Once again we approach school budget voting time. This voting is nothing more than a charade designed to pass another bloated budget passed on to the taxpayer. What are we actually voting on? Less than 1 percent of more than approximately $125 million. The deck has been stacked. Most taxpayers believe that voting "no" on the budget will not increase their taxes. There is a built-in tax increase. My taxes have gone up $3,230 from 1999 (40.6 percent), and $2,397 (34.68 percent) of it is school taxes.

The school boards have taken budgeting and voting right out of the taxpayers control. The choice of what gets cut and what doesn't is not in play. Between the state-mandated, unfunded programs and other special programs, there is nothing to be cut. It boils down to cutting 35 full-time staff positions and whether or not there will be late buses. Thirty-five staff positions? What is the cost of that? Thirty-five minimum salaried positions that amounts to peanuts in a $125 million budget. Who is getting hurt by the elimination of these positions? Who holds these jobs? Working class people struggling to make ends meet, amounting to a miniscule percentage of the budget.

Want to do something real crazy? Start cutting 35 administrative positions. Positions paying over $80,000 - $125,000 per year. These positions are what? What do they do for the education of the individual students in class? Answer, is zero. The funny part of all this is that they don't have a thing to do with the everyday education each student gets. Also, what is the cost of the pensions these people get? Who is paying for that? The actual teachers aren't getting the money and they are on the front line every day. These are the people that matter to the education of our students.

This is all part of a bloated bureaucracy designed to perpetuate the status quo that the taxpayers are footing the bill for. Businesses today face the same tough decisions. Within companies many departments face reduction or elimination. They don't have the poor dumb taxpayer to foot the bill. They have to step up and make the tough decisions for the benefit of the company.

Taxes on Long Island are high and 75 percent of taxes are composed of school taxes. Politicians can talk all they want about reducing taxes but they have no control of the biggest portion, school taxes. Most of us know our local politicians but how many of us know any of the people with their hands deepest into our pockets, the school board members.

Until the situation is addressed properly and serious cutting is done voting on school budgets amounts to the same as rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.