By Scott Brinton and Joseph Kellard
It's the only county in which four property classes are defined for purposes of assessing homeowners' property tax bills: Class I, residential; Class II, condominiums and cooperatives; Class III, utilities; and Class IV, commercial. Each class picks up a different percentage of the school-tax burden.
Bellmore Superintendent Sheldon Dumain says the state Office of Real Property Services has continually shifted more of the responsibility for funding the schools from commercial to residential properties. In education jargon, the phenomenon is known as the "shift in adjusted base proportion" -- base proportion being the percentage of total school taxes that each of the four property classes pays.
When homeowners must pay a greater percentage of the tax pie, their property tax bills inevitably go up -- and often shoot up.
That was the message Dumain drove home at a forum sponsored by the Nassau County Council of School Superintendents at the Brookside School in North Merrick on March 10. In attendance were Oceanside Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown, chairman of the Nassau County Superintendents Legislative Committee, and Island Park Superintendent Dr. Ed Price.
Among the state lawmakers on hand were Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, a Democrat of Long Beach, Robert Barra, a Republican of Lynbrook, and David McDonough, a Republican of North Merrick. The event gave superintendents a chance to lobby legislators for a greater share of education aid, and they called on lawmakers to reform the system by which the schools are funded.
A growing burden
Dumain noted that Bellmore homeowners once paid 68 percent of local school taxes. But along came the shift in adjusted base proportion. The state now mandates that they shoulder 91 percent of the bill. "That," Dumain said, "will have a dramatic impact on the amount of taxes paid for by our homeowners."
Brown said the numbers in Oceanside are similar. "The overall numbers for Oceanside are similar, but for each individual homeowner the numbers can go up and down due to the four different factors acting on the assessment bill. That's why it's confusing to everybody."
Price said that utilities in Island Park once provided about 40 percent of the school district's tax base, but that with the 2005 reassessments, utilities now pay about 26 percent and homeowners about 58 percent. "If it's left along this way, it will shift more and more of the burden to the homeowners," Price says.
Dumain suggested that the state cap the shift in base proportion permanently at 1 percent per year. This way, he said, the shift would be phased in slowly and would come as less of a shock to homeowners.
State aid wanted
Rockville Centre Superintendent Dr. William Johnson, who joined Dumain as a presenter, said that Nassau County needs more state education aid to help reduce property taxes. "We're sending a lot of money to Albany" in state income taxes, he said, "and we're getting less than our fair share" of aid.
Education aid is money that the state provides to help defray the cost of funding the schools. Aid levels have increased in recent years, but school officials are quick to note that education aid funds a smaller percentage of their budgets than it once did.
In Oceanside, for example, 20 years ago state aid funded about 40 percent of the budget; today it funds about 13 percent. In recent years in Island Park, state aid has been below 5 percent. Price points to transportation costs in his district, which buses students several towns away to West Hempstead High School, as an example of how decreased state aid burdens Island Park. During the 1980s, the state funded 90 percent of transportation costs; today it provides about 6 percent.
Further, schools depend on two primary funding sources -- property taxes and state aid. When state aid is reduced, property taxes go up, unless student programming is cut.
Johnson said it is also important to distinguish between the different types of education aid the state offers. In the governor's executive budget, there are two types of aid that school districts are essentially free to spend as they choose -- Flex Aid and Sound Basic Education Aid. The superintendent said the governor boasts that he is providing record levels of school aid. But Johnson noted that, for Long Island school districts at least, that money usually isn't Flex Aid or Sound Basic Education Aid.
Rather, the new dollars come in the form of building, special education or Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) aid -- all of which require school districts to spend a certain amount of money in order to receive the aid.
On average, school districts across the state receive $5,573 per student in state aid. New York City gets $5,852. But Nassau County receives roughly half that -- $2,931 per student, according to Johnson. On Long Island, the superintendent said, "The tax burden is unbelievable. People are saying enough is enough."
In addition to increasing Flex Aid and Sound Basic Education Aid for Long Island districts, Johnson suggested that the state enact a 1 percent income tax surcharge that would fund schools in the counties where it was collected. That, Johnson said, would dramatically decrease the burden that Nassau County homeowners must bear in funding schools.
But Weisenberg countered that the surcharge wouldn't fly in Albany because it would be seen as a new tax, and, fearing voter backlash, legislators don't like to enact new taxes.
Lawmakers react
Weisenberg said the state needs a better system to fund education. But, he noted, "I don't know how we're going to solve our [school] tax problem."
He did say, however, that the Nassau County Assembly delegation -- both Democrats and Republicans -- works hard to bring home greater state education aid. "It's difficult," he said. "We do the best we can."
"There's no politics when it comes to Long Island [schools]," said McDonough. "We are all on the same page when it comes to education and health care. Our upstate [Assembly] colleagues look at us and say, 'You guys are rich. Why do you keep complaining?'"
McDonough said that a number of Long Island lawmakers are working in the Legislature to enact a regional cost index that would tie state aid to the cost of living. Because many costs are considerably higher on Long Island than upstate, Long Island would get more state aid if an index were factored in.
But according to education officials, a cost index stands little chance of passing the Legislature, where upstate lawmakers are firmly in control.
Local superintendents reactions
Asked if any new strides were made at this year's event, both Brown and Price bluntly said no. Calling the system of aiding schools "broken," Price said, "If you're just going to tinker with an existing system, there are problems. It's never going to do what is necessary for the kids on Long Island and throughout the state." Price added that he believes the politicians are trying to "do the best they can in a very complicated political situation in Albany, but Albany is broken, too."
Brown, who assisted in organizing the forum and took questions from the audience, said, "I think [the people who asked questions] are frustrated over these various issues that are affecting state aid, taxes, etc."
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
