Letter: Manmade Disaster: 225 Eyesore Tree Stumps

(Editor’s Note: This letter was sent to the Manhasset Press, Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman and Councilwoman Anna Kaplan.) 

Thank you for the informative article and, more importantly, for highlighting the issue of the mass cutting of all of the flowering trees along both Shelter Rock Road and Searingtown Road on the front cover of the March 29 Manhasset Press. This subject has been of concern to our family as well as to many members of the Manhasset community. With no information coming from our town/local officials, we are all dumbfounded how something as egregious as this could happen. 

This weekend I counted a total of approximately 225 trees that were cut down on both Shelter Rock and Searingtown Roads. That is a shocking number of trees destroyed, especially in a community that prides itself in, and has strict laws protecting, its trees. As you correctly pointed out in the article, these trees were one of the things that gave our community a unique character, especially this time of year when they were in full bloom. They surely will be missed.

Manhasset Schools Update: April 12, 2013

BOE Reduces Preliminary Working Budget

After extensive discussion at its April 4 meeting, the Manhasset Board of  Education agreed to reduce the preliminary working budget, resulting in the following:

• a 2.71 percent budget-to-budget increase, reduced from the originally proposed 4.61 percent budget-to-budget increase

• a 6.47 percent tax levy-to-tax levy increase, reduced from the originally proposed  8.78 percent tax levy-to-tax levy increase

Citizens Advisory Committee On Legislative Affairs (CACLA)

This is the third in a series of articles from CACLA, in which we discuss the subject of unfunded mandates and how they impact the Manhasset Public School District. It is this committee’s goal to educate the community on this subject matter in particular, as it has significant current and long-term ramifications.

Special Education – Minimally Funded Mandates

An unfunded mandate is a statute or regulation (coming from the state or federal government) that requires, in this case, a local public school district to fulfill the requirements of the mandate without adequate funding. The dollar expense of the unfunded mandate must come from the only revenue source a public school district has, i.e., the property taxes each resident is required to pay.

Letter: Vote ‘No’ On School Budget

Most surrounding districts will present budgets within their allotted tax caps of approximately 2 percent but the Manhasset School District has presented a budget that will raise our school tax levy 8.8 percent and without a pledge to meet the tax cap in the future, we can expect a similar increase next year.  The superintendent has cited numerous causes for this sorry situation; increased pension costs, less state aid, mandates, Federal sequester and increased enrollment. Since pension costs, state aid, mandates and the Federal sequester are common to all districts and most will not pierce their cap, the only cause cited that is unique to Manhasset is increased enrollment.

A careful look at the Manhasset enrollment statistics is warranted. Actual and projected enrollment between 2007 and 2016 averages 16 more students per year. With proper leadership and planning, 16 students could have easily been accommodated in a student body of approximately 3000 without resorting to massive tax increases. This year, 2013, enrollment will actually begin to decline by 26 students and is projected to continue to decline through 2016, and yet, this year, the district added over 11 new staff members.  Personnel costs continue to account for over 75 percent of the school budget.

Letter: Manhasset Schools Support Home Values

Home buyers with children have always known the critical role that quality of schools play in the decision on where to live. Correspondingly, current Manhasset homeowners–with or without school age children–should appreciate the correlation between the performance of our local schools and our property values. It comes down to basic arithmetic: good schools equal higher home values.

Common sense dictates that communities served by superior schools will be less likely to experience erosion of property values over the long term. Just take a moment to think of thriving communities in Nassau County vs. those that are languishing. What do they all have in common? The quality of their schools.

Letter: Correcting Misinformation

Do not assume that voting down the school budget guarantees your property taxes will be capped at 2 percent. New York State’s Tax levy “cap” calculation, which is based on a complex 8-step formula, will not, necessarily, keep local property taxes in check.

Legislator Wayne Wink, a Democrat from Roslyn, said it best when he said, “What people perceived as a tax cap that was going to limit their increase to 2 percent does anything but.” (http://newyork.cbslocal. com/2012/10/05/exclusive-shocking-school-tax-hikes-hit-nassau-county/) How can this be? Because, inclusive of the property tax rate and property tax levy, there are multiple factors that are used to determine a resident’s property tax bill.

Letter: ‘Supermajority’ Budget Vote (March 22 issue)

Perspective is everything. This publication underscored with great emphasis Superintendent Cardillo’s viewpoint that a “supermajority” vote for a previously defeated budget means that 1,601 Manhasset residents voting in opposition could defeat a budget and compel a zero percent tax increase.

I disagree, and offer this alternative point of view. Adopting without argument the superintendent’s proffered members, a failure to achieve the supermajority means that the school authorities failed to convince an additional 798 voters that the subject budget and concomitant tax increase was worthy of their approval. This perspective is equally accurate and logical. Moreover, 798 votes is a lot of votes, especially in a community of our size.

Manhasset Schools Update: March 29, 2013

Challenge Of A Supermajority Vote

Requiring a supermajority vote is punitive…if 4000 people vote and 2,399 vote “yes” while only 1601 vote “no” the budget would be defeated…Where’s the outrage?

Because the preliminary working budget requires a tax levy greater than the levy allowed under the tax levy cap legislation, the budget requires a supermajority vote of 60 percent in order to pass.

Citizens Advisory Committee On Legislative Affairs

This is the second in a series of articles from the Citizens Advisory Committee On Legislative Affairs (CACLA), in which we discuss the subject of unfunded mandates and how they impact the Manhasset Public School District. It is this committee’s goal to educate the community on this subject matter in particular, as it has significant current and long-term ramifications.

Manhasset School District’s Employees’ Pensions:

Another Unfunded Mandate

An unfunded mandate is a statute or regulation (coming from the state or federal government) that requires, in this case, a local public school district to fulfill the requirements of the mandate without adequate funding.  The dollar expense of the unfunded mandate must come from the only revenue source a public school district has, i.e., the property taxes each resident is required to pay.   

Letter: I Am Scared

On the evening of March 11, Superintendent Charlie Cardillo gave a 2013-2014 preliminary working school budget presentation that directly addressed the issue of what it would mean to the school district if the school budget failed twice.  

According to Mr. Cardillo, if the budget is defeated twice by voters the tax levy increase must be set at 0 percent which translates into a required $6.8 million reduction from the proposed school budget.