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Post by concerned on Jan 5, 2006 22:13:08 GMT -5
Everyone-It was a great meeting tonight. A super turn out again and Dr. Richman did a fine job of explaining where we stood with our need to campaign. Joe Bruno, our Assemblyman, was also there who let us know what he is doing in Albany for us along with Sen. Hannon, etc. Be assured, the meeting articulated that there are various levels addressing the issues you mentioned that require fixing. Tom Suozzi and his team are beginning the talks about the tax structure. Rich Mallow explained a committee he and Loretta are on to address issues of the taxes. Dr. Richman discussed ways other bodies are addressing issues on a state level and then everyone came back to what we could each individually do to contribute to the letter writing campaign. People offered good ideas, asked good questions, and seemed to rally together to support this effort.
Please come to the next meeting. I think this campaign needs to be combined with the campaign to increase voter turnout while we are at it.
Concerned
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Post by Go Plainedge! on Jan 6, 2006 9:38:22 GMT -5
Concerned:
Thanks for the update. Unfortunately, I had family obligations.
A letter writing campaign sound good. If one letter can be written and then emailed and or posted for download on a website then everyone can sign their name to it and individually send it out.
Do they think a letter campaign is enough turn the heat up on the politicians?
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Post by concerned on Jan 6, 2006 22:41:57 GMT -5
GoPlainedge-A letter writing campaign may work - no one knows for sure, but doing nothing certainly isn't going to help us. BUT, the letters MUST BE INDIVIDUALIZED.....NO GROUP LETTER, NO FORM LETTER, NO PETITION. How long can it take for us to each write a letter. I will try to gather my information and post the addresses they gave us with regard to who to send the letters to. They did mention not to forget our local policians.
A whole team of people volunteered for various aspects of this project. I'm sure we'll hear more shortly and maybe it will expand beyond letter writing - like a trip to Albany.
Concerned
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Post by patriot2415 on Jan 7, 2006 9:44:26 GMT -5
HI everyone, Phil Toscano here. I am one of the volunteers from the coffee hour that took place on 1/5. We are having our committee meeting next week. We will be looking for additional volunteers shortly so I'll post things here. If you were there great, if you couldn't make it and have any questions, let me know. Tell your neighbors, we need the community involved.
I was also very involved in the PPAC for Sports. People need to be committed. There will be disagreements, but if we keep focused on the goal, and that is for the state to increase aid to the district, we will be fine.
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Post by Go Plainedge! on Jan 7, 2006 11:19:49 GMT -5
Phil:
Glad you found us here.
Please post any information that you may have. There are some here that were unable to attend the meeting and would love to know more about what they can do to help.
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Post by patriot2415 on Jan 7, 2006 19:35:58 GMT -5
I certainly will. As I said we are kicking off the committee's next week. If at all possible, it would be great if people on this forum signed their posts. It would be outstanding to get to know everyone.
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Post by justfacts on Jan 8, 2006 21:27:47 GMT -5
Hi all,
Just to provide support information towards the letter writing campaign, here's a copy of Howard Weitzman's letter - copied to Albany & Pataki & etc. - as he champion's this cause. Dave Mejias can give it to you word for word also, as can Joe Bruno. =========================================== Nassau County Comptroller's Office Date: February 20 , 2005 SCHOOL CHEATING (as published in the New York Times Long Island Section, 2-20-05)
By Howard S. Weitzman Nassau County Comptroller
Mineola -- NASSAU COUNTY residents send their children to schools widely considered to be among the best in the nation. They also pay among the highest local taxes in the nation - mostly school taxes. It follows, therefore, that Nassau residents simply choose to pay more in order to have superior schools. Right?
Not necessarily. Nassau County residents pay a bigger share of their incomes in school taxes than those who live in comparable suburban counties, like Suffolk and Westchester, despite similar income levels and education spending. Nassau also receives far less aid than New York City or, on average, the other counties in the state. In fact, based on a study my office has conducted, it's clear that the state is shortchanging Nassau County on aid for education, and this needs to stop.
