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Rensselaer County Taxpayers Association

September 2001                                                                                                                                                     Volume 6, Number 5

Is a welcome change from the activities of summer as we look forward to the bountiful produce of our local farmers. Nothing tastes as good as a ripe melon, fresh corn, tomatoes or juicy peaches. Pretty soon the apple crop will be in and pumpkins will again signify another festive holiday. Simple pleasures will be enjoyed as we celebrate special church cookouts, Vet’s Bar-

B-Ques and family gatherings. We have been gifted with a great Country. Our freedoms must never be taken for granted, however. Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reprimands us to "stand-up, speak out and shun the selfish comfort of allowing others to decide our faith.

A new Ontario law in the Canadian province has tackled the school choice initiative in a positive way. Parents will receive a $700 tuition tax credit starting in 2002. This program has a five-year escalation clause which will increase the tax credit to $3,500 in 2007.

This news which appeared in the August 10, 2001 issue of The Wall Street Journal cites that there are 733 private denominational schools in the province which serve the needs of some 103,000 students. Since fifty percent of the private schools are aligned with religious organizations, obviously those organizations gave strong support to the initiative.

Leading Canadian educators responded as follows: Claudia Hepburn, director of education policy at the Fraser Institute, stated that this is the best education policy in North America today since it will provide money for families that do not pay enough provincial tax to equal the value of the credit. These low-income families will have private education within their reach. William Robson, Director for the C. D. Howe Institute, said that placing private schools on a more level playing field with public schools would dramatically increase the pressure on under-performing schools in the fully funded system to improve.

Is important. The finest organizations in our country are our Boy and Girl Scouts. A Situation has arisen that all thoughtful Americans need to be aware of. The ACLU and those on the political left have attempted to raise a protest because Boy Scout officials saw fit to fire a scoutmaster who was gay. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts and other private organizations have a Constitutional right to require members to adhere to philosophical, moral and religious principles. If this were not a fact and a protection in law, all of our religions, Lions Clubs, Masonic Orders, Knight of Columbus, League of Women Voters, etc. could be held up to public scrutiny by the "politically correct" and forced to modify and demean their reason for being. The situation happened in socialist and communist countries and is still going on in Cuba, North Korea and some others. Stalin and Hitler forced their populations to foreswear allegiances to all organizations but their own. This is total control when backed up with the military.

We must remember our youngsters are vulnerable and need lots of guidance in the right direction. Exposure to pornography, in any form, bad company, and questionable leadership or teaching can lead to tragic results. These are chances responsible parents and the concerned public must not take.

Parts of Broward County, Florida sit in some of the worst youth gang areas with 10 gang related homicides in 1999, yet the Broward County School District has attacked the Boy Scouts of America as a "dangerous organization." We would like to know the attitude of our local and New York State School Districts regarding our Boy Scouts.

Math scores highlight a lack of progress. Widely available test results on national examinations increased marginally in the past decade, but apparently the vast majority of children achieved below the level of competency in math, according to a report which appeared in the Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2001.

At a recent East Greenbush Central School Board meeting, Superintendent Brewer informed the Board that Math I, II, and III, and Chemistry scores were low as reported in the Independent, July 31, 2001. Mr. Brewer focused on the Chemistry and Math III exams because administrators and teachers had expected the grades to be higher. The old saw, "If the student hasn’t learned, the teacher hasn’t taught," may apply here.

Reading Comprehension was also cited as a problem when Mr. Brewer said that the test questions are not straightforward math, but rather multiple step reading questions. Board member Angelo believes part of the problem is in the philosophy behind math teaching. Which is? He added that American students perform better when it comes to abstract math while Pacific rim countries such as China and Japan perform better with fundamental match. Board member LeClair added, "I don’t think we have to compete with China but, we do have to compete with other schools."

The Board agreed it would be useful to find out how other schools produce higher scores on the math exams. When the New York Yankees need a successful pitcher, they hire one. Want better results" Hire someone who can deliver. This applies to ACE – Accountability, Control, and Excellence, top to bottom.

Taxpayers spend lots of money funding the schooling of the students in our Country. We wonder why better results are not obtained for the money spent. Some call for yearly national, standardized testing to hold schools accountable.

