Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Ready For Your Next Tax Raise?":
PLEASE POST AS A SEPERATE TOPIC
Part of the problem with our school taxes in NY
byE.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy. ejm@empirecenter.org
Will Andrew Cuomo defy the special interests that have long controlled Al bany -- starting with the public-sector labor unions whose political arm endorsed him -- to deliver the kind of change he promised in his successful campaign for governor of New York?
The answer is simple: He has no choice. The Empire State's fiscal problems are simply too massive to permit further dithering, buck-passing and corner-cutting.
Stuck: With a $9 billion budget hole next year, Gov.-elect Cuomo can't dodge bitter battles. Throughout his campaign, Cuomo explicitly and repeatedly promised to hold the line on spending and broad-based taxes. The new numbers mean he can't keep that promise unless the first budget of his tenure cuts spending below current levels.
-- will be property taxes.
In an audacious move, Cuomo began his campaign last May by calling for a broad limit on property taxes in New York. Moving beyond the 4 percent maximum cap on school taxes proposed two years ago by Gov. Paterson, Cuomo proposed a maximum cap of 2 percent on the annual growth in property-tax levies by all government units -- schools, counties, cities, towns, villages and special districts.
This cap could only be overridden by a 60 percent "supermajority" of residents. It would allow for limited, extraordinary exceptions, like capital expenses previously approved by voters. But it would otherwise contain no loopholes.
But Cuomo can't credibly propose a tax cap in isolation. It must be coupled with changes in collective-bargaining provisions that now make it hard for local governments and school districts to control their labor costs.
The changes should start with repeal of the Triborough amendment, which guarantees seniority "step" increases in pay even after a labor contract has expired. Above all, they must include fundamental reform of public pensions, which are about to skyrocket to levels never before seen in New York.
During much of the 44 consecutive years they controlled the upper house before 2009, the Republicans institutionally allied themselves with public-sector labor unions, especially the New York State United Teachers. During previous fiscal crises, they joined Assembly Democrats to enact major tax and spending increases.
"In many ways, we lost our way in the past, and we got the message and we're going to correct the direction of the state," Sen. Dean Skelos, the GOP leader, told The Post's Fred Dicker yesterday.
Cuomo needs to remind Skelos of that quote, early and often. Skelos & Co., for their part, need to hold Cuomo's feet to the fire.
E.J. McMahon is a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center for New York State Policy. ejm@empirecenter.org
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/now_comes_the_real_fight_rgGLkJzbfV8PlLiZ3MpIbJ#ixzz14LM1MfIB
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
The writer of this article is completely wrong. The legislature will enact and Cuomo will sign a tax cap. The only question is which kind of cap will it be? Will it be the one the writer calls which will destroy New York's schools like Proposition 13 did to the schools of California, or will there be a responsible tax cap that it linked to the incomes of taxpayers, one that if fair to all taxpayers. Unless people who are seriously interested in quality education get behind the one linked to income, get ready to watch public schools on Long Island decline and property values tank. People need to stop blaming the inequities of the current property tax system on union teachers. They pay property taxes too.
ReplyDeletePlease post as a separate comment:
ReplyDeleteMy kids told me that the POB cafeteria was selling at a discount expired chips. I would like to put this out to parents because I think this is something that other parents want to know. It's legal to do this at a store but it must be disclosed. And, the kids weren't told the stuff was expired. They knew something was up when they all had stale chips. 10, 12, 13, or even 14 year olds are not legally able to make this decision and it should not be an option in a school anyway. I would not even want my kids to eat it if it was given away. Give the stuff to a homeless shelter. I want this known to other parents because I wonder what else is being "slipped by". There is also a rodent problem in the school. Be careful about your kids leaving food in the lockers. Maybe a warning from the school is warranted?
My son ate some of the expired Sun Chips at POB. His friend bought them and didn't like them so offered them to him. My son said they tasted horrible and that everyone was talking about that the chips were old. He brought home the bag - the chips expired on Nov 2, so they were 3 days past the freshness date.
ReplyDeleteI guess Sun Chips don't have much life after their freshness date. Food services should refund the money back to the kids.
When you say POB cafeteria, are you referring to the middle or high school? Given the ages you cite, I assume you're talking about the middle school. Please clarify.
ReplyDeleteThe administration should be questioned about this. It shouldn't be. Personally, I prefer to send my children to school with their own lunches and snacks.
Mr. Rosenfeld:
ReplyDeleteI am also a member of a labor union. With all due respect ,here is the problem that you either do not want to hear about or face. New York state is in trouble. Very similar to General Motors . Like GM, NY state has been granting promised future obligations to municipal unions and the NYS UFT with out the forsight to realize that we can not afford to continue the track we are on.Our state pension plan is in a hole for about 31 billion dollars in obligations. Why? for 3 reasons.
