South Country school district to seek 1.75% tax hike
Superintendent Joseph Giani, here at a 2017 school board meeting, said in a message Thursday that the administration will be recommending the board approve a budget with a 1.75% tax levy increase at a workshop meeting next week.
Credit: Johnny Milano
South Country's school superintendent, Joseph Giani, in a message to Newsday on Thursday, said he would recommend a 1.75% raise in the district's taxes for the 2022-23 fiscal year, rather than a 7.76% hike that had been under consideration earlier.
Giani, who has headed South Country's administration for nine years, came under fire from some board members and community residents last month after acknowledging that the district faced a multimillion-dollar revenue gap. At the time, Giani and his staff outlined various options for dealing with the crisis, including a tax increase that would be Long Island's highest.
"At next week's workshop meeting, administration will be recommending the board approve a budget with a 1.75% tax levy increase," Giani stated Thursday in a message forwarded to Newsday by the district's public-relations firm.
Tax levies are the total revenues raised by districts through property taxation.
The district in southern Brookhaven Town has scheduled a public board meeting Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., where Giani's tax proposal is to be considered.
The tax plan is accompanied by a proposed $142,459,373 budget, which represents a cut of more than $3 million from the current year.
The reduction has been achieved mostly through the attrition of 16.6 full-time-equivalent jobs, according to Syntax, the district's public-relations firm. Due to declining enrollment, the reduction will not affect program offerings, Syntax said. In addition, the district is proposing to shift the use of some federal pandemic-relief money from the current year to 2022-23.
Under state law, districts must notify the state Comptroller's Office by March 1 of their planned levy increases for the following school year. South Country provided the state agency with a 7.76% estimate. Districts are free to revise such figures prior to their budget votes, which will be held statewide this year on May 17.
Such revisions are common, though they rarely are as large as South Country's. Huntington notified Newsday Thursday that it would propose a zero increase rather than the 3.77% estimate provided earlier to the comptroller.
School administrators note that the local budgeting process is both lengthy and complicated — factors that contribute to the need for revisions.
"We run into an issue like this each year, primarily due to the fact that the calculation must be submitted to the comptroller's office by 3/1 and there are public board discussions yet to be held throughout the month of March," said Huntington's superintendent, Jim Polansky.
South Country's budget problems stem mostly from an expected drop next year of $5.6 million in aid payments from the state. The district enrolls about 4,200 students.
At a board meeting Feb.1, district officials outlined possible options, which included tax hikes ranging from 7.76% on the high side to as low as 2.29%. On Tuesday, Giani and board president E. Anne Hayes informed community residents that a 7.76% increase was no longer under consideration, and that the actual increase was expected to be much lower.
Giani's announcement Thursday of a recommended 1.75% hike was welcomed by some community residents.
"That's fantastic," said Dan Polner, a longtime Bellport resident who works as an economic development specialist at Stony Brook University. "I will believe it when I see it, but that is great news."
John Hildebrand is Newsday's senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years.
