Tax paradox for voters

After 30 years as an aerospace engineer, Corey Jordan of Selden understands complex numbers.

But even Jordan admits he's confused by this year's budget figures from the Middle Country school district.

The district estimates that property taxes will rise 3.99 percent if voters approve its proposed $207.8-million budget on Tuesday. That particular tax figure is nothing unusual, just a bit above average for Long Island's 124 school districts with spending plans included in various editions of this voters guide.

But here's the part that perplexes Jordan and many of his neighbors: Middle Country also says taxes would rise 12.64 percent if voters reject the budget. That's more than three times the increase that would result from voters saying "yes."

"Someone please show me the logic in this, as I can see none," Jordan said.

While taxpayers might assume their rates will rise less if they vote "no" on school budgets, that's not always the case.

Much of the explanation for this lies in the fact that many Island districts have built up sizable cash reserves or "fund balances" - a total of more than $1.7 billion regionwide.

Cash surplus is the issue

Typically, school officials have allotted some of these surplus funds to next year's budgets, to keep taxes lower than they would otherwise be. But there's an exception.

In recent years, some districts have adopted the practice of holding back surplus funds, rather than using them to reduce taxes, whenever voters say "no'' in May and again in June revotes. The result: Tax rates on so-called contingency or "austerity'' budgets are higher than if voters had said "yes.''

How common is this practice?

To find out, Newsday checked budget questionnaires collected from school districts as part of its reporting for the guide. Eleven of the 104 districts that reported contingency budget information, or nearly 11 percent, indicated that tax levies would be higher under contingency budgets than under those that were voter-approved.

The highest increases among those districts along with Middle Country are in Sayville, Babylon, South Huntington and Islip.

Taxpayer groups denounce this as little more than "blackmail." But many educators contend there are good reasons for keeping more cash in reserve, especially in today's volatile economy.

If budgets fail, educators say, current law requires them to adopt contingency budgets with little or no spending increases. This can result in teacher layoffs and larger classes.

Hesitant to exhaust reserves

To spend down reserves under such circumstances would make it more difficult to restore services in the future, educators add. Also, this would leave them with less "rainy day" money to deal with future budget rejections.

"The hole is big enough already, so you don't want to be even further behind," said Rosemary Jones, superintendent of Sayville schools and past president of the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association. Her district's taxes would rise 5.9 percent under a voter-approved budget - and 7.4 percent under contingency.

Most take a traditional approach

That still leaves more than 80 percent of districts with budget proposals that work in traditional ways: producing smaller increases in both spending and taxes when voters say "no." Officials in such districts often remark that this is simply what their public expects.

Districts taking the opposite approach may feel the public's displeasure.

"We don't want to be accused of holding the community hostage," said Ronald Grinnell, vice president of Middle County's school board and a candidate for re-election on Tuesday.

Grinnell, who teaches math in another district, contends, nonetheless, that a negative budget vote would force his district to raise average class size from 22 students to 29, and that drawing on cash reserves under those circumstances could leave no chance of recovery.

Some budget experts are troubled, on the other hand, by tactics that they see as depriving voters of clear choices. Elizabeth Lynam, deputy research director of the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission, says the situation calls for a new law requiring schools to employ cash reserves consistently, regardless of whether budgets pass or not.

"That would just be a basic principle of open government," Lynam said.