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Schools

Nyackers, Officials Discuss Tax Cap's Effect On Schools

Nyack Youth Collaborative hosted the event

The Nyack Youth Collaborative hosted a talk Thursday night to discuss New York State’s two-percent tax cap, and the effect it will have on taxpayers, students and schools.

The program, called “Facts vs. Myths: The Impact of the New Tax Cap on Your Taxes and Schools” was held at the Nyack Center and featured speakers Nyack Schools Superintendent James Montesano and Anne Byrne, a 29-year member of the Nanuet School Board.

More than 40 people showed up to the event, which lasted about two hours, with Montesano— the district will likely adhere to the mandate—and Byrne both talking for a little bit about the cap and then answering questions from the audience.

“The governor’s two percent tax cap is not, and I repeat, is not a tax cap,” Byrne said. “It’s a tax levy.”

The difference, she added, is that a tax cap means taxes would rise by two percent, whereas a tax levy cap means the school districts must stay under two percent when developing the budget.

Montesano was previously a superintendent in Paramus when New Jersey went to a tax cap in 2010 and spoke about his experience with it.

“It has really forced school districts to think differently, to seek ways in which we can increase our levels of efficiency,” he said. However, that does work to a point. Without some assistance from Albany, what we’re going to find ourselves in is really corroding the process of public education as we know it.”

The difficult with that, he said, is trying to thing of ways to make schools better with limited or decreasing funds.

“We have work to do in terms of improving our schools,” Montesano said. “However, we also have to recognize that we have to do things differently because the fact of the matter is, there’s now new money for us to simply add money to solve these problems.”

Byrne said that districts think about their budgets years in advance, and with the tax levy they now have a few more things to consider.

“When schools are working on their budgets, they’re looking on the impact the decisions will make not just on the budget they’re working on, but on future budgets,” she said. “Right now, school districts are preparing this year’s budgets under this very first time tax levy cap and we are trying to decide what we have to cut, how much of our reserves we should be putting into the budget without depleting the reserves and what all of that does to student achievement, because that’s why we’re in the business.”

Montesano said he was given instructions by the board on where to look for possible cuts.

“This board of education has quickly directed me to ensure that whatever reductions I bring back to them, that we do not look at things that going to directly affect our kids within our classroom, and rightfully so,” he said. “But at the same time, there’s only so much low-hanging fruit for us to select from.”

Byrne talked a bit about the effects of a longer lasting tax levy as well.

“The longer a tax levy cap is in existence, the more cuts that will be made, the less staff there will be, the less programs there will be and it becomes really a hard thing,” she said. “Now, on the cutting block will be all non-mandated programs. Just so you know, non-mandated programs are things like sports, you’d have go back to the state limits on transportation, any extracurricular activities, arts, music and believe it or not, in the state of New York, even kindergarten is not mandated.”

Thursday night Byrne said Nanuet wouldn’t try to exceed the two percent, and at this week’s school board meeting, Montesano said the same thing about Nyack. Still, Byrne said that if a school district does try to exceed it, “you must pass your budget, if you’re going above two percent, with a supermajority of 60 percent.”

She said if that’s voted down, the district can try again in June, and if it’s voted down then, the budget goes all the way back to zero percent instead of two.

“If it goes to zero, now we’re talking about programs we know works for kids being cut and we know that staff will be cut,” she said.

A few people who got up to speak wondered what they could do, if anything, and Montesano said one place to start would be to get into contact with the three state representatives, State Sen. David Carlucci, Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffe and Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski.

Some of the parents that spoke at Thursday’s meeting were from a newly formed group Restore Education Funding, and one member, Jen Marraccino, said the group has met with all three a few times and will continue to do so.

“They have told us that our voices matter, they need to hear us, they need to represents their constituents in Albany,” she said.

She also said on March 1 the group is hosting an event also at the Nyack Center at 7 p.m. called “Real Answers To Real Questions,” which will feature a number of speakers, including Montesano, all three state representatives, Judith Johnson, former secretary of education in the Clinton administration, and it will be moderated by Rockland County Legislator Harriet Cornell, chairwoman of the legislature.

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