About 200 years ago, Queen Marie Antoinette is reported to have told her heavily taxed French citizens that if they could not afford the taxes, they should go "eat cake." This insult to the poor was strongly instrumental in bring on the French Revolution in which king and queen both lost their heads.

We now have a similar response in our heavily taxed school district. Our board president was quoted in Newsday June 6 as saying it was a "no-brainer" to submit the same 8 percent tax rate increase and no budget reduction for a revote June 25. Our reigning leaders have assumed that the small margin of defeat of the budget in May can easily be overcome. They plan a campaign to bring in more students and the PTA for the revote. Essentially, her "no-brainer" comment is telling taxpayers to "eat cake."

The large percentage of rejected budgets all over Long Island does not seem to have sent a strong enough message that taxpayers are fed up with increasingly high tax rates. In fact, at a community meeting prior to the May vote, our supervisor and his supporters threatened to go on austerity and not have a revote if the May budget was defeated.

During the year, they kept blaming the high tax rate on a shortage of state aid (about a $725,000 loss). Actually, our district received over $378,000 in incentive and BOCES aid that could be used to reduce the tax rate and there is still over $300,000 in a general fund available.

Before you vote in June, look at your tax bills for the last three years. Including the library rate, our school tax rate alone will exceed $80/$100 of assessment, and it could reach $100/$100 in the near future.

N. Salvatore Romano