Weisenberg isn't entitled to his own facts

To the Editor:

Twenty-one-year incumbent Harvey Weisenberg wants to get the facts right about state aid for our schools, and boasts that since he took office in 1989, "aid to our local schools has increased by 86 percent" due to his advocacy ("Get the facts right," Aug. 19-25). Hmmm. Sounds like we're lucky to have Harvey fighting for us.

That is, until you look at the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics website, which shows that since Harvey took office in 1989, the cost of living in our area has gone up 89 percent. The fact is that since our school districts' budgets routinely go up by more than the Consumer Price Index, Harvey knows, or should know, that we actually have lost state aid as a percentage of revenue every year he has been in office. Why would he crow about that?

In fact, I'm sure Harvey is well aware of the CPI, as the taxpayer-funded pension he receives for his 21 years in the Assembly gets increased every year based on the CPI. This $73,000-plus taxpayer-funded Assembly pension, of course, is in addition to the taxpayer-funded $101,500 Assembly salary he collects. This, of course, is in addition to the $20,000-plus taxpayer-funded teacher pension that Harvey collects, which is also CPI-indexed.

The fact is that school districts in the 20th Assembly District get an average of 15 percent of their revenue from state aid, and the average district in the state (outside New York City) gets 38 percent of its revenue from state aid. This formula costs every taxpayer in the 20th District thousands of dollars a year — every year. Like it or not, Harvey, those are facts.

When elected, I will fight to change that formula — a fact that the overburdened taxpayers in the 20th A.D. can take to the bank.

Jeff Toback

Oceanside