By Scott Brinton
During a Feb. 6 Central Board of Education meeting, Assistant Superintendent for Business George Littman said the plan would force the district to bond school-renovation projects that it now pays for through a capital-improvement fund.
The last time that the Central district bonded a building project was during the mid-1960s when the Brookside School and Kennedy High School were built, he said.
Bonding projects would cost the district interest charges that it does not pay under its current "pay-as-you-go" plan.
The ultimate effect would be higher school taxes, said Littman, a former president of the 700-member New York State Association of School Business Officials, which is fighting the governor's plan.
Central officials could not say how exactly the proposal would affect property taxes, but Superintendent Dr. Thomas Caramore said the impact on the district's finances would be "significant."
Speaking of the state legislators who must vote by April 1 on the proposal as part of the 2002 state budget, Caramore said, "Hopefully, they recommend no change in their recommendation to the governor."
In a phone interview, state Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick) said he had not taken a position on Pataki's plan. He was awaiting further information from the governor's Budget Office before deciding.
In 2001, the state revised its building-aid formula for bonded projects, extending the life of reimbursement payments from 15 to 30 years, Fuschillo said. The measure is estimated to have saved the state $200 to $300 million in its first year.
The governor has said the newest building-aid plan would save the state an additional $140 million in year one.
Fuschillo, however, said that, given last year's savings, the governor's latest proposal might not be needed.
"What we're waiting for is the cost-data analysis for building aid from last year..." the senator said. "If it's not necessary, then I don't see why we should move forward with it."
Fuschillo noted, though, that New York State faces a $6.8-billion deficit over the next two years in its $120-billion annual budget, in part because of the Sept. 11 attacks and the state pouring millions of dollars into the recovery effort.
Currently, Central officials set aside a certain amount of money in the district's annual budget for a capital-improvement fund -- this year, the figure was $3.5 million. The district then puts the monies into building projects, such as upgrading an auditorium. The year after the project, the district receives a 50-percent building-aid reimbursement from the state, said Littman.
Under the Republican governor's plan, the district would not get an up-front payment, but rather, reimbursements would be given annually in 1/15, 1/20 or 1/30 increments, depending on what the state considers the project's "useful life" to be.
Of particular concern is a provision to make the plan retroactive by a year or two, said Littman.
Doing so would be unfair to districts that have already laid out money for renovation work in expectation of immediately receiving state-aid dollars, he said. If the governor's proposal went through, school officials would have to return to voters with a new, higher tax rate to fill the subsequent budget shortfall.
Littman noted that the state has pushed for districts to upgrade school facilities in recent years. From 1998 through last year, the state offered a 10-percent, building-aid bonus to districts that performed revamp work. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive, with school systems throughout New York taking advantage of the program. Quickly, though, the state ran out of money, according to Littman.
"The building-aid curve was going up almost vertically, and the state found they couldn't afford that," he said during an interview.
At last Wednesday's board meeting, Central President Louis Kruh defended Bellmore-Merrick legislators with regard to the governor's proposal, saying in effect that they haven't the power to override it on their own. "It's not the fault of our local legislators," he said.
Michael Weinick, a Central trustee who serves with Kruh on the Merrick Elementary School Board, responded, "I can no longer accept that." Weinick wants legislators to come out more fervently against the governor's plan. "When are they going to stand up and say it can't be business as usual?" he asked.
State Comptroller Carl McCall, a Democrat who has already declared his candidacy for governor, lambasted Gov. Pataki's proposal during a news conference at Woodland Middle School in East Meadow last Saturday.
In response to a Herald question, McCall said of the plan: "That's an outrageous gimmick." He said the proposal would force school districts to follow fiscally imprudent practices, such as bonding instead of immediately paying for projects. The state, he believes, should seek another way to make up for anticipated shortfalls.
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, also a Democrat, echoed McCall, saying, "We don't need accounting gimmicks in anyone's budget. We need transparency." She also said the governor's plan would lead to "back-end" costs; that is, higher property taxes.
Caramore, the Central superintendent, noted that with the state's fiscal crisis, the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District expects no increase in its state-aid package for 2002-2003.
A representative from the governor's Budget Office could not be reached for comment.
