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NoVa will cost you to live in but most of the stock is newer and the taxes lower plus you don't have to worry about ancient sumps or illegal additions. Schools can be crowded but that is due to continuing growth that leads to constant building of new schools and all that with no school tax...
No school tax as in there's no such thing as a school tax or they don't take it from there? Where do the funds come from? If it's only from the general tax, is that all sufficient to run programs, pay salaries, and build out?
Can you also answer the above questions about how the regions work there?
Now think about it, the long island residents in the 40s, 50s, 60s, until now are to be blamed for this mess. It is the choice of all the middle income people on this island. The middle income people, pretty much, set the rules throughout these years. Now everybody, including themselves, are paying for it. Now the middle income people are complaining. Hey, look at yourself, you or your parents, or grandpa are to be blamed.
Have to disagree with the above quote.
The NYS Teachers' Union is to blame for "this mess." Period. As another poster put it, the union feels that its teachers need to make enough money and then some to have a comfortable lifestyle here on LI, which includes them having their own legalized Ponzi scheme with its corresponding arithmetical raises each year (this Ponzi scheme includes all their extra pay for after school activities, such as the juggling club or parking lot duty which most of them make sure they take on the last 3 years they work so they can boost up their overblown pension according to Union rules). I can't tell you how many Mercedes and Lexuses I saw at the Murphy Junior High parking lot out in TVCSD 10 years ago while I was sitting in my 14-year-old American make car.
My nextdoor neighbor is a retired LI high school math teacher. Not only does she collect her huge pension, but she collected when she retired a few years ago an additional bonus of $75,000 for her unused sick time. OMG. I can hear the sucking sound of our tax dollars going into her pockets. This isn't just the nextdoor neighbor - it's ALL teachers who retire. They ALL save up their unused sick time (and they get plenty - much more than 5 sick days/year) for their thieving bonuses. Take a calculator and multiply all those bonuses by how many teachers retire every year here on LI, and then take a deep breath so you can let out a huge gasp.
An acquaintance of mine is a retired special ed. teacher (her daddy was an elementary school principal who got her job for her when she was 29; not exactly a recent grad - another fine example of nepotism that's so rampant in the school districts), and her husband is a retired science teacher. They retired just 3 years ago, and make so much money between them from their pensions, that they've recently bought a second home in Massachusetts, after they've paid their LI bills. I saw the picture of their vacation home on her iphone. The minute she told me this I thought "so this is where our hard earned money is going."
Obviously the Union is making sure that not only can its teachers afford to live a comfortable lifestyle on LI, but their retired teachers can also afford a second home. I know of 2 retired elementary teachers who both have 2 homes - one here on LI - and another out of state. The choral teacher (initials CJ) at Comsewogue HS currently teaching owns a home in Port Jeff and has another home up in pricey Chatham, MA, on Cape Cod.
The Teachers Union is all tied up with corrupt politicians in Albany; and since the teachers make up the Union, they are corrupt themselves with their Ponzi scheme stealing from the taxpayers. Thieves who are legally unionized through corruption. Or to put it another way, it's legalized thievery. Not one politician has the b@lls to break up the Union, which would be the answer to our high Teacher tax.
We watched our teachers tax bill go up $600 - $800 per year since 1985 out in Three Village. It went from $2400/year all the way up to $11,800 in 2008. Now that we're in Huntington our tax bill for the teachers (and overpaid administrators) has decreased from $600 - $800 per year to about a $500 increase per year. All due to the Teachers Union.
And now I've read in The Long Islander last week that Cuomo wants to rank teachers as ineffective, somewhat effective, and highly effective. And he wants to give the highly effective teachers (chances are they'll all be ranked as highly effective so they can steal more money) a bonus of $20,000 on top of their already ridiculously high salaries. Get ready for that sucking sound again - there goes more of our tax dollars out the window. As if the overpaid teachers who teach 4 hours/day, 180 days/year, deserve even more money? Are you kidding Cuomo????
That sounds awful. Especially all the details! My neighbor got a white unicorn to ride to work as a TEACHER. Every day and her nephew got the same!! Every single day!