1: They(NY State) have promised the unions big pensions that we can afford to pay
2: They have set the rates of return on the pension plan at 8% for years and recently changed it to 7.5% even though the real return is far from what they are stating. If someone were to do that in the corporate world that would be called "fraud".In addition the pension accounting does not follow G.A.A.P. AKA Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures. Sadly some experts have said the state could be in a hole for 40 billion dollars or more in future obligations if GAAP were used.
3. None of the politicians have been willing to do anything about it.
Do I blame the PCT ? no , they have a right to negotiate a contract in their own best interest. As earlier stated when comparing GM to NY they are very similar and I would hate to see NY end up like California, but the reality is that we are heading that way.
As far as the tax system you mention. That Labor contracts we have now with your union are part of the problem. The fact is that POB school district taxes went up 15% this year. Can we sustain that? no way. We can not afford these salaries to keep increasing like they are . If your worried about our home values ,you should be because the values will keep sinking as the taxes continue to rise and more homes have "for sale" signs on them. How about the Unions get behind a County sales tax just for the school taxes that way everybody who benefits from living on this great island has to pay not just home owners. Solutions must be found from everybody including the PCT
Mr. Rosenfeld
ReplyDeleteThe problem is not the property taxes. The issue is the school taxes that have risen in our district this year by 15% on average.the real inequities in the systemn is the fact that every school district has to negotiate an individual contract with their teachers union creating an environment that fosters a competiton to see which school district teachers union can negotiate the biggest contract at the expense of the taxpayers regardless of the effects it causes on the communities which they serve.The teacher unions can not be blamed for everything, that I agree. The reality is that the school taxes on long island have risen so much that it has caused some homes to become unaffordable at the same time preventing familes from moving into homes because they would not be able to afford the school and property taxes. The present system we have now if it stays status quo will hurt our schools by forcing schools to choose between cutting programs or reducing staff. I am sure we can agree that something has to change . The question is how it will change and whether all parties involved will agree to co-operate will they resist.
Yes, something has to change, and that is the way we finance education in New York. In our system, two taxpayers who own the same house but whose incomes differ by thousands of dollars contribute the same amount to the support of the schools. We should all be able to agree that that isn't fair. That's why our union supports a property tax cap which would have people supporting schools and local government in accordance with their financial ability.
ReplyDeleteAs for state employee pensions, the rate of employer contribution varies with market conditions. As little as three years ago, the contribution rate was almost zero because market conditions were so good. On the other hand, when I began teaching in 1969, the contribution rate was over 20%. In addition, we need to remember that pension benefits have been reduced over the last 40 years. I belong to Tier 1, whereas those who began teaching this year are in Tier 5 and have a substantially poorer benefit. I can well understand people who have no pension resenting those who do, but a moment's thought suggests that all working people deserve a defined benefit pension not just teachers and police. We all deserve to grow old with dignity. Our members would vote for that, even if we had to pay higher taxes.
Will my child ever learn to write?
ReplyDeleteWhy is there no instruction in writing?
It seems that the Art part of English Language Arts takes center stage as I watch my child spend more time drawing and doing creative projects rather than working on enhancing writing skills.
Classroom writing assignments are given to other students to critique. Why isn't the teacher going over the written work and offering comments about combining or eliminating sentences, using more descriptive action verbs, paragraph formation, etc?
it's great that other kids may find my child's writing to be fun to read but that's not going to make my child a better writer.
How do Doritos qualify as healthy snacks and end up in the middle school vending machines?
ReplyDeleteAnything can be packaged to conform to certain caloric content but what nutritional value is there in Doritos? Doritos contain many unnatural ingredients. Why can't kids buy a bag of old fashioned potatoe chips made of potatoes, salt and oil?
I politely request Mr. Rosenfeld to clarify part of his posting November 8th at 2:41PM. Are you suggesting we do away with property taxes to finance education and move exclusively to an income based school tax or would the income tax be in addition to our already high property taxes? Interesting idea either way - not sure it will ever come to fruition.
ReplyDeleteMr. Rosenfeld, while you're reading this,
For whatever it's worth, the problems in this school district are more about the administration than they are about any of the teachers. Just my opinion.
Mr. Rosenfeld
ReplyDeleteThe issue you stated:" two taxpayers who own the same house but whose incomes differ by thousands of dollars contribute the same amount to the support of the schools"
That is simply not true . The fact is that the school taxes are based upon the perceived value of the home which is wrong . Why should I pay double the amount of school taxes that my neighbor does just because I decided to put a second floor on my home? this to me gives a home owner more of an incentive not to improve their home at all. Your right we should all be able to grow old with dignity and handing someone a 15% school tax increase is just wrong.
