Oceanside fights for the schools

Oceanside Schools Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown announced at a recent school board meeting that the district plans to take part in a lawsuit against Nassau County over the repeal of the county assessment guarantee, a legislative measure that will significantly shrink the budgets of school districts throughout the county.

At the meeting, on Dec. 20, Brown said that the cost of the suit would range between $60,000 and $100,000, depending on how many school districts are willing to join forces. According to Brown, the districts have agreed to split the cost. Thirty districts have said that they would participate, while the remaining 26 school are undecided.

“The county is in charge of assessments …,” Brown said at the meeting. “Their system is all about making mistakes, but we’re not the ones making them, so why should we now be held accountable?”

At a legislative session on Oct. 30 in Mineola, the County Legislature approved a $2.6 billion budget plan for 2011-12 that does away with the assessment guarantee. The plan, which has sparked much controversy, will require school districts across the county to pay tax certiorari refunds to residents and business owners who successfully challenged their property-tax assessments. Since 1938, the county has paid this refund as part of a “county guarantee” to taxpayers who successfully challenge their assessments. Nassau County is the last remaining county in the U.S. that offers taxpayers such a guarantee.

Starting in 2013, however, the financial responsibility will shift to the schools, which will have to set aside reserved funds and other sources to cover the costs.

“Having a high commercial base in Oceanside is especially going to hurt us …,” Brown said at the December meeting. Commercial properties would generally be refunded more money than homes. “The county’s system is broken, and people [on the board] are upset about it.”