There's no doubt the has been the hottest topic as of late on West Islip Patch. With board elections and budget voting vastly approaching, we're interested to hear what specific budgeting issues residents are most concerned with.
In an informal poll taken on Facebook, five people said "tax increases" were their biggest concerns, while three people answered "increasing class sizes" and two people answered "something else."
We've compiled these comments (though there were many) from readers to see what some of you are thinking.
Editor's Note: If you'd like to contribute a Letter to the Editor regarding a specific facet of the new budget, send it to anthonyv@patch.com.
Elizabeth Best said in response to :
The purpose of education is not to hurt the children. However, if everyone across the board took a pay cut reduction from local senators, politicians, school superintendents, principals, vice principals, teachers down to the cleaning people. This would be fair.
In addition, I have worked for over 37 years in business world and have always paid for my medical benefits why can't people in the school district do the same.
If the local politicians don't start watching their checkbooks and what they spend money on, taxes will keep going up. That will mean less jobs, people will move off of Long Island as well as what about the future for young families and homes as well as local businesses.
People will leave and Mr./Mrs. Local politician where will that leave you?
Steve Murray said in response to :
Hey Pearly (fellow commenter), we must give credit where credit is due though. The administrators did agree to a salary freeze next year which was mentioned 2 budget meetings ago. Their freeze is for the whole year, unlike the teachers who agreed to a 6 month freeze! I do want to say thank you to the teachers though, every little bit does help!
Brad said in response to :
There seems to be alot of anger and confusion regarding education here in west islip. Lets start with some of the problems. A major issue here on Long Island is the fact that we have 17% of NYS population, yet we only receive 13% of state aid. That's 4% of billions of dollars that goes to nyc and upstate ny, NOT Long Island. Long Island is viewed as wealthy by the state so that 4% supports other areas. Residents anger should be geared to this fact. In addition, West Islip lacks the businesses found in other towns putting all of the school taxes on the community. As far as teachers go, most teachers have at least two degrees and an additional 60-75 credits on top. Do the math on the cost of that schooling. Times are difficult for many. When times were great, people weren't calling for teachers to be paid more or given bonuses. The opposite shouldn't be true now. Everyone makes choices in life. If you are jealous of teachers, go back to school and change careers. Stop the bashing.
Denise Lagala said in response to :
Our heartfelt thanks to Sharon Bieselin for her untiring commitment to the West Islip community,
With every good wish, The Lagala Family
ConcernedMama said in response to :
I agree that the increases are high, but West Islips isn't the highest on Long Island, William Floyd is looking at a 12.47% increase. Instead of everyone attacking the teachers and WITA, and even the BOE I think we should be looking at the state and the $206 million that Albany has cut from the Island's school districts. In a Nation who is supposed to be caring about our children's education and future, it seems to me that the first place the government likes to cut from is education.