I was looking at McLean homes for sale earlier. 3-4 beds, 2k square feet (some didn't even have that much) and it was near $800k. But $7k taxes. I tried a max of $800k and there were only like 7 results which means most are way above that. I don't know, maybe it's their version of Manhasset. Taxes are supported by commercial so it stays low. Taxes in VA are lower probably because they don't have one in five teachers over 6 figures.
One other thing I was gathering from reading the NoVA forum is that there is an overcrowding issue in the schools.
One of my friends lives in Fairfax, not sure what they paid for the house but it's worth about a million right now - waaaay nicer than anything you'd get on LI for a million - think Manhasset type neighborhood with 5 BR center hall colonials in mint condition on large properties. She's not far from McLean in fact I think that's where she works.
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Originally Posted by ovi8
No school tax as in there's no such thing as a school tax or they don't take it from there? Where do the funds come from? If it's only from the general tax, is that all sufficient to run programs, pay salaries, and build out?
Can you also answer the above questions about how the regions work there?
No school tax just property tax which the county wide school district (that's right 1 district) submits their budget to and gets their money from the taxes collected. Here is the tax rates/fees for Fairfax County Real Estate - Tax Rates and Fees*- Fairfax County, Virginia .
You get the idea all these counties are incorporated as counties and have county wide school districts with a tax rate. There may be special districts for certain features but not living up there I could not place which fee with which neighborhood. Beside 1 school district there is only 1 police, 1 fire, 1 library system
and one government to run them all.
Isn't the thing with NoVA that the home prices cost more than on LI, so that balances out the lower property taxes? Kind of like NYC vs. LI? (Even though NYC also has the added burden of a local income tax, the homes cost a lot more and the property taxes a lot less.)
Pricey, but your taxes aren't skyrocketing every year. I've found RE prices comparable to "top" districts in Nassau, or even "very good" districts in Nassau. NoVa is awesome. Four seasons, southern charm yet still fast paced and full of every convenience. That's my dream...one day!
At the State of the County address last week, Mangano said, “[w]e are on the road to being the most financially secure county in the region." What a joke.
The NYS Teachers' Union is to blame for "this mess." Period. As another poster put it, the union feels that its teachers need to make enough money and then some to have a comfortable lifestyle here on LI, which includes them having their own legalized Ponzi scheme with its corresponding arithmetical raises each year (this Ponzi scheme includes all their extra pay for after school activities, such as the juggling club or parking lot duty which most of them make sure they take on the last 3 years they work so they can boost up their overblown pension according to Union rules). I can't tell you how many Mercedes and Lexuses I saw at the Murphy Junior High parking lot out in TVCSD 10 years ago while I was sitting in my 14-year-old American make car.
My nextdoor neighbor is a retired LI high school math teacher. Not only does she collect her huge pension, but she collected when she retired a few years ago an additional bonus of $75,000 for her unused sick time. OMG. I can hear the sucking sound of our tax dollars going into her pockets. This isn't just the nextdoor neighbor - it's ALL teachers who retire. They ALL save up their unused sick time (and they get plenty - much more than 5 sick days/year) for their thieving bonuses. Take a calculator and multiply all those bonuses by how many teachers retire every year here on LI, and then take a deep breath so you can let out a huge gasp.
An acquaintance of mine is a retired special ed. teacher (her daddy was an elementary school principal who got her job for her when she was 29; not exactly a recent grad - another fine example of nepotism that's so rampant in the school districts), and her husband is a retired science teacher. They retired just 3 years ago, and make so much money between them from their pensions, that they've recently bought a second home in Massachusetts, after they've paid their LI bills. I saw the picture of their vacation home on her iphone. The minute she told me this I thought "so this is where our hard earned money is going."
Obviously the Union is making sure that not only can its teachers afford to live a comfortable lifestyle on LI, but their retired teachers can also afford a second home. I know of 2 retired elementary teachers who both have 2 homes - one here on LI - and another out of state. The choral teacher (initials CJ) at Comsewogue HS currently teaching owns a home in Port Jeff and has another home up in pricey Chatham, MA, on Cape Cod.
