2015-2016 Clarence School Budget

[gorja]

Answer to Gorja

Yes, and if it passes, it will stay, and compound year after year. It will deter people from moving to Clarence. It will force current residents to move out. Do you honestly think
that your reasoning of "lowest in the county" is a valid argument for passing this cap? Does it solve the current problem which will keep occurring year after year? At any rate, the past is gone. We need to start working on the future.

How do you fund the mandates and still keep an excellent educational experience for the children without an increase?

Show a budget that will fund the mandates and keep the Clarence school district as one of the top districts?

[Joe Lombardo]

How do you fund the mandates and still keep an excellent educational experience for the children without an increase?

You don't, it's impossible. They mandates and backwards state law force a budget increase every year. Unfortunately even when the district makes their own budget cut we still see an increase because of NYS. We have cut too much. Time to cut out NYS from the equation.

Show a budget that will fund the mandates and keep the Clarence school district as one of the top districts?

The object needs to be getting rid of the mandates and puting control back at the local level.

[clem]

They already voted to put in artificial turf. Yes, Clarence schools have to have the best.......and they don't care whether it's a luxury or even necessary, as long as someone else is paying for it.

[shortstuff]

They already voted to put in artificial turf. Yes, Clarence schools have to have the best.......and they don't care whether it's a luxury or even necessary, as long as someone else is paying for it.

I think this is a luxury not a necessity. We need to get back to basics.

[SAAR]

Lead found in artificial turf:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2...dies/24727111/

[SAAR]

as long as someone else is paying for it.

In my opinion a lot of spending would vanish if people had to foot more of the bill themselves.

[NY The Vampire State]

Alan,

Would you agree that the needs, wants and concerns of Clarence residents could be better met if Albany didn't control the school districts to the degree they do? Would it be harder or easier to fund these clubs and extra curriculars without the state controlling huge parts of the schools operations? School boards may very well be fighting these mandates, but whatever they are doing isn't working, it's only getting worse. It's time to take another approach. We all know our legislation process is broken and corrupt.

[buffalopundit]

(You can look up any property's school tax history at this link. It's public record).

Joe Lombardo's property has an assessed full value of $492,000. Only $403,000 of that is taxable, because it's located in an agricultural district.

In 2006, Joe Lombardo's school tax bill was $6,234.31. His property was, at the time, assessed at $475,000, only $393,491 of which was taxable due to agricultural and STAR exemptions.

If Joe Lombardo's 2006 payment of $6,234 merely went up by the rate of inflation, his tax bill today should be $7,227.

Instead, his school tax for 2014 was $5,524 - about $710 less than in 2006; a drop of 11.3%.

What's so "unsustainable" about a drop of 11.3% over 9 years?

His school tax in 2015 was $5,450. That means it went up $74, and he received a rebate check for that amount because the levy was below the cap.

The schools have local control. That's why we have a local school board and a local curriculum director.

[buffalopundit]

someone named gorja better go back to school and learn how to read. This is the compounded tax:

2014 You paid $3000 in school taxes – so let’s apply 4.78% each year compounding the taxes going forward
2015 $3143
2016 $3293
2017 $3451
2018 $3616
2019 $3788
2020 $3970
2021 $4159
2022 $4358
2023 $4566
2024 $4785
2025 $5013
2026 $5253
2027 $5504
2028 $5767
2029 $6043
2030 $6332

It didn’t take long for school taxes to double. Will you be able to afford to stay here?

Ellie?

[buffalopundit]

Alan,

Would you agree that the needs, wants and concerns of Clarence residents could be better met if Albany didn't control the school districts to the degree they do? Would it be harder or easier to fund these clubs and extra curriculars without the state controlling huge parts of the schools operations? School boards may very well be fighting these mandates, but whatever they are doing isn't working, it's only getting worse. It's time to take another approach. We all know our legislation process is broken and corrupt.

Firstly, I don't post to this bulletin board under any other name but "buffalopundit", which I've used for over 10 years.

I disagree that the funding scenario is "getting worse". Indeed, as compared with 2006 - 2013, we're in far better shape.