This would be a mistake and would lead to bigger government and higher taxes. The education responsibility belongs to the individual states. New York State has evolved a system of semi-autonomous local school districts under state oversight; with funding from both local and state sources. Some schools are excellent, others are awful. The bad schools are so because of a failure of the local school boards and the state education overseers. The bad schools are already known to the education establishment and no amount of national testing will correct them or further identify them.

We also wonder why our schools do not emphasize more the learning basics and spend less time on sociological fluff. The truth is, this is mandated to the local school boards by the state education overseers. National testing proponents argue that national testing would point this out to the education bureaucrats. This would not be so. Federal education bureaucrats are one and the same as the state education bureaucrats and subscribe to the same education theories, only they are further removed and even less responsive to the taxpayers.

This is compounded because students, not being stupid, will not spend much time or effort on a yearly national test that does not affect their individual grades. A recent Times Union article covered this and pointed out that in some schools the students do not even complete the standardized test because it has no effect on their individual performance. This is logical behavior by the students. Why would proponents of national testing expect other behavior? If national standardized testing was established it logically would lead to using these tests in determining the students’ grades and the eventual nationalization of our education programs, to the detriment of all.

New York State does not need any Federal involvement in the education of our students. It is large enough to do so on its own. Other states are similarly able to do so on their own. The failure of our education department is because of local and state failure. Nationalizing education will not solve this, only compound it.

Someone should get the word out that Tom Daschle is NOT acting President of this Country. He is one member of one of the three branches of the Federal Government. This is one branch where his party is holding on by a razor thin majority of one member. This is an extremely weak position to attempt to extend influences beyond the scope of right or reason or even allude to unverifiable facts. According to Michael Kelly in the Times Union, August 22, 2001, "the DNC is putting on the air an ad that features Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle at his best: ‘under FDR, all we had to fear was fear itself. Now we have to fear arsenic in our drinking water, pollutants in our air, drilling on public lands, a rollback of woman’s rights and a return of crippling deficits.’" Daschle’s assertions are overstated to the point of falsehood – the arsenic in the drinking water charge is the most ridiculous.

Rather than pass trumpeted up blame around at this time, would it not be wiser to encourage the present Bush administration to set us on the road to recovery and financial prosperity? Some times the simplest solutions are the best. A majority of our citizens agree that less Government, lower taxes and less needless government spending for questionable purposes is the right medicine.

Actually, the same prescription will work for our own New York State equally well. Why not give it a try? Passing a legitimate budget on time each year would be a pleasing change for everyone except the freeloaders and pressure groups. What do you think?

As many await the arrival of refund checks for overpayment of taxes, it may dawn on some, that if a furious battle in Washington, D.C. had not been fought and won by Conservatives in Congress, it would not have happened. It isn’t difficult to figure that the Clinton, Kennedy, Daschle, and Gephardt clan will oppose anything that works toward more freedom, less taxes and less government control on the productive citizens on this country. State and local liberals are part of this same crowd who constantly seek to entice unwary Americans into the web of deceit by vague promises of more "help’, more aid, more grants and more phony warnings of "global warming." If you believed any of these kooks, you could look forward to New York City being under ten feet of water in the next 30 years. Utter nonsense! What people must realize is that with excessive government and huge taxes comes the enslavement of bureaucratic control. Besides foolish Federal regulations and state mandates, there are local fees, charges, zoning restrictions, local boards, school boards all who demand more and more. There is never enough. There is a need for just accountability but there is a limit which is often exceeded. The capital district has over 700 departments, agencies with thousands of overlapping services, most of which are not needed. One county ordinance forces retailers of tobacco products to put all goods beyond easy reach. This is supposed to stop youths from stealing them. This, rather than teach youth not to steal. It is easier to pass stupid laws that are ineffective.

A recent article in the Record newspaper pointed up the fact that local taxpayers are vulnerable in bad times. Increased taxes are in order to pay off the huge debts run up by municipalities during the last ten years. The biggest borrowers were school districts which increased debt by 101% during the years 1989-1999. Local school property taxes increased 30% in that time period. Here is the problem – Barbara Bradley of the New York State School Boards Association states "We’re holding kids to a higher academic standard and that costs more money." As taxpayers we should ask WHY? The academic standards were higher years ago when schools spent more time on academics and less on entertainment and the costs were less. If more time is spent on technical subjects, English and the necessities, some of the frill subjects could be dropped. Shift the curriculum, don’t just use the time worn excuse we need more money.

