By JOSEPH KELLARD
Satin was referring to a suggestion by Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown about ways to potentially effect changes to the tax system, by sending hand-written letters to state Sen. Dean Skelos and Assemblymen Harvey Weisenberg and Bob Barra.
Brown stressed throughout the school district-hosted Feb. 8 forum that state aid for school budgets on Long Island is comparatively low. He noted that during the early 1980s, the state would routinely fund 40 percent of Oceanside's budget, compared with 14 percent today. Board of Education President Al Lyson underscored how districts upstate receive anywhere from 70 to 85 percent of their budgets from the state.
"Some areas upstate get more in aid than they paid in taxes," Brown said. He added that the formulas the state uses to determine how much aid to allocate include housing prices and incomes. "The higher your home values and income, the less money you get," he said. "Š It's a scary system, and it's got to change."
Assistant Superintendent Lou Frontario opened the forum with a Power Point presentation on how tax bills, particularly the tax levy, are affected by property assessments. Brown explained some of the complex ways that assessments affect school taxes, and noted that of the 9,000 homes taxed in Oceanside, about 5,000 had their school taxes go up more than 9 percent, while 1,400 saw reductions.
"I had to go back to work to pay my school taxes," said one senior citizen who said his taxes rose by $2,800 last year. Brown said a new law would go into effect next year that caps the amount by which a home's property taxes can be raised at 6 percent per year.
The superintendent said the problem with assessments stretches back to the 1930s, and claimed, "Politicians didn't want to do anything about the assessments until a judge forced them to do it."
"My school taxes are so much more than town and county taxes," another man said. "... Taxes are killing us. That's why everyone is moving out of this state."
Brown and Lyson said that while Long Island districts have only two sources to fund their budgets, state aid and property taxes, other New York districts can also use income and sales taxes. They explained that Oceanside is in talks with County Executive Tom Suozzi about exploring other such means to fund school budgets.
Brown stressed that when Oceanside creates its budget each year and inevitably raises taxes, issues such as state aid and tax assessments are out of the district's hands. This is also largely the case with employee benefits such as health care, pensions and workman's compensation. "We're trying to be as efficient with your dollars as we possibly can," Brown said when discussing budgetary items within the district's control.
He highlighted how teachers in Oceanside, both active and retired, contribute more to their health insurance premiums than in any other district on Long Island; how the district spends about $3,000 less to educate each pupil than the $17,000 county average; and how Oceanside devotes 67 percent of its budget on instruction, the highest percentage in the county, along with Rockville Centre. "This is to show how we're trying our best to keep the costs low," Brown said.
"I just feel that you're just here to protect the budget," one resident said.
"No, we're here to try to explain the process," the superintendent countered.
In the midst of the meeting, one woman stood and held up a placard that urged fellow residents to vote down the budget. Another man asked why the budget is voted on a second time after it is initially rejected. Brown explained that state law mandates this process.
During the question-and-answer period, residents asked a host of questions and made a variety of suggestions. The suggestions included making cuts to employee benefits, asking the federal government to fund fuel and school repairs, reducing the number of administrators, and consolidating the district's nine schools. "No, our schools are at capacity," Brown said.
"You should find out about all the children who are living illegally in the district," Satin said.
Brown distinguished between a student who, say, lives with his divorced mother in Oceanside and a student who lives in another district but attends Oceanside schools, which is illegal. "The district hires private investigators for this," Brown said. "If we know about students attending our schools illegally, we take action. But we can't take action unless we know about it."
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
