Patel seeks District 24 board seat

In his 25 years of owning a business on Rockaway Avenue, Nat Patel has seen countless others businesses come and go. Many are driven away by the high taxes, he said, and that is why he is running for a seat on the District 24 Board of Education this year.

Patel owns Valley Grocery, a family-run business, and lives upstairs from the store. All three of his children have gone through District 24 schools and his youngest child is currently in South High School.

“People are afraid of the school tax bill, each and every resident, each and every commercial property owner,” he said. “That shouldn’t be a bill that scares you if you are in the neighborhood.”

Patel said that if taxpayers are afraid of their school tax bill every year, then something isn’t right. School districts have to be run in a way in which people can afford their taxes, he said. If one person in a household overspends, he said, it affects everyone who lives there. And if one taxing agency in a neighborhood overspends, he said, it also affects everyone who lives there.

He said he hopes that his business acumen can be an asset to the Board of Education. In addition to running a business downtown for a quarter-century, Patel also manages another family-owned business in Suffolk County that manufactures and sells extracts. He has a background in chemistry.

While many businesses have left Rockaway Avenue, Patel said he has kept his store going because of support from his family. He doesn’t have any employees outside of his wife and daughter, which has helped him to keep costs down. Because of the taxes, he said he can’t afford to hire anyone else.

Patel said that inflation typically rises at 2 to 3 percent each year, but school budgets often increase at a higher rate. No business can accommodate an increase like that, he said, adding, “If a company makes a 7 percent profit and you give a raise to everybody of 12 percent, you know that you are going out of business.”