No break for Long Island taxpayers?

Perry Fuchs teaches his astronomy at Plainedge High School to half of his students in the classroom, while the other half watches virtually from home. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin
In the past two weeks, Long Island taxpayers have been told both that the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package from Congress includes $9 billion in direct aid for New York schools and, locally, that proposed school tax hikes by local districts will average 1.8%.
Is there no circumstance under which Suffolk and Nassau homeowners can catch a break?
And as state budget season enters its most intense phase, the news only reinforces that pain. As extraordinary largesse is outlined for big-city school districts and as city-centric Democratic caucuses in the State Senate and Assembly push a raft of new programs, the suburban middle class again seems destined to be granted crumbs and told it's a feast. But if a bounty of dollars does flow our way, lawmakers must ensure the money is used to reduce property taxes.
Two plans emerged this year to address astronomical property taxes plaguing homeowners in downstate suburbs and upstate.
One is a Band-Aid, a "circuit breaker" that would generate a maximum $500 refund for homeowners but not address the system’s ills. It would cost about $500 million annually and create a sliding scale of refunds for some taxpayers who pay more than 6% of income to property taxes.
The other proposal is an imaginative plan by Democratic Sen. John Brooks that addresses the woes of homeowners in districts with little commercial property, so that homeowners bear a heavy burden of supporting their schools even though the residents are not poor. But there is no chance, this year, for his plan to become law. Other than a potential expansion of universal pre-K paid for the state, there is little of substance in this budget for Long Island.
But real reform must be discussed if it is ever to have its day. The plan by Brooks limits the percentage of school funding that can come from local residential property taxes to 50%. Where there is so little commercial property that the percentage exceeds half of all school funding, the state would kick in more. No district would lose any state funding. The state's cost would be $1.1 billion annually, and 113 state districts would benefit, 49 on Long Island. More importantly, the change would mark a start in looking at what’s wrong with the funding system.
Brooks’ plan deserves consideration but it's possible even the circuit-breaker won’t find support in Albany. It doesn't have to be that way.
Long Island's representatives must be willing to bring negotiations to a halt if the budget shortchanges Long Island. More of the cost of suburban education must be supported by state funding but progressives in the legislature have different ideas about what to do with the current excess of money floating around in Albany, and plan to increase taxes even more.
Without suburban and upstate Democrats, the party lacks veto-proof majorities. That creates space for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to band together with Republicans and moderate Democrats to bring fairness to our tax system.
Long Island’s delegation cannot cede that space.
— The editorial board