“Education First,” Bureaucracy Second, and the Taxpayers Dead Last in Suffolk

Suffolk City Council enacted a budget while making no apparent effort to avoid hitting property owners with a roughly 4% property tax increase (Suffolk News Herald).

The Council giddily gushed how they put “education first” – clearly hoping nobody noticed that the taxpayer was dead last.

Never mind that there were plenty of cost avoidances in the budget to steer clear of a tax hike and give teachers the pay adjustment they requested and deserve (I listed a few of them at the public hearing three weeks ago). Never mind looking at the administrative structure to see if any top-heavy departments can be slimmed down (including school administration). Never mind asking why the city needs to build two new schools when existing schools in the southern half of the city are underpopulated. Never mind that a tax increase like this, based on locality economic modeling, can cut the city’s property values by $300 million.

Nah, just say “education first” loud enough and hope no one remembers come November 2016.

I can assure the city council of this: that’s not going to work this time.

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