The Clarence school tax compounding an additional 2, 3 or 4 % every year has gone on far too long. The school board and the Superintendent are doing the community a great disservice when they present another tax increase that is backed by excuses of “it’s not us, it’s Albany”. I would like to take the opportunity to remind members of the school board that they are elected officials in charge of leading the realm of education and function of schools. They also have a fudiciary responsibility to balance results with costs and eliminate waste. They claim that Albany has forced unreasonable costs and mandates upon them and they feel the pain too. If that's the case, then the school board needs to step up to the plate. It’s time for a coalition of school districts banded across the state with the set forth goal to abolish imprudent mandates, costs and curriculum by means of dissent and boycott. The only outreach to state government for relief thus far has been to eliminate the Gap Elimination Adjustment. This would only give the schools more money to pay for ineffectual and wasteful mandates. It does not solve the problem of compounding taxes or the difficulty of educating under blanket mandates. I cannot conceive why anyone would argue against putting the power to run the schools back in the hands of our elected school board. It’s time to shuffle the deck that has been stacked against local control of schools. A vote in disapproval of this year’s budget is not a vote to destroy education in Clarence. It is to send a message to the School Board that they need to begin work on regaining the helm of our school from the selfish captains in Albany.
Last edited by Joe Lombardo; March 15th, 2015 at 12:17 PM.
"Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand." Typical taxpayer, whine and complain about your taxes but expect the school board to solve the problem for you. How about this...get involved and put an end to unfunded mandates. The state school boards have been fighting this stuff for 30 years. I think it needs the attention of like minded Clarence residents like you. I'm sure the assembly Democrats from NYC will listen to you. Why wouldn't they?
I am actually very much involved. Every time the school board and superintendent are questioned about tax hikes, backwards school procedure or unavailing costs to the taxpayer, they blame Albany. They follow up by saying that they are fed up too. It's time to put them to task. If they truly are fed up, they would band together and fight it. I want to put the control back in the seats of the board. How can the board argue against that?Originally Posted by grump
The school boards aren't fighting it right now. All they care about is restoring state funding, not removing the mandates and regaining LOCAL CONTROL. The job needs to be done full circle.
Last edited by Joe Lombardo; March 15th, 2015 at 01:19 PM.
Is this what you want Mr Lombardo??
A repeat of 2 years ago.
Georgia L Schlager
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?
Last edited by clem; March 15th, 2015 at 07:11 PM.
The state school board association has been opposing this stuff for 30 years! And apparently you didn't know it because you're just now calling on the school boards to organize which they did years ago. Your idea of doing something is going to your school board and then bleating that the school board isn't doing enough. Organize your own group...fight your own fight against the unfunded mandates. As I said I'm sure the NYC assembly democrats will immediately change their positions when you and your fellow Clarence residents just explain it to them. Why wouldn't they!
The school boards only care about getting more money. Never cutting anything.
Democrats & Republicans Suck Alike.
We pay 4 times the school tax of just about every other state in the union and people have to go out and raise funds for the sports teams and get paint for the art club? Are you kidding me? Its time for change. In case I didn't make it clear the first time, I don't want to see anything cut. It would be wise for people of your ideology to get that out of your mind and focus on the problem. The residents of Clarence and even the board have no control of the district, Albany does. We are forced to bend over for them and beg for mercy. I want to put the control back at the local level. What's wrong with that?
Last edited by Joe Lombardo; March 15th, 2015 at 10:23 PM.
I specifically used the words dissent and boycott for a reason. Taking the legislation route is useless. Legislators are bought and paid for, they're not helping.
Gorja is not Allen.
Go review labor contracts that increase yearly at 3-4% rates. Doesn't take long for the budget to double..
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I'm not Alan and I don't live in Clarence
I posted a reality of Corcoran's school taxes the last 15 years. You posted your assumption of the next 15 years. The present tax rate of $14.80 is one of the lowest in the county. The proposed 2015-16 rate of $15.51 will still be one of the lowest in the county.
http://www2.erie.gov/ecrpts/sites/ww...ol%20Rates.pdf
Georgia L Schlager
Then get elected to the school board, organize it and all the rest of them and then dissent and boycott. Should be nothing to it.
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.
Nearly 200 charter schools on average-25.3 percent of their annual budgets in cash reserves at a time when public school budget reserves are underfunded and 90 districts have been classified "fiscally stressed" by the state comptroller. Five charter schools had enough cash at the end of fiscal 2013 to fund more than a year of operations without any new revenue. They are stockpiling money, according to Pallotta in the NYSUT United March 2015 issue: www.nysut.org
Charter schools/private schools have an advantage over public schools based on many variations tuition, lottery and socioeconomics. IMO Clarence can make those necessary cuts, I heard they too want to put in turf after spending taxpayer money to overhaul the field with expensive drainage and landscape. Some times we have to make some decisions that benefit learning not extra-curricular.
Joe L. keep up the fight, voices being heard is a good start in the right direction!!!
"It is only a 4% raise. It's peanuts". They need to talk real numbers not "percentages"..
I'll take one example of a town employee
Base salary $99,545 for 2014. Remember this is not include the healthcare/benefit part of the salary. I have noticed they conveniently leave that part out when discussing salaries.
Let us say a town gives a 4% raise each year starting 2014.
2014 $99,545 4% $3981.8 $103,527 new base for 2015
That peanut size 4% raise was really $3981.80.
2015 the base pay is $103,527
Another 4% raise
$103,527 4% $4141.072 $107,668 new base pay for 2016
Another 4% raise
$107,668 4% $4306.71 $111,975 new base pay for 2017
Another 4% raise
$111,975 4% $4478.98 $116,454 new base pay for 2018
Another 4% raise
$116,454 4% $4658.14 $121,112 new base pay for 2019
Another 4% raise
$121,112 4% $4844.46 $125,956 new base pay for 2020
2020's base pay ends up being $125,956 + healthcare + benefits based off the higher salary.
So in a short 5 years the salary was increased from $99,545 to $125,956 with a difference of $26,411 not including what they received as raises for what we pay for health care cost increases and benefit increases based the higher salary.
Sorry. Some of the positions that are worked are not worth the base pay for $99,500 +bene's to begin with. Nothing changes in 5 years to warrant a $26,411 raise.
Take the Town of Cheektowaga while under the control of the Cheektowaga Democratic Party. We have lost over 7%+ of our population over the last decade or so. Less services required
yet the cost to the property/business owners continue to rise.
Remember that 4% doesn't include the raise every employee receives when us property/business owners pay more for what health care package they have.
We need to take into consideration the elderly home owners, the struggling families, business owners who have to compete with out of state companies and the truly disabled when it comes to the cost of running our towns.
Off topic on purpose:
Remember when the Erie County Democrats were duped by the misinformation their candidate for president was telling his supporters?
Upwards of a $2500 a year savings on family health insurance plans. Did any towns see a savings like that?
Now we are going to see the truly gullible people on our local town boards. Hillary fooled them once when she ran for NYS. "I promise 200,000 jobs".
While was in office our great state still bled off 10000's of jobs.
Let us see who supports Hillary Clinton at this event.
Buffalo is Ready for Hillary
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