Nassau Deflection
07-01-2008, 10:15 AM
BY JAMES T. MADORE | james.madore@newsday.com
July 1, 2008
ALBANY - Laura Pandelakis, a retired educator from Manhasset, woke up at 5 a.m. yesterday to travel here to lobby on behalf of capping yearly increases in school property taxes.
Pandelakis was one of three from Long Islanders for Educational Reform to attend the launch of an umbrella organization supporting Gov. David A. Paterson's plan to limit school levies to 4 percent per year. The group, New York Property Tax Cap Coalition, already has more than 250 members with at l 21 from Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Pandelakis, who taught in the New York City schools for nearly 29 years and then spent five years as an administrator on the Island, said her experience had shown that simply spending more money doesn't improve students' performance. "I know there really is no correlation between the amount of money spent and academic excellence," she said.
Pandelakis and representatives of businesses and chambers of commerce came to the capital at the behest of the Business Council of New York State, a driving force behind the new tax-cap coalition. Council president Kenneth Adams said the objective was to build support for Paterson's cap and serve as a counterwght to powerful opponents, such as the 600,000-member teachers' union, New York State United Teachers, and the Working Families Party.
Paterson's tax cap, by his own admission, faces an uphill fight. The Senate's Republican majority is pushing for a trial period of only two years while the Assembly's Democratic majority has ruled out a tax limit unless adequate funding can be guaranteed for classrooms. And the 212 lawmakers left Albany last week and may not return until after the fall elections.
"This proposal is responsible," Paterson said. "It is desperately needed ... [and] I believe we need to come together and make it happen."
Coalition members dismissed the Senate GOP bill providing for a tax cap only until 2010. Senate spokesman Scott Rf replied, "The Senate continues to be the only house to approve a property tax cap in any form, the only house to introduce the governor's program bill, and the only house that has shown a willingness to address this important issue."
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) is expected to discuss soaring property taxes later this week in Buffalo and Rochester, the first stops on his upstate tour.
Dan Wller, aide to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), said Silver "does not support a property tax cap unless, and only if, there were assurances of enough resources for schoolchildren ... to ensure they can all recve a quality education."
Tax-cap opponents, including the Working Families Party, touted a new Web site of thr own .They said lawmakers should adopt a so-called circuit breaker that would link tax bills to a homeowner's ability to pay. Funds now reserved for STAR rebate checks would make up the lost revenue.
Anita Meee, a computer consultant and tax reformer from Oyster Bay, disagreed, saying the circuit breaker did nothing to rn in school spending. She also decried the low turnout in recent school budget voting: about 249,000 votes with 145,607 supporting total spending of $10.1 billion in Nassau and Suffolk.
"The property tax cap is an opportunity to establish some fiscal discipline to these runaway costs ...," MacDougall said. "We need to start moving in the right direction." Taxes going up in Nassau next yr per Suozzi who wants to be appointed Senator.
July 1, 2008
ALBANY - Laura Pandelakis, a retired educator from Manhasset, woke up at 5 a.m. yesterday to travel here to lobby on behalf of capping yearly increases in school property taxes.
Pandelakis was one of three from Long Islanders for Educational Reform to attend the launch of an umbrella organization supporting Gov. David A. Paterson's plan to limit school levies to 4 percent per year. The group, New York Property Tax Cap Coalition, already has more than 250 members with at l 21 from Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Pandelakis, who taught in the New York City schools for nearly 29 years and then spent five years as an administrator on the Island, said her experience had shown that simply spending more money doesn't improve students' performance. "I know there really is no correlation between the amount of money spent and academic excellence," she said.
Pandelakis and representatives of businesses and chambers of commerce came to the capital at the behest of the Business Council of New York State, a driving force behind the new tax-cap coalition. Council president Kenneth Adams said the objective was to build support for Paterson's cap and serve as a counterwght to powerful opponents, such as the 600,000-member teachers' union, New York State United Teachers, and the Working Families Party.
Paterson's tax cap, by his own admission, faces an uphill fight. The Senate's Republican majority is pushing for a trial period of only two years while the Assembly's Democratic majority has ruled out a tax limit unless adequate funding can be guaranteed for classrooms. And the 212 lawmakers left Albany last week and may not return until after the fall elections.
"This proposal is responsible," Paterson said. "It is desperately needed ... [and] I believe we need to come together and make it happen."
Coalition members dismissed the Senate GOP bill providing for a tax cap only until 2010. Senate spokesman Scott Rf replied, "The Senate continues to be the only house to approve a property tax cap in any form, the only house to introduce the governor's program bill, and the only house that has shown a willingness to address this important issue."
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) is expected to discuss soaring property taxes later this week in Buffalo and Rochester, the first stops on his upstate tour.
Dan Wller, aide to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), said Silver "does not support a property tax cap unless, and only if, there were assurances of enough resources for schoolchildren ... to ensure they can all recve a quality education."
Tax-cap opponents, including the Working Families Party, touted a new Web site of thr own .They said lawmakers should adopt a so-called circuit breaker that would link tax bills to a homeowner's ability to pay. Funds now reserved for STAR rebate checks would make up the lost revenue.
Anita Meee, a computer consultant and tax reformer from Oyster Bay, disagreed, saying the circuit breaker did nothing to rn in school spending. She also decried the low turnout in recent school budget voting: about 249,000 votes with 145,607 supporting total spending of $10.1 billion in Nassau and Suffolk.
"The property tax cap is an opportunity to establish some fiscal discipline to these runaway costs ...," MacDougall said. "We need to start moving in the right direction." Taxes going up in Nassau next yr per Suozzi who wants to be appointed Senator.