Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury) spoke to members of the Oyster Bay Civic Association in lieu of NC Comptroller Howard Weitzman who had been invited to attend the March 15 meeting to discuss his work investigating the many NC special taxing districts. It gave Town of Oyster Bay Director of Finance Robert McEvoy a chance to tell what he has been doing since serving as the town's representative to Mr. Weitzman's conference on special districts.

Ms. Jacobs said, "We have over 400 taxing jurisdictions in Nassau County: the county, town, village, school, fire; water, park, sewer districts and the Hicksville escalator tax and the Massapequa Memorial Day Parade District. We need a consolidation of services. There are too many layers of government. Everyone wants to own what they have - their own school district and fire district. We all have to cooperate, think of shared services for purchasing school supplies." (Resident Cat Colvin said, "We already do that.")

Ms. Jacobs asked, "What do you consolidate? Intelligent people have to come to the conclusion that we can't do it as it is."

Robert McEvoy, TOB director of finances and an Oyster Bay Water District Commissioner attended the OBCA meeting and responded to Ms. Jacobs comments about special districts. He explained that in the Town of Oyster Bay there is no such thing as a Memorial Day Parade District - that the town gives a total of $5,000 in the town budget for the observance of Memorial Day and that is given to the American Legion and veterans groups for Memorial Day observances. They use it to pay for a band or for wreaths, he said. There are 25 groups and each gets $200 and they tell the town how they spend the money.

He said, "Villages do not pay that tax. The item is listed on the tax bill on a line saying it is for "building, zoning, planning, Memorial Day." He added that, "The Hicksville Escalator tax [which Ms. Jacobs had mentioned] was gotten rid of 20 years ago. There was an escalator district in Hicksville for the train station. It hasn't been in existence since the bonds were paid off. The LIRR is now in charge of it."

Mr. McEvoy said, "Great things came out of the conference at Hofstra. In the hamlet, both fire companies and the water district purchase their fuel for their vehicles from the Town of Oyster Bay. It is purchased at a NYS bid price and that savings is passed along to the water and fire districts.

"The Oyster Bay Water District has a load shedding agreement for energy curtailment which was procured through the Long Island Water Conference. When there is a high demand for electric use, we convert our water pumps from electric power to generator power: they use either natural gas or diesel fuel.

"LIPA always had the program but it offered a minuscule amount of money. In this program they pay for your fuel and a much higher kilowatt rate per hour for the number of days you come off the grid. It was implemented for two days last August. We are on standby and they call us to let us know when to switch over," said Mr. McEvoy.

He added that they are watching a program the Town of North Hempstead is initiating. "It is a pilot program for self-insurance and they were going to include the special districts in it. Oyster Bay is going to see how that works before implementing it for ourselves," he concluded.

Ms. Jacobs brought up NYS aid to education saying that on Long Island, "It is abominable. The assessor's office and the comptroller are working on that," she said. Oyster Bay-East Norwich Board of Education President James Robinson asked how Long Island can receive their fair share of state aid for education. He asked, "How can we lobby for more funding?" Ms. Jacobs suggested they join other school districts when they go to Albany by bus to lobby legislators.

Ms. Jacobs spoke of property taxes saying, they are high because of (1) unfounded mandates from the federal and state governments and (2) there has been mismanagement and excessive government on Long Island. "There are too many layers of government we are paying for. The cost of living in Nassau County is higher than anywhere. That's why the young are leaving for the Carolinas and Virginias."

OBCA President William Von Novak asked, "What do you think personally of the county possibly using an income tax." Ms. Jacobs said of an income tax, that she is opposed to it but said there are reasons for it, that the property taxes are overwhelming. "People claim it is a more equitable system, that it will lower property taxes which brought the discussion to the assessment," she said.

Ms. Jacobs added, "The high prices of houses is a result of having the best school districts and that is what home buyers value in the Oyster Bay, Syosset, Plainview and Jericho school district areas."

Ms. Jacobs said of the reassessments, a third are up, a third are the same and a third are down. "You don't hear from the ones who are down or the same, just from the ones who are up." She said prior to the reassessment the county paid a quarter of a million dollars in grievances. She offered advice to the many taxpayers who questioned their bills saying, "It pays to grieve your taxes which you can do between Jan. 1 and March 1. They can't raise your taxes, they can only go down."