The right way to finance education is to scrap the school tax and have a county tax for everybody. Homeowners, renters, businesses etc
this would be a fairer system that would probably generate just as much if not more income for our schools with out huting people as much as it does now. One of the biggest reasons why businesses have left nassu county for suffolk county is the school and property taxes . As was stated before , the labor contracts in the schools are still the biggest part of the budget that continues to grow at unsustainable rates.
The post from November 11 10:21AM is in agreement with Mr. Rosenfeld in that school revenue should come from income taxes rather than from property taxes.
ReplyDeleteTwo people who own the same house whose incomes differ by thousands of dollars do not always pay the same amount in property taxes. The enhanced star exemption reduces the revenues collected from many seniors and lower income residents.
Personally, I'd like more information about such a change in tax structure. I'm looking forward to reading Mr. Rosenfeld's response to November 9 8:07PM.
I am certainly saying that I believe that financing public education off of the property is unfair and should be abolished in favor or the graduated income tax. While the Star Program attempted to address some of the inequities of the property tax as a vehicle for financing the schools, it is still a regressive tax. Look at what it does to "property poor" towns like Hempstead,Roosevelt, Wyandanch where it is extremely difficult to raise sufficient money to run the schools.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I doubt that there is a leader in Albany with the guts to advocate the abolition of the property tax. There are some, however, who support the so-called circuit breaker tax cap, the one that is tied to income. To my mind, it';s not the best solution to the property tax problem, but it would bring substantial relief to those who are really suffering under the current system.
The PCT has lobbied for many years for a fairer method of financing public education than the property tax. The underlying premise of our position is that those who earn more should pay more towards the support of the schools. That leads us to support funding public education on the graduated income tax. Just about none of our elected leaders in Albany are willing to go down this road, in large measure because the high-rollers who finance their campaigns don’t want to pay their fair share to support the education of the state’s children.
ReplyDeleteThat said, we are forced to consider some half-measures to make the system fairer. We have no doubt that there are people living in communities like Plainview-Old Bethpage who are forced to consider moving because of their inability to pay their property taxes. We, therefore, support a circuit breaker property tax cap. Such a cap protects taxpayers from property tax “overload” just like an electric circuit breaker by essentially “capping” their property taxes when they exceed a percentage of their income. The shortfall in revenue to the school district that would result from this kind of cap would be made up by the state from the personal income tax. In this way those who objectively need property tax relief get it, while the school district can continue meet its rising costs for equipment, supplies and personnel.
What must be avoided at all cost the kind of tax cap Governor-elect Cuomo and others are talking about that caps school expenditure increases. Had such a cap been in force, school districts like ours would be shells of what they are today. All one needs to do is look at what the tax cap called Proposition 13 did to the schools of California. When that law was enacted, California was recognized as having one of the best state school systems in the United States. Today it is one of the worst. Colorado enacted one to deal a public angered by ever escalating property taxes only to have to repeal it shortly thereafter as schools and public services began to noticeably decline.
We invite citizens of the community to work with us on a fairer way to fund our schools. We ask you to remember that we did not create the current system. We ask you to recognize that our members live in Long Island communities and pay high property taxes too.
Mr. Rosenfeld,while many of the citizens of Plainview do not have guaranteed pensions, much of their continually rising taxes go to funding the pensions of now retired teachers. While I believe that teachers should be paid appropriately for the excellent and important job that many of them do; it is time for the government to step in and change the time honored gift of guaranteed pensions that were intended to make up for the very small wages that teachers once made. This would be a good start to freezing our taxes at their now ridiculous level. To consider that the almost bankrupt state government will help fund school taxes borders on the absurd.
ReplyDeleteCapping school expenditures is the only way. Why Because the biggest expense of a school is the labor contracts .The school boards do not have the courage to go up against School unions on long Island so we need a governor who can. Why is it that there is a law that makes it almost impossible for a school district to get rid of step increases and tenure. Mandated laws that tell residens how a school district must pay its employees. That is a fact. Cuomo is going after the municipal and public unions. These are the unions with no competition and that is why they have become out of control. They are not fully to blame . It is also the fault of the politicians who have had these unions in their political pocket and have written laws years ago that are just not feasible in todays world.
ReplyDeleteAs Stated by the post before me.
ReplyDeleteGuaranteed Pensions were given because of the original lower pay scales teachers had. Today Teachers make as much or even more than the private sector.
Teachers need to make a choice Current High Pay with No pension.
or
Much Lower Pay with a Pension.
Unfortunately Mr Rosenfeld and the rest of the NY teachers union wont stop with their demands until the citzens and the state of NY are Bankrupt.
When the school board is forced to layoff teachers because of Budget issues, the Blame will be 100% The teachers Unions own fault.
