By Nick Buglione
Scores of administrators from districts throughout Nassau met last Friday at the Salisbury Center, headquarters of the East Meadow schools, to identify the factors that will likely lead to program cutbacks and tax increases in the coming year and explain what can be done about them.
Those that spoke to the hushed throng of suits refereed to the dilemma as the perfect storm: a trifecta that includes state aid reductions, rising expenses and Nassau's property reassessment, which will see most homeowner's taxes go up.
"If there ever was a reason for us to speak with one voice, this is it," said William Johnson, superintendent of the Rockville Centre School District, who spoke in sobering detail of how state aid cuts in Gov. George Pataki's proposed budget, coupled with rising expenses, will cripple districts. "This falls in the category of please don't shoot the messenger."
Under Pataki's recently released proposed budget, Johnson said, Nassau County school districts stand to lose an average of 12.7 percent in state aid, or $70.5 million, well over the 8.8 percent average of the entire state.
He stressed that these figures are preliminary and that districts won't know how much money they are going to get until the 2003-2004 state budget is finally passed, which experts estimate might not happen until the summer. That's well after the school districts' fiscal plans will be in place.
"What number do you put in your budget this year?" Johnson said. "The numbers [for the state deficit could be] worse than they were predicted to be, which doesn't bode well for school districts."
Aside from funding shortfalls, district expenses have shot up in certain areas, including health, liability, heating and other contractual costs.
What's more, state mandates, such as the recent requirement that all schools have defibrillators on premises, have gone unfunded ---forcing districts to figure out a way to foot the bill.
"Maybe they could ease some of the restrictions on these mandates," said Herb Brown, superintendent of the Oceanside School District.
Wicks Law, another debated state mandate that drives up school construction costs by requiring separate bidding on various aspects of projects, also has administrators flustered.
"Most of us are going to be looking at double digit tax increases," Johnson said, stressing that districts, however, shouldn't place the entire burden on the taxpayers. "We need to spread that burden around. We are in a crisis situation. It should not be borne entirely by the homeowners of Nassau County."
Considering the county's property reassessments, individual homeowners will have their taxes directly affected by a shift in the burden from utilities and businesses to them, said Sheldon Dumain, superintendent of the Bellmore Elementary School District. That means their taxes will already going up before school budgets are even taken into account.
"Without even having done a thing, you start out with a 3- to 5- percent increase on your tax levy," said Dumain, using his own district as an example. "Put that package together and assume there's going to be a decrease in state aid and the 19 percent increase in health costs and what do you have?"
A very overburdened taxpayer, Dumain noted. "It's frightening as far as we're concerned because we're trying to fight very hard to have as little a tax increase as we can."
Getting the word to Albany that they need more help will be at the top of every school administrator's to-do list in the coming weeks.
Superintendents already have a meeting scheduled with local state Assembly members on Feb. 28 from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at the Brookside School in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District.
