Newsday letters to the editor for Friday, April 6, 2018

Public employees aren’t to blame

I don’t understand why Newsday goes after individual employees when it reports on the salaries of public workers [“1,612 county workers make $200G,” News, March 26].

If the employees did nothing but honor the terms of their employment and perform their jobs, the blame doesn’t fall on them.

As a resident of Nassau County, I understand there is a cost for the high quality of life that we enjoy. The issues and problems are not with the employees, but with the public officials who constantly make bad and unsustainable contracts with the unions.

With the new federal tax law, and New York State and Nassau County being high-tax areas, the unions and politicians need to look to compromise. They need to make contract deals that residents can afford so we can maintain the high quality of life we’re accustomed to.

Michael Soethout, Wantagh

Rusty Staub was a true gentleman

I would like to commend the Newsday staff for the coverage and tributes to Rusty Staub [“Hitter, humanitarian,” News, March 30].

I got acquainted with Rusty through a mutual friend and believe me, he was a true gentleman, generous and genuine. His foundation took care of so many first responders before the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and many more after.

He will be missed but always remembered.

Kevin G. Collins, New Hyde Park

Spend NY’s ad dollars out of state

“I Love NY” signs? Ridiculous, dangerous and a tremendous example of government waste [“Feds: ‘I Love NY’ signs going down,” News, March 27].

I called on the state Department of Transportation to remove these visual abominations as soon as they went up. Thanks to the federal government’s threat to withhold funding, these horrors will soon be gone, and parkways builder Robert Moses can stop spinning in his grave.

The state tourism department can make better use of its millions by advertising our attractions in other states and bringing outside dollars to our great state.

Gary Hudes, Bellmore

Editor’s note: The writer is a Republican and former Hempstead councilman.

Behind the rising cost of LI’s public schools

Newsday’s editorial asked, why don’t taxes drop as state aid rises and enrollments fall? [“The vexing riddle of school funding,” April 3.]

The answer to that very good question is simple: Taxes don’t fall because compensation costs keep rising.

The editorial notes that enrollment in the Smithtown district has dropped 17 percent since 2010-11. Meanwhile, according to the latest available State Education Department data, the number of full-time Smithtown teachers dropped just 9 percent from 2010-11 to 2016-17. In the same period, state education data indicate, the median teacher’s salary rose from $89,000 to $109,546, or 23 percent.

For individuals, the Smithtown teacher contract’s 18-step, eight-lane schedule of annual pay increments has produced even larger increases. For example, a teacher with a master’s degree and seven of years’ experience in 2010-11 was paid $74,750. Seven annual steps, plus base hikes later, that teacher makes $101,778 — an increase of 36 percent in a period when inflation was less than 13 percent. Needless to say, the cost of health insurance for active and retired teachers also has escalated.

Teacher salaries and staffing levels are the ultimate drivers of school costs, and those costs will never be effectively tamed until Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the State Legislature tackle fundamental collective bargaining reforms. This should start with the repeal of the Triborough Amendment’s guarantee of perpetual annual step increases.

E.J. McMahon, Albany

Editor’s note: The writer is research director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative think tank.

Newsday’s editorial “The vexing riddle of school funding” hits the mark on several fronts. First, the startling revelation of ever-increasing school costs, even in the face of greatly expanded school aid from the state in the past decade, reveals a truth that many Long Islanders intuitively know: Costs are rarely cut, efficiencies are rarely sought, and school taxes spiral out of control.

Second, a fact that was only alluded to in the piece is that disadvantaged districts, many with growing enrollments, are shortchanged by state funding formulas that put them even further behind their affluent peers.

Districts like Westbury, for example, have challenges that most districts do not have to face, including the influx of federally placed unaccompanied minors. This severely taxes our resources. Yet, many of these districts do not receive the percentage of state aid that other districts do, causing them to fall further behind.

School taxes are the most serious problem Long Island has in terms of its future vitality and success. Yet, school districts must be made to exercise fiscal and spending discipline, while the state aid that is available must be more equitably distributed.

Peter Cavallaro, Westbury

Editor’s note: The writer is the mayor of the Village of Westbury.