SeeThroughNY General Interest & Comments - Schools

Excessive Government and school pensions

bikebun — Thu, 13 May 2010 03:00:28 GMT

As a retired Lockheed-Martin engineer. I am agast at the lucrative pensions of NYS teachers and government workers ... and their increases at the mercy of my fixed pension. It makes me sick to see this kind of fiscial irresponsibility on a romp in the state I at first loved and now am begining to despise asnd now are considering to move from to protect my dwindling lifestyle. NYS needs to freeze the taxes paid by retired non-state/teacher people. Otherwise we (that class of retirees) are at the total mercy of union contracts (benefits and pensions) and the mandated (I'm sick of) increases.

teachers need to appreciated WHAT they do get

cmb68 — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:52:41 GMT

I was a teacher, now work from home to raise my 5 kids....i have many teacher friends who all complain about their low pay and how they practically work for "charity".....are they kidding me???? Many teachers are totally out of touch with reality and pretty much live a bubble where they are insulated from what employees in the real world go through.....how many of us get to boast a 75,000 annual salary (mind you...many of my teacher friends make at least 85K or even over 100K - as elementary classroom teachers NOT administrators), 15 weeks of vacation, sick and personal days, medical and dental insurance AND a pension upon retirement....and don't forget a contract that spells out a 6 hour and 52 minute work day plus 55 minutes for lunch and no more than 3 meetings per month after or before school.......now i totally get that most teachers put in much more time than what their contract requires and also spend money out of pocket for what they need to do.....but is that really any different than what other employees do in other fields also????? I think if teachers want the respect they say they so often do not get, they have to take a step back, and really look at what they DO GET and stop alienating the rest of the non-teaching population by crying poverty and unfair compensation.

How much do you personally pay your teachers and administrators?

mother of three — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:36:08 GMT

Try doing this exercise and you will see that your Long Island school taxes are for the children...but just not your children!

1) Enter you total property taxes here>>>>>>___________

2) About two-thirds are school taxes.
Multiply #1 by .667 Enter number here>>____________

3) About 80% of school district spending
is for salaries and benefits.
Multiply #2 by 0.80. Enter number here>>____________

Now look at the answer to #3. This is a close approximation of what you are personally paying your local teachers and administrators. Are you getting your money's worth or are you getting hosed?

You Decide.

Schools n Kids Uphill Fight for Education

kolbmann2008 — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 03:32:53 GMT

Schools and Our Children not only have to compete with, and are losing, other countries but we have to fight with our neighbors to get a decent education. Generic Fact..Voter turnout is typically dominated by seniors. Votes on school budgets are the only governmental budgets any1 can vote on? why is that? and, when ppl vote on them they only vote on a small percentage at that. most of the budget is state mandated anyhow. giving ppl the illusion they have a substantial say in their own taxes. also Board of Education (BOE) members voted into position are usually voted in by the majority, a majority that typically is more interested in their pocketbook than their neighbors childrens education. the only problem is BOE members should be more concerned with education than taxes. until we get the kind of reform where every child in every district, rich or poor, can get the same $ for education our children and our schools will continue to degrade. my own school holland central district of ny being a perfect example.

bogus caps make for bogus budgets

andreavecchio — Tue, 05 May 2009 05:56:24 GMT

e: bogus contingent budgets
Let's (deleted expletive)ume a cap law doesn't happen Why not just enforce the STAR cap but stop school districts from fudging the numbers as they did in '06 in East Islip(How can a contingent budget not be fraudulent if after 2 no votes which defeated their budget they drastically cut student programs but then padded the "contingent" budget with 6 mil. for future teacher raises on a still to be settled teachers contract - and also raised the school taxes by 12.2%???)
That could be cured by simply changing the language of the existing law to read tax levy cap not spending cap - that would make budget votes suddenly meaningful again and restore the democratic process to the school vote.

Regarding the Governor's recent proposal for a state spending cap for the state operating budget yet increases the "rainy day" general fund reserve from 3 to 10 %?????? better yet- Why not a constitutional 2-2.5% tax increase limit on state spending similar to existing (Art 10)local governments limits( which once applied to school districts as well)

BOGUS CONTINGENT BUDGETS

mother of three — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:10:41 GMT

Taxpayer activists- here is something for you to do.

See if your school district is being honest about their contingent budget this year. If not, complain the the NYS Attorney General and NYS Comptroller's office. The districts are using this wrong comparison to make voters believe that the difference between the contingent budget and presented budgets are nil, so voting it down will have little tax saving consequences. However, they threaten the usual service cuts. What is unusual this year is that inflation is nil and they are not all districts are accurately (honestly) reflecting this reality that does not suit them.

My district is wrongly declaring the contingent budget to be 4%. This is wrong. I suspect many other districts are creatively interpreting the law to suite thier thirst for your money...not letting the law get in the way.

I believe the contingent budget should be zero, based on Dept. of Labor Urban CPI statistics and NYS law governing contingent budgets.

The Contingent budget is "...the lesser of 120% the rate of inflation or 4%..." according to the NYS Budget Handbook.

http://www.sachemunspun.com/schoolbudgethandbook.pdf

The inflation is based on the "...the twelve month period preceding January first of the current year..."
. i.e, 2008.

http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?request_action=wh&graph_name=CU_cpibrief

Bureau of Labor Statistics Urban CPI for 2008 is ZERO if you add up each monthly stats. There were actually four months of negative inflation in 2008! 120% of Zero is Zero. Zero is less than 4%, except in our school districts.

Turn on the spotlights and expose your local district's practices.