Mr. Rosenfeld,
ReplyDeleteThank you for joining this discussion. You raise some important points. My concern with a "circuit breaker" property tax cap along with a graduated income tax is that like many other things in this country, the bar for who truly gets appropriate relief will inevitably be too low, leaving middle class people like myself to end up paying the price in that we do not earn enough to be comfortable but too much to be considered in need of relief. Changing the structure of our tax base, whether it be through income tax, property tax or both, unfortunately equates with additional/raises in taxes that many of us simply cannot afford.
I agree that a school expenditure cap mandated by Albany poses many problems for everyone involved, taxpayers, districts, children.
The resentment of teachers for making living wages and being able to retire in dignity will never cease to astound me. The participants on this blog who spew venom at the people who teach the community’s children and their union appear to long for the time when schools were staffed almost entirely by educated women who had few other economic opportunities in a patriarchal society structured to keep them in their place. That society is thankfully gone. To think as one commentator suggests that, “Teachers need to make a choice Current High Pay with No pension. or Much Lower Pay with a Pension” (sic) is delusional.
ReplyDeleteFifty years ago this coming spring, ten brave elementary school teachers decided that they were fed up with the false choice of decent pay or a pension. They got together, like others around the state and nation, and formed a union to demand “dignity and status,” the slogan on the little blue button that they courageously wore to tell the world that they were tired of being taken for granted and economically exploited. The spirit that impelled them is alive and well in our ranks. While we have always been open to working with people of good will to solving the very real problems facing our community, we will never allow anyone to rob us of the dignity and status we have achieved through our union.
Mr. Rosenfeld,
ReplyDeleteThere is no venom being spewed by participants in this thread. Please do not try and raise the drama level to distract. I am sure that your position of union president would be greatly diminished if the current pension plans were dampened or diminished. Welcome, downsizing is the wave of the current economy. I am confused by teachers demands for dignity and status. When you make a decent living for the job you do, doesn't that give you dignity and status? The salaries that teachers on Long Island make fall well within that range, as compared to other jobs. I am very supportive of teachers making a decent living, but status comes with work above and beyond the call of duty. Something rarely seen when employment comes without competition. From my position right now teachers want their cake and the ability to eat it again later as well.
Mr. Rosenfeld
ReplyDeleteYou amaze me with your stand as being so concerned with the school district . You could care less about the district . Your main Goal is all about the $$$$. You hide behind the spirit and history of labor unions. Here is a little history for you on labor. Unions were formed to gain decent wages and working conditions and not to be abused and unfairly treated by their employers. You on the other hand have given the the word labor union a bad name . You sit at the board meeting which I was there and listen to the school board attorney how he states that we will be in a hole for at least 5 million dollars in the coming years . Next you get up and have the nerve to demand more $$$ from this district without any regard for the economic depression that we are in . How do you sleep at night? You create this contoversy instead of trying to work with the distict for the well being of everyone. The children, the teachers , and the residents. The school budgets are out of control and you know it ,but that does not matter to you. union labor history was based on a fair days pay for a fair days work not trying to squeeze every last dime out of the boss and making unreasonable demands regardless of the impact on the children or residents.
I make no bones about the fact that my job is to secure good salaries, benefits and working conditions for the people the PCT represents. That’s my job. If there is anyone in this discussion who is not hiding anything, it is I. I sign my name to everything I write. No one else does. Finally, I challenge anyone to go to the PCT web site and to read my columns going back a few years and see if you don’t agree that we the PCT has suggested more ways to save money than any administration we’ve had here, savings that could be had without impacting the education of a single child. While I will continue to insist that teachers and clerical staff be well paid for their efforts, many PCT members and I live here too. We have no interest in wasting our tax dollars.
ReplyDeleteMr. Rosenfeld, thank you for your comments.
ReplyDeleteI think that since teachers have the most direct contact with students, they are held responsible for many things that are simply beyond their control. It would be dishonest for me to say that I have been truly satisfied with every single teacher in this school district. I also have seen first hand some of the "unofficial" job actions push the limits a bit. I do however find comfort in the fact that the positives has far outweighed the negatives in most years.
Incidentally, is the PCT consulted on all these purchases of technology? How much say and/or training do those who are directly expected to utilize this technology have a part of?
It has been my experience that the administration has been consistently problematic in this community. Am I the only one who feels this way?
How much benefit do the upper level administrators serve to the entire community, teachers as well as students? It seems that many programs are put into place more for purposes of PR than anything else.
Is it possible that the lack of uniformity of instruction withing buildings and district wide has more to do with an ineffective administration than with individual teachers?
Is it possible or perhaps likely that the "expert" hired to administer curriculum and instruction in this district is more about demonstrating what he/she can put on a resume rather than what truly works in the best interest of our children?
Is it plausible that the administration is the very reason why the teachers' union has to continuously be on guard for their own protection?
Mr. Rosenfeld, we may not always agree but I do give you credit for being the only member of the school district to come on this blog and respond to the many concerns shared here. If I was not so worried about my children's safety, I would use my name here also.