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"Schools need ongoing support"

No they don't! How much money do school districts need year after year or the question should be how much money can school districts take from LI homeowners year after year and still get away with threatening to shut school services down if their budget is not met.

News flash! Voting for the school budget is nothing short of a scam! Your taxes are going to go up year after even if you vote NO on the school budget.

My property taxes more than doubled over the past 10 years yet school districts cry poverty year after year. Problem is the middle class taxpayers are "fed up" with their incompetence and school districs need to start weeding out the freeloaders and the dead wood.

Fed up Suffolk Taxpayer wrote:

"Schools need ongoing support"
No they don't! How much money do school districts need year after year or the question should be how much money can school districts take from LI homeowners year after year and still get away with threatening to shut school services down if their budget is not met.
News flash! Voting for the school budget is nothing short of a scam! Your taxes are going to go up year after even if you vote NO on the school budget.
My property taxes more than doubled over the past 10 years yet school districts cry poverty year after year. Problem is the middle class taxpayers are "fed up" with their incompetence and school districs need to start weeding out the freeloaders and the dead wood.

AMEN!!!!

Gee!!!!!! Sue SImmons cursed on TV, Where is Al Sharpton looking for her resignation like IMUS. Double standard country!!!! Why isn't Newsday letting people comment on that story.

Fed up Suffolk Taxpayer wrote:

"Schools need ongoing support"
No they don't! How much money do school districts need year after year or the question should be how much money can school districts take from LI homeowners year after year and still get away with threatening to shut school services down if their budget is not met.
News flash! Voting for the school budget is nothing short of a scam! Your taxes are going to go up year after even if you vote NO on the school budget.
My property taxes more than doubled over the past 10 years yet school districts cry poverty year after year. Problem is the middle class taxpayers are "fed up" with their incompetence and school districs need to start weeding out the freeloaders and the dead wood.

Amen again!

AMEN!!

ENOUGH is ENOUGH, school districts crying poverty then putting, literally, a scam budget up for vote and whether you vote yes or no, the worst they do is cut something that should not have been there to begin with. THEY will never cut the administrators as they should.

Heres a flash, I am friends with teachers who will continually say that year after year they spend whatever budget they are given, not always because they need to but because otherwise they loose it the next year! So, if they need pens, paper, supplies, WHATEVER, or they DON'T need it, they still buy it and never think the well will run dry.

NEWSFLASH, the well has run dry, we CANNOT afford the taxes to educate kids that will for the most part NEVER be able to afford to even live here!

SO VOTE NO or YES, either way the school districts will get money for the important aspects in their mind, the overpaid superintendents, administrators, cell phones, air conditioning for their offices....all things that they can do without, but when you vote NO they will say "we will cut sports for the kids".

Please, its a scam and it is about time there is some light being shed on YEARS of abuse, YEARS of unethical if not illegal behavior by school boards, lawyers, UNIONS and the administrators!

WE THE PEOPLE HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!

"As learning is a lifetime experience for all of us, so, too, must be our continuing commitment to the education of every child, the future of this community and the hope of this nation."
Pension scams; double dipping; bloated payrolls; cronysim - the list goes on.
Property taxes are going through the roof. And we can start pointing the blame at our neighbors like this who are obviously uninformed and blindly turn up to vote for every budget by somehow convincing themselves it's good for the "future of the community and the hope of this nation" ??
You have got to be kidding here, right ?

Salaries should be part of the vote. Teachers are overpaid and think the rest of are suckers who will just continue to bend over. They work six hours a day and less than half a year. they spend money like it is being printed in the basement. Pretty soon the only people who will be able to afford to live here are teachers. They will have forced everyone else off the island with their outrageous salaries, benefits, and pensions. Maybe that is their goal....you can certainly tell by their arrogance that they feel superior to the taxpayers who pay their salary.

I never thought I would be writing to you, but after seeing what the school tax rates are for all of Nassau County I'm literally fuming.
As a homeowner and employee working in Nassau County I would like someone to explain how East Meadow (currently at $541.52 per $100 of assessed value) is higher taxed than Great Neck (which by the way is 2nd lowest in the county at $301.63 per $100 of assessed value).
I think it's a disgrace that not only are we over taxed in our school but we are also bearing the taxes of Nassau University Medical Center and the Jail as well (I believe)
Juvenile Detention Center. Even Garden City SD which bears the taxes for our courts and police headquarters is only $356.12 per $100 of assessed value.
Can someone please tell me when did we all loose our minds? We are not only the highest taxed in the entire country, but we are now 1 of several states that have the most forclosures while our school administrations continue to pay outlandish salaries to the FAT CATS!
When will it all stop? When there is no one living on the island at all? I think it's about time we all rally as taxpayers and say enough is enough and take our county back. After all this is supposed to be a democracy, yet we are continually fed lies, lies and more lies about how the "children" will suffer if we don't pay higher taxes.
Here's a solution. How about getting rid of teachers that only work for a few hours a day (part-time) and get rid of those who are no longer qualified to teach? How about those who retire then come back as consultants! They not only get their pensions, but then they get another FAT salary on top of that.

