More Dysinformation Misinformation by the Ignorant Pundits

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The “Just Curious” Trivia Question:
Who can identify the stupid blond female Coeymans cop who was sitting in a Coeymans patrol car parked on the wrong side of the street (at the end of Russell Ave.), no lights on, car’s nose stuck out in oncoming traffic on Main Street, forcing Main St. traffic across the double line into the oncoming lane to get by her. She was slurping s.t. from a paper cup.
Spotting Time: Saturday, April 20 at 10:07 a.m.
That must be Coeymans’ idea of public safety, right?

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You can fight and win ONLY if you have good information about the lies of the enemy!

This article is NOT intended to provide tax or legal advice. It is purely for general information and discussion purposes. It is not being provided to assist the reader in making specific or general decisions regarding specific tax questions. If you feel you need tax or legal advice regarding the subject matter discussed in this article, please consult with a professional tax advisor or with a licensed attorney. Thank you for your visit and understanding.

“Fitness Club Floozie” Cathy Deluca, “Dirty-Hands” Jerry Deluca Should Keep Their Cakeholes Shut if They Don’t Know What They’re Talking About!

Caution! They may talk but they’re solid wood, nothing in there but dead wood!

That’s the impression we get when we hear Cathy Deluca or Jerry Deluca or any of the teachers clique speaking: It’s like watching a ventriloquist’s dummy talking. We know it’s a dummy and we know someone else is doing the talking but we still watch the dummy and listen to what it has to say. Go figure!

Who’s doing the talking?

At the April 16, RCS board of education meeting, “Dirty-Hands” Jerry Deluca waddled to the speakers podium to “Give his voice” to the discussion.  Here’s what he had to say:

Deluca: “If we cut the budget too much this year, we will pay for it next year by cutting programs or raising taxes…You cannot continue to cut this district to the bone…Just because we have some extra money doesn’t mean we have to just cut the tax rate.”

Now, I want you to note that Jerry Deluca refers to the “tax rate” in his statement.

Cathy Deluca, of course, has to get her two cents into the discussion and in a public statement writes:

Cathy DeLuca: “After watching the video of the BOE meeting it appears that some people are confusing the tax Levy with the tax Rate. Understandable, it can be quite confusing. Please understand that the tax Levy is NOT the same as the tax Rate…it appears that with a tax levy between 2% to 3% we would have a tax RATE of -5% to -8%, YES that means a Decrease in your tax bill. The key word is tax “RATE” not levy.”

Can you two Delucas get it straight for just once in your lives? It seems that the local loudmouths, Cathy and Jerry Deluca, don’t know what they’re talking about and, although they’re cohabitating, they don’t seem to communicate much.

[Editor’s Note: While the two Delucas, Cathy and Jerry, give a lot of advice about taxes etc. neither of the pair has any qualification or training to give such advice. Neither has training in accounting, finance, or law. Neither of the Delucas has been licensed or certified by any agency to qualify them to give such advice or information.]

What Cathy doesn’t mention is that her own partner, Jerry Deluca, is actually the one person, not “some people” Cathy, Your husband, Jerry Deluca, is the one who is “confusing the tax levy with the tax rate”! Bring it where it belongs, Cathy, right at home, your husband doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But that’s nothing new, is it?

Here’s another point you residents need to keep in mind regarding the so called speakers at the April 16, 2013, RCS board of education meeting:  The speakers were almost exclusively teachers and all stand to profit from a higher levy (more than 2%).  By profit, I mean receive personal and professional enrichment; I mean they personally profit from more programs and fewer cuts! (It’s highly unlikely that RCS students would notice any change at all with a lower levy!) Here’s what they had to say (not in order of speaking):

Alice Whalen: Retired Teacher and Board Member Wants More!
“I’m completely against the 2%“
Why is she talking to a water bottle?

The first speaker: Sarah Engel is a teacher and the wife of sitting board member Howard “Bray” Engel (but she seems to be silent on both points). She wants a higher than 2% levy. Why? As a teacher and wife of a teacher, she stands to profit.

Maureen Perrot, identifying herself as a “faculty member,” “taxpayer,” and “parent”–in other words, someone who stands to profit from a higher levy–spoke in favor of a higher levy (more than 2%).

Elizabeth A. Varney, another public school employee (but didn’t mention this fact) and a member of the New York State Teachers Retirement System (NYSTRS), got to plug for the higher levy.

The second speaker: A lovely little 5th grader, Maddie McTigue, was apparently put up on exhibit to sell middle school programs and to put in a good word for a favorite teacher and her program. I think it’s scandalous to use a child to parrot the agenda of the adults! It’s downright abusive! That’s downright devious, putting a child up to pitch your agenda! Shame on you! Parents and teachers!

