School officials keep spending more and more each year with no plan in sight for cutting costs. State legislators have not taken any steps to cap spending. This is an election year for Albany lawmakers. In the past five years, property taxes in New York have climbed by 42 percent compared with a 13 percent rise in inflation. Your school taxes this year may go up by hundreds of dollars.

The Franklin Square plus the Sewanhaka school budgets will surge by $9.1 million next year with most of the increase going to pay for higher teachers' salaries and the cost of their benefits.

In Franklin Square, 22 teachers and administrators will be paid more than $100,000. A first-grade teacher will earn nearly $109,000 for working about nine months during the year. In the Sewanhaka High School District a teacher who coaches sports and has additional tasks can get an extra $24,000, boosting his pay for the year to about $125,000.

George Rand