to use this measure as a means to understand, at least in part, the comparative priorities and efficiencies of different districts. You support the budget and yet recommend changes in the board. I would appreciate a simple assessment from you on my concerns..taxpayer to taxpayer. Thanks ( in advance)
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Post by Chris_Wendt on May 1, 2009 20:47:47 GMT -5
For all the reasons given in my public statements and in prior posts, here, I support the budget and would ask your support this year, also. This year's is one of this true products of compromise about which almost no one is happy. I don't honestly think anyone is happy with this budget, but for widely disparate reasons.
Newsday has provided a truly meaningless statistical comparison among school districts, and yes, it would be easy if not tempting to react and want to vote against this budget, if only due to the notoriety provided by Newsday. But Newsday and John Hildebrand are not going to take any responsibility if people take this easy way out and vote down the budget. Wantagh will get left holding that bag.
I am not going answer questions which you should put directly to the members of the school board and especially to their President to answer. My answering would be unfair to the board and to you, as I do not own this budget and was not present and do not know most of the factors that were deliberated during its formation.
Inferring various weightings and priorities between school districts based on a Newsday chart and then attempting to make any meaningful comparison from your inferences is a useless exercise, if for no other reason than only Wantagh's priorities matter to us Wantagh residents.
What I politely request of you, when studying and then questioning the school board about their budget is this: what are those intricate budget numbers adding up to in terms of revealing the priorities of THE WANTAGH BOARD OF EDUCATION? It is their priorities, individually and collectively, that drive the money to those places they spend the most of it, and away from those areas where they spend less or the least.
So, please go down there next week and ask your questions and then decide for yourself about the school board's priorities, and whether the result leaves you feeling that President Spagnolo deserves to be re-elected, or should he be ejected from the game.
As for myself, taxpayer to taxpayer, President Spagnolo needs to be outa' there!
You be the judge...it is YOUR vote.
Respectfully,
Chris Wendt
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Post by Michael Soethout on May 1, 2009 23:23:49 GMT -5
Dear Taxpayer,
First issue is how all schools get their "revenue". Property Taxes(residential and commercial), state aid, rental and investment revenues. For Wantagh, approx 75% of the school budget is coming the property taxes and due to the small business community here in Wantagh, the homeowner carries this burden in our community, 22% from State Aid and 2% from fund balance this year. Basically revenue equals taxes and Wantagh has a small tax base to support the school system.
Our objective as community should be to try to control cost and increase the % of the other revenue generators other than the property taxes. To me State Aid is a issue the all residents of Wantagh need to work on. All of our local politicians would tell you that the states formula system of funding is broken. To New York State, Wantagh is considered a low need district based on our high average household income. The state feels our community can more or less afford to pay for our schools our own. Historically Wantagh didn't receive much state aid, but the past 2 years more community members are speaking up and we have actually seen a increase in state funding, this something we must continue to do. When it comes to getting the attention of our politicians it is the squeaking wheel that gets the oil. The school district may have the opportunity to explore increased in rental revenue opportunities with the improvements that have recently been made to the facilities. As for investment revenue, this I don't see as much as a option for our district because the community would need to approve such a action and the money set aside to be invested would come from the taxpayers.
The current budget is being impacted in several ways, 2 of the most prominent are trying to restore cuts made due the failed budget last year and the addition Bond debt service having to be funded. To offset the increases there cuts/decreases this year in administration and teaching positions.
For next year there will be a entirely new administration and less expensive one. Dr Bonuso has retired, he was replaced by Dr. Begley who was promoted, her starting salary I believe is $50K less than Dr. Bonuso. Dr. Begley's old position has been reworked and re-titled and the BOE is looking to hire someone at $25-35K less(this remains to be seen). The Business Superintendent's contract was not renewed and again the board is looking to replace this position hopefully and lower pay scale as well. The Director of Transportation position has been eliminated and the responsibilities reassigned for a net savings of $84K.
There changes to the teaching staff, I believe the district is looking lose 4 teaching positions though attrition. Overall there are 16 retirements in the district and we will be seeing a savings on their replacements.
The school budget is actually doesn't have much room to move much of what is our current school budget is either mandated of legally bound to be paid. For example all contracts and bond projects are required to honored and paid regardless of the economic down turn. They are even need to be paid at same level if the school budget fails. This year there are 3 contracts being worked on, we were told the there were no increases offered, no agreement was reached and they appeared head to a non-binding arbitration. It was express to the Board to have the same approach on all future contracts as well.