The Town of East Greenbush has a new library of which we can all be proud. It is BIG, it has all of the modern conveniences that could be dreamed of. The computers are in abundance. Dare anyone look at all this in a negative way? The latest Bookmark has a proposed 2002 budget insert that states "when voters approved the budget in 1998 to build the new library it was expected to cost the average East Greenbush household $127.00 per year for library services by the end of the project."

However with the increased assessed value, (in East Greenbush assessed property) households are currently paying only $121.79. No to worry about this pittance, the budget will fix it in 2002 with a 4.9% increase to get it up to $127.77. The budget is $70,898 higher for 2002. Need we remind the library that not too many years ago the library was not even mentioned on our tax notice? Our tax contribution was zero. But now it is only $127.77. Please don’t get carried away with the heady task of spending other people’s money.

Recently Governor Pataki made a pronouncement and goal that all New York State agencies should derive 20% of their energy from renewable, alternative energy sources. New York State would be the first in the country to do so.

Governor Pataki did not qualify this with any type of cost effectiveness requirement. This is a slap in the taxpayers’ face as this is our money that he is spending. First and foremost he should be looking for the most energy that our money can buy with renewability being a secondary requirement. New York State has been losing population relative to the other states and high government spending and taxation is one of the reasons. On energy, New York State should be a follower and let the other, higher growth states, lead the way in developing cost effective renewable energy sources.

1. Can you believe there is a move afoot to legislate Federal Government money to buy autos for welfare recipients and also pay for licenses and insurance? This is too much. How about a driver training course and an AAA membership.
2. Hold onto your wallets! Our County legislators have cooked up a scheme to spend $90,000 of IDA money according to the Times Union, August 16, 2001. The idea is to "run ads on major networks and selected cables channels designating a ‘sales tax free zone’, to lure back to school shoppers." All 19 county members have agreed to take "credit" for this outstanding accomplishment. Do you know how much airtime you can buy for $90,000? Take a guess! Our guess is not over a minute.
3. After catching and imprisoning an embezzler, Capital Region BOCES and lawyers have recovered three million dollars ($3,000.000) of the three million, seven hundred thousand dollars ($3,700,000) loss between 1989 and 1999. How is it that for a period of ten years, no one noticed this large amount of money missing? What kind of budget based on the public’s money must they collect? A Long Island BOCES superintendent was discovered to be salaried at just under a million dollars a year plus "expenses." When this information was made public, a huge outcry was raised that forced his immediate firing.
4. After the departure of the East Greenbush library a large vacant space exists in Town Hall. Don’t you think the citizens should have some say as to how this space should be utilized? Another taxpayer supported "agency" gives no relief to the public. How about leasing it out to a private party who might bring some actual revenue in. Caution should also be exercised in spending a lot more of the public’s money on questionable "improvements." It’s always easy to spend money that does not belong to you.

Back issues of the Taxpayers News are available at:

The triangle of land at the junction of 9 & 20 and route 4 has been greatly improved by removing ugly home made signs and replacing them with a dandy landscaping of flowers and shrubs. Let’s keep political signs off of this spot as well.
East Greenbush Resident

The politician’s creed: "thou shall not decrease services; instead, thou shall take more money out of other people’s pockets."
Park East Resident

Where is the movement by the liberals in Congress to throw Gary Condit out for his immoral goings on? It certainly will do the party of high spenders no good at the polls or anywhere else, as a matter of fact.
Sand Lake Resident

Our voters in Troy resent the dictatorial manner of the politicians who attempt to avoid our decision to limit the Mayor to two terms, period. If it was good enough for George Washington, it’s good enough for Troy.
Troy Resident

Somebody should put the clamps on the high spenders in government and in our education departments. British Prime Minister William Pitt said, "necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Troy Resident

¶ ¶ Coming Attractions ¶ ¶

• RCTA is interested in articles about tax concerns or problems in all of the county. Please, if you choose, write a succinct article for submission to: The Editor at the above address.
• Members of goodwill solicited.

The undersigned hereby wishes to join the Rensselaer County Taxpayers Association (RCTA). Annual dues of $10 are due on acceptance of this application.

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