July 4, 2008

Tonello calls for school tax relief that addresses spending, ensures aid to classrooms

Behind the numbers
A number of resources are available to learn more about the facts on this important issue. Here are links so you can find out: Gov. Patterson information on the Souzzi report An Empire Center for New York State Policy report What are those unfunded mandates? NYS Budget Office: Education spending Government spending on education

ELMIRA -- 53rd District State Senate candidate John Tonello today called on the New York State leaders to return to Albany shortly after the July 4 holiday to enact school property tax relief that helps districts curb spending, and ensures funding makes its way to classrooms where it's needed most.

"Tax caps and circuit breakers alone do nothing to curb spending or ensure that teachers have the resources they need to teach and students have the resources they need to learn," said Tonello, the Mayor of Elmira. "In all the talk so far, no one is focusing on rising spending -- the true cause of rising taxes -- and the children, who drop out at alarming rates."

New York will spend an average $18,768 per pupil in 2008-09 -- more than any state -- but ranks near the bottom in graduation rates. Just half of New York's African American and Hispanic students graduate.

"Any proposal to cut taxes must look at broad reform and the root causes of annual spending increases," Tonello said. "These include state and federal mandates (from mandated new-teacher mentoring to cumbersome data-reporting requirements), aging infrastructure, inefficient operations, and skyrocketing health care and energy costs," he said.

As senator, Tonello said he would propose a state plan that:

• Restores state aid for transportation
• Helps districts make energy-saving improvements to their buildings and vehicles
• Encourages cross-district purchasing and employee insurance pools
• Provides districts with incentives to share services with their municipal neighbors
• Targets money to the classroom to help teachers and students

Tonello added that the proposals on the table -- the 4 percent tax cap and a separate Senate plan -- in their current forms shift too much control to state officials and away from local voters.

"School districts are accountable to local voters, and together they must not lose local control of their local spending priorities," Tonello said. "The governor's tax cap proposal helps curtail sharp hikes, but it must include provisions that preserve the rights of local voters."