As for your comments of other communities doing with less. I will bring your attention Westbury, Rockville Centre, Roosevelt and Island Trees. Westbury's budget is $103,000,000 for 4200 students (+500 to wantagh). Rockville Centre is $90,000,000 for 3600 students (same) Roosevelt is $88,000,000 for 3000 students (-600 less) Island Trees $69,000,000 for 2700 students (-900 less) All of these districts spend much more than Wantagh, carry much more staff and as a result have more of an opportunity reduce support staff that we don't even have to cut. Also many communities to carry some type of $$$ reserve that they can draw on if bad times, another thing we don't have in our tool box. Net result is this just gives these districts the appearance of doing more with less. Wantagh is the lowest spending school district per pupil in Nassau county which is really nothing to all that excited about and it also makes if difficult to find much meaningful savings. But that doesn't mean the school shouldn't be trying to save $$$$. As for sports yes, Wantagh is a sporting town are the school does carry many teams. But the students do participate heavily and carry themselves well. I hope this offers you some perspective to the school budget and encourage you follow up and inquire on all of these issues and make whatever informed decision you like. I also apologize in advance for any differences in % in cite in this post as I am doing is late and night from notes I made. Sincerely, Michael Soethout. P.S. taxpayer I would happy offer any help I can. Sans, cheer leading, fairy tales and ranting.
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Post by Chris_Wendt on May 2, 2009 12:49:09 GMT -5
Michael wrote: "To me State Aid is a issue the all residents of Wantagh need to work on. All of our local politicians would tell you that the states formula system of funding is broken. To New York State, Wantagh is considered a low need district based on our high average household income. The state feels our community can more or less afford to pay for our schools our own. Historically Wantagh didn't receive much state aid, but the past 2 years more community members are speaking up and we have actually seen a increase in state funding, this something we must continue to do. When it comes to getting the attention of our politicians it is the squeaking wheel that gets the oil." I would like to broaden your understanding and appreciation of these concepts, and provide you with a more accurate perspective. Not all that many years ago, in the 1980's, at the time I chaired the BAC and when I was first on the board, a Long Island Republican, Ralph Marino was NY State Senate Majority Leader. During his tenure Wantagh received upwards of 40% (I think the high water mark under Marino was 44%) of our budget revenue from State Aid. Marino was voted out of office by the people in his district and the Senate leadership transferred upstate. In the intervening years, and especially beginning in 1990-91, Wantagh saw its revenue from state aid dwindle to less than 20%, I seem to recall one year we were at an ebb of 17% under the state's financial emergency during the Cuomo Admininstration. For a year, recently, we enjoyed the leadership of another Long Islander, Dean Skelos as Senate Majority Leader, and our state aid revenue has grown to the 22% of the budget you noted. Skelos is now out of power, having been replaced by the first Democrat to serve as Majority Leader in over 50 years. Although technically a Long Islander, Malcolm Smith is from Queens and represents the NY City Schools' interests, which compete head-on for state aid dollars with Wantagh and the rest of suburban Long Island. One relative constant through all of these years is the size of the slice of the State Aid pie which comes to Long Island. This is generally in the range of 11%-13% of the total state aid package, regardless of how big the total pie is. Also, State Aid has grown considerably since 1991, and has done so in nearly direct proportion to the good (or bad) fortunes of the state economy. Here's where both you and taxpayer may not have the correct insight about the current situation. The state has consistently managed to keep the education aid in balance with the economic conditions, and over the long haul has increased state aid overall and to Wantagh in particular. But, the Wantagh Board of Education has failed to adjust spending in response to either economic conditions or the amount of state aid received. By the Board of Education in this instance, I am pointing an accusing finger right at myself, as well as at the current and other past members of the Board during the past 12 years. We, the Wantagh School Board, just kept on spending, kept on raising salaries, kept on issuing long-term debt. We FAILED to manage our outflow with our income from State Aid. Instead, we just raised taxes, and then raised taxes again, and raised taxes some more. Yes, we can get the whole town to all pile into a school bus and drive up to Albany to beg for more state aid, and demand someone "fix" the formula. If there is no more money to be had, Wantagh won't be getting any. Maybe someday some politicians will possess the gonads to actually tackle the education funding formula. But that day is not today. So, you should NOT expect any relief from Wantagh's property tax morasse unless and until we UN-ELECT spend-happy board members like President Ralph ("I'm all about spending money") Spagnolo, and replace him with a new face, like Bob Leuchtmann, who possesses infinitely better real-world business management and financial experience. Chris Wendt
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Post by john on May 2, 2009 13:24:51 GMT -5
I would like to thank Michael Soethout for taking the time to answer "Taxpayers" question with such knowledge and candor. His time and effort that he has served this community over recent years is commendable. Thank you for being straight forward and not succumbing to rant,cheer and fairytale as well. I truly believe we need to stand behind this budget for the good of our community.Unfortunately,you will NEVER be able to make everybody happy,and that goes for every area of life. I support this years efforts by the current BOE as well as the BAC.
