Regarding complaints about rising property taxes and calls for limiting our municipality’s ability to raise them through a legislative “cap,” I think we need to step back and ask ourselves, why do we live in Great Neck? Or more specifically, what it is about Great Neck that you love?
For me and my family, we moved to Great Neck (or back to Great Neck in my wife’s case) from Forest Hills primarily because of the school district. I’m sure we are not alone: the Great Neck public schools (GNPS) are consistently rated as one of the best in the nation, and its graduates attend our elite colleges and universities, and win innumerable academic and artistic awards.
In our years here, we have also learned to appreciate our beautiful parks, where our children play on clean, safe playground equipment and neatly manicured lawns. The newly renovated Parkwood Pool Complex is a fantastic place to spend our summers on the days that our girls are not in camp. (Our older one goes to Camp Parkwood, which offers swimming, sailing, tennis, arts & crafts, trips, shows, etc., amidst the beautiful scenery of Steppingstone Park.)
What else can I mention?
The Great Neck Library features excellent holdings, (print, digital, multi-lingual) events, and activities for the entire community. The Great Neck Vigilant Fire Co. offers our community state-of-the-art emergency medical care without the additional worry of a bill arriving in the mailbox. Great Neck House provides the community with live performances, cultural events, art exhibitions, lectures, etc. What else? Surely there are a dozen things I can’t even think of right now.
Here in Great Neck we have all these wonderful things, but here’s the rub: they cost money! We, as citizens, contribute to the costs of these services through our taxes: property tax, school tax, etc. While no one enjoys paying taxes, they are, as Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “the price we pay for civilization.” If we want a top-flight public school district, (experienced quality teachers, proper class sizes, arts and music programs, technology) we have to pay for it. If we want our parks clean and safe, we have to pay people to clean them. If we want to maintain a library worthy of our community, we have to pay for it. If we want the Vigilants to help us in an emergency, we have to pay for it. Etc., etc.
We as citizens must decide who we are and what kind of community we wish to live in. As costs rise, so does our collective responsibility to maintain this wonderful town, and all that makes it great.
Should we shirk that responsibility by arbitrarily freezing, or “capping” our financial contributions? Should we allow our schools to get just a little bit poorer? Our parks get a little bit dirtier? Our EMT response time a little bit slower? Our family, for one, is not willing to let that happen. We want our children to receive the best education possible; to play in clean and safe parks; to grow up in a town that values it community services.
Are we willing to pay for those privileges? Certainly. Who wouldn’t?
Some have argued that our property taxes here in New York, have forced people to leave the state. While that may or may not be true, I am certain that people would leave Great Neck as the school district declines, services suffer, and real estate values plummet. Besides, how much money, year after year, are we discussing? As we learned earlier this month, the additional costs for maintaining the Vigilants emergency care service (as opposed to a plan to begin billing patrons) would cost pennies a day. So, for the per household costs of a few nights out per year, we can keep Great Neck great.
Matthew Moshen
Great Neck
