In a June 8 editorial, The News stated, "Voters, who turned out by the busload, overwhelmingly approved their school district budgets." Looking at the official results, this seems to be the case. However, those of us who live in the Alden district were offered a contingency budget $15,000 above the budget offered for voter approval. Given a choice such as this, the voters had no choice but to approve the budget.
Such tactics should not be allowed by law. Either budget would have been voted down if the taxpayers had been offered a money-saving alternative. The time is here to rethink our school tax system. Perhaps all New Yorkers and those who earn a living here should be taxed 1 percent of their total income just for schools. This would share the pain among all, and not just penalize homeowners and business owners.

The bottom line is that we, the taxpayers, can no longer afford to give the schools all they want. Teachers, administrators and students need to deal with this crisis the same as the private sector, and it does hurt. Pay cuts, layoffs and bigger classrooms need to happen. The well is running dry.

DAVID A. BRENT
Alden

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