A defining moment

To the Editor:
    Anger over property taxes that go nowhere but up. Anger over a teachers union that demands more in a time of less. Anger over a proposed tax levy increase of nearly 10 percent, the highest in Nassau County.
    West Hempsteaders have every right to be angry, and yet, in voting down the school budget last week, their anger was misdirected.
    Instead of sending a message to our state Legislators in Albany, telling them how angry we are over their failure to pass a budget, to fully fund our public schools, to equitably return our income tax dollars to Long Island, to reform the pension and tenure systems, and to provide real property tax relief, in voting “no” we sent a message to our children that their education, and our future, is not our No. 1 priority.
    Those who took the time to review the school district’s budget — available at www.whufsd.com — know full well that there’s no fluff or padding. In fact, there’s not all that much meat on those bones, and, certainly, little fat to cut away.

    Fixed (yet rising) expenditures such as salaries, pensions, insurance, transportation and utilities, make up the bulk of the budget, leaving the Board of Ed (whose trustees unjustifiably incurred the voters’ wrath) little discretion in formulating the budget.
    Would an austerity budget lower the tax bill? Not by a penny. Even under a contingency budget, property taxes would still go up. The cuts — and they would be many and painful indeed — would be to academic and elective programs, after-school activities and utilization of our district’s facilities, to the detriment of children and community alike.
    Few institutions define a community, its shared values as well as its home values more than its schools. Nothing says we don’t give a damn about that community (but for, perhaps, the defeat of the library budget and the tacit willingness to accept such assaults on us as the continued mockery of the Courtesy hotel, the inexorable delay in the revitalization of Hall’s Pond Park and the elimination of weekend service on the West Hempstead line of the LIRR) like voting down the school budget.
    We need to stand up to Albany and stand fast for our children. Let our support of education and our schools be West Hempstead’s defining moment.

Seth D. Bykofsky
West Hempstead