Letters to the editor for Sunday, August 4, 2013

State aid formula flawed

Albany says the homeowners in Valley Central School District are undertaxed. Its state-aid formula, based on the wealth of each respective public school district, concludes we are not digging deep enough into our pockets to support our school budgets; not enough tax dollars now and in years past. Consequently, Albany has come up with an accounting tool, the gap elimination adjustment. This tool reduced our district's state aid by $5 million for the upcoming school year and produced reductions in the past.

I submit Albany's wealth-based formula is as flawed as a phony diamond. The Town of Montgomery makes up the largest segment of the Valley Central school district. Based on the most recent online data, my research indicates the median household income of our township is around $50,000. That's household income! New York state's is only about $57,000. So where is this warehouse of local wealth factored into Albany's formula calculations? Simple. There is none. Numbers don't lie. The state-aid formula cries out for reform.

Albany with its publicly proclaimed "education governor" can take a large part of the blame for this year's Valley Central budget shortfall and those of other school districts.

John Lown


Rich elitists?

In the July 29 article on fracking opponents, a consultant for the natural gas industry, states, "It's all just rich elitists keeping money out of New York state." What baloney! Even the relatively few celebrities advocating against fracking could nowhere near match the billions of dollars Big Oil has to put in its claims about the benefits of shale gas development, as seen in those slick, disingenuous TV ads.

Here is what the fracking opposition looks like, as described by Norman Farwell, a resident of the Town of Butternuts, upon presenting our petition to ban drilling, signed by 800 people: "It is clear that, while some may deride us as a tech-savvy minority of NIMBY freaks, we are actually the overwhelming majority "... We found agreement in favor of our petition everywhere we went." Are these elitists?

Teresa Winchester


Coordinate vote dates

We know the Kingston school district wants to build a new high school and is planning to ask the community to vote on the proposal. We also understand the district wants the community to vote on this in mid-December because it needs the time to explain why we should vote yes.

We want the school district to reschedule this vote to November to coincide with the general election, when a far greater number of voters turn out. Between now and November, the district has three months to present its case. If it can't make it in three months, another month won't matter. Or is there another reason for wanting to vote in mid-December?

Ronald E. Dietl


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