Erie County wants to cut taxes by getting school districts to merge

[steven]

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) - Erie County has the sixth highest property taxes among 1,824 counties in the United States, according to a new study released Monday by County Executive Mark Poloncarz. In it, he points to a high number of local school districts as one of the factors pushing property tax rates up.


About half of all property taxes levied in Erie County are school taxes, according to the report.

One hypothetical merger used as an example is Cheektowaga. The five districts in the town (Cheektowaga Central, Cheektowaga Sloan, Maryvale, Cleveland Hill and Depew), should they decide to consolidate, would save around $1.2 million in redundant administrative costs, according to Poloncarz. They would only need one superintendent, instead of five, for example.

https://www.wkbw.com/news/erie-count...ricts-to-merge

[Dan Roman]

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) - Erie County has the sixth highest property taxes among 1,824 counties in the United States, according to a new study released Monday by County Executive Mark Poloncarz. In it, he points to a high number of local school districts as one of the factors pushing property tax rates up.


About half of all property taxes levied in Erie County are school taxes, according to the report.

One hypothetical merger used as an example is Cheektowaga. The five districts in the town (Cheektowaga Central, Cheektowaga Sloan, Maryvale, Cleveland Hill and Depew), should they decide to consolidate, would save around $1.2 million in redundant administrative costs, according to Poloncarz. They would only need one superintendent, instead of five, for example.

https://www.wkbw.com/news/erie-count...ricts-to-merge

I agree but I also think that he’s trying to divert attention from the high county taxes to the bad high school tax boogieman. Look in the mirror Mark, you’re part of the problem too

[WNYresident]

You know what would work the best? A 15% cut in salaries right across the top. A freeze on health care insurance. All increases would be covered by the employees. Yeah it's tough but it needs to be done. If the excuse is our hands are tied then work on untying them.

And what Dan stated.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

You know what would work the best? A 15% cut in salaries right across the top. A freeze on health care insurance. All increases would be covered by the employees. Yeah it's tough but it needs to be done. If the excuse is our hands are tied then work on untying them.

And what Dan stated.

You're never going to get a cut. No business would be able to survive a 15% reduction in salaries. You move the dial on operation costs and freezes on items.

[Save Us]

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) - Erie County has the sixth highest property taxes among 1,824 counties in the United States, according to a new study released Monday by County Executive Mark Poloncarz. In it, he points to a high number of local school districts as one of the factors pushing property tax rates up.


About half of all property taxes levied in Erie County are school taxes, according to the report.

One hypothetical merger used as an example is Cheektowaga. The five districts in the town (Cheektowaga Central, Cheektowaga Sloan, Maryvale, Cleveland Hill and Depew), should they decide to consolidate, would save around $1.2 million in redundant administrative costs, according to Poloncarz. They would only need one superintendent, instead of five, for example.

https://www.wkbw.com/news/erie-count...ricts-to-merge

Good luck here, this area is so epoxied, there is no saving it. We need a total do over to save any significant amount of money. No union hack is going to go for it as we will hear about total educational disasters/ aliens, EMP's oh, and lastly the kids will do worse with less money for their white collar administrators

We'll see contact with ET's before this happens...

[WNYresident]

What do you mean no business can operate with a 15% cut?

If you have 100 employees earning $150,000 each you can cut cost by 15%.. The employees would still earn $150,000 X .85 = $127,500 a year.

I have watched many business make salary reductions over the years including watching the owners do the same when the economy changed or the market for their services changed.

I look at it as "No business would be able to survive with constant cost increases to a point of pricing them out of the market" That is what we are seeing locally with property taxes. The clients are moving from high taxed areas to lower taxed areas. At least in the private sector you have the businesses closes up shop when they can no longer compete due to cost.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

What do you mean no business can operate with a 15% cut?

If a business were to cut all employees salaries by 15% they would see a massive spike in departures. Unlikely they would be able to staff and retrain in time.

If you have 100 employees earning $150,000 each you can cut cost by 15%.. The employees would still earn $150,000 X .85 = $127,500 a year.

No payroll looks like this. It's all over the place.

I have watched many business make salary reductions over the years including watching the owners do the same when the economy changed or the market for their services changed.

Doubtful it was a 15% across the board all at once. You can let go 10%-15% every few years to trim the fat but that's not the same...even though the bottom line looks better.

[WNYresident]

If a business were to cut all employees salaries by 15% they would see a massive spike in departures. Unlikely they would be able to staff and retrain in time.



No payroll looks like this. It's all over the place.



Doubtful it was a 15% across the board all at once. You can let go 10%-15% every few years to trim the fat but that's not the same...even though the bottom line looks better.

Depends what type of employees you have and the job market.

I was just using 150 as an example. We have many government employees hitting the 6 figure mark. Remember I include the full cost of a position not just base.

When people do business plans they don't leave things our like healthcare/pension contributions. They factor in all cost per position.

[grump]

Look, let’s don’t lose sight of what’s going on here. The retard Poloncarz cranked county property taxes through the roof and he got called out on it. First he tried the old saw that taxes really didn’t go up, that it was all just due to increased property values. This, of course, was a lie. So now he’s looking to scapegoat the schools. He’d better watch out. The teachers unions could get together and remove him at the next election in a heart beat. And he is kidding no one about the cause of the county tax burden. Rather than allow this retard to try to force schools district mergers that no one wants, let’s get together and force the elimination of the one level of government that does absolutely nothing important, County government.