Town vote to exceed tax cap bad news

The Island Now

The board members were seated, the clerk was ready and the room was packed with residents who would finally get their say. 

After all, the tradition of Town Hall meetings does go back to Revolutionary times.

Jon Kaiman, North Hempstead’s Town Supervisor, called them, one at a time. He seemed to know what they were going to say by their names only.

Hearing many of us speak so many times before, when my name finally was called, “Dr. Morris, North Hills” he immediately knew, that for the next five minutes or so, he would have to listen to another one of those “boring” conservative diatribes, beseeching him to be frugal with our taxpayer money or to consider our constitutional rights before he actually votes. 

So, when I begin to speak, it doesn’t take him long to start glancing at his watch, looking at Councilman Dwyer from the corner of his eye, groaning or rolling his eyes, or starting to go through his list of speakers, to see who he would call on next.

That is, until last week’s vote.

But first, just a little recent history. Last year 150 Long Islanders, myself included, traveled by bus to Albany, joined by many other New Yorker’s, to support Gov. Cuomo’s much anticipated, 2 percent tax cap initiative. We were pleasantly surprised when it actually passed.

Unfortunately, at the 12th hour, in the middle of the night, several state Legislators succumbed to pressure from the Teacher’s Union and pushed the taxpayer under the bus by allowing certain  “cut-outs”, or exemptions from the tax cap. So, in many cases, the new tax cap can now still be legally broken.

Back to the 2013 budget-vote. Using these now-legal exemptions, North Hempstead’s Town Board voted 4-3  to approve the budget for 2013 with an increase of 4.8 percent. Perhaps more startling was that our general-fund, tax rate would now rise by a whopping 8.8 percent, thus easily  piercing New York State’s 2 percent tax cap.

So, what’s so unusual about that? After all, this board did the same thing last year. I lived in Great Neck for 35 years before moving to North Hills, another North Hempstead village. Increased budgets and tax-rate hikes in our town are an annual event.

What is so unusual about this vote however, is that Jon Kaiman, North Hempstead’s top Democratic official, voted against it.

Way to go, Jon. 

Who said you and I would never be on the same side?  Obviously, I would really be more satisfied if your vote actually changed the outcome of the vote. But, I’ll just have to be satisfied with this one small victory.

By the way, I promise never to mention in public that one of your votes was enthusiastically  supported by the Nassau-Queens County Tea Party.

Accolades must also go out to Dina DeGiorgio and Angelo Ferrara, who  opposed this obscene tax increase and voted against the proposed budget.

 

Stephen Morris

North Hills

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