Schools to carry the county's burden?

Now that the Nassau County Legislature has already approved a $2.6 billion budget plan for next year, the Oceanside and Island Park school districts — along with those across the county — must consider how they will handle shifting costs imposed on them through tax certiorari refund payments and a new sewer tax, two major items that lawmakers approved during an Oct. 30 legislative session in Mineola.

“Lawsuits are being contemplated,” said Dr. Herb Brown, superintendent of the Oceanside School District, at a Nov. 15 school board meeting.

“Any new taxes are going to affect the budget,” he added last week. “The legislature heard the voice of the school district, but they still voted the way they did.”

Brown was referring to a public hearing session held in Mineola on Oct. 29, one day before the budget plan of Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano was approved. At that hearing, representatives from the Nassau County Board of Education criticized the budget and expressed their concern over its impact on schools. Mary Jo O’Hagan, vice president of the Nassau-Suffolk County School Boards Association, was in attendance at the hearing, and she questioned the legislature’s plan to “off-load multi-millions of dollars of the county’s lawful obligations” to local school districts.

Under the new budget plan, which was approved by the 11 Republican legislatures and rejected by the eight Democrats, school districts will be forced to pay tax certiorari refunds to local residents and business owners that have challenged their property assessments. Since 1938, the county has paid this refund as part of its “county guarantee” to taxpayers who are over-assessed. And Nassau was the last county in the United States that provided this guarantee to taxpayers.

But starting in 2013, this financial responsibility will be shifting to school districts, which will have to set aside reserve funds and other means to cope with rising costs.

At the Nov. 15 school board meeting in Oceanside, Brown said that he will consider whether to hire a lawyer to ensure that future property assessments are done properly and accurately for the school district. Right now, Oceanside is first trying to decide whether it can put forward a sound argument in court to challenge the new budget plan that has abolished the guarantee. Democrats have argued that New York state needed to give permission to the county if it wanted to pass this legislation, which was not done.

“This is something we inherited,” said Rosmarie Bovino, Island Park school superintendent, during a Nov. 29 board of education meeting that addressed the legislative measure. “For us, it’s not just an issue that affects the district, but the community as a whole, too.”

During the recent Island Park school board meeting, Bovino was joined by a legal representative of the school district who discussed the possibility of reaching a settlement with the county in the event that a lawsuit was accepted.

Bovino expressed apprehension to the ill effects a sewer tax could impose on Island Park as well. The sewer tax, which is the second cost school districts are obligated pay under Mangano’s legislative plan, will charge 1 cent per gallon of water to non-profit entities. That includes not only school districts, but fire districts, universities and hospitals. Religious institutions are not affected.

Mangano said that the sewer tax will bring in $38 million worth of revenue to plug a massive hole in Nassau’s sewer budget, but Democrats and school district representatives have argued that non-profit entities can’t legally be taxed.

Mangano has also said that the elimination of the county guarantee will have minimal impact on school districts, but Democrats and school district representative do not agree with this claim either.

It is expected that many school districts will file lawsuits against the county to overturn the legislative measure passed by Republicans on Oct. 30. An argument is that the county can’t unilaterally vote to do away with its guarantee, and that the state legislature needs to approve the decision as well.

Furthermore, it is expected that school districts will try to challenge the water-use fee in court if they are able to.

“The sewer tax is something that could really affect kids [and their education],” Brown said. “We need to start setting aside money if nothing changes.”