At a recent board of education meeting, the atmosphere got pretty testy regarding the board’s refusal to enact the veterans partial school tax exemption. The board’s primary reason was in keeping with a longstanding policy to not pass tax burdens from one group to another. Now understand, the district has done a number of things with students that acknowledge veterans’ sacrifices and contributions from when they served (and continue to contribute to the community’s well-being).
But that said, according to a survey the William Bradford Turner American Legion Post 265 conducted, there are about 51 members in Garden City with 43 of them having served during World War II, Korea and Vietnam while the 2010 census revealed the population of the Village of Garden City to be 22,371. The two points of this issue that I can’t quite wrap my head around is the fact that the board was so adamant about upholding its position that there was no further pursuit of finding out what the additional cost might be. (Yes, I know it probably involves complicated algorithms and crunching of numbers, but they DO manage to pass a budget with all of its moving parts every year.) Also, the outright refusal to make this a referendum item that residents can vote on. The voting booth offers privacy so one doesn’t have to worry about being labeled anti-veteran if they pull the lever for no. Lastly, while the board is angry at Governor Cuomo for putting the onus on local districts to make this decision (despite the fact that with all other issues, the complaint is that Albany is exercising too much control over local issues, but that’s an editorial for another day), he did approve a law that allowed districts to revoke the exemption should it be found to be too onerous on residents picking up the tax slack. My understanding is that this benefit would be at the expense of another group in the community, yet I’m sure these veterans weren’t looking at the big picture this way when they decided to serve.
—Dave Gil de Rubio
