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Health & Fitness

State GEA Costs Huntington $6.8 Million

New York’s “gap elimination adjustment” has cost Huntington School District taxpayers and students nearly $6.8 million in lost state aid over the past three years, including a $2,128,267 reduction in the 2013/14 school year. The loss amounts to $484 per student this year.

The Suffolk County School Superintendents Association has put eliminating the gap elimination adjustment at the top of its legislative priorities for the current school year. According to the organization, the GEA reduced aid to Long Island districts by $290 million in this year alone. If the GEA had been eliminated this year, the tax levy in Nassau and Suffolk counties would be four percent lower.

The New York State Legislature enacted the GEA for the 2009/10 school year. The Deficit Reduction Assessment helped close a large state budget gap by reducing support for public school districts. Senators and assemblyman made the GEA permanent in 2011/12.

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The GEA has resulted in property tax hikes and huge cuts in school programs. In Huntington, it led to the elimination of the full-day kindergarten program, layoffs for nearly 100 teachers, administrators and support staff members and across the board reductions to academic and co-curricular activities.

“The Gap Elimination Adjustment has reduced state aid to Long Island school districts by nearly $1 billion over the past three years,” according to the SCSSA. “The GEA further reduces our region’s disproportionately low share of aid generated by the funding formulas.”

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Long Island enrolls about 17 percent of the state’s students, but is allocated only 12 percent of the state’s aid to public school districts. Of the entire statewide aid reduction attributable to the GEA, 18 percent of the loss is coming from Nassau and Suffolk county systems.

Over the past three years, Long Island districts have lost $992,184,349 in aid, according to the SCSSA. The GEA reductions have been approved by the New York State Senate and Assembly and signed into law by the governor.

Long Island schools will receive $2.54 billion in state aid in 2013/14, less than the $2.62 billion they received in 2008/09. The loss has caused property tax increases in every community, including Huntington.

 

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