The Phoenicia Times

EDITORIAL

Tough Choices
            Once in a blue moon a community’s called on to make a choice that puts its interests in direct financial conflict with a neighboring community. Most of us understand the “large parcel bill” has presented exactly that kind of dilemma for the Board of the Onteora Central School District, and for each of its towns. On those rare occasions when this kind of issue comes up, every community needs of course to protect its own interests, but it also needs to do that without losing sight of a simple and very straightforward question: What’s really fair?
            There’s plenty of economic injustice in the world, and theoretically our tax system is intended to at least mitigate some of that. Every community within the district benefits equally by the quality of education we provide for our kids. And to support that, few would argue that within a single school district, we shouldn’t all be paying more or less the same thing. Obviously we should, that’s fair. But taking one step further back, we think that local property taxes are a lousy way for a state to fund education because it’s inherently unfair: less affluent, mostly rural districts like ours and inner city districts get short shrift, wheras wealthier suburban districts do fine. Ethically it’s almost undefendable, but hardly anybody in state government is willing to fight that political battle in a state made up of mostly suburban and exurban voters. So unless or until that changes one day through the courts, we’re stuck with the hand we’ve been dealt, including the new wild card. And Olive Supervisor Berndt Leifelt is right when he says that’s one of real issues here, along with of course the City of New York’s endless attempts to maintain an artificially low valuation for the 52 percent of that town which they own.
            So back to what’s fair: It’s clear the intention of the “large parcel bill” is fundamentally an attempt to be more fair to more taxpayers; to more equally and equitably distribute the burden of local school taxes. For many years Olive has benefited from this inequity, and that appears to be coming to an end, either very soon, this year, or just plain soon, next year. And while on one hand it’s fair to ask Olive’s taxpayers to contribute more equitably, the issue isn’t nearly that simple. Because that town’s really big taxpayer isn’t contributing fairly or equitably by any stretch of the imagination, and is fighting like hell to maintain that fundamental inequity. So while Olive will soon probably have to bite the bullet and do a total revaluation of its tax base, what that will likely mean for Shandaken is that we won’t be able to hold off very long on that either. And as much as no town government ever wants that to happen on its watch, we may soon have zero choice; it’s all part of the same hand. So while Olive may be the bull’s eye this time, all the district’s towns are still in the big picture together. What we need to remember in Shandaken is that while we’ve dodged a bullet this year and even stand to benefit, there could be a howitzer shell right behind it. This year, Shandaken’s 55,000 acres of State land doesn’t meet the criteria for inclusion under the large parcel law. But it’s not exempt from it either. And whether or not that will kick in next year or the year after will likely hinge on the outcome of the State’s current lawsuit against us, and whether or not Supervisor Di Modica and Assemblyman Cahill can close the deal they’ve been attempting to broker for over a year, for a coherent assessment of state land here. Hey, nobody said this was going to be simple.
            But in purely practical terms for this coming year, enactment of the new legislation will likely mean a drop of over 9 percent in our school taxes for Shandaken. Di Modica supports that change for this year and has asked the Onteora Board to enact it “in fairness to the taxpayers of Shandaken”. We think he’s right in taking that position, and it’s a position shared by Bob Cross, his Republican challenger in November’s election. So we’re pleased that what should be a bipartisan or nonpartisan issue in our town is already that.
            Whether or not the issue will stay nonpartisan in future years is far too early to know. Because what the “large parcel” law means is that each and every year from now on, we’re going to have to assess the situation, and the School Board will have to decide if we want to stay on board with it. And every year it could change. Will the state’s landholdings trigger it for Shandaken? We don’t know. Would Crossroad’s Belleayre Resort? We don’t know, but we do know that even at our current equalization rate, it would be a bigger “large parcel” than the City’s willing to agree its reservoir is. Does anybody know how those two scenarios would impact state aid to the Onteora School District? It’s doubtful, but with either one or with both, it’s not a question of more or less aid, it’s a question of how much less, and how much more the taxpayers of the district would need to cover.
            We have at this moment an excellent school board. People step up and take that job not because it’s enjoyable but because they’re willing to help take responsibility for the quality of education in their community. They didn’t sign on for the endless, annual, absurdly political job of reviewing the tax contributions of every town to the district’s operating budget every year, and deciding which of their neighbors in what communities are likely to be hurt more than others. We don’t envy the choice they have to make now, and there’s no choice that won’t be difficult for some people. What we’re hoping is that they’ll choose, very simply, what’s most fair to as many of us as possible.