For the BOE and the BAC, Thank You for taking time out of your lives and dedicate it freely to the rest of us in the community.Your service is commendable! It is very important to take the time to make your OWN decisions on how to vote and who to vote for....I have seen the good in people and I will continue to allow myself to do so.
God Bless, John Taxpayer too!
(Moderator's note: Edited to delete white space, not content)
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Post by Michael Soethout on May 2, 2009 23:47:35 GMT -5
Good Evening,
I would like to respond to something Chris Wendt wrote.
"Yes, we can get the whole town to all pile into a school bus and drive up to Albany to beg for more state aid, and demand someone "fix" the formula. If there is no more money to be had, Wantagh won't be getting any. Maybe someday some politicians will possess the gonads to actually tackle the education funding formula. But that day is not today. " -Chris Wendt 5/2/09 12:49 P.M.
In my response to Taxpayer, I mentioned State Aid as an issue that our community should work together on. I understand Chris, disagrees with me, fine and I appreciate the history lesson.
But lets look at some current events. This past year State Aid story, as we all know our state and nation are in a economic downturn. As a result when Governor Paterson released his initial budget Wantagh was looking at a decrease in state aid of $740,000. After the initial release of the Governors budget, the president passed the stimulus bill and Long Island's local politicians held Tax rally for Long Island to demand Long Island's fair share of state aid. "Most of New York State's counties received better the 50% state in funding for their schools, while Long Island receives around 20% funding from the state. With the understanding what kind of devastating effect this would have on the taxpayers. The BOE and administration urged members of the community to attend the rally and write letters to the Governor to protest these cuts and many members of the community responded> The parents of my sons school including myself organized a letter drive, we mailed letters and emailed Governor Paterson, Sen. Fuschillo and Assemblyman McDonough to voice our concerns about these cuts to our state aid.
About 35-40 members of the community attended the rally. Wantagh was represented by Board Members, Administration, teachers, parents, seniors and students and while we were there, we made sure we seen and heard. To get the message out that our community's taxpayers care about education and need help.
When New York State released its final budget, Wantagh went from a -$740,000 decrease in state aid to getting an increase of +$490,000. Yes, this result had much to do with the stimulus bill, but we still got more $$$ for our community, which the BOE applied to the budget to reduced the tax levy. The NET RESULT IS WE FOUND MORE MONEY. This resulted in a lower tax levy.
The state aid budget is just one of several issues that I suggested that our community needs start speaking up about to help improve our situation.
Some members in our community I guess would just say we got lucky, it was just coincidence, or just some misguided community cheerleaders wasting their time in follies.
Personally in my naive point of view, if we are presented in any way, shape or form with opportunity to getting more money for our community's schools that doesn't come from our property taxes we are obligated to at least try to get it. One of the Board members who took his time to attend the rally was Ralph Spagnolo, and Ralph made sure he was seen and heard by our local politicians. Ralph Spagnolo was there leading the way trying to whatever could be done to help our community. Did you know who didn't attend the rally, Chris Wendt wasn't there, Bob Leucthmann wasn't there either. We all busy but if you want to be a leader, you need to lead when it is needed. You can't just be a leader when it fits your schedule or convenient to you.
Chris, you write that everyone should heard and the need for new ideas, yet when someone voices a opinion different from your's you shout them down. When someone voices a idea that is not line with yours, it is the wrong idea or you give a been there, done that response. Why is that? How come, I can always mention cost control, the need for balance or to respect different points of view than my.
I will try to state my approach to addressing our community's schools. I believe that as a community we must be very aware of our small tax base as we try to educate the children of our community. There must always be balance between the needs of taxpayer and the schools. We must continue to everything possible to secure whatever additional funding we can do this. If you think attending a taxpayer rally, or contacting our elected officials is a waste of time, so be it. I will waste my time then. I will do anything possible or whatever I can to help the taxpayers and children of our community when help is needed. To me, the time to stand up and speak up for ourselves is whenever the need or opportunity presents itself.
