Archive: Opinions

The turnout was pitiful Tuesday at an Advocacy Forum hosted by Lansing School Superintendent Chris Pettograsso.  There were only about 20 people present, most of whom were school employees, school board members or Advocacy Committee members.  At a time when the double whammy of school aid cuts and significant cuts to the value of the district's largest property taxpayer, the district is desperate to get some revenue restored.  So 'preaching to the choir' was not what Pettograsso had in mind, but unfortunately it was what she got.

If Lansing people don't stand up for their wallets who will?  We hear a lot about local residents at risk of losing their homes because of high taxes, but if Tuesday's turnout is any indication, they just don't care what happens.

It is a fact of government life that people don't come out to meetings or speak up unless they are angry about something.  I think most people in Lansing get it that if the Cayuga Power Plant closes there will be a huge impact on individual property taxpayers -- there has already been a big impact on our tax bills as the plant's value has slid down to about half.  People are beginning to rally in favor of keeping the plant open -- calling the Governor and members of the PSC, writing letters, and signing a petition -- though with concerted opposition elsewhere in the county our representatives at the federal, state and county levels fear it may be too little too late.

The GAP Elimination Adjustment (GEA) is the other half of the school whammy.  There has been little local response to that.  The reason is that Governor Cuomo has obscured the real impact to local school districts by saying the state is giving more money to schools, when in fact it is giving them more of less, and he is taking advantage of the fact that there is no simple way to understand the GEA.  So he looks like a good guy giving more money to schoolchildren when in fact he is taking money away.

Look at it this way: the state commits to kicking in a certain amount each year to each school district in New York.  Five years ago it said it would withhold some of that money because of the state budget deficit.  Then they started to say they would restore the money, but only restored some of it.  I owe you ten dollars.  I promise you eight dollars.  I give you seven dollars.

That may be OK if you are talking about small change, but in Lansing's case the Board Of Education has started its budget discussion every year for the past five years with at least a two million dollar gap between expected revenue and expected expenditure.  It has cut something like 40 positions, supplies and some programs over those years.

Lansing has done better than many districts around the state which are becoming insolvent because of the GEA alone.  But Lansing has the loss from the power plant that the other districts don't have, and the timing couldn't have been worse.  They both happened at the same time.

Pettograsso, School Board Member Karen McGreevey recently went to Albany to lobby Senators Nozzolio, Seward and Assemblywoman Lifton to restore all the money now.  They don't appear to have gotten very far.  Just about everyone at Wednesday's forum agreed that Lifton does not support the power plant, though as a former teacher she says she is a big supporter of education.  The Assembly favors restoring the money in three years.  Nozzolio told the Lansing delegation he favors restoring it in two.

Pettograsso says that if it were restored now next year's starting budget gap would only be one million dollars instead of two.  That's right.  If the state came through on its promise half of Lansing's budget problem would disappear.  That could save several jobs in Lansing and programs that are important to Lansing kids.  Just so you know, the state wants to give back $39,000 of the $945,000 Lansing should be getting.  Gee, thanks.

The purpose of the forum Wednesday was to help Lansing school taxpayers understand why the GEA is a real and present threat to their pocketbooks and Lansing kids' education right now, and to get them to hand write letters to the Governor, Lifton, Nozzolio and Seward demanding that the money be restored.  Considering the real impact on our pocketbooks it was almost shocking to see how low a turnout there was.  The urgency is that Governor Cuomo plans to announce a final budget on April 1.

The irony that he wants to announce it on April Fool's Day was not lost on Pettograsso.

She also addressed a third issue that impacts spending: unfunded state mandates.  Pettograsso said it is unconscionable that state legislators would force local districts to pay for state initiatives, especially at a time when the GEA has virtually bankrupted school districts across New York State.  She noted that the common core initiative has forced the district to purchase new teaching materials for eight grade levels at one time, when the district normally spreads out those purchases.  She said that training costs have burdened the struggling budget and that associated printing costs alone have risen 50%.

Pettograsso said that the GEA would be a little more understandable if the Governor wasn't touting a two billion dollar surplus at the moment. 

I see it in a simpler way: if you say you are going to give me $10, give me $10.  If you say you are going to give me $7 then give me that.  Don't say you are going to give me $10 and then give me $7.  Especially don't say that when it will reduce the value of a kid's education.

It may be too late to hold another advocacy forum in time to impact this year's budget.  I am hoping that the reason so few people attended was because the issue is complicated and Lansing people don't understand the impact on their own and their neighbors' wallets.  If it's because they have money to throw away and don't care, well, that's a crime.

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