Pick Your Favorite Budget?

Pick Your Favorite Budget!

That’s right, take a look at the Seaford Budget (2.93 percent spending increase) and then take a look at the Wantagh budget (1.46 percent spending increase), and then pick which one you would like to vote on!

No? 

No, of course not.  You cannot vote on the Seaford Budget unless YOU live in the Seaford School District, and, you cannot vote on the Wantagh Budget unless you live in the Wantagh School District!  Sounds elementary, and should make you wonder what is wrong with me to lead into today’s blog with such a nonsensical idea.

Point taken: comparing two school budgets side-by-side is a nonsensical fallacy.  As I hinted recently, such comparisons can tend to be misleading, but comforting to voters, especially to parents, and most especially in the case of this year’s budget vote, warmly comforting to the Wantagh school board and at the same time coldly stark, and discomforting to the Seaford school board. Too bad, because the Seaford School Budget is actually a much better deal for the Seaford taxpayers than Wantagh’s budget is for the Wantagh taxpayers.

The fundamental reason for my singing the praises of Seaford’s budget is that the Seaford budget contains some fundamental and sustainable changes in the organization and structure of Seaford’s administrative overhead costs. Wantagh’s budget contains no such fundamental changes in their organization, with only temporary, unsustainable "cuts" having been slashed through various parts of the Wantagh school districts operations and programs. 

Educationally, Seaford, like 92 percent of school districts in New York State, is retaining their full-day Kindergarten program, while Wantagh never even started full-day kindergarten.  If the Seaford budget fails, then the full-day kindergarten is in jeopardy of being cut, but at least Seaford’s budget attempts to continue that program. Parents in Wantagh do not pay a dime less in taxes than parents pay in Seaford, but Seaford has managed to fund full-day kindergarten with their tax revenue, while Wantagh has funded employee raises instead.  How that benefits parents or any Wantagh taxpayers who are not school employees is beyond me.

Governor Andrew Cuomo was on the front page of Newsday blasting most Long Island school districts for hoarding cash reserves while crying poverty.  As it turned out, Wantagh was among the 85 percent of Long Island districts sitting on piles of money in their nefarious fund balance.  Wantagh had $2.8 Million in unrestricted reserves at that time.  Cuomo was on the mark with Wantagh.  Across Route 135 however, Seaford only had $339,000 in their trimmed-down fund balance. Some people may be tempted to say Wantagh did a better job managing their money than Seaford did, which is reflected in their respective reserve balances.  But quite the opposite is true.

Wantagh’s huge fund balance surplus was the direct result of habitual over-taxing.  The work "habitual" is appropriate, as at least one of Wantagh’s leaders likens the school district’s dependent craving for over-taxing in order to hoard fund balance as a "crack habit", and as difficult to break, at that.  Now go tell me why Wantagh should have 10 times the reserves held by Seaford, especially when that ten-times bigger reserve stash was paid in by taxpayers for no direct benefit to the children attending Wantagh’s schools.  Don’t get me wrong, taxes are high is Seaford, but at least in Seaford the money goes to program and not stashed in a pile of cash as it has been in Wantagh.

Looking at the respective tax levy increases (3.999 percent in Wantagh, 8.99 percent in Seaford), you should first re-read the intro to this blog; Seaford does not get to vote on Wantagh’s budget, and vice-versa.  Also bear in mind that when you vote for or against the budget, you are voting in response to what you perceive the tax increase will be, but, you are not voting on or even about what your actual tax increase will be; you are only voting on how much your school district may spend (but noton how much they actually will spend, remembering that, in Wantagh at least, a big chunk of what you have authorized in the past has gone onto that pile of cash which they haven’t spent on your children).

Seaford is caught in a trap, having managed their reserves much tighter than Wantagh.   Wantagh has been paying higher taxes than necessary every year for over a decade while Seaford has been more conservative in their taxing while getting more out of their tax dollars in program. So this year, Seaford must pay-up to make up for lost state revenue, sort of like owing on your income tax at the end of the year.  But after the next tax levy, Seaford will be all-even, the decks will be clear, and life will go on, and hopefully, so will full-day kindergarten.

In Wantagh, the Board of Education should re-read Cuomo’s article in Newsday after the budget vote but before they enact the tax levy.  Why?  Because even at 3.999 percent tax increase, Wantagh will still be sitting on pile of cash, while taxing residents even more to make that pile even bigger next year, as they kick that can further down the road.

Reader Mail

I received several inquiries about endorsing school board candidates.  As you can appreciate, there are fundamental differences between the Wantagh and Seaford school boards.

Stay tuned to my blog.  These differences will be translated and reflected in my picks for school board in both districts, soon.

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