I read last week's article about Harvey Levinson's income tax plan with great interest. At first blush I thought perhaps, just perhaps, one of our elected officials is trying to fix the property tax mess that has been created in Nassau. Then I realized that Mr. Levinson's plan is to not just perpetuate the structural problems in the system, but to build on them by inserting the Nassau County beaurocracy on top of the local school districts. Great idea! Suffolk County here we come...

Mr. Levinson points out that the recent trend of school taxes increasing at a rate of between 8 to 12 percent is problematic. Most of us will concede this point. His position that property taxes will soon become too great a burden for many I think we would all also concede. But his solution to replace the school portion of the property tax with an income tax is wrongheaded at best. There would be no savings from his plan, since one tax is just as bad as another. In fact, clearly inserting the Nassau County machine into the school tax mix would increase costs, perhaps substantially. The idea of giving income taxing authority to the County would undoubtedly serve the law of unintended consequences. First, perhaps, income tax monies would fund only the school districts. But then there would be a new need for funding some other county project, and income tax rates would rise. We need to fight tooth and nail to make sure the County never, ever levies an income tax. The timing of Mr. Levinson's proposal was also curious. Here we are at the beginning of state audits of several Long Island school districts, including Manhasset's. Whether or not there was any wrongdoing in our district is anybody's guess, but doesn't it make sense to wait for the findings before proposing radical fixes to the problem?

The issue that needs to be addressed immediately is why school district budgets are expanding at double-digit rates, and how to reduce these increases while maintaining a high quality education for our children. I live in Manhasset, and my school tax bill came today in the mail. I'm looking at another double-digit increase for the 2004-2005 year. This after the school budget was defeated, and the "austerity budget" imposed!

Kevin McCormick