By JEFF LIPTON
Long Beach will see a state aid package of $19.4 million, an increase of 2.11 percent, while many other districts received an increase of 8 percent or more.
“We're disappointed,” said Superintendent Dr. Robert Greenberg, who was in the process of closely examining the numbers to see why the district was left out of the big-money pool.
“We're doing a line-by-line analysis of why we received such a small percentage,” Greenberg added. “I'm not happy with the percentage we're getting.”
Under former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposed executive budget, the district would have received $350,000 less in state aid in 2008-09 than it did this year. The state Legislature restored that cut in the budget, but only added another $161,000, Greenberg said. “Right now, that's not a lot of money, which is why we're doing a thorough and careful analysis,” he said. “Other [districts] are getting money, and I want to find out why [we're not].” More state aid is generally given to the neediest school districts, and the state uses a formula called the Combined Wealth Ratio, which takes into consideration residents' income and property assets. Long Beach is listed with the 15th highest CWR in Nassau County, but has the fifth lowest tax rate, Greenberg said.
“We're the 15th highest according to the state formula, but not if you speak to the people who live here,” he said. Greenberg explained that the small state aid increase would barely make a dent in the tax levy increase, which is now projected to be 4.86 percent. “It will not help the tax levy at all,” he said.
“We won't have a shortfall, but in retrospect, I had hoped for some more money,” he added.
The state aid package was approved on April 9, part of a state budget of nearly $122 billion. The increase in aid raises overall state assistance for the Island's schools to $2.6 billion next year, a 9.9 percent increase. The package restores most of the aid cuts proposed three months ago by Spitzer. State legislators were more than a week late in meeting the constitutional deadline for budget approval, but districts received aid figures in time to plan for school budget voting next month.
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