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News
Consolidation, Capping Expenses and Control: Dowling College Long
Island Economic & Social Policy Presents Roadmap for Permanent Property
Tax Relief At State Commission On Property Tax Relief
"It's time to tear down parochial interests," said Martin Cantor,
Director of the Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute at
Dowling College, upon releasing LIESP's "Three C's" for
permanent property tax relief for New York's beleaguered homeowners.
The plan is to be presented at the March 5, 2008 hearing of the State
Commission on Property Tax Relief.
Cantor said that, "the 'Three C's' call for consolidation of
teacher salaries, pension costs and fringe benefits by economic regions
financed by the New York State Department of Education, thus cutting
homeowner property taxes by nearly 47%; capping the remaining local
school budgets to annual increases of the greater of the increase in
Consumer Price Index or 3%; and, controlling remaining budgets and
classroom educational improvement." Cantor said, "only the
financing of teacher costs will be consolidated, not local control of
education and administration, which will remain the responsibility of
local school boards."
The "Three C's" have other benefits, Cantor said, including
"equity to underfunded school districts by leveling the playing
field between wealthy and poor school districts, thus allowing for
competition for the best teachers; making housing affordable to young
people by lowering the carrying costs from property taxes and stretching
household budgets; and, bringing billions of dollars of new economic
activity from the saved property taxes to every part of New York
State."
Cantor concluded, "the money to do this is already in the state
budget. It makes no sense to have New Yorkers pay an income tax to the
state, which once collected, is transferred back to regions in the form
of education subsidies and STAR payments, which get absorbed by local
school district spending."
About Dowling College
Dowling College is an independent, coeducational college that serves more than 6,500 students at
its historic Rudolph Campus on the banks of the Connetquot River in Oakdale, NY, and the 105-acre
Brookhaven Campus in eastern Long Island and a business center located near the Nassau-Suffolk
border in Melville. Dowling offers Bachelor′s, Master′s, and Doctoral degrees in several
disciplines through its four schools: Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Education.
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