I don't know what state control you're alluding to. I mean, of course there are minimum curriculum expectations that the state puts out, and the teachers are expected to meet certain standards of quality and output, and the kids are expected to learn things. But as far as the individual classrooms are concerned, the teachers have discretion over how to conduct their classes, and the district overall is locally controlled insofar as we have a locally elected board of local people running the show.

The facts are these:

- 3rd best overall cost-effectiveness out of 432 Upstate NY districts
- 6th overall best administrative efficiency in all of Upstate NY
- 6th lowest spending per pupil in New York State
- 2nd lowest spending per pupil in Erie County
- 7th highest rating for college readiness in Upstate NY.
- 2nd lowest full value school tax rate in Western New York
- 3rd highest academic ranking in Western New York

All that, and 85% of our teachers are ranked by the state as "highly effective", or the highest quality, while the remaining 15% are ranked "effective". In the corporate world, that's 85% of your workforce exceeding expectations on a regular basis, while the other 15% meet expectations consistently.

Now, could the teachers compromise on their raises and benefits? Sure. I suppose, and that's what's being negotiated now. I don't have a problem with finding reasonable savings that don't adversely affect the students anymore than the cuts already have.

But these scare tactics about how people's taxes are going to double in 15 years when that's not at all been the past practice are ridiculous. I posted the link earlier for people to look up their own taxes, and compare 2014 to 2006. In most cases, 2006 was more. In some cases, a lot more. In my case, about the same. So, if we had started as 2006 as the starting-off point, and raised taxes at the rate of inflation, our taxes now would be significantly higher.

I don't have any problem whatsoever with people being angry about the common core or state testing or APPRs or Albany's mismanagement of its education mandate. I have no problem with people lobbying their legislators or holding protests, or doing whatever they want to do to effect that change. Hell, I might even join you.

What I won't stand for, though, is punishing the students in order to get to any political end. My kids have one shot at an education, and we moved to Clarence specifically because the district was excellent and cost-effective; taxes in Clarence remain among the lowest in WNY. School taxes included. If you threaten to harm my kids' education because you want to teach Cuomo a lesson, or because you want to misrepresent the history of school taxes in the town, I'm going to fight you with everything I've got.

[buffalopundit]

Answer to Gorja

Yes, and if it passes, it will stay, and compound year after year. It will deter people from moving to Clarence. It will force current residents to move out. Do you honestly think
that your reasoning of "lowest in the county" is a valid argument for passing this cap? Does it solve the current problem which will keep occurring year after year? At any rate, the past is gone. We need to start working on the future.

Ellie, in 2006 your school tax bill was $2931 on a $185k assessment with basic STAR.

In 2014, your school tax bill was $1984 on a $134k assessment with enhanced STAR.

You are paying a full $1000 less in school tax now than you were 9 years ago. In fact, it's a drop of almost 33%.

If the taxes had, as you've been advocating, been raised by the rate of inflation since 2006, your tax bill now would be $3398.

Those are the facts.

[gorja]

Ellie, in 2006 your school tax bill was $2931 on a $185k assessment with basic STAR.

In 2014, your school tax bill was $1984 on a $134k assessment with enhanced STAR.

You are paying a full $1000 less in school tax now than you were 9 years ago. In fact, it's a drop of almost 33%.

If the taxes had, as you've been advocating, been raised by the rate of inflation since 2006, your tax bill now would be $3398.

Those are the facts.

I had posted Ellie's tax bills also but someone must have removed them. Public record is public record.
I'll try again.

[gorja]

Originally posted by clem:
someone named gorja better go back to school and learn how to read.

I learned how to read at Parker Elementary school on Academy St. I showed the taxes from 2006 - 2014 which didn't seem to have all the compounding of tax rates that you're describing for the future. Mine were factually figures. Yours are all assumptions.

[gorja]

Gone with the GEA -





http://www.lancasterschools.org/cms/...%20Schools.pdf

[NY The Vampire State]

Kind of hard to argue with this... What gives?946599_451303658290071_2088269842_n.jpg