Cheers and jeers from East Ramapo residents, leaders reacting to state tax hike order

State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa's bold step to increase the tax levy in the East Ramapo school district drew swift praise and rebuke around Rockland County and beyond. The unusual and divisive move came in response to a local parent's appeal to the commissioner, accusing the school board of failing to meet its obligations to the public-school children of the district by putting forth a paltry tax increase.

“This historic decision will transform the lives of East Ramapo public school students, who have been denied a sound, basic education for decades,” said Stefanie Coyle, deputy director of the Education Policy Center at NYCLU, which represented the parent, Ana Maeda, a mother of two East Ramapo students. “By exercising her power to protect public school students, Commissioner Rosa is heeding the call of parents and advocates across the district: It’s time to put an end to 21st century Jim Crow education in Rockland County.”

Rivkie Feiner, a lifelong Monsey resident whose children have attended private schools, blasted Rosa's move and questioned the legality of changing a publicly voted tax rate. "By nullifying the voting rights of the residents of East Ramapo, the Commissioner of Education is destroying democracy, not protecting it for the next generation," said Feiner, who has served on various advisory boards within the district.

State orders East Ramapo: Hike tax levy by 4.38% and use money on public school kids

Several officials have already said they anticipate lawsuits against Rosa's directive.

Rosa on Wednesday directed the East Ramapo school board to hike the tax levy by another 4.38% for the new school year, essentially endorsing the former superintendent's budget proposal, supported by state-appointed monitors, that was rejected by the elected school board. The extra funding, the commissioner stated, should be used for the benefit of the public schools.

Rabbi Shragi Greenbaum, director of the Rockland regional office of Agudath Israel of America, said that Rosa's order did not address the bigger financial challenges facing the district.

“Unilaterally placing a tax on all residents of the district will do nothing to solve the long-term structural issues and will only cause further ill will," the Chestnut Ridge resident said. "Only a restructuring of the Foundation Aid formula to take into account the entire student population, both public and private, will solve the problems of the district.”

Meanwhile, East Ramapo interim schools Superintendent Anthony DiCarlo on Thursday issued a statement acknowledging Rosa's directive, which he called "unprecedented."

He said the district's next steps would take time to plan, but said: "Board trustees, along with the school district's counsel, state monitors and our administration ... will work together to develop a plan to implement the mandated increase to East Ramapo's tax levy."

If the board does not approve a tax levy change to comply with Rosa's directive, the district's state-appointed monitors could potentially veto their decision. Fran Wills, who represents the Lower Hudson Valley on the state Board of Regents, told The Journal News/lohud on Wednesday that if the board won't act that doing so is "the role of the monitors."

Rosa cites years of cuts to public schools

In June, the public approved a 1% tax levy increase for the 2024-25 school year, which began July 1 (after rejecting in May a budget plan that sought a 1.99% tax levy hike). This was the first local tax levy increase in a decade.

Rosa called the school board's decision to seek a 1% tax levy increase with its second proposal "arbitrary, capricious and violative of education policy due to the ways in which it inequitably favors nonpublic school students at the expense of public school students." In an "interim decision and order" she issued in response to Maeda's appeal, she outlined what she called a "history of public school neglect due."

About 10,000 children who live in the district attend public schools; the majority of students in the district are English language learners and the district has among the highest rate of homeless students and the lowest graduation rates ad test scores in the state. Another 30,000 kids who live within the district's boundaries go to private schools, mostly yeshivas.

For over a decade, the public school community has seen the school board as favoring the private-school community’s needs.

Rosa cites in her interim decision years worth of cuts to public-school staff, facilities and extracurriculars. The district is only now fixing water fountains that have been turned off since 2016 because of lead in the water, and only a fraction will be brought back online by fall.

Meanwhile, Rosa said, the board has taken no move to restrict costly universal busing, including gender segregated transportation, that's provided to all public- and private-school students.

Feiner questioned any focus on segregated busing as boys and girls are going to separate schools, she said, and "those buses are full."

The district's transportation budget is a significant cost-driver. It is expected to eat up well over 20% of district expenses this year, officials have said, while most districts spend just a fraction of their total budget on busing. While the state reimburses transportation costs for public- and private-school students, not all expenses are covered, including for rides closer to school than state guidelines require.