Adding urgency to this struggle over how to apportion state aid to education, the New York State Supreme Court last week issued a ruling in the case brought by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. The decision, unless it is overturned on appeal, will compel the state to provide an additional $5.6 billion in annual aid to New York City schools. This has implications beyond the city and argues strongly for the need to redesign the formulas used to determine state aid.
In our study, we determined that the average local tax burden per household, including property taxes and local income taxes, is $6,056 in Nassau, $4,182 in Westchester, $3,818 in Suffolk, and $2,984 in New York City. In other words, the people of Nassau County pay nearly 50 percent more than those in Westchester, 60 percent more than their neighbors in Suffolk and more than double what the residents of New York City pay.
Surely this is because Nassau's incomes are higher, right? Well, no. The average household income in Westchester ($122,833) is higher than in Nassau ($110,429). The result is that in Nassau, local taxes - two-thirds of which go to schools - constitute 5.48 percent of income. In Westchester and every other county we studied, the percentage is lower: 3.4 percent in Westchester, 4.21 percent in Suffolk and 4.1 percent in New York City.
Not coincidentally, Nassau's level of school aid from the state, 16.6 percent, is the lowest in the New York metropolitan area. Compare that to 19.3 percent in Westchester, 29.8 percent in Suffolk, 43.3 percent for New York City or the statewide average of 37.4 percent.
Perhaps Nassau residents pay a greater percentage of school taxes because they spend more on schools than fellow suburbanites? Wrong again. Compared to Westchester and Suffolk's costs, Nassau's are in the middle at about $16,800 a year per student. That's $1,200 less than Westchester and about $800 more than in Suffolk.
So why do Nassau residents pay more of their incomes to support schools? It's because they receive less state aid. That, of course, raises the thorny question of how state aid is determined. The current system is Byzantine and based on an array of often conflicting formulas - more than 50 separate formulas that according to New York's Supreme Court "are understood by only a handful of people in state government." The court has also found that the formulas are politically "malleable" and manipulated "to conform to budget agreements reached by the governor, the speaker of the Assembly and the Senate majority leader."
These state aid formulas are based not only on the percentage of lowincome students, but also on measures of wealth. Because property wealth is considered equally with income, even though homeowners cannot realize such wealth until they sell, the formulas tend to exaggerate the affluence of counties like Nassau, where home values have risen substantially in the last 20 years.
Economists say that with the median home price in Nassau now $437,000, more than half of Nassau residents could not afford to buy their own houses based on their incomes. Meanwhile, they are being squeezed on local taxes - primarily school taxes - based on the premise that they are affluent because of their property values.
This squeeze is particularly a problem for the elderly, who must contend with huge tax bills and soaring health care costs, and for the young, for whom property taxes make even a modest home in Nassau unaffordable. Household income provides a more accurate picture of ability to pay taxes. In the wake of last week's court ruling, it is crucial that state aid formulas be simplified. The state needs to recognize regional cost differences - a teacher's salary, for instance, goes a lot further in Olean, in western New York, than it does in Oceanside. The formulas should not be subject to political manipulation. And most important, they should be tied to measures of income, not based on property values which in this overheated real estate market, are an indicator of neither income level nor ability to pay taxes.
Howard S. Weitzman is the Nassau County comptroller =========================================
The article should provide a topic or point or two for you to focus on in your own letters. The key persons to picking up the ball for making changes are Sheldon Silver, Joseph Bruno and Pataki. They are the power threesome that can make a change - if they want to do so!
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Post by Go Plainedge! on Jan 9, 2006 9:56:10 GMT -5
For those not on the school email system....
