Letters to the Rockville Centre Herald April 14, 2011

Senate GOP made a bad budget better

To the Editor:

For many years, Senate Republicans led the fight to increase school aid so that every child would get the best possible education. We supported billions of dollars in school aid increases when times were good.

As most Long Island residents know, however, New York state is dealing with the effects of the deep recession and private-sector job loss that has continued since 2009, plus the loss of $6 billion in federal aid.

This year, about $726 million of temporary federal education funding expired, while Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed an additional $929 million in state funding reductions to schools.

It was disturbing that the proposed Executive Budget unfairly cut Long Island and upstate schools more deeply than New York City schools, and I felt strongly that the aid distribution had to be fixed, especially since it would affect the formula and shortchange Long Island schools not only this year, but in future years.

The Assembly’s one-house budget continued to drive more money unfairly to New York City schools at the expense of our schools. However, Senate Republicans worked to make positive changes. We realigned school funding to restore fairness and equity, and we were successful in convincing the governor and Assembly to fix the formula in the final budget.

Simply put, we took a bad budget situation and made it better. This resulted in a state aid reduction for the Rockville Centre School District of one-half of one percent of the total district budget.

Let’s be clear. No one is happy about school aid reductions, but Senate Republicans also successfully fought hard to restore over $270 million to education from Cuomo’s cuts.

These restorations include more than $230 million in direct school aid, while avoiding $190 million in cost shifts that would have impacted property taxpayers. We fought to ease the cuts to suburban districts, including Long Island, where residents pay some of the highest taxes in the nation.

I also successfully restored more than $2.7 million in aid for schools in the 9th Senate District that I represent, and restored $129,000 for Rockville Centre schools. I would also point out that the state budget provides for a two-year school appropriation, ensuring a total $800 million, or 4 percent, school aid increase across the state next year. If it is at all possible, the Senate will fight to increase that figure.

This was truly one of the most challenging state budgets I have ever been a part of, but we succeeded in achieving the overall goals of reducing spending and taxes and doing more to create private-sector jobs. This required many tough choices, but I believe they were done fairly and in a fiscally responsible manner.

Sen. Dean Skelos

Rockville Centre

Herald slighted their work

To the Editor:

The brief mention of the Rockville Centre Citizen’s Budget Advisory Committee’s recommendations in the story “Village taxes, fees to increase” (April 7-13) did a disservice to the hard work of our committee and to the board’s and administration’s diligent preparation of the budget. Particularly misleading were our comments on the proposed budget cuts for the Sandel Senior Center.

It is accurate that we as a committee do not support the cut of $59,000 in part-time employee expenses, believing this action will have the greatest negative impact on the center’s services. We do, however, support a deeper examination of the overall expenses of the Sandel budget, and believe savings may be found in restructuring the number of full-time personnel and by setting even higher fee increases than suggested, especially for nonresidents. With an approximate cost basis of more than $1,000 per senior participant to the village annually, a more structured evaluation is required to address the costs here. We believe the future health of this essential service requires this attention.

More important than even this issue are the key recommendations of the committee for the fiscal health of the village not only this year, but for our future, which were not correctly covered in the story. We are recommending a benchmarking study of best practices for comparable villages/municipalities to set standards for the overhaul of the village’s administrative and management structure and the costs within. This is not simply “researching neighboring municipalities’ spending.” This benchmarking is needed to make fundamental changes to our spiraling cost increases.

We did not simply recommend an “updating of the village’s accounting system.” We are strongly recommending a complete transition to a new municipal MIS and accounting platform, one that will support streamlined management processes and have a direct impact on staff hours needed for all of the village’s departments.

We also strongly recommend the development of a three-year operating plan, to include operating needs and capital improvements for the village going forward. This should favorably impact expense management and the cost of raising capital, and create greater transparency in how we spend our dollars.

We support the mayor and the Board of Trustees in their ongoing management of the fiscal challenges facing the community now and in the future. The recommendations made by this volunteer committee are the result of hours of analysis and discussion and are based on the collective talents and experience of this really dedicated team from our own community. It’s an honor to work with them. The implementation of the recommendations provided will have a profound impact on the current and future fiscal health of our village.

Jim Fagan

Chairman, Citizen’s Budget Advisory Committee

Simple generosity is a good thing

To the Editor:

Last Saturday, the Rockville Centre Little League kicked off its 62nd season with its annual Opening Day parade. For the first time, we also included a food collection in the event, with donations slated for Central Synagogue and the St. Agnes Parish Outreach. Both organizations provide food to people who need it, regardless of religious affiliation.

Some 2,147 items of food were collected. It took 35 minutes to get from the collection to the delivery, and six large vehicles packed with food drove off to where it was most needed. Members of the police and fire departments, along with the employees of Village Hall, took up their own collections and brought food items to us to be included in the effort. Our families gave with great generosity, as did our coaches, commissioners and members of the Board of Directors.

Thanks to all those who participated in this event. A simple act of thoughtfulness, multiplied many times, resulted in a good thing. Thank you!

Tom Bucaria

President, Rockville Centre Little League