Letters to the Editor: Lower school property taxes and more
Lower school property taxes
To the Editor:
I think it is a shame that the school superintendent was unable or unwilling to address the school budget issues I raised in my letter of April 1 in the Reporter (“School budget redux”). That dialogue would have been helpful and informative to the voters and taxpayers of Shelter Island.
To be clear, I believe that the school district should reduce this year’s tax increase to zero dollars and reduce future budgets to below this year’s budget, in effect giving back surplus taxes to the taxpayers.
They should also be transparent about the more than $1 million raised each year since 2015 in excess of the law according to Comptroller DiNapoli’s audit of the Shelter Island School District in 2020.
I am not the only one who believes taxes should be lowered. As a result of the 2021 stimulus money and the increase in income taxes on the rich in New York State to help schools, and the increase in school aid in this year’s New York State Budget just passed, the Newsday editorial of April 8, called for “School districts should cancel planned property tax increases this year, and look to lower them next year. They should also become more transparent” about their budgets according to Comptroller DiNapoli.
The Shelter Island School Superintendent and Board should lower taxes and not raise them in this fiscal environment.
BOB FREDERICKS
Shelter Island
Remembering John
To the Editor:
If there were ever a nicer man, a truer gentleman, than John Loconsolo, I never met him.
John was one-of-a-kind and Shelter Island will miss his presence, as I certainly will.
DICK TARLOW
Shelter Island
The answer is ‘yes’
To the Editor:
In last week’s letters a writer posited the question: “When the horse and buggy gave way to gasoline powered cars early last century, did the government run out and start building gas stations?”
The answer is: Yes, actually they did, indirectly.
Since the early 1900s, annual government subsidies to oil and gas companies have averaged in the billions of dollars. The government has also funded other sources of energy such as coal and nuclear in order to aid the country’s transition to new energy technologies.
Unfortunately, to date, the amount of funding going to sustainable sources of energy such as wind and solar has been a mere fraction of those subsidies.
Hopefully that will now change.
BILLY GERAGHTY
Shelter Island
A tribute to Jen Maxson
To the Editor:
I had the privilege of working with Jenifer Maxson on several school play productions, years ago (before the great Kaasik era.) I knew then that she was a Renaissance woman and that her amazing talents (and heart) as a director, writer and performer were meant to reach beyond this small Island. It was clear from her thoughtful debut column about her friend Richard Lomuscio that Jen’s voice would be an outstanding addition to the Reporter.
PETER WALDNER
Shelter Island