Maybe some of us consider this begging, maybe they feel they are above that. I view it as a community exercising its right to speak up and state our case.
As for ideas, we as a community need to be open all ideas. We must be open-minded creative thinkers looking alternative ways to operate and fund our schools.
I my opinion right now the best thing we can do is vote to re-elect Ralph Spagnolo to the BOE and vote yes for this year's budget
Sincerely, Michael Soethout
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Post by Chris_Wendt on May 3, 2009 11:12:46 GMT -5
Michael wrote: "This past year State Aid story, as we all know our state and nation are in a economic downturn. As a result when Governor Paterson released his initial budget Wantagh was looking at a decrease in state aid of $740,000. After the initial release of the Governors budget, the president passed the stimulus bill and Long Island's local politicians held Tax rally for Long Island to demand Long Island's fair share of state aid. "Most of New York State's counties received better the 50% state in funding for their schools, while Long Island receives around 20% funding from the state. With the understanding what kind of devastating effect this would have on the taxpayers. The BOE and administration urged members of the community to attend the rally and write letters to the Governor to protest these cuts and many members of the community responded> The parents of my sons school including myself organized a letter drive, we mailed letters and emailed Governor Paterson, Sen. Fuschillo and Assemblyman McDonough to voice our concerns about these cuts to our state aid.
About 35-40 members of the community attended the rally. Wantagh was represented by Board Members, Administration, teachers, parents, seniors and students and while we were there, we made sure we seen and heard. To get the message out that our community's taxpayers care about education and need help.
When New York State released its final budget, Wantagh went from a -$740,000 decrease in state aid to getting an increase of +$490,000. Yes, this result had much to do with the stimulus bill, but we still got more $$$ for our community, which the BOE applied to the budget to reduced the tax levy. The NET RESULT IS WE FOUND MORE MONEY. This resulted in a lower tax levy.
The state aid budget is just one of several issues that I suggested that our community needs start speaking up about to help improve our situation.
Some members in our community I guess would just say we got lucky, it was just coincidence, or just some misguided community cheerleaders wasting their time in follies." The letter-writing campaign was at least in part responsible for how the new-found federal money was split and shared; the letter-writing and the efforts of the LI Republican caucus of the NY State Senate. Well done. Several days before the rally, Governor Patterson was on LI and announced that the new federal money would be sufficient to allow him to reverse the education cuts he had proposed in his preliminary budget. At that point, I cancelled my plans to attend the rally. To those who attended the rally anyway, including President Spagnolo, thanks for turning out. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I appreciate there is a fundamental, repeat, fundamental difference of opinion here between myself and yours, Michael. In an attempt to advance the discussion and to coalesce everyone's appreciation of what this fundamental difference is, the following is my viewpoint concerning where we stand. Michael sincerely believes the best route to improving the tax situation in Wantagh is to increase State Aid and other non-tax sources of revenue. I once believed this wholeheartedly, when I served as a Director and then as President of REFIT (“Reform Education Financing Inequities Today”, a consortium of 35 LI School Districts that unsuccessfully sued the State government to change the methods for funding schools). In order for that premise to be valid, there would have to be the real potential for other-than-property-tax revenues to exist, and for which Wantagh would be eligible. Let's examine the possibilities: Local Rental Income: we already have budget rental income and use fees for facilities, including Wee Friends. There have been material difficulties realizing this income in the amounts previously budgeted, and you may verify this with President Spagnolo, although neither he nor I are at liberty to divulge the specifics. The idea of renting out the new turf field and the new field house once it is completed is of questionable value. The board will understandably have a lot of reticence about renting the new field, and I don't believe that there is any sustainable market demand for rental of the field house other than just very occasionally. A big problem renting these major sports facilities comes from potential conflicts with District programs for our own students. Tuition Income: this was formerly a larger source of income than at present. The reduction came from BOCES and other districts pulling-back on their tuition and program expense and thus canceling or reducing the number of kids sent to Wantagh on a tuition-paid basis. Tuition income is also and expense-based revenue, meaning, there is a requirement to fund programs and spend district money in order to earn the tuition income. There is also a state-prescribed formula used to determine tuition rates which prevents districts from raising tuition in order to make profits from other districts. Federal Aids: Here, we have been lucky with President Obama's stimulus money. Wantagh will be receiving what the powers-that-be have deemed we should get; there is no fighting