The third speaker was our local double-dipper, bully-monger, NYSUT union rep, Matthew J. “Matt the Mutt” Miller. It’s only natural that he run at the mouth in favor of a higher levy because it will benefit his constituency, the teachers, and their union, the New York State United Teachers a.k.a. NYSUT. But he had the gall to act like a Joe Average taxpayer and flaunted his own tax returns (When was he last audited, I wonder?) as “proof” of something (We’re still not sure what it was to prove. Maybe his stupidity and insincerity?). According to Miller, 2% is “imprudent” and he wants a levy between 3-3.5%. But please note, readers, anything over 2% can cause complications in the number of votes required to pass such a budget.

New York State United Teachers
Matt Miller’s Godfather

Did you know that NYSUT filed a law suit to prevent the tax cap? According to NYSUT president Richard “Dick” Iannuzzi:

“… whether children attend a low-wealth or a high-wealth school district, they should be able to receive a quality education and local voters should have the opportunity to decide how much money their district spends on education.”

“We believe very strongly in the principle that every student, no matter where they live or go to school, should have the opportunity to receive a quality public education,” Iannuzzi said in a statement. “In challenging the constitutionality of the tax cap, we are fighting for that principle, just as we are fighting for the democratic principles of ‘one person, one vote’ and for the right of citizens, through local control of their schools, to determine for themselves how much they want to spend on their own community’s schools.”

What You See versus What You Get

That’s a pile of teachers union bullshit!  Pretty words hiding an ugly message. Like powder and paint hiding someting you don’t want to see. We think this means that the teachers union, NYSUT, wants no cap and wants to go hog-wild on the property owner with taxation. What it’s saying is that if you own property, you need to foot the bill for your local social services recipien’ts’ children, even if you have no children. Now is that fair? but that’s the teachers union and Matt Miller talking about your property and your money.

According to our analysis (Yes. It’s oversimplified): Those who want a levy of more than 2% can benefit in two ways, at least:

• If the higher levy demanded by the teachers and the Delucas is approved by the board and the voters accept the budget, the teachers and the teachers union benefit by having more taxpayer (property owner) money to spend.
• If the higher levy is approved by the board (the deadline for the budget  is April 26, 2013) and is sent to the public for the vote and fails, the Coeymanazis will blame the present board for putting out a budget that is too high, and the district will have to go to the contingency budget. Not a pleasant thought and that could mean more negative publicity for the community and the district.

[Editor’s Note: For those of you who want more information and greater detail, please visit the links below.]

Either way, the community and the district suffer…that is, the taxpayer suffers.

Did you know?

That 2% you’ve been hearing so much about is only a small part of the so-called “Tax Cap Law.” In reality, it’s just one part of an eight-step formula that determines the maximum allowable tax levy the school district can pass with a simple majority. You can read more about the process of how the levy is determined here:

NEW YORK STATE’S PROPERTY TAX CAP A Citizens Guide
Understanding New Yorks Property Tax Cap

This is a short video put out by the Bethlehem School District:
Understanding New York State’s New Property Tax Levy Cap
But keep in mind that the video was produced by an organization with a bias in favor of schools, teachers, and superintendents. But despite all that, some of the content is helpful.

Since the state government allocates a portion of property taxes received each year to the various public school districts and the government also provides tax relief to property taxpayers in the form of a credit (STAR), the relief is in the form of the school levies credit. Tax rules govern the annual levy and relief.

Every property owner must pay the school levy property tax even if he has no children attending public school in this state. And, as the law now stands, you may own property in the district, such as if you are a business, but don’t reside in the district and you will not be able to vote on the budget! Now that’s fair, isn’t it? This is based on the government reasons on the founding principle that all children should be educated at the public’s expense (this actually is a Protestant, Calvinist, principle that entered the government’s principles). Since the state and local governments have the legal responsibility and mandate of managing public education, it levies taxes for this purpose.

Tax Cap: In 2011 the New York state legislature passed, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law the historic property tax cap. The law requires the local governments and school districts to raise taxes no more than 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. As important is that the tax cap is not a dictate from Albany.  Communities may raise or lower property taxes according to the needs of the community. If the taxpayers want to pay more taxes they can, and they can override the cap with a 60 percent vote for schools and by a 60 percent vote of the governing body for local governments.

Tax Rate: The rate at which your local government determines your property will be taxed. For example: You own a home assessed at $100,000. Your tax rate is $30.00/1000. Your tax bill will be $3,000.

Property owners often confuse property taxes and assessments. For instance, some taxpayers attempt to “grieