Bethpage-Tribune_1970-08-06

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BETHPAGE PUBLIC UBRARl
Island Trees Serving Bethpage - Plainview - Island Trees - Plainedge - Seatord
Vol. 4 No. 41
Thursday, August 6,1970
Old Bethpage
10c per copy
Budget Controversy Continues
As Board Mulls Fourth Try Hope still lingered this
week that Bathpage might
have a last chance to vote
in a more-than-austerity
budget. Meanwhile,
charges of irresponsibility
and distortion of facts
passed between various
community factions.
The full range of com­munity
feelings was ex­pressed
Tuesday night,
when an overflow
audience forced the Board
of Education to move its
meeting to the Little
Theatre of the High
School. In the S. R. O.
audience were members of
F. A. C. T, I. T. E. M„ and
Y. E . S : (informal
organizations with dif-1
fering stands concerning
the budget), as well as
cafeteria workers (who
stand to lose their jobs
under an austerity
budget), and apparently
uncommitted but in­terested
residents.
Petitions Submitted
Y. E. S. and F. A. C. T.
presented petitions to the
Board calling for a vote on
another budget which
would better reflect the
people's ability to pay.
Mrs. Joan Cable, speaking
on behalf of F. A. C. T.,
said there were 3,000
signatures on the petitions/
but the Board sub­sequently
reported only
2,500.
Although the two groups
worked together to amass
the signatures, Walter
Lippincott, a spokesman
for Y. E. S. (Youth for
Educational Support),
said bis group did not
necessarily agree with F.
A. C. T.'s objections to the
Board's previous budget.
"We're concerned,
scared students", said
Lippincott, who, along
with Student Council
President Mark Sandler,
organized Y. E. S. The
students involved appear
mainly concerned about
the loss of extra - curricula
activities and sports under
an austerity budget.
The two students and
several supporters met
with three Board members
Monday night. They
reported the men sym­pathetic,
but said they.
gave neither a com­mittment
nor an estimate
of a budget that would
include sports and ac­tivities.
Mrs. Cable said she
would be willing to collect
another 500 signatures for
the petitions to push them
over 3,000, the statutory
limit that would force the
Board to comply with
them.
According to Board
attorney Louis Orfan,
however, the petitions are
not valid because they do
not specify exact
programs or proposals
that the Board can act
upon. In order to FORCE
the Board to act, petitions
would have to be very ex­plicit,
he pointed out.
Orfan explained that the
Board might conceivably
respond to the petitions
though not legally com­pelled
to do so.They would
have to move, fast to
schedule another vote,
however, since the district
must set its tax rate soon.
If that rate is set for
austerity, additional
monies could be secured
only by issuing budget
anticipation notes, whose
principal and interest
would further add to an
expected tax increase in
1971 - 72.
jAjLJttjJ Speaks Out
Mrs. Cable, represen­ting
F. A. C. T., was the
first person to address the
Board Tuesday night.
Calling for responsiveness
and cooperation from the
Board, she challenged
published reports by
Board President Joesph
Dawson that F. A. C. T.
was responsible for
defeating the budget on its
latest vote, July 28. "If F.
A. C. T. was to blame, who
defeated the budget the
iirst two times?, she
Tasked"
(ISd. note: two earlier
and slightly lower versions
of the budget were
defeated by close votes,
with only 2,000 or less
residents casting ballots in
these contests. A record
3,000-plus turnout marked
the balloting July 28, when
the budget lost \by 64
votes).
Mrs. Cable repeated F.
A. C. T.'s allegations that
the Board had "added"
$20,000 to the budget, after
two-defeats, by raising the
salary of the superin­tendent
of schools and
creating a $15,000 public
relations post in the ad­ministration.
Dawson responded that
the $20,000 was not "new"
money since it had been
i n c l u d e d under
"negotiations" in earlier
versions of the budget.
Mrs. Cable said that F.
A. C. T. was against an
austerity budget. She
noted that the public
relations man and the
superintendent would still
be paid, while the
cafeteria help and children
on free lunch programs
would "lose out" under
austerity.
Enumerating six areas
she believed might stand
trimming, she argued they
would save $29,000. She
pointed out that this was
not a "drop in the bucket"
as one Board member had
allegedly charged, since
the Board's third budget
YOUTH OPPORTUNITY: Photographed during orientation for
eight weeks work at Long Island Jewish Medical Center are Susan
Mittermeier of 9 Eleanor Road, Bethpage (c), Cleoyardis McDonald
of Jamaica, and Ed Solkowski of Garden City Park. Program em­ployed
40 Nassau and Queens students at the Center for the summer.
- "The summer's wages will help toward another year's college
tuition," noted Dr. Robert K. Match, Director of the Center. V'We'r?
also hoping the experience will induce these young people lo follow
health careers."
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was only $31,000 less than After Lippincott
the first two proposals.
The areas she suggested
for possible cuts included:
elimination of a social
work position; a more self-sustaining
adult education
program; greater tuition
for out-of-district summer
school students; and a
higher charge for lunches
(excluding children on
free lunch) to make it
more self-sustaining.
Dawson then asked the
F. A. C. T. spokesman to
tell the Board "what figure
can the people of Bethpage
afford?" Mrs. Cable in­dicated
that if the Board
regained the faith of the
people, they would be
better satisfied with the
budget.
Board Defended
Trustee Sol Fink
defended the Board's
attempt to trim the
budget. He contended that
the original budget had
been as closely cut as the
district could afford if it
wanted quality education.
joined
Mrs. Cable in presenting
the petitions, a taxpayer
charged F. A. C. T. was
irresponsible because they
knew increased salaries
would be paid whether or
not there was austerity,
and therefore should not
have urged defeat of the
budget.
He urged Mrs. Cable to
join the taxpayers' budget
advisory committee,
contending that "you can't
cut the budget" because
salary, pensions, and debt
services made up the vast
bulk of it, and could not be
changed. He asked the
Board to accept austerity
because the people had
voted for it.
Board member Lee
Hilton charged that F. A.
C. T. had distorted in­formation
by using last
year's figures for other
superintendents, and this
year's for Bethpage's,
when comparing salaries.
He also pointed out that
(Continued on Page 4)