Readers React: Budget Support Varies

It's budget day and local residents are flooding in and out of the polls Tuesday to cast their vote on their school district's budget for the 2012-'13 fiscal year.

With the addition of the tax levy cap couple with the financial issues schools and residents are facing every day, the drama has been high this budget season.

Many have taken to Patch to share their thoughts on the budgets, and here are a few comments we've received throughout our coverage. Have an opinion of your own? Share it in the comments section below.

said on :

Its such a sensitive issue to discuss because you cant really have the conversation without offending others. No one who opposses the budget has an issue with the teachers. They do a wonderful job with our children and we are very grateful for that. People are upset over yet another increase. What will next years pitch be? The tax payer, who is not employed by the school, loses no matter what...

commented on Concessions Help Restore Clubs, Athletics in Miller Place:

Our nation is in a dire economic mess, and we are getting rid of the Business Department. What a joke! Most High School Students don't know how to balance a check book, and yet we are cancelling the Business Dept.

said on :

...it should be said that everyone was not pleased with the fact that the Board approvd the budget. As I said at this meeting, I found it hard to believe that in a $71+ million budget the administration could not find $600,000 that would have kept the budget under the cap, which would have demonstrated that they were trying to be fiscally responsible.

said on Rocky Point Board Adopts Superintendent's Budget, Will Pierce Cap:

While I'm not shocked by all the negative comments regarding the actions of the Rocky Point Board, what amazes me is why these exorbitant budgets keep getting passed in the first place! The changes that have taken place in this District over the past 10-20 years is beyond comprehension. Which is not to say that this insane budget has, in fact, made for a better School District at all! Rocky Point appears to have become an area where the middle class can no longer survive.

said on

As a community, we must be vigilant in our demand for fairness, equity and parity with what school district employees get in terms of salary and benefits in our school district, compared to the private sector~ In Mike Unger and Brian Neyland we finally have two board members that will not go along with willfull blindness in voting a budget through~ the community must stand together and demand change from the top on down, for the benefit of the students and the community at large, or people who will not adapt to and embrace change can no longer work here.

said on :

This might be a sensible budget, however my taxes are still going up. Remember, 2% is a "tax cap," not a "minimum mandatory increase in spending." After years of 5% to as high as 15% tax increases, a 3% increase sounds good, but we are far from done. More concessions could have frozen spending at last year's levels. Can't wait to see what next year brings.

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