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Post by concerned on Nov 9, 2005 8:28:15 GMT -5
Tom Suozzi was interviewed this morning on News 12. He said he has been approached by several board of education members across Long Island to host a meeting with all the 58 school districts about how we can begin working on the resolution of the high school taxes. I am very excited about this. Just wanted everyone to keep their eyes open for additional information on this matter. I also am hoping that someone can confirm that a representative from Plainedge will be in attendance today.
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Post by techie on Nov 9, 2005 9:43:18 GMT -5
This has been a campaign promise from Tom Suozzi for this next term. He would like to have ALL the Superintendents directly involved. This was part of his plan and promise to REDUCE, not just slow the School Tax rates for Nassau County. This along with the NYS Budget forms that are to be used this year instead of "advised to use" in previous years, should prove to be a change for the better. All in all, it looks like the past 4 years with Mr. Suozzi have done well for Nassau. I hope his good work continues for the schools also. Also Dave Mejias has voiced the same strong commitment and is very vocal with Tom Suozzi. To give you an idea of the commitments, I had previously posted about the violence in the Farmingdale areas. Within 9 minutes of emailing Mr. Mejias and Mr.Suozzi, my friend had a response back in the form of a personal conference call with both of them. Both wanting to set up meetings to outline solutions to the problems! Now that the Election votes are in I am posting this. I did not want people to think this was posted to sway votes. Lets use our representatives to help us all. Mr. Mejias reads ALL his email personally and would like to hear from all about suggestions. david.mejias@mail.co.nassau.ny.us
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Post by Go Plainedge! on Nov 9, 2005 11:41:50 GMT -5
I have written Mr. Mejas a few times and yes, he has responded as well as phoned me.
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Post by concerned on Nov 9, 2005 21:01:06 GMT -5
Is Mr. Mejias the county representative who came to the big budget meeting in June saying he had money to give to our district?
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Post by Go Plainedge! on Nov 10, 2005 8:34:42 GMT -5
I believe he is the one that donated $25,000 towards the in-ground sprinklers at the new middle school.
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Post by justfacts on Dec 5, 2005 18:58:45 GMT -5
FYI ~ In general,
Dillion [First posting incorrectly said "Tom"]* is being replaced at the beginning of the year by Kathleen Rice as Nassau County DA.
I hope to "make her acquaintance" tomorrow night at a special reception. I'll find out then how dedicated she is to continuing Tom's work with the Nassau School Districts.
To date - the emphasis that he, and Dave Mejias share is on the State returning to Nassau County more of a fair share of the General State taxes that have been taken from Nassau residents so that high property taxes may be offset by increased State School Funding.
However, there were more issues on Tom's plate with School District organization. I hope to find out if Mrs. Rice has those same items on her agenda or not. She should also be able to give to some of us her insights on proper funding by TANs.
* Incorrect name spotted by new member "delilah" - and correction made following a fuller post about this effort. Justfacts. [Thanks once again, delilah]
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Post by delilah on Dec 5, 2005 19:55:05 GMT -5
Tom is being replaced at the beginning of the year by Kathleen Rice as Nassau County DA
I thought Kathleen Rice was replacing Dennis Dillon for DA?
What would she know about TANs funding? Why would she care What does this have to do with our schools? I think you had better lay-off the eggnog facts-man and let Rice go after the criminals. Thats her job to get the bad guys.
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Post by justfacts on Dec 5, 2005 22:38:08 GMT -5
Right you are delilah! ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.
It is Dillon she's replacing - that's what happens when I get a long telephone conversation in the middle of writing an e-mail! I apologize for not picking up the thread of the thought properly and not proof reading the final. Shame on me!
What's this with the eggnog comment? If it's an allusion to alcohol consumption on my part - it's one that is far, far off the mark - and only reflects poorly upon your correction of my wrong information in the first post. I am not interested in using unfounded personal attacks to support and justify information supplied to the community.
I thank you for spotting the error in my first post and I hope the rest of this post corrects that error. I welcome all corrections - from all sources. They can only improve our mutual knowledge base.
Dillon had been part of the looking into all Nassau School District affairs along with Suozzi for any improvements or corrective proceedures that can be made. That's why the recently massive request for records by a legal arm of the county.
I just wanted to verify if that effort would continue with Rice at the helm, supporting Suozzi's efforts in that area to ensure that our own house is in perfect order before pressing Albany for more money. The recent School scandals about money have only weakened the cause of every School District in Nassau and made the task more difficult when it comes to having the State pump more money into our Schools.
As far as looking into TANs, they are quite legally and clearly defined by the State - as well as some of their abuses that have been documented under audits by the Comptroller's office. An audit of one School showed how that district got into almost critical financial trouble by relying too heavily on TANs to "bail them out fiscally". That District had not set aside adequate Fund Balances and was looking for a special State Aid Bill to fund the coming year. The Comptroller's audit report gave some very significant insights into proper TAN usage and how to avoid possible problems with them.
The DA's office also has a role to play in checking out any TAN abuses - some of which (excessive amounts borrowed) have been made inadvertently by other School Districts throughout the State. As with any attorney, she would be interested in any incorrect procedures that were used with TANs, especially ones that are common practice but could be changed to meet requirements before any wrongdoing occurs.