On January 5, 2006, Dr. John A. Richman, Plainedge Superintendent of Schools, hosted a meeting at John H. West Elementary School which was attended by approximately 150 residents to discuss how the community can obtain further state aid from Albany. Dr. Richman provided information as to the state aid we currently receive and how we compare to other districts. State Assemblyman Joseph Saladino was on hand to lend his support and provide the group with an inside look at politics in Albany. The main focus of the coffee hour was to gauge the community’s interest in a campaign to apply pressure on our local and state government for more state aid. What was agreed upon was to attack this issue on a few fronts. To do this we needed to organize ourselves. The Plainedge Tax Relief Association (PTRA) was formed with volunteers from the meeting. First and foremost a recruitment committee was formed. This committee will be the most critical because it will entail enlisting the help of the community from new residents to those who have graduated children to those who are now retired. This committee will be headed by Jeanne Toscano - Jat2411@aol.com 796-3346 (h) 993-4626 (cell) Lynn Kovar - JKovar41@aol.com 579-3957 (h) Two other committees were also formed that night, a letter writing committee headed by Anne Weeks - aweeks1215@aol.com 520-9090 (h) 661-6118 (cell) Lisa Scholz - lmscag@optonline.net 390-9310 and a telephone committee headed by Maura Roddy - Mer1063@aol.com 520-1022 (h) Christine Chernaski - 249-9719 (h) Christine DeMarco - 731-0105 (h) These two committees will be responsible for the communication between our community and government officials.
Our committees are critical to the success of this endeavor. It will take the community as a whole to be involved. Two project leaders were also put in place to oversee all activity of the committees work with the superintendent and the school board. Craig Heller - hellerverdi@aol.com 799-0992 (h) 542-9426 (o) Phil Toscano - patriot2415@aol.com 796-3346 (h) 646-235-8402 (cell) We are having our committee chair kick-off meeting the week of 1/9 to start the ball rolling. We may be developing other committees and will certainly need people to volunteer as heads and members. If you have any ideas please start jotting them down. We will have another coffee hour meeting shortly and your input is wanted and needed. It is vitally important that we all understand that this is a "community" issue and we need to come together and work as a team. Personal agendas cannot be tolerated. We are doing this for our children and for the future children entering the district; we are also doing it for ourselves. As home owners and stake holders in this district, this affects our quality of life. We urge you to join us in this very worthy effort. Thank you for your time. Phil Toscano and Craig Heller
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Post by concerned on Jan 9, 2006 21:49:55 GMT -5
Hi All-I just got my new coupon books in the mail for my mortgage payments. Can you believe the payments went up another $130 a month?! This is the third straight year of such an increase. I will have a personal story to tell all right! It obviously went up because there wasn't enough in escrow to pay the taxes so they have to make up the difference. My first thought was "this is during a contingency no less". My only saving grace is that because the taxes shouldn't have gone up as high as expected, perhaps next year the increase won't be as sharp.
Just a reminder to take a look at how your monthly payments will change and be sure to incorporate it into your letters. I know my salary didn't jump as significantly. How discouraging!
Concerned
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Post by Go Plainedge! on Jan 10, 2006 19:30:31 GMT -5
Hi All-I just got my new coupon books in the mail for my mortgage payments. Can you believe the payments went up another $130 a month?! This is the third straight year of such an increase. I will have a personal story to tell all right! It obviously went up because there wasn't enough in escrow to pay the taxes so they have to make up the difference. My first thought was "this is during a contingency no less". My only saving grace is that because the taxes shouldn't have gone up as high as expected, perhaps next year the increase won't be as sharp. Just a reminder to take a look at how your monthly payments will change and be sure to incorporate it into your letters. I know my salary didn't jump as significantly. How discouraging! Concerned Yep! Mine has been increasing every year. I never seem to have enough in the escrow for two reasons: 1. Nassau County tax assessment each year 2. Plainedge Public schools increase each year My new book will be arriving in March and I anticipate an increase, yet again. Hmm, I wish my pay check increased too.
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Post by justfacts on Jan 10, 2006 22:10:47 GMT -5
Hey Concerned and Go Plainedge!
