Kent Gardner, the respected president of the local Center for Government Research (CGR) believes that the 4% property tax cap proposal is a needed “good start”.  Read his entire August 17 D&C editorial at:

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080817/OPINION02/808170350/1039/OPINION

The August 18 D&C Editorial Page agreed with Tom Golisano that 4% is far too high and 2% would be much more realistic and effective.

How much salary should a position be paid? The answer is complex and often generates an emotional response.

I thought about this issue when the Democrat & Chronicle printed the 10 highest-paid state employees in Monroe County for 2007.

The SUNY Brockport president is at the top of this list at $210,500.  He manages 8,300 students, 573 faculty, and 66 buildings.

The Greece School District superintendent (a district employee) made $203,000 to manage 20 schools, 13,000 students and 926 teachers.

In Brighton, we pay our superintendent $186,800 to manage 4 schools, 3,500 students and 300 teachers.

Let’s look at this data in chart form:

No one would recommend that the salary for a district superintendent’s position be strictly proportional to the number of students or faculty or buildings.  There is certainly some “base” level of pay associated with the position.

But it would appear that the Greece superintendent position is underpaid and the Brighton superintendent position is overpaid….based on the level of responsibility.

As the chart above indicates, the Brighton taxpayers have been generous in our salaries when compared to the level of responsibilities in our very small district.

You can check-out many of the superintendent salaries at:

http://www.smugtownbeacon.com/news.php?viewStory=101

I recall a meeting a number of years ago when Brighton was searching for a new superintendent and was asking for public input.  The proposed starting salary was going to be the ending salary of the previous superintendent who had been in the job a number of years.

One resident stated that a starting salary should not be set.  He suggested that we should pay ANY amount necessary to get the “right” person.  I asked how many people were applying for the job.  The answer:  450!  It seemed to me that Brighton was not going to have a difficult time finding a good applicant.

I certainly believe that the Brighton superintendent position requires long hours and strong management skills.   But the reality is that Brighton is a relatively easy district to manage when compared to many others in Monroe County (see Greece!!).

Should Brighton’s administrative salaries be as high as they are?

A number of important topics were discussed at the August 12, 2008 School Board Meeting that Hein and I attended.  Topics included:

• Disposition of the Fair Plan revenue being returned to the district
• Unappropriated Fund Balance increase
• Approach to new superintendent search
• Board objectives for 2008/09

Fair Plan Revenue

Approximately $590,000 in sales tax revenue, that was going to be lost with the FAIR Plan, and was not budgeted for 2008/09, will now be received.

The options for this revenue are legally limited.  Generally, it must be used to reduce the TAX LEVY.  The tax levy is the TOTAL property tax required to meet the budget.

The tax levy INCREASE will become 2.7% vs. the originally budgeted 3.9% increase.  NOTE:  The effect on your individual property tax depends on your assessment.

Unappropriated Fund Balance

Legally, each school district may maintain up to 4% of their total budget in a “contingency” fund.  Brighton maintained a 3% balance.  But due to an anticipated year-end surplus, this fund balance is being increased to 4%.

Is this a good financial decision from the taxpayers’ perspective?  Could this surplus be used to further reduce the tax levy?

Finding a New Superintendent

The Board discussed options on how to proceed with the search for a new Superintendent.  Should a search consulting firm be hired?  Should the Board take on the task themselves?

As I listened to this discussion, I was concerned that the Board, with potential community input, did not consider setting some broad parameters on the search?  For example:

• Greater Rochester area or Upstate NY or all NY or a national search?
• Salary range?
• School size and type background?
• Years as a Superintendent or Assistant Superintendent?

When you consider the purchase of a new car, you don’t start with ALL cars.  You decide you want to first look at (say) SUVs, under $30,000, from Toyota, Honda and GMC.  If you then do not find a vehicle that satisfies you, you broaden your search.  But you start with some general parameters.

Board Objectives 2008/09

One of the objectives will be evaluation of the technology program.  Brighton has spent approximately $1 million annually for the last 10 years on technology.  I have personally been critical of this expenditure level.  I frequently have asked how do we relate educational outcomes to this $1 million expense?

It will be extremely interesting to see how this evaluation proceeds.

USAToday, weekend edition August 1-3, ran a front page article showing that state and local government spending has been rising three times as fast as revenues. State finances are nearing a crisis.

See: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080801/1a_lede01_dom.art.htm?loc=interstitialskip

From June 2007 to June 2008, state and local governments have ADDED 264,000 jobs while the private sector LOST 431,000 jobs.

According to USAToday, “a large share of the new workers are teachers, police officers and prison guards”. “A key factor driving higher spending: new employees and higher compensation.”

The article is not clear on which teachers are included in governmental hirings (state colleges, city school districts?).

However, from my perspective, the more critical issue is that SPENDING, by state and local governments, as well as local school districts, appears to be completely insensitive to the economic condition of the taxpayers that are providing the revenue to meet this “binge” spending.

I recall a conversation I had with a Brighton administrator. I suggested that the teacher and administrator contractual increases were completely out of line with Monroe County businesses. His response (paraphrased): “We do not compare ourselves to business. We compare ourselves to other educational institutions.”

I see this response as insensitive to the prevailing economic environment of the taxpayers who are paying for the spending.

If you work for the state and noticed that your Web browser was a bit slow Thursday afternoon (July 31, 2008), there’s probably a good reason: A think tank that frequently criticizes state spending has posted the salaries of all 263,000 state workers online.

The Empire Center’s SeeThroughNY site (http://www.seethroughny.net/) also posted teacher and superintendent contracts for all but a handful of New York’s 733 school districts, plus state contracts, pork-barrel items and the Legislature’s operating expenses.

“This has never been online before,” said Empire Center Director Edmund J. McMahon. The site drew 1,000 visitors in the first hour it was up and received 6,000 page views, or requests to look at a given Web page.

Note: This site is included in our Sites Of Interest section in the left sidebar. The site was experiencing technical problems due to extremely heavy traffic volume.