Asking for legal review and advice and chartering a proper course before any intentional wrongdoing occurs is a prudent thing to do. We can't be anything less than diligent with the spending of the public's money in any area by the District. Especially those of us that are diligent as Board members - but are not as legallly trained and as experienced as Mrs. Rice.
If there are improvements to be made in the process, we should use the advice and resources of all our Government agencies to help us do that - even if it's asking advice from the DA's office before a questionable act makes public headlines. We can, and should, have our assumptions about some matters reviewed by more than our local attorney - that practice only got Roslyn in deeper trouble.
I hope this correction and extended clarifications help.
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Post by delilah on Dec 5, 2005 23:53:21 GMT -5
Facts, I am sorry about the egg-nog crack. Our district went though an audit with the Comptrollers office last year. They would have seen any TAN abuse then don't you think?
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Post by justfacts on Dec 6, 2005 3:56:56 GMT -5
delilah -
Absolutely no need to say anymore about eggnogs. You did us all a service by spotting my foul-up.
As far as the audit by Comptroller Hevisie's office - it was not a general audit of all financial transactions! It only focused on expense vouchers by the Board and Administration to see if they were following financial control procedures for their expenses - not all District expenses and procedures. It was not a "Forensic" audit as occurred in Roslyn.
There were nine items of deficient practices found which were to be corrected, including at least $16,000 in two Administration credit card expenses which lacked proper backup paperwork, of which $10,000 remained unaccounted for after audit work to correct that deficiency. There also was $20,000 in cost for meals and refreshments at meetings which were lacking in proper backup paperwork following Hevisie's audit.
It was also revealed that about $8.2 Million in other expense vouchers were paid for without review and approval by the Board during two months of one summer period. That was an item to be corrected.
There was a subsequent audit, paid for by the district (at cost of about $35 or $37 thousand) to specifically find expenses by a prior Board which did not comply with the procedures in place during the time frame of the past 5 to 10 years. Deficiencies were noted and notices sent to prior Board members to collect a few thousand in questionable expenses. The result is that only a few dollars were recovered and most of the money is beyond the statue of limitations for legal recovery. The cover letter by the Accounting firm doing the audit is of particular interest in the caveats it contains.
As to checking TAN transactions - no specific audit was done of this type of transaction. Also, the Annual Audits done by independent auditors are of such a nature that TAN items are not separated from BAN items (Bond Anticipation Notes) in the papers filed with Albany, so that one can't distinguish one cost center from the other in those audits.
This same state of affairs exists in the Budget Summary info sent to each home each year. The combined BAN and TAN accounts for Interest costs this year shows a slight change - whereas, in actual fact, the costs allocated just for the TAN for this year changed from $165,000 to $300,000. That is an 82% increase - far in excess of the actual TAN interest rate increases! WHY?
The whole subject of TANs is an interesting one. It is a practice that costs the taxpayers interest on at least four to six months of the total Budget each year. In some cases, like this year, the TAN might even be held onto for the full year, costing more interest than the minimum required.
As with your first well considered post on this site, you've demonstrated a knowledge and effort towards understanding an improving School District financial issues that could relieve others in the Community of their uncertainty with Budget information.
I hope you continue to participate in these discussions which may clarify some items for other members of the community. Your comments are greatly appreciated by me.
If you would like, I can walk you through some cash flow alternatives to the TAN process which would greatly reduce the cost of TANs throughout the county. As a Trustee at our Library we have had to deal with current practices on this topic and examine alternate practices (which, by Law, we can not implement - since Libraries can't take out TANs!) We could do that through a series of e-mails. Look at the "Members" info to find my e-mail address.
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Post by techie on Dec 6, 2005 4:01:31 GMT -5
On checking the School's web site under Audits all may see that the school has two entries for Audits. If you read through the reports you will see that each of them are not Forensic Audits, even though one is labled that way. They were not done to check everything that is done, only a few items. These items were not fully accounted for.
It would be of benefit to read the entire reports.
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Post by justfacts on Jan 14, 2006 18:38:23 GMT -5
Here's a news article from a NY State Educators Newsletter Site; You'll see that a lot of what's going on with our present letter writing has been covered - in many ways before.
The current letter campaign is to resurrect "the Grassroots jumping on the Bandwagon again " - instilling life into a much debated and non-winning campaign. It would seem that getting Suozzi in as Govornor of NY State would be the action needed to change the balance of political power so that these oft touted ideas will meet with the Governor's approval. =========================================== Whither the property tax?
Escalating property taxes drive search for alternative education funding
On Board Online • Volume 6 • No. 20 • December 5, 2005
By Barbara Bradley Deputy Director of Communications and Research
The issue of escalating school property taxes promises to take center stage in statewide political debates in 2006.[/i]
Several political figures have indicated their intention to tackle this issue, including a Long Island county executive who may run for governor. Republicans in the State Assembly have organized an Assembly Minority Commission on Alternatives to School Property Taxes.[/b]
Delegates to NYSSBA’s Annual Business Meeting in October referred to committee a resolution that would have directed NYSSBA to seek legislation to provide alternative funding methods for public education. A committee comprised of board members will meet with outside experts and make a report at the 2006 business meeting.
