(The following has been released from the Elmont School District.)

On May 16, the Elmont community voted in support of the elementary school budget. On that same day, the Elmont Elementary District's Administration and Board of Education were confronted with very disturbing news. A few days earlier the Nassau County Assessors Office released the adjusted base proportions.

For the 2000-2001 fiscal year, Nassau County shifted a higher proportion of school taxes to classes one and two (residential property), causing the anticipated tax rate increase for homeowners in Elmont to rise from the projected 72 cents per $100 to $1.65 per $100 of assessed valuation for the elementary school budget. When this is added to the corresponding high school tax rate increase of $1.68 (they had anticipated a 79 cent increase), the resulting tax rate becomes overly burdensome. With this shift, classes three (utilities) and four (commercial property) saw a significant tax rate reduction. No explanation was provided for the new adjusted base proportions.

The administration and the board of education decided in such an emergency that additional state funds ($500,000) secured through the efforts of Senator Balboni and Assemblyman Alfano, intended to enhance the educational program, had to be channeled toward reducing the tax rate increase for the elementary school portion of the 2000-2001 tax bill. When that amount is used to reduce taxes, the elementary school tax rate increase for class one homeowners will be $1.06.

Given the significant shift in the tax burden to the homeowners, the district decided to actively pursue revisions and appeals. To that end, we have drafted and sent the following letter:

Ms. Antonia M. Carroll

Chief Deputy Assessor

Nassau County Department of Assessment

240 Old Country Road

Mineola, New York 11501

Dear Ms. Carroll:

The Board and Administration of the Elmont Elementary School District wish to seek review of the Adjusted Base Proportion for the 2000-2001 fiscal year. The results of the formula as it now stands are overly burdensome on classes 1 and 2. While classes 1 and 2 constitute 67.8 percent of the assessed value in Elmont, the share of the taxes they pay, according to this year's formula is 70.25 percent. This represents a drastic increase in the proportion of taxes that were paid by classes 1 and 2 for the fiscal year 1999-2000.

We must point out that the administration and the board of education work extremely hard to construct the school budget. Each budget strives to provide excellent educational services to the children of Elmont while maintaining a real estate tax that is reasonable for the Elmont homeowners who are industrious, hardworking, middle class citizens.

Your adjustment impacted the district in two significant ways:

1. It resulted in a major tax increase for the homeowners, and

2. It came after the budget is required by law to have been adopted.

The district was thus unable to factor in the homeowner proportion of the increased taxes during the budget formulation process, causing a tax rate increase for homeowners that is substantially different from that of which was anticipated during our budget campaign. The administration and the board of education risk loosing credibility with the community because of a change that is beyond their control.

Our request is that you retain the base proportions used for the 1999-2000 fiscal year, or at the very least, adjust the shift to reduce the dramatic consequences suffered by the Elmont homeowners.

Maria Palandra, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

On Behalf of the Elmont Board of Education

cc: Thomas Gulotta, County Executive

Senator Michael Balboni

Assemblyman Thomas Alfano

Legislator John Ciotti

Councilman Joseph Kearney

Nassau County Legislators

Board of Assessors of the County of Nassau

New York State Office of Real Property Services