2011-06-30

              Display the flag
inside this issue
W
«~s
www.freeportbaldwinleader.com
76th Year, No. 26 Freeport, N.Y. 11520 The Community Newspaper Thursday, June 30, 2011 75C
Congratulations, graduates!
SAYING FAREWELL TO THE CLASS OF 2011 are. Jfom.-left,' Freeport school
board members Mike Pomerico and Debra McQuillan, Superintendent of
Schools Dr. Kishore' Kuncham and FHS Principal Ernie Kight.
IT'WAS THE BEST OFTIMES...for FHS salutatorian Rachel Lalmansingh, vale-dictorian
Kayla Cruz and class president Kiana Bierra-Anderson.
State legislators hail new property tax cap
School officials express concerns
The state's new property tax cap was
hailed by state Senator Charles Fuschillo
Jr. and state Assemblyman David
McDonough, but blasted by local school
officials.
"Long Islanders can't afford to keep
paying some of the highest property taxes
in the country. Families and businesses are
leaving Long Island in droves because of
our region's crippling and unaffordable
property tax burden," said Senator
Fuschillo, Republican of Merrick.
"Capping spending and controlling taxes
are major steps in the right direction which
will make Long Island more affordable
and make it easier for people who live here
to be able to stay here," he added.
"I strongly support a property tax cap
and have been leading the fight for one
since I took office," remarked
Assemblyman McDonough, Republican of
North Merrick. He added that high taxes
are killing New York's economic recovery,
and forcing thousand of homeowners to
leave the state.
The property tax cap law will cap spend-ing
for school districts and local govern-ments.
Under the property tax cap, all local
tax levy increases will be capped at either
2% or the annual increase in the consumer
price index, whichever is less.
Voters will still have the opportunity to
vote for their school district's tax levy pro-posal
in May. Districts cannot go above the
cap unless they receive the approval of
60% of the voters in the budget vote.
To help school districts and localities
further reduce costs, the law includes a
number of mandate relief measures which
are expected to save up to $127 million
annually. The law also, creates a Mandate
Relief Council, which will examine and
determine if a statute or regulation is cost-ly,
unsound, or unduly burdensome, and
establish procedures for repealing unfund-ed
mandates.
Long Island has among the highest prop-erty
tax burdens in the state or the country,
according to the Tax Foundation, a non-profit
educational foundation. Nassau
County's property tax burden is the highest
in the state and second highest in the coun-try.
Surveys have repeatedly shown that
New Yorkers overwhelmingly support a
property tax cap.
Not everyone persuaded
Freeport Superintendent of Schools Dr.
Kishore Kuncham described the passage
of the cap as "truly a sad day for public
education. It's a short-sighted, Band-Aid
solution for a deeper, long-term problem
that must be addressed."
Noting that Freeport did not receive
promised funding under Foundation Aid
and the settlement of the Campaign for
Fiscal Equity lawsuit, Dr. Kuncham
insisted that "policymakers must make
sure promises are kept."
The Freeport school district has lost
$15 million in aid over that last two
years, and Dr. Kuncham felt that exclu-sion
should have been allowed for state
aid loss. As it is, Dr. Kuncham felt as
Freeport was "getting hit from both
sides" because of the tax cap.
Jay Breakstone, president of the North
Bellmore .School District's Board of
Education and president of the Nassau-
Suffolk School Boards Association, told
The Leader that the tax cap was only a
"symptomatic solution" to a years-old
problem. "If we had a better econmy. we
would'nt be having a discussion about a
tax cap," he said. "High taxes are far more
complex than to be addressed by a tax
cap," he continued. The cap, he said, is an
easy solution to a difficult question.
. Arnold Goldstein, superintendent of the
North Bellmore School District, also told
The Leader of his concern about the prop-erty
tax cap. There is a quality of education
offered on Long Island that a family won't
find everywhere," he said, "and that quali-ty
is now in jeopardy."
He says that school districts have in fact
been tightening up their budgets over the
last several years without an impact on
education, but the new tax caps will likely
require layoffs of teachers, increases in
class sizes and, perhaps, cuts to programs.
He added that a minority would now be
able to rule on issues of taxation, referring
to the 60% vote requirement by a commu-nity
to push through new taxes. "If under
41% opposed new taxes, they win," he
said. "I'm concerned about that."
- Douglas Finlay
Hill: more tax
revenue for Freeport
page 2
Meet Baldwin's
Class of 2011
page 5
Freeport and
baseball
page 7, 8
Cops: Freeporter
poses as soldier
page 6