This isn’t the first time NYSSBA members have examined this issue. An ad hoc committee was convened in 1992 to study alternative means to fund education.
“Everyone wants to study an alternative to the property tax because it doesn’t account for personal income,” said David A. Little, NYSSBA’s director of governmental relations. {Remember this name!} “But we are concerned in any shift of taxation that local community residents remain involved in the budget process.”
The issue is particularly hot on Long Island, where more than a third of school budgets failed on the first ballot this year. Right after his November re-election, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi announced he would launch a campaign with school boards and county officials to help reduce school property taxes in Nassau County.
Suozzi, a Democrat and a possible candidate for governor, according to published reports, said that residents in his county have identified school property taxes as a key issue. “We have to start building a consensus that this is the number one problem we face on Long Island and we have to find a solution,” he said.
Long Island property values have risen so dramatically in the past 20 years that many homeowners couldn’t afford to buy their own homes now, according to a 2004 report by the Nassau County comptroller. This increase in property value, combined with a countywide reassessment, has driven up local property taxes and driven down Long Island’s share of state aid to education. State aid is based on income and property wealth.
“For the first time in my 30 years as a school administrator, I hear repeated stories of increasing numbers of parents voting against their own kids’ school budgets,” Valley Stream Superintendent Marc F. Bernstein wrote in Newsday.
Suozzi is slated to meet with Nassau County school board presidents and vice presidents on Dec. 7. According to a letter sent by Suozzi, the discussion will include ways to get Long Island districts their fair share of state aid and to help districts reduce their costs.
Meanwhile, fears of an organized “property tax revolt” in Erie County went unrealized. Of the 29 Erie County school district budgets up for vote in May, only three were defeated on the first ballot.
In November the Erie County Legislature agreed to a 15 percent property tax hike, coupled with a sales tax increase to 8.75 percent, the second highest in the state. Oneida County has the highest sales tax in the state at 9.5 percent, New York City is 8.375 percent, while in Nassau and Suffolk counties the rate is 8.625 percent.
Meanwhile, Republican legislators have created the Assembly Minority Commission on Alternatives to School Property Taxes. Members including Chris Ortloff of Plattsburgh {How do we get him down to Plainedge?} have been traveling the state soliciting alternative ideas to fund education. Among the ideas suggested thus far have been:
* Reducing reliance on property taxes but not totally phasing out property taxes. * Implementing a “flat rate” income tax and/or sales tax to support public education. * Capping school property tax increases. * Reducing the number of state property tax exemptions. * Ortloff has also proposed legislation that would limit residential real property tax assessments for primary residences to the present inflation rate or 3 percent, whichever is lower, and not to exceed 10 percent over five years.
Other legislators who have proposed legislation include:
* Assemblyman David Hooker (R-Schoharie), who has called for an Education Finance Reform Task Force to study how to transition education funding from real property tax to a combination of income and sales taxes. * Sen. John Bonacic (R-Orange), who would allow voters to choose to abolish the school property tax on primary residences, shift the local share of education costs to an income-based system, and create county school boards that would disseminate the proceeds to school districts within the county.
“The property tax has provided a stable base for funding education,” wrote Little in NYSSBA’s legislative memo on the Bonacic bill. “While incomes may fluctuate within a school district over time, real property remains relatively consistent in the appreciation of its value.”
{What an outright FALSE statement! That man has not seen the evaluation of my property which jumped $96,100 this year and almost the same amount last year! My increases alone have been enough to buy a decent house anywhere in this State (but not on Long Island!)}
With Gov. George Pataki not seeking a third term, several Republican gubernatorial hopefuls have emerged. William Weld has proposed an “Empire State Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights,” according to published reports.
Weld, a former Massachusetts governor, would limit state taxes “under a formula using the previous year’s level and factoring in inflation and annual population growth,” according to the Associated Press. Half of any surplus would go to taxpayers; half would go to a “rainy day fund.”
Weld has also called for a constitutional amendment to cap local property tax levies to 2.5 percent of a community’s total property value, according to the Associated Press.[/i]
Other states have used such caps. Since 1992, Colorado has had legislation limiting the state’s spending growth rate to the rate of inflation plus annual property growth. However, voters lifted the cap in November to direct excess tax revenue to education, health care and transportation projects, according to Education Week.
California’s Proposition 13, which limits the real estate tax on a piece of property to 1 percent of its purchase price until the property is resold, is the oldest such cap in the nation. It stemmed from a California Supreme Court ruling in the 1970s that ruled the state’s property tax-based finance system for schools was unconstitutional.
Fast forward to 2005, where just last month the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state’s finance system for education – in essence, a statewide property tax – was unconstitutional and directed the state legislature to find an alternative solution.
However the issue is ultimately resolved in New York, “the pressure would be taken off local property taxpayers if the state would pay its fair share,” Little said.
Article#: 4436 Posted: 12/05/05
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