By KEITH GRANT
Long Beach schools received a check for more than $300,000 from Nassau County this week, making up about 60 percent of a debt the county built up with the district over the past five years.
The county is supposed to make annual payments of about $100,000 to local schools to compensate for the loss of tax revenue from the presence of county-owned parks and beach clubs within the district. These PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) funds are required by the state, but the fiscally-stricken county had withheld the cash from Long Beach for five years, accumulating a debt of $531,162. By contrast, the Town of Hempstead, which also has property in the Lido and Point Lookout areas, has made its payments to the district every year.
Democratic legislators had included this year's $106,000 payment in their 2001 budget, but in November, County Executive Thomas Gulotta used a line-item veto to remove the payment from the fiscal plan. At the time, county budget director Margaret Robertson said, "No one on the Legislature legally substantiated the necessity of paying PILOT funds from the 2001 budget. Since the Legislature was unable to override the county executive's vetoes, the vetoes are sustained."
With the prospect looming of a takeover of county finances by a state-appointed oversight committee, Democrats were able to convince Gulotta to make good on a partial payment to Long Beach schools before they backed a budget plan.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ronald Friedman said, "When the legislators and Gulotta were in final negotiations over a budget plan that would stave off a takeover, the Democrats basically said they wouldn't do it without this payback included."
Friedman said no school district besides Long Beach received a similar payback, but Long Beach's had been allowed to slide for too long. The district's money had been budgeted by the county in 1996 and '97, but was not paid. The Legislature did not bother appropriating the funds at all in 1998 and '99. Legis. Michael Zapson (D-Long Beach) had been fighting for the funds since he sat on the City Council four years ago. Upon presenting the check to school officials, Zapson blasted Gulotta's previous failures to make good on the mandated payments.
"The Long Beach School District has been held hostage by the irresponsible managerial practices of the county executive for too long," Zapson said. "Residents should not be asked to pay higher taxes while the county executive plays shell games with funds that rightfully belong to the school district and should be spent on the education of our children."
The payments date back to when the county and town acquired property for parks in Lido and Point Lookout about 30 years ago, taking the land off of the district's tax rolls. When that happened, the stipulation was that both the county and town would make the PILOT payments to Long Beach schools. That had never been a problem until the county stopped its payments five years ago.
Friedman attributed the at-long-last receipt of a check to the efforts of Zapson, as well as growing attention brought to the subject.
"I think it was a real combination of we've been pushing the county through Zapson, and the negative publicity the county was getting over this," he said.
Friedman said the situation remained a travesty, but he was happy that the district was able to get some of the money owed. He had tried unsucessfully for several months to speak with Gulotta on the matter, and it was only through conversations with legislators that he learned of the executive's November veto of the latest annual payment.
Although the situation was frustrating, Friedman said the county's growing debt to Long Beach had not become a significant burden on local taxpayers.
"We wouldn't be doing a good job budgeting if it was money that would make or break us," he said. "Every year, it was money that we listed as revenue. This year, it's revenue that's actually there."
