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Lansing school board members reported on a recent meeting with State Senator Michael Nozzolio at their regular school board meeting Tuesday.  The board discussed many issues affecting the district, especially taxes and state aid.  "We talked quite a bit about property taxes," reported school board President Tom Keane.  "I asked whether he had thoughts of changing over to an income tax based system.  His comment was that there seem to be very serious conversations on the Republican side.  I'm not sure where that goes, but they are looking at different ways to tax us other than property taxes."

Nozzolio has been an activist in the New York Senate to reduce the tax burden on property owners, some of who are being driven out of their homes by high taxes.  "Hardworking, overburdened taxpayers like you need and deserve property tax relief," he said in a statement last December.  "That is why I am fighting to deliver positive results to our seniors and families who are suffering under the crushing burden of property taxes."


Nozzolio outlines a four point plan to reduce property taxes.  The first piece is to double the STAR rebate checks in 2008.  Another is to freeze property tax assessments for seniors beyond the inflation rate.  But two points in his agenda directly involve school district taxes. 

School board member Bonita Lindberg noted that Nozzolio said there is talk in Albany about the state taking over the cost of programs such as teacher retirement, but in exchange they would legislate a cap on your budget.  "There is clearly some conversation going on about these different pieces," Lindberg said.  "I'm not sure if there is a real urgency behind some of it.  I think he's very sincere that he feels that urgency, but I'm not sure his colleagues in the Legislature feel that."

The most radical part of the plan is to switch school taxes from a property tax-based system to income taxes. "It would allow voters in every school district to vote to phase-out school property taxes," Nozzolio says.  "Under my plan, local school district costs would be covered by the State if the local district agreed to keep spending increases in line with the inflation rate.

This isn't the first effort the state legislature has made to provide tax relief to New Yorkers.  But not all efforts have been successful.  Last year saw an increase in state aid to school districts in an effort to reduce the amount they asked from taxpayers.  But school districts took advantage of the extra money to add to their budgets.  "The legislature seems to be disappointed with what happened last year when they put a lot more state aid into the system that didn't result in reductions to property taxes.  In the main, most schools used that to enhance their programs."


Board member Sandi Dhimitri noted that last year some wealthy districts got a disproportionate amount of state aid, and asked whether Nozzolio had commented on that.  Lindberg said Nozzolio was surprised to learn that because Lansing was one of the few schools in his legislative district that didn't receive aid.  "He made reference once or twice to the fact that last year there was record state aid," noted board member Bonita Lindberg.  "Tom very politely and respectfully said that was all very nice, but Lansing didn't get any of it because of the way it was parcelled out.  If you didn't have programs that met those particular line items you couldn't access the money."

Nozzolio was instrumental in securing $50,000 to jump-start the Lansing/Groton teacher Center that was established here last January.  The Teacher Center is located on the second floor of the south wing of the elementary school.  The money was used to purchase tables and adult-sized chairs, laptop computers, and wireless networking equipment.

The meeting provided some things for school board members and Nozzolio to think about.  Nozzolio's crusade against onerous property taxes is especially relevant here now as the school board struggles with snowballing budget woes and high taxes.  "It was a good conversation," Keane said.  "He was very pleased to see the teacher's center and the activity going on there."

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