Jockeying for legislative fix with lawmakers home

State Sen. Bill Weber, R-Montebello, and Assemblyman Karl Brabenec, R-Deerpark, on Thursday introduced legislation that would provide a one-time "spin up" of $20 million in state aid to East Ramapo, basically a loan against future aid to the district. Weber said the amount of the spin up is nearly identical to what the state's oft-criticized Foundation Aid formula shorts the district annually.

They put in the bill on the heels of Rosa's action, which both blasted. “Albany's unilateral tax levy hike on East Ramapo residents is a blatant overreach that undermines local control," said Brabenec, who represents the 98th Assembly District, which includes a portion of Orange County and western Ramapo, including a portion of East Ramapo district. Brabenec is running unopposed in November.

Meanwhile, two bills already exist in the Legislature that would deliver a $20 million loan to East Ramapo, but come with demands the district take certain actions. They include:

• Senate bill S9833, introduced in June by state Sen. Shelley Mayer, dangled a $20 million-a-year "spin-up" of future state aid, for public school expenses only, if district voters passed a 1% tax levy increase, which they did. The bill did not advance.

• Assembly bill A10407, introduced in late May by Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski, would install a "financial control board" in East Ramapo that could raise taxes and even pass a bond to fix buildings. It also included the $20 million spin-up. It also did not advance.

Passing any bills in 2024 would require the state Legislature to come back into session, but there has been no indication that Gov. Kathy Hochul will call them back.

Elijah Reichlin-Melnick represented the 38th State Senate District from 2021 to 2023, and is running for the seat again on the Democratic ticket. He called Weber’s proposed legislation seeking extra state aid "a political stunt" with no chance of passing. He did not say whether he favored either of the earlier two bills, but said he would work with Mayer in the Senate and other legislative leaders to find "real solutions to the district's needs."

Weber, though, pointed to 2021 legislation, sponsored in the state Senate by Reichlin-Melnick, that gave the monitors certain veto powers, which Weber called a "Pandora's box."

"As a result of Elijah's feckless actions, we now have the Commissioner of Education vetoing the will of the voters, canceling their vote, and putting in her own tax levy,” Weber said.

Reichlin-Melnick said he didn't support the idea of Rosa unilaterally enacting a higher tax levy than voters considered.

"One of the founding principles of the United States is ‘no taxation without representation,’ " Reichlin-Melnick said in a statement. "The decision by Commissioner Rosa turns that principle on its head. I strongly object.”

'Longstanding institutional failures'

While Rosa's order focuses on the 2024-2025 school budget, she makes clear she believes that poor conditions in the schools stem from "longstanding institutional failures" in the district. The main one: failing, year after year, to raise local tax dollars for district expenses.

Rosa cited massive cuts to public school staff, including 400 positions between 2009 and 2012, and a 50% reduction in extracurricular offerings, while two district buildings were sold to local yeshivas, one at a "sweetheart price," according to a 2014 state monitor report, and universal busing has continued.

Rosa also cited a 2020 federal court ruling that struck down East Ramapo's at-large voting method for selecting its school board, ruling the method was unfair to Black and Latino voters and a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Board members now represent a specific ward.

The district spent tens of millions of dollars fighting the federal voting rights case. Rosa referenced the court's opinion that "the Board has not been responsive to the concerns of black and Latino persons."

Rosa also said the board did not heed a state comptroller warning in 2021 not to ignore structural budget imbalances amid a flush of federal COVID aid.

Rosa said that while the state's monitors in East Ramapo were able to achieve some financial improvements for the district, it came "in spite of the machinations of some Board members."

Legal challenges expected

Rosa maintained that various precedents allowed her the latitude to order the board to raise the tax base.

Legal challenges are expected, said Carole Anderson, a public-school advocate who formerly served on the school board. "We aren't under any illusions that this is going to happen immediately. We know this going to end up in court."

But, the Wesley Hills resident sees opportunity: for buildings to finally be repaired; for staff, especially bilingual teachers and social workers, to be hired; for programs to be restored.

She also acknowledges higher property taxes could be a financial pinch for many in the community. "My husband and I are seniors and it isn't going to be easy to pay the additional taxes," Anderson said, "but we are going to do it because these kids deserve buildings that are healthy and safe."

"Money hasn't been available because of years of defeated budgets," Anderson said. "I am just so happy that SED under Commissioner Rosa is paying attention."

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: East Ramapo tax hike demand by New York draws critics and supporters