By Anthony Rifilato
Baldwin was one of more than 40 school districts in Nassau County represented at a news conference on March 9 with Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, who said that Long Island schools are being short-changed when it comes to state education aid. "This inequity must end," Suozzi said in a statement. "Our taxpayers are being crushed by their property taxes."
The disparity in state aid, Suozzi said, is a major contributing factor in Long Island's runaway school property taxes. As a gubernatorial candidate, Suozzi has vowed to address rising school taxes.
The letters were the culmination of a month's work by school officials from across the county, and come as homeowners throughout Nassau County are expected to shoulder more of the school-tax burden this year
[see story, page 3].
B.A. Schoen, a member of the Baldwin Board of Education, spoke at the conference, saying that Nassau County's economy is important to the upstate region, because it sends so much money upstate but receives so little in return. "Too many people think we have the ability to pay," said Schoen after the meeting, explaining that many lawmakers upstate believe all residents of Nassau are wealthy.
Some other reforms the group hopes to accomplish is a cost-of-living increase in state aid, to offset higher prices Long Island residents pay for energy, as well as health insurance and other expenses.
But while Schoen said that state aid in Baldwin increased slightly last year, he explained that Long Island receives 17 percent of its school funding from state aid, way below the state average of 37 percent and the national average of 57 percent.
And while state aid increased slightly in Baldwin last year and was included in the $94 million 2005-06 school budget, Schoen said, each year school districts are put in a precarious position, not knowing whether state aid will be cut or increased.
In previous years, Baldwin, with its low commercial tax base, and other districts have stood to lose millions in state aid. Such was the case in 2003, when Gov. George Pataki announced that he would cut $1 billion in state education aid, a plan that was ultimately restored after lawmakers and school officials cried foul.
"We are fortunate enough that we have strong leadership in the Senate from Long Island," said Schoen. "They have saved us from cuts and we have gotten increases."
Still, he said, with school budget talks under way and costs increasing each year, without the added assistance, districts like Baldwin struggle to implement new programs while maintaining current ones. "We're looking to maintain the kinds of programs that people in Baldwin tell us they want," said Schoen. "If that stuff is not there already, it's not because we hate kids."
Schoen, an executive board member of REFIT (Reform Educational Financing Inequities Today) and ambassador to the New York State School Boards Association, said he hopes the letters have an impact on the governor and lawmakers. The governor and others need to realize the differences in regional costs between upstate New York and Nassau County, he said, explaining that it costs more to do business on Long Island.
"If property taxes keep going up, people will leave Nassau County, and our highly trained work force will deplete," said Schoen.
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