Pleasantville School Officials Blast Cuomo’s Tax Freeze Proposal
By Janine Bowen
The Pleasantville Board of Education has scheduled a special board meeting for next Tuesday to discuss Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s tax freeze proposal that could change the way school budgets are constructed across the state.
The proposal aims to enact a two-year property tax freeze that comes with certain conditions attached and must be adopted by districts in upcoming school years. For the 2014-15 year, the state would provide tax rebates to homeowners with qualifying incomes who live in jurisdictions that stay within the property tax cap. The allowable tax levy increase for next year is currently set at 1.46 percent.
For the 2015-16 school year, homeowners would receive a tax credit if their taxing jurisdictions stay within the cap and officials develop a plan to share and consolidate services and eliminate duplication among districts.
Coordination would occur between all districts within a BOCES region; however, BOCES would provide no coordination. BOCES provides shared services to schools throughout the state.
The proposal calls for the largest school district in a region–in the Southern Westchester BOCES area New Rochelle is the largest–to become the lead agency to coordinate the governor’s plan, Pleasantville school officials said at the Jan. 28 board of education meeting.
The state legislature will be weighing the proposal during the current session.
“This proposal, I think, personally, is very dangerous and could really do harm to our school district in a very serious way,” said Board of Education President Shane McGaffey.
Pleasantville trustees said they were concerned about how the proposal would affect local school budget decisions. They also were dismayed that the plan could be instituted without public vote or scheduled meetings between districts.
Several board members also wondered how Cuomo could offer this proposal with the fiscally challenged New Rochelle as lead agency.
“This is such a misuse of public trust on the part of the governor. It’s really egregious in my opinion,” said Trustee Louis Conte. “I don’t know what it is that makes Gov. Cuomo so angry about Westchester but he continually seems to point fingers at us…and high performing school districts.”
McGaffey, who referred to Cuomo’s plan as “fiscal federalism,” said there are more efficient ways for the state to reduce property taxes.
“If you want property taxes to go down, do what’s necessary on gap elimination, restore that money and then we can lower our budgets to reflect that and give the taxpayers here what they deserve,” said Conte.
The Gap Elimination Adjustment was introduced in 2010 by then Gov. David Paterson to reduce a $10 billion budget deficit by reducing the amount of state aid schools received. Cumulatively, Westchester schools have lost $306 million in state aid since the gap elimination was implemented.
“The ability to maintain a quality educational program, with local control…this is going to be our biggest challenge going into the budget,” said Superintendent Mary Fox-Alter.
Loss of local control has already been a hot topic for many districts, including Pleasantville, with the implementation of the controversial Common Core.
“What’s happening could be disastrous. Not only is it one size fits all, but you’re dumbing down to the lowest common denominator…and we won’t have the schools we have,” said McGaffey.
Next Tuesday’s board meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and will held at the Library/Media Center at Pleasantville High School.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
