School Budget Voting

On May 18, voters approved 92 percent of the school budgets on Long Island. Ten of the 124 budgets originally defeated were approved on the second vote held on June 15. A review of the school budget process shows it to be an exercise in futility for voters.

Taxpayers have very little say over school budgets; even if a budget is voted down, nearly 90 percent of spending remains the same. Pension contributions and teachers and administrators salaries and benefits are said by school boards to be ‘mandated’ and are untouchable by voters even though the school boards themselves negotiated the salaries and benefits.

Taxpayers have no say over the salary increases school boards negotiate with the powerful teachers unions. These amount to about 3.5 percent annually plus 1.5 percent for step increases plus education credit raises and extra pay.

The West Hempstead School District budget was one of the defeated budgets that was later approved by voters. The original tax increase was 9.4 percent, the biggest in Nassau County. For the revote, this was reduced to 4.91 percent but the contingency budget would have actually increased the tax levy to 6.2 percent had the second vote failed. How does the school board explain this confusion?

The president of the West Hempstead Teachers Union was quoted as saying that “teachers are poorly paid” and “we don’t get much money.” Her salary is $105,563 for a ten month school-year plus another 25 percent in benefits. All officers of the West Hempstead Teachers Union earn over $100,000 as do about half of the other teachers.

One teacher with a base salary of $107,615 coaches three sports and supervises kids in the cafeteria, giving him a paycheck of $123,229. Apparently the teachers union doesn’t consider that “much money.”

We must rein in soaring teacher’s salaries and pension costs. Taxpayers need a tough labor lawyer to negotiate a uniform contract for all Long Island teachers to eliminate salary leapfrogging. The New York State Teachers Union has 500 full-time employees to represent them. Everyone has a contract except the taxpayers who pay the bills.