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Not really true. The salaries are in the budget you are voting on. We vote on way more than 2%. The district will just argue that they cannot change the "mandated obligations" because they are contractual and protected by the State constitution. So where were all the LICD'ers for the con-con (constitutional convention)...the one thing that could change things for the better (or worse, potentially)?
The mandates are real.
So how does that contradict what I wrote? The mandates and obligations are real. Technically, you could claim that we are voting on those amounts, but no matter what we vote, those numbers won't change.
Quote:
Also, the REAL reason it is hopeless is due to turnout. The ones turning out are all teachers and civil service workers and their families. Budgets have been passing by 60-70% recently. Can you imagine if more than 4% showed up? Many budgets would fail, strongarm tactics or not. Then when they threaten to cut programs to balance the budget, we say "ok, then we cut the superintendent's job and re-elect a new board asap" and see how they manage to fight harder for the taxpayer.
You are right about who turns out in force for these votes. That's a big reason the snowbird tactic has always been successful.
Hopelessness due to turnout or turnout due to hopelessness? Does it matter? Waste your time and vote it down. You might see your taxes go down $5/year. Or in my case go UP $5/year on the "austerity" budget.
The Superintendent has a contract. Let's say you get a board who doesn't renew it. Let's even say you somehow eliminate the position entirely. I know people like to harp about the excessive compensation packages, and they are right. It is, however, a red herring. The actual savings would be negligible.
Looking at my own district, total administrative expenses is about 8% of the budget. The Superintendent cost is less than 1/10th of 1% of the budget. I completely agree that salary is still high, but I don't delude myself into thinking that it is going to make a real difference in my tax bill.
You can elect a new school board, but it will be more of the same. It is virtually impossible to get a majority of a board that will enact real change. That should be obvious since there never is a board that enacts real change. They also have little power over the big numbers.
Even if a board is willing, they don't have the time, money, or skill to fight against a coordinated and well-funded campaign from the unions.
The con-con was a crap shoot. There was a theoretical upside. It was opposed because most people were smart enough to see how corrupt NYS is. Considering the people currently in Albany, it's likely we would have simply become Venezuela or the new USSR. (Hyperbole, but I'm sure you see my point). Albany has been bought and sold.
If you were running a business with a general and administrative rate at the same rate that my school district, you'd be out of business because you couldn't compete.
Another PET PEEVE-- why oh why are we paying a gym/health teachers the same rate as someone who is teaching PHYSICS/CHEMISTRY/or one of the STEMs. Come on man, how absurd.
Check out NYSED and seethroughny.net websites to see the absolute ridiculousness in budgeting for positions the school districts.
So how does that contradict what I wrote? The mandates and obligations are real. Technically, you could claim that we are voting on those amounts, but no matter what we vote, those numbers won't change.
You are right about who turns out in force for these votes. That's a big reason the snowbird tactic has always been successful.
Hopelessness due to turnout or turnout due to hopelessness? Does it matter? Waste your time and vote it down. You might see your taxes go down $5/year. Or in my case go UP $5/year on the "austerity" budget.
The Superintendent has a contract. Let's say you get a board who doesn't renew it. Let's even say you somehow eliminate the position entirely. I know people like to harp about the excessive compensation packages, and they are right. It is, however, a red herring. The actual savings would be negligible.
Looking at my own district, total administrative expenses is about 8% of the budget. The Superintendent cost is less than 1/10th of 1% of the budget. I completely agree that salary is still high, but I don't delude myself into thinking that it is going to make a real difference in my tax bill.
You can elect a new school board, but it will be more of the same. It is virtually impossible to get a majority of a board that will enact real change. That should be obvious since there never is a board that enacts real change. They also have little power over the big numbers.
Even if a board is willing, they don't have the time, money, or skill to fight against a coordinated and well-funded campaign from the unions.
The con-con was a crap shoot. There was a theoretical upside. It was opposed because most people were smart enough to see how corrupt NYS is. Considering the people currently in Albany, it's likely we would have simply become Venezuela or the new USSR. (Hyperbole, but I'm sure you see my point). Albany has been bought and sold.
I can't find a single point of disagreement with any of this. I also voted down a con-con despite all my spouting off about how it is the "solution." I can;t imagine re-legislating in this climate of nasty vipers and scoundrels! No way does anything get better. Different for sure, but better? nah.
I talk about the board thing a lot because I am very familiar with it.
Here is a good example, unrelated from Newsday today re districts in fiscal stress. One noted in the article that the board president is an assistant principal in another district. My jaw hit the floor. How would this person EVER bargain from the taxpayer side?! You want fiscal stress. Elect a teacher to the board. Want fiscal strength, elect a labor lawyer or CEO. We tend to elect retired civil servants and maybe a local businessperson...mostly people who have never even fathomed a million dollar budget or negotiated anything more than a cable bill.
Both counties are hopelessly corrupt and the tax problem won't be fixed because you groused about it.
Complaining won't change anything as long as the public keeps paying them. Your well-intended letters and protest votes have no real impact.
Once enough people leave, and the tax base shrinks, they'll finally get the message and enact real reform.
Money is the only thing they care about, so deny it to them. It may already be too late.
The problem is that when you lose a high paid engineer or tech worker and their family they are replaced population-wise by a services worker a recent immigrant and a person moving from NYC. The numbers don’t drop per se, but they will squeeze more people into a house to pay the taxes, yet consume more services.
LI is a nice place to live, and there are plenty of NYC new parents who will move out to get their patch of grass and a better school than they have now.
Until there is a major shift in NYC there will be no impact. I don’t see it happening anytime soon. But if it does happen it will bankrupt LI.
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"Let this year be over..."
(set 16 days ago)
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,220 posts, read 17,075,134 times
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Eliminate the right of school systems to be taxing authorities, require them to submit their budget to the town for inclusion/approval with their budget proposal. That's how its done here and we only pay one property tax bill of course we don't have to deal with the 300lb gorilla...
Eliminate the right of school systems to be taxing authorities, require them to submit their budget to the town for inclusion/approval with their budget proposal. That's how its done here and we only pay one property tax bill of course we don't have to deal with the 300lb gorilla...
Wow. They do that? They can do that?
Sounds like a better plan than LI.
Status:
"Let this year be over..."
(set 16 days ago)
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,220 posts, read 17,075,134 times
Reputation: 15536
Quote:
Originally Posted by hotkarl
Wow. They do that? They can do that?
Sounds like a better plan than LI.
It does work fine and give us an average tax rate of $10 per 1k assessed for the region but as I said we are not held hostage by the unions. We also have county wide school districts which you will never move towards, heaven forbid the students of village A must attend school with the students of village B....
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