The Teachers Union is all tied up with corrupt politicians in Albany; and since the teachers make up the Union, they are corrupt themselves with their Ponzi scheme stealing from the taxpayers. Thieves who are legally unionized through corruption. Or to put it another way, it's legalized thievery. Not one politician has the b@lls to break up the Union, which would be the answer to our high Teacher tax.
We watched our teachers tax bill go up $600 - $800 per year since 1985 out in Three Village. It went from $2400/year all the way up to $11,800 in 2008. Now that we're in Huntington our tax bill for the teachers (and overpaid administrators) has decreased from $600 - $800 per year to about a $500 increase per year. All due to the Teachers Union.
And now I've read in The Long Islander last week that Cuomo wants to rank teachers as ineffective, somewhat effective, and highly effective. And he wants to give the highly effective teachers (chances are they'll all be ranked as highly effective so they can steal more money) a bonus of $20,000 on top of their already ridiculously high salaries. Get ready for that sucking sound again - there goes more of our tax dollars out the window. As if the overpaid teachers who teach 4 hours/day, 180 days/year, deserve even more money? Are you kidding Cuomo????
I have to disagree with your post, or at the least, clarify a few things!
Number one - most teachers are women, most end up being married, so their salaries are a second income and we usually assume (though it's not always true anymore with the younger couples) that the husband earns more. Thus the ability to own a very nice car, or take nice vacations, or have big expensive homes is a lot easier. Visuals don't tell the whole story, neither does knowing someone who can afford all that stuff tell the whole story!
However, if it's the husband who is the teacher, earning the most of the couple, then I can tell you from personal experience, your family income is not as big and there are no expensive cars, you have an average home, you rarely take vacations and there is absolutely no second home!
Number two - the union is only part of the reason we have high school taxes. You fail to mention that over the last 50-70 years on LI, there has been an incremental increase in salaries and benefits alongside increased costs and a high regional cost of living. School boards over the decades felt comfortable in good times, giving raises. Few ever looked ahead at what the consequences might be in decades to come! Lawyers for unions and school boards got into the routine of giving raises or perks based on what other local districts were getting, and it mushroomed over time. People were only thinking about what their contract would do for them during their career - no one was thinking what it would do for teachers in following generations! The same could be said of any company with contractual workers I am sure.
Number three - your comment about "ALL teachers who retire" getting bonus pay for unused sick days is just totally WRONG! Some, maybe most, districts, MIGHT have that provision in their contract, but certainly not ALL of them! There are LI districts who offer unlimited sick days each school year, with proof of being sick from a doctor, BUT NO PAY OUT for unused sick days at retirement! So there are many teachers who do not get to add some amount to their final average salary to boost their pensions! This also goes for administrators - and again, it depends on their contracts, if they have a contract. For example, if a former teacher becomes a superintendent or assistant superintendent, they may have to negotiate getting a pay out for unused sick days as a teacher before they become an administrator - because some admininstrators do not get any provisions for sick days or pay outs for unused sick days at retirement from their superintendency. All of this is fact.
Number four - I don't know where you live in the town of Huntington or what size home you have, but my TOTAL property tax bill has never gone up by more than $400 a YEAR, and that includes school tax.
Number five - are you saying teachers shouldn't be allowed to marry other teachers? It seems to be a big bugaboo for you that their combined salaries allow them to afford the good things in life. Young teachers tend to meet other young teachers in their building or district, so it makes sense that they'd be likely to marry other teachers! I'm sure that happens a lot in large companies with a couple hundred employees.
Your huge bias against teachers is showing! You don't have to like it that they make good money on LI, but to attack individual teachers for what they have seems rather disingenuous. Individual teachers don't set the rules or negotiate their own little contracts - the system sets it in place for them. Politicians don't get rid of teacher's unions because they like the contributions to their campaign funds. Cuomo is attacking them now because he got very large contributions from the charter school billionaires. Ruining the public school system of NYS isn't going to do our children any good.
Lowering salary increases, asking for more contributions to the teacher's pension each year, asking for more contributions to their health care policies, changing contract structure so that step increases are far fewer or gone altogether, changing the Triborough Agreement and other ideas will help lower the tax bills for LI and NYS. Voting for school board members who will realize the fairness of these ideas and implement them in your district, is your responsibility.
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