or begging for a bigger slice of that pie; here it is. Of course, we must not fail to grasp that this stimulus money came about because of the same economic factors which have resulted in millions of people losing their jobs, hundreds of thousands of homes having been foreclosed, factories shutting down, and some of America's most revered corporations disappearing from the face of the earth, or about to. There are other federal funds for which Wantagh does not qualify as those are normally distributed on the basis of poverty, wealth, literacy, or language proficiency. Special Education funding is not something Wantagh can "earn" more of; we get what we get based on the actual needs and extraordinary needs of our students and the formulas for distributing that aid. There exists the potential for Wantagh to have a negative revenue experience from Special Education funding. State Aid. Yes. No. Maybe…we do or we don't get our "fair share". Since we do not determine our share, our sense of what is fair will always be at odds with what is our share. In order for Wantagh's share of State Aid to increase relative to the total state aid pie, some of the other 61 State Senators and some of the other 149 State Assemblymen would have to agree to take less state aid for the schools in their represented districts. That is not about to happen, is it? All branches of the State Government are now controlled by Democrats. There are significant problems in the schools of four of the Big 5 Cities: New York, Yonkers, Buffalo, and Rochester. It is not realistic to imagine the overall empathy of the Democrat-controlled, big-city-oriented, state government not shifting to focus on the Big 5 Cities, and thus not really being very concerned at all about Wantagh, and whether or not we have 7th Grade Sports and Cultural Arts, for instance, when NY City is generally eliminating sports and music programs from schools on a wide scale in response to economic conditions. In summary, there is very little realistic potential to sustain any expectation that non-property tax revenues will increase significantly to relieve Wantagh’s property tax situation. While there may be some hope, most of that is false hope, contrived to sustain political incumbencies with political cheerleading: “Lean to the left…lean to the right…stand-up…sit down…Fight! Fight! Fight!”[/b] ...to be continued by Chris Wendt
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Post by Chris_Wendt on May 3, 2009 13:11:14 GMT -5
...continuing on with the fundamental difference between Chris' & Michael's point of view in this discussion:
In order for non-property tax revenues to have any meaningful impact upon the property tax situation in Wantagh, those non-property tax revenues would actually have to be applied to tax relief, to reducing or controlling the growth of Wantagh's school property tax levy. Please feel free to jump right in and disagree with this assertion. If you want to relieve Wantagh's school property tax situation, you would need to first acquire additional non-property tax revenue for the district and then APPLY THAT REVENUE TO REDUCE OR CONSTRAIN THE TAX LEVY.
Uh-oh...this brings us that other source of "revenue", namely, the Allocated Fund Balance.
What's that? The fund balance is the amount of cash money the school district has on deposit at any given time. Some of that money is already spoken-for, or appropriated, meaning committed by contract or by purchase orders not yet fulfilled, or, coming due as debt service payments for interest and principle on long- and short-term debt. What is not appropriated can either be held in reserve (up to 4% of the total budget) or allocated (as "revenue") to offset the next tax levy.
Problem is, and this is the big reason why I believe President Ralph ("I am all about spending money") Spagnolo must be impeached by the voters of Wantagh on May 19th, is that last year, as in most years in recent history, the Wantagh Board of Education had promised, published it in writing, and yes, led a cheer about this during their annual dog-and-pony show all around the district last May, $1.3 MILLION was "Allocated" as revenue from the Fund Balance to have been applied to directly reduce the Tax Levy this current school year.
So, there was the Wantagh school board with money in-hand, money that was all set and pledged to Wantagh's tax payers to be used to relieve the tax situation in Wantagh. Then Ralph ("I'm all about spending money") Spagnolo was elected President of that board, and secretly put the STOP! on reducing the tax levy by that $1.3 MILLION! Result, despite having an extra $1.3 MILLION of revenue, and despite having received an extra jolt of State Aid aimed at school property tax reduction through the efforts of Senator Fuschillo, the Wantagh Board of Education, under the leadership of President Ralph ("I'm all about spending money") Spagnolo decided to allocate ZERO, ZIP, NONE, NO MONEY to reduce the tax levy for Wantagh's taxpayers.
Therefore, even when district's revenue was increased and extra money was available, instead of deploying any of that revenue to ease the property tax burden in Wantagh, the current school board would seemingly rather spend it, or save it to spend another year when there is no "SPENDING CAP"...anything BUT returning some of it to the taxpayers. At least that was the case with the 2008-09 school budget.
Letter writing campaigns, rallies, and the tireless efforts of people like Senators Fuschillo and Skelos will all go for naught if school board members do not look out for the interests of Wantagh's taxpayers who elected them to office.
Rah, rah....
Sincerely,
Chris Wendt
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