By KEITH GRANT
District owed over $500,000
A $106,000 payment to the Long Beach School District was vetoed by County Executive Thomas Gulotta earlier this month. The payment was nixed from the county's 2001 budget, marking the fifth straight year the county has failed to make good on its bill.
Nassau County has now accumulated a debt of more than a half-million dollars owed to Long Beach taxpayers. Commonly referred to as a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes), the payments are supposed to be made annually to the school district by both the county and the Town of Hempstead to offset the loss of tax revenue from certain properties, such as the beach clubs, in the Lido Beach-Point Lookout area.
While the Town of Hempstead has made good on its payments each year, Nassau County has failed to make payments now totaling $531,162. The annual unaccounted-for revenue is subsequently passed on to district taxpayers.
Despite the presence of the payment in the 2001 budget proposed by the legislature's Democratic majority, Executive Gulotta was apparently not convinced the financially-strapped county needed to make good on its tab. Margaret Robertson, county budget director, said, "No one on the legislature legally substantiated the necessity of paying the PILOT funds from the 2001 budget. Since the legislature was unable to override the county executive's vetoes, the vetoes are sustained."
Dr. Ronald Friedman, Long Beach Superintendent of Schools, agreed that the money is not a necessity, but "it's money they owe us." County Legislator Michael Zapson (D-Long Beach) says he has been fighting for the payments since 1997, when he was a Long Beach City Council member.
"By state law, the school district is supposed to receive that money every year," Mr. Zapson said. "[The district] hasn't received the payments in five years now. The legislature has, in fact, approved that payment."
The legislator added that, "The residents and students of the City of Long Beach should not be held accountable for the county executive's irresponsible managerial practices. The quality of our children's education should never be bartered in favor of lower taxes."
Dr. Friedman has been frustrated by the county's failure to make good on the debt, and says he has tried to speak with the Executive about the matter.
"I wrote to him in the spring, and he responded that he'd direct one of his deputies to get in touch with me," Dr. Friedman said. "But it hasn't happened." He said that phone calls to Mr. Gulotta have not been returned. Through conversations with county legislators, Dr. Friedman learned of Mr. Gulotta's recent veto. He said the district is not planning to pursue any further action until the 2001 budget makes its way through the state-appointed oversight committee.
"We're going to let this issue play out and see where the budget ends up," he said. "If the oversight committee takes over [county finances], we would be wasting our time dealing with Gulotta."
The payments date back to when the county and town acquired several properties in Lido and Point Lookout some 30 years ago, taking the land off the district's tax rolls. Fran Evans, spokesperson for the Democratic-majority Legislature, said, "When county took over the land, the agreement was that county would make those payments. But they haven't been doing it."
According to Dr. Friedman, from July 1996 to June 1998, the school district was to receive about $200,000 of monies that were budgeted, but not paid. Between July 1998 and June 2000, the county did not appropriate the funds at all.
The failure to receive the money has frustrated him, but he indicated that the district's annual $75 million budget is not in any jeopardy.
"We, in a sense, have budgeted assuming that money is coming in," Dr. Friedman said. "But at the same time, you have to be prepared if it isn't. Does $100,000 make or break us? Certainly not. If you can't be prepared for something like that, then you haven't done your job. But in the end, it's $100,000 passed on to our taxpayers."
