By Jeff Lipton
Local districts will be the beneficiaries of a record $236 million increase in state aid to Long Island schools - with Oceanside receiving a whopping 19 percent hike.
Oceanside schools will see $19.5 million in state aid in 2008-09, an 18.8 percent increase over the current year. The increase will be used to reduce the tax levy increase, said Dr. Herb Brown, Oceanside schools superintendent. "Certainly, we're very pleased, and we will apply the increase to lower the tax levy," Brown said.
Before the state aid increase, Oceanside was staring at a tax levy hike of 3.85 percent, but the state funding will help bring it down to 2.8 percent.
Brown explained that the huge jump can be attributed to the changes Oceanside has seen in the Combined Wealth Ratio (CWR), a state formula based on the income and property assets of district residents. More than 10 years ago, Oceanside was 46 percent above the statewide average CWR, but its advantage has dropped to 33 percent, Brown said.
He praised local state legislators such as Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) and Assemblymen Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) and Bob Barra (R-Lynbrook) for fighting for state aid for Oceanside. "They really work hard to get the money to our schools," said Brown.
The state aid for Island Park schools increased about 3 percent, to $2.243 million, which will also be earmarked to reduce the district's tax levy increase. About $60,000 of that money was supposed to be used to start a pre-kindergarten program in the district, but superintendent Dr. Ed Price said that is not nearly enough to launch one.
Even though Island Park's increase is not as large as some in neighboring districts, Price said, "We'll take it." He made it clear, however, that the total was still not enough. "The state should fund districts at a more adequate level," he said. "We're pleased it went up a little bit. Will that have a tremendous impact on taxpayers? No. Will it help? Yes, depending on what you spend it on."
The state aid package was approved on April 9 as part of an overall state budget of nearly $122 billion. State assistance for all of Long Island's schools will total $2.6 billion next year, a 9.9 percent increase. The package restores most of the aid cuts proposed three months ago by former Gov. Eliot 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.
Comments about this story? JLipton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
