Archive: Opinions

The School Board's claim that it 'understands how difficult the burden of tax increases is on the residents of Lansing' is questionable, but even if it's true, it has certainly has made no difference in their willingness to add to that burden. Let's examine this year's budget brochure to see how the parts fit together in a recurring 'tax to the max' scenario.

The brochure on the proposed school budget hearing (Monday, May 11 at 6:00 p.m.) arrived in my mailbox on Friday, May 8 at 4:00 p.m. Last minute notifications are a classic technique to reduce attendance and prevent any organized opposition at public meetings. Surely, with such an important annual budget, more than a couple of days can be provided to review the final proposed budget and publicly discuss it, especially when its tax 'footprint' is larger than all the other town and county taxes combined.

Staying under the 'Tax Cap' - Lansing School District claims they have complied with the NYS Property Tax Cap, but without the compliance of the town, there will be no rebates. Actually, it makes very little difference in the end because the refunds are a one-time and one-year only payment and after that year the full amount of the increase comes due. That one isolated refund is being used as a carrot to get approval for large tax increases that will never go away.

It may be confusing that the entire budget is increasing only $550,000 while the proposed property tax levy is increasing $615,398, but the formula is simple. The school board takes the money they receive from other sources, figures the maximum possible tax under the cap, and charges homeowners the difference.

Page 5 in the brochure has a section titled 'Q&A What is happening with Cayuga Operating Plant?' The former AES power plant set the bar for the Lansing School lifestyle, a lifestyle they refuse to give up. The chart shows how every reduction of value in the plant was equaled by an increase in additional taxes demanded of residents, additional taxes which in only five years have risen to $2million a year, and these taxes aren't considered a part of the budget increase. It's interesting to note that in this budget year, where the value of the plant has not been further reduced, the property tax levy increase is still described as 'effected by Cayuga Power PILOT.'

The fund balance column on page 7 uses the phrase 'help mitigate' twice. Today's bureaucrats love to say 'help mitigate' because it means so many different things, and frequently so little. If someone cut off your hand, they could help mitigate the action by giving you a band-aid. This 'fund balance' will be used to help 'mitigate current and future risks and assists in ensuring stable tax rates,' but where did this 'surplus revenue' come from? Rolled into previous years' tax bills?

Articles on Lansing school spending often note savings from cutbacks and reductions [like the savings from reduction of teaching and staff positions through retirement and elimination.] There are never any real savings however, all that money is just reallocated and spent somewhere else, and in a few years time, these phony 'savings' are used to justify yet further tax increases. No matter the claims of savings, the Lansing School System spends every penny they can get their hands on, and then borrows on top of that.

Page 9 of the brochure states 'our internal auditor recommends that we maintain a reasonably constant debt payment as a responsible budget technique as it avoids peaks and valleys in the debt payment.' This recommendation is being used to justify the continual maximizing of Lansing's school debt. How many of the board members think that maximizing their own family's debt is a responsible budget technique? This unsound practice puts Lansing taxpayers in the position of high taxes and high debt at the same time as we face the possible loss of revenue from the Cayuga Operation Plant. If a family member acted like this, you'd just call them 'stupid.'

Residents need to see past the portrayal of the Lansing School System as a keeper of the educational flame. It's a powerful and self-serving bureaucracy which is a law unto itself in Lansing - and a wholly controlled subsidiary of the New York State Teachers Union. What's good for the Teachers Union is good for Lansing Schools.

New York State schools pay teachers the highest salaries in the nation, and a 2013-14 study showed that Lansing not only pays the highest salaries in Tompkins County, it's sixth in the entire Southern Tier. Lansing's top fifth salary averaged $87,027 compared with $68,536 - $73,436 for the rest of the county- that's just for a school year, and it doesn't include any of the benefits package. Lansing was ranked 306 out of 667 schools in the state, compared to a 579th ranking for Ithaca and a 587th for Dryden. It's an upstate rural school district struggling under a downstate suburban budget.

The Lansing school board likes to refer to 'our' children, but their sense of community is very limited - it seems to have no room for 'our' elderly or 'our' rural residents who are so seriously impacted by their prideful actions. Their school budgeting technique embraces what I call the toothpaste paradigm - you can always squeeze the tube a little harder and get a little more out. And they encourage this budget approval through absentee ballots from former students who don't pay Lansing's taxes and never will. Lansing schools attitude of entitlement destroys our children's' social values and promotes the creation of a generation, not of movers and shakers, but of users and takers.

There are many people who feel that our expensive school system gives a decidedly second-rate education, one without the flexibility and breadth of understanding necessary for success in the global economy. But that's a subject for another letter.

I'm sorry that the Lansing Star's editorial policy prevents me from replying to any comments on my writings, but if this letter stirs things up, it's all to the good. Lansing residents need to wake up and put a stop to our schools' current 'You're great!'/'We're great!' circle of self-appreciation.

Sincerely,

Doug Baird
Lansing, NY

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