Salary & Paycheck - - - Paycheck & Salary.
You can really rub it in to a guy that hasn't seen either for more than a decade!
At least you two have regular income. I have to take mine from money I put away - - - at the deflated rate of having earned it - - - one, two & three decades ago! Boy! Did a buck seem big then! Wow! it's small now when they look to take it in chunks of $350 to $500 increases now!
I guess that's why I notice the increase of the outgo so much - I get my tax notices directly from the Town - there's no avoiding the instantaneous shock! At least, if my quivering hands hold the Tax bill steady long enough!
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Post by Go Plainedge! on Jan 10, 2006 22:19:14 GMT -5
I understand your situation. I'm tired of seeing these and I don't want one on my lawn just yet. Maybe in 20 years.
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Post by justfacts on Jan 10, 2006 22:38:31 GMT -5
Reference the letter writing campaign as a solution to our taxing tax problems -
As you can see from our recent posts from Concerned and Go Plainedge - they have current paychecks of no or insignificant increases. They see the solution to the taxing tax problem as getting larger increase (or more income from working overtime or working two jobs)
That's somewhat like the District is doing in looking for more money to come from the State.
However, In my circumstance where there is no job producing regular income, nor any pension money - the solution I see is based on my having to take no more money out of the bank than I have been. In other words - find the way to make do with what I had last year!
That's basically where I'm coming from in most of my suggestions for the Budget process - take some also from what you already have been habitually spending - that in tight times may no longer be a valid expense. Like all BOE members going to a conference. Let one or two go and report back to the others! And/or cut down on the "refreshments" at meetings.
For a couple I know on the other side of Hempstead Turnpike, from what they told Richman and the BOE two years ago in a Board meeting I attended, their "cut down" solution was for the husband to use the money from his prescription bill to pay for the tax increase.
P.S. He didn't sell - but she let me know recently that he's no longer here!
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Post by Go Plainedge! on Jan 10, 2006 23:02:24 GMT -5
You mean actually do more with {gasp} less or same??
{action} Cringes at the thought {end action}
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Post by Go Plainedge! on Jan 11, 2006 19:30:09 GMT -5
A sample letter from Plaintalkonline.com
January 9, 2006 Below, a sample letter regarding State Aid, written and sent by a concerned community member:
January 08, 2006
Joseph S. Saladino Member of Assembly 12th Assembly District 200 Boundary Avenue Massapequa, NY 11758
Dear Assemblyman Saladino:
My family needs your help. As a taxpayer, registered voter and homeowner in the Plainedge School District, we are at the point of being taxed out of our homes.
The extreme tax burden places a hardship on my family’s expendable income. We have become house poor as a result. During a recent conversation with a co-worker, I was given the “simple” advice to move out of the neighborhood and move to Suffolk County in an area that is more school and property tax friendly.
My answer to my co-worker was “I’m not leaving my home.” This is our neighborhood, where our children were born, attend school and forging [what we hope to be their] lifelong friends.
As an overtaxed, overburdened homeowner, I work long hours to help maintain our standard of living. The extra hours mean less time for family and particularly my children, only if I’m lucky enough to be home before they go to sleep.
Mr. Saladino, the exact reason for my letter is that the district is in immediate need of increased State Aid. Plainedge faces an 85% tax burden falling directly on residents due to a lack of commercial property. We also have seen our current State Aid decrease annually over the past six years adding to our extreme tax burden. The average Plainedge household pays over $6,000. in school tax and faces a possibility of additional increases.
Please take my letter to the Assembly and ask for their immediate action to help this community with increased State Aid. We simply cannot go on increasing credit card debt and having no expendable income for our families. We do not want to be forced to move out of homes. We do not want be another house with the “For Sale” sign on the front lawn, a situation recently affecting our neighborhood.
Mr. Saladino, please help us. Thank you for your time and consideration
Respectfully,
Mr. Felice Cantatore
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