Endorsements

Vote ‘Yes’ to approve Valley Stream budgets

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As public school districts prepare for budget votes on Tuesday, the fiscal environment continues to be challenging. A combination of high-cost mandates, such as health care and pensions, and the need to work within the restrictions of the state’s 2 percent tax cap have stretched the skills of district budget mavens to the limit.
Administrators and boards in Valley Stream continue to struggle with the challenges of unpredictable tax revenues and unpredictable PILOT income from Green Acres Mall and Green Acres Commons. At the same time, parents have been vocal and adamant in their expectations of small classes, cutting-edge curricula and quality enrichment programs.
Administrators and boards of education in each of the community’s four districts have met the challenges they faced ably. None have found it necessary to pierce the tax cap. All have preserved existing programs. This is all the more remarkable given the level of fiscal uncertainty.
Tax hikes are necessary in every district to meet the demands of pensions and health insurance. Personnel costs continue to comprise the largest single item in the budgets. Districts also plan to undertake a number of security upgrades.
Budgets have been carefully prepared, and it may seem as if passage is such a foregone conclusion that going to the polls and marking a ballot is not necessary. This would be a mistake. Administrators and boards of education know they must face the voters and ask, not tell how revenue is to be collected and spent. And they know they will be held accountable for any increase in the tax levy to an ever-cautious, cost-conscious electorate.

The need for budgets to pass muster with voters is healthy, but the process only works if voters actually embrace their responsibility. Failure to vote would represent an abdication of this obligation to the community and its children alike.
Here is an overview of the districts in Valley Stream.

Valley Stream 13
District 13’s $51.5 million budget represents a 3.32 percent year-over-year increase. The $36.4 million tax levy is 2.54 percent more than last year’s levy. The Board of Education has proposed hiring one new special education teacher, one part-time English as a New language teacher, one part-time speech teacher and one classroom teacher in reserve.

Valley Stream 24
The District 24 board has proposed a $28.76 million 2018-19 budget, an increase of slightly less than 4 percent year-over-year. The tax levy will total some $20.6 million, or an increase of about 2.5 percent from the current year. Personnel and program costs make up more than 77 percent of the total, with administrative costs and capital expenditures representing 11.8 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively.

Valley Stream 30
District 30 has had more challenges than any other district in Valley Stream. In both previous fiscal years, the tax levy declined on the assumption that PILOT agreements between Green Acres Mall and the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency would make up the difference and that the agreement would be ending. With the revelation late last year that Green Acres had met its minimum obligations under its contract with the IDA, District 30 administrators and board members found themselves in an uncomfortable position. Having refunded significant portions of the 2016-17 levy and held the line against increases in 2017-18, they are now faced with the necessity of raising the levy more significantly than almost any other district in Nassau County. The increases are, nevertheless, still within the allowable cap.
The budget of $35.48 million represents an increase of 1.9 percent over the current year. The tax levy is slated to grow 13.7 percent, to $22.24 million. Even at that level, the district is still collecting $4 million less than in 2015-16.

Central High School District
On April 11, the Central High School District Board of Education voted to accept Superintendent Bill Heidenreich’s $117.12 million budget and recommended it to the voters. The budget includes a 3.1 percent increase in the tax levy to $89.92 million. The 3.25 percent increase in the budget is higher than in recent years because of debt service on bonds passed in 2016.
CHSD also has a number of budget propositions on the ballot, including the creation of a $10 million capital reserve.

Vote ‘yes’
The Herald recommends a “yes” vote on each of these budgets. Administrative teams have done a good job of coping with a combination of volatile fiscal conditions and state regulations that do not give them many options beyond piercing the tax cap or cutting programs. Districts have behaved responsibly in opting for modest tax increases rather than going to bond for normal operating expenses.
The Herald also recommends voting in favor of all budget propositions.

School board elections
Most of the four districts’ board members who are up for re-election are unopposed. We believe the incumbents have given good service in trying circumstances, and we recommend re-electing them.