By Hector Flores
The Bellmore budget was defeated May 17, with 803 no votes and 583 yes votes, a 220-vote margin. Nearly 58 percent of residents voted against the budget, while 42 percent voted for it.
The board held a May 23 emergency session at the Winthrop Avenue School to decide whether to put the budget up for another vote. At the meeting, Jay Breakstone, the board president, said, "There are three options before us. We can vote for the budget as is for a second time; hold no budget vote and go into contingency budget; or adopt a new budget somewhere in between the two."
Breakstone explained that if the district were to adopt a contingency, or austerity, budget, it would be forced to reduce the district's proposed 2005-06 spending by $700,000. The cuts would affect all areas of the school district, including personnel and programs, he said.
Under a contingency budget, the board would consider reducing or cutting the following:
€Programs such as music, art and foreign language.
€Clerical and custodial services.
€Playground supervision.
€Field trips.
€Use of buildings for outside groups before and after school and on weekends.
€Use of fields after school, in the evenings and on weekends.
€Maintenance and custodial projects.
€Equipment and supplies that aren't needed for specific programs.
Sheldon Dumain, the district superintendent, said that he looked into cutting summer cleaning and maintenance projects, but that amounted to $22,000 -- nowhere near the $700,000 reduction that would be needed under a contingency budget.
Ted Tanenbaum, board trustee, said, "There are other accessories we can cut from the budget without cutting teachers, but it is also not significant."
Michelle Rothery, co-president of the Bellmore Elementary PTA, said, "I think you should keep it all. The only thing you do is take away from the kids. I think you also send a bad message to voters who believe that by voting down the budget they will save money, but in the end it doesn't."
According to figures provided by the school board, owners of a home with a value of $430,000 would pay $174 a year in taxes under the original budget. In an austerity budget, homeowners would pay $41.65, a savings of only $132 a year.
Cliff Molinelli, the Winthrop principal, agreed with Rothery, and said the district had put together a tight budget. "There is no fat left in the budget, and further cuts would just hurt children," he said. "I fear contingency budgets, and even if we cut the budget to some degree, we will not change the minds of the nay-sayers. What we need to do is get the yes votes to come out."
Karen Mackler, a Bellmore resident who teaches in the Lawrence School District, said that for the last three years Lawrence has operated under an austerity budget. "We lost teachers and teacher aides," she said. "There is also a lack of confidence in the school district, and this is very bad for the school and home values."
Hank Sossa, a retired Bellmore teacher who lives in Suffolk County, agreed with Mackler, and said that an austerity budget also takes away valuable learning experiences from children. "I live in a community that has had a contingency budget for the last four years," he said. "Under a contingency budget, you can't do anything, and children lose the most. That field trip that a child loses in fifth grade can never be replaced. Under an austerity budget, a child's time and experiences are lost forever."
Factors contributing to budget failure
According to Breakstone, the majority of residents who voted against the budget did so to lash out.
The Bellmore budget was estimated at $24. 5 million, an increase of $1.5 million over the current budget of $22.9 million. The district's budget increase was estimated at 6.8 percent, and was the second-lowest increase of the four elementary-school districts that make up the Central High School District. The lowest budget increase was North Bellmore's, which was 6.7 percent.
All four other Bellmore-Merrick districts passed their spending plans.
The day after the budget vote, the state released the results of the fourth-grade English Language exam, and Bellmore had the highest passing rate in Bellmore-Merrick and one of the highest in Nassau County. Some 93 percent of Bellmore fourth-graders passed the test. In Merrick, 86 percent passed; in North Bellmore, 86 percent passed; and in North Merrick, 87 percent passed.
"We scored the highest of the component districts, and we are one of the eight highest in Nassau County," said Breakstone. The board president added that despite the district's positive showing academically and moderate budget increase, a majority of residents sent a message that they just can't afford to pay anymore. "People are being squeezed," he said. "There is a lot of waste in the federal and state governments today, and people need to go after someone. They went after the school district."
Herbert Friedman, a Bellmore resident and commander of the North Bellmore American Legion Post 1749, said that he was not surprised that residents voted against the budget. "Right now the cost of living has become too high," he said. "My drug plan has gone up by 300 percent and gas prices by 50 percent. You really don't have control of these price increases or taxes, but you have a small control over the school budget. People said, 'I will take that little piece of control and vote down the budget.' They can't do anything about gas prices or Medicare, but they can affect the school board."
Patrick Hoey of Bellmore said the budget's failure was part of a broad-based tax revolt. Of the 56 budgets that were voted on May 17, 18 failed.
Shari Gurvitz of Bellmore believes that voters were also upset about the tax error that was made and fixed in November 2004. The mistake led the district to pay less of the tax levy that was authorized in August 2004, and many homeowners were underbilled by $114 on their October 2004 tax statement. The mistake was fixed in November 2004, but it required homeowners to pay back the money that was not collected in October on their April 2005 bills.
"Because of the tax error, people thought that they were being taxed twice," Gurvitz said. "They did not understand that the tax being collected was already passed."
Beth Kimmelman of Bellmore said that a slew of mysterious mailings also contributed to the overwhelming number of votes against the budget. "There have been a number of postcards sent to Bellmore residents calling on them to vote the budget down," she said. "These mailings were really misguided, and gave misleading information about the budget."
According to Kimmelman, some of the postcards said that district officials receive raises that are hidden in the district budget, "which is not true."
Board Trustee Richard Narby said, "Unfortunately, many residents believe what they read, and believe that by voting down the budget their taxes would go down, but in reality they don't go down that much."
Comments about this story? HFlores@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
