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Looks like property taxes are going insane no matter what.
Many school districts projected very small increases (average 2.5%) in spending, yet through the usual smoke and mirrors, many people's school tax bills are going up between 10-20% anyway.
As Nassau County officials scramble to fix what they call a "broken" tax system, many ordinary homeowners who had expected modest hikes in their school taxes this year are reeling instead from increases exceeding 10 percent or even 20 percent.
They say many of those swings are particularly severe this year due largely to dramatic declines in the assessed value of homes. As the value falls, districts must raise tax rates for everyone to wind up with the same amount of revenue. And when school spending goes up - Nassau's average increase for 2010-11 was 2.5 percent - districts need even more revenue.
With the school boards, superintendants and administrators keeping the teachers' unions in the forefront of power, expect a continued "lose lose" (aka "heads the unions win -- tails the taxpayers lose") for Long Island's residents.
In another thread, I predicted that typical total property taxes (not just the school portion) for homes in Levittown will be in the $20K range within a decade. I think I was too generous on my timeline and it will be sooner.
And of course it is all the fault of the homeowners:
Quote:
That falling home assessments should be accompanied by soaring tax rates strikes many homeowners as inherently unfair. But school and county officials say it's simply a matter of math. When assessed values decline, tax rates have to rise proportionately, to produce whatever school revenues are approved by local voters.
Although what they don't say is that the largest portion of any school district's budget is not voted upon by the public, but is a backroom deal done between school boards and teachers' unions.
When is enough going to be enough?
Look at this group of Long Islanders:
Quote:
What Long Islanders are saying
RALPH BARASH, 77, Plainview, retired company chief executive
Assessed value: $2,067 (2011); $2,050 (2010); up 0.8 percent
School tax: $15,348.59 (2011); $12,500.45 (2010); up 22.7 percent from last year
Residence: Free-standing house in a planned community that also includes condominiums; adjusted market value, $898,800
Comment: "It's bizarre . . . They're going to force people not to pay."
DAN CARROLL, 78, Farmingdale, retired Grumman employee
Assessed value: $336 (2011); $330 (2010); up 1.8 percent
School tax: $2,536.58 (2011); $2,036.54 (2010); up 24.5 percent
Comment: "They tell you you're going to get a 3 percent increase, and it goes up 15 percent."
Do any of the proponents of the status quo (defined as runaway property taxes so teachers' union members and the administrators who piggyback off their contracts can have whatever they want and don't have to sacrifice like the rest of us) on here have the nerve to tell these people, "You are obviously a bunch of stupid FAILURES who planned your lives foolishly, bought more than you could afford, and now cannot afford to live on Long Island anymore, so instead of daring to challenge the status quo, move and slink away with your tails between your legs"?
If so, go write it on the COMMENTS section for the original article and see how that goes over.
Do any of the proponents of the status quo (defined as runaway property taxes so teachers' union members and the administrators who piggyback off their contracts can have whatever they want and don't have to sacrifice like the rest of us) on here have the nerve to tell these people, "You are obviously a bunch of stupid FAILURES who planned your lives foolishly, bought more than you could afford, and now cannot afford to live on Long Island anymore, so instead of daring to challenge the status quo, move and slink away with your tails between your legs"?
...
Just WOW... It amazes me when the staunch LI advocates like to say "you can't hack it" if you move away from this.
Just WOW... It amazes me when the staunch LI advocates like to say "you can't hack it" if you move away from this.
It's criminal what you're documenting here.
Besides "die-hard no matter what" LI'ers saying it on C-D, we also have our share of "die-hard no matter what" union admirers who cannot and will not believe that ANY public sector union could be corrupt, have too much power, or should have any of their budgetary wants denied. It's something I don't understand. Why can't we meet at the middle instead of one side making the other suffer, especially when the side suffering makes up the VAST MAJORITY of Long Islanders?
At this point what are the options? Go against the hikes and people will scream that the Island's wonderful schools will go down the drain. Try to vote the scoundrels out doesn't seem to be an option as the pols don't seem to care. Tough situation for Islander's.
Most of the school budget involves paying for things that are required by state law - namely, the pensions - and that is what is sucking people dry. You can't change that without changing the law, and that is most likely never going to happen. Voting down the budget does no good because the money has to come from somewhere to pay those bills, and come from SOMEWHERE it will.
People just cry about Long Island schools losing their luster because they are completely uneducated about these facts, whether by accident or design I'm not sure....but no one is getting any better of an education on Long Island than they did 30 years ago when taxes were reasonable.
I don't think you'll have to wait to see $20K taxes in most Nassau County towns. If you'd told me 13 years ago that my taxes were going to triple I would have had a hard time believing that. It's going to happen. It IS happening.
Most of the school budget involves paying for things that are required by state law - namely, the pensions - and that is what is sucking people dry. You can't change that without changing the law, and that is most likely never going to happen. Voting down the budget does no good because the money has to come from somewhere to pay those bills, and come from SOMEWHERE it will.
People just cry about Long Island schools losing their luster because they are completely uneducated about these facts, whether by accident or design I'm not sure....but no one is getting any better of an education on Long Island than they did 30 years ago when taxes were reasonable.
True nothing has gotten better; it's just gotten more expensive.
I don't think it's just the pensions nor just unfunded mandates.
I think the teachers' unions have conspired to artificially inflate the value of teachers' labor, and by extension, the labor of school superintendants and administrators and that is also causing a lot of it.
What also doesn't help is to have so many different school district fiefdoms repeating entire administrations every few miles.
We are going to have to find another "somewhere" for the money to come from besides property taxes because this is getting ridiculous.
10-25-2010, 05:39 PM
grant516
n/a posts
The question to ask : is how high the taxes raised on the few school districts in which teachers unions took 1% raises, pay freezes or cuts.
Lindenhurst, Plainedge, Roslyn, Wyndanch, come to mind.
Step increases shouldn't account for a 24% raise in property taxes- so where is this deficit for $$ coming from?
My neighbor teaches a class of thirty first graders with no aid. This just recently happened after her district laid off tenured teachers.
A lot of this is happening now in districts that relied on federal bail out assistance to states to shore up these kinds of jobs. That didn't happen in Elwood. Still, that is why you are now seeing these jumps.
The main problem is the pensions; they are privately invested, so the endowments for them have shrunk or stayed still, while the payouts step up at fixed rates. So, despite many districts having fewer teachers than they did one or two years ago, the funding needed has grown exponentially.
Getting angry about it and voting the bastards out is attractive, but I've never seen it work. California is in a shambles, economy and all, because of over-reaction to these phenomena. Problem is, the party friendly to the interests of teachers will either have to bid bad tidings to the teacher's union, or a bunch of tea drinkin' loons are going to get into office and destroy every school district not populated by the terribly rich.
At this point what are the options? Go against the hikes and people will scream that the Island's wonderful schools will go down the drain. Try to vote the scoundrels out doesn't seem to be an option as the pols don't seem to care. Tough situation for Islander's.
Don't you think it is going to get to a point where FURTHER PROPERTY TAX HIKES WILL SIMPLY NOT BE ABLE TO BE PAID BY THE HOMEOWNERS?
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