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

Need proof of this old adage? Read the above comments!

So the Reverend Al Sharpton wants to withhold millions of dollars in funding to the NYPD unless the department can prove that it doesn't discriminate against blacks. My question to Sharpton or to anyone else for that matter is how do you prove a negative? The burden of proof lies on those making the accusation-not on those being accused. Sharpton, if you claim that NYPD is racist-prove it. Stop being a coward, stop hiding from the fact that what you want is constant turmoil and chaos-that your mission in life is to keep blacks down and dependant on you so that you can make a living out of their misery. I offer your life and your prior comments as proof.

Seth D Bykofsky wrote:

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."
Need proof of this old adage? Read the above comments!

This is probably a comment made by a teacher who gets full benefits paid at the taxpayers expense.

This person talks about ignorance, here's a fact for you, I know 6 registered nurses that are leaving because they can't afford their taxes which is over $15,000 a year. There goes your skilled labor force leaving Long Island for a better place. But since school districs got greedy over the past 10 years they've now pretty much contributed to a recession.

Do us all a favor move out of mommy and daddys house and figure out how real life works before you make pathetic hit and run comments like this.

Seth D Bykofsky wrote:

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."
Need proof of this old adage? Read the above comments!

You wrote this only because you don't understand what you read in the above comments dad.

Response To: "Schools need ongoing support."

With all due respect to the letter writer, that type of mentality is what's killing us here on L.I. In case you haven't noticed, we're drowning in taxes and can't afford it anymore. You expressed some worthy sentiments that would've garnered widespread agreement and support in a bygone era. But not any longer. The schools will never get my support again until I see significant efforts being made to contain *ALL* costs at *ALL* levels. In other words, I want to see the school districts start to do as much, or more, with less - less money from taxpayers. We simply do NOT have it to give anymore. Even for something as worthy as public education. Over a billion dollars are funneled into the Long Island public school system each year. Enough is a ****'nough! NO MORE!

Seth D Bykofsky wrote:

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."
Need proof of this old adage? Read the above comments!

*
Sir, if it is, indeed, you who wrote this letter published in today's Newsday, I will tell you this much: You seem to be educated, but the sentiments expressed in your letter, woefully ignorant. Right now, two-thirds of our total property tax is dedicated to the public schools. How much higher would you like to see it go in order satisfy your tired, old, anachronistic cliche?

Pliny wrote:

<quoted text>
*
Sir, if it is, indeed, you who wrote this letter published in today's Newsday, I will tell you this much: You seem to be educated, but the sentiments expressed in your letter, woefully ignorant. Right now, two-thirds of our total property tax is dedicated to the public schools. How much higher would you like to see it go in order satisfy your tired, old, anachronistic cliche?

Sometimes an education does not necessarily teach common sense. I fear that is his problem. He missed the boat there.

Mr Bykofsky is no doubt entitled to his opinion.
However - my opinion is that his statements are moronic and his effort to be sincere is condescending, pompous and insulting. I also highly doubt his intelligence level.
Unfortunately - there are too many of his kind on LI who are on the voting rolls.

Too much already wrote:

Mr Bykofsky is no doubt entitled to his opinion.
However - my opinion is that his statements are moronic and his effort to be sincere is condescending, pompous and insulting. I also highly doubt his intelligence level.
Unfortunately - there are too many of his kind on LI who are on the voting rolls.

You agree with Escobar above. So do I. This guy is a moron.

As a homeowner and employee working in Nassau County I would like someone to explain how East Meadow (currently at $541.52 per $100 of assessed value) is higher taxed than Great Neck (which by the way is 2nd lowest in the county at $301.63 per $100 of assessed value).
I think it's a disgrace that not only are we over taxed in our school but we are also bearing the taxes of Nassau University Medical Center and the Jail as well (I believe)
Juvenile Detention Center. Even Garden City SD which bears the taxes for our courts and police headquarters is only $356.12 per $100 of assessed value.

Great Neck and Garden City have extensive commercial tax bases given the ratio of businesses to residences in those towns. This reduces the overall burden to homeowners there versus towns that are predominently residential...

and the beat goes on.... school taxes will forever increase pretty much year after year after year. are there ever going to be school boards that have balls enough to say no to the teachers unions demands for more and more of everthing? i doubt it.

Fed up Suffolk Taxpayer wrote:

<quoted text>
This is probably a comment made by a teacher who gets full benefits paid at the taxpayers expense.
This person talks about ignorance, here's a fact for you, I know 6 registered nurses that are leaving because they can't afford their taxes which is over $15,000 a year.
There goes your skilled labor force leaving Long Island for a better place. But since school districs got greedy over the past 10 years they've now pretty much contributed to a recession.
Do us all a favor move out of mommy and daddys house and figure out how real life works before you make pathetic hit and run comments like this.

And when nurses start to leave because they cannot afford to live there, you can be damn sure that the hospitals and nursing homes will be first in line to petition congress to bring in more foreign nurses to take their place. It is all a scam. This is what the business community has planned for this country. It is time for Americans to think out side the box. Foreign governments are taking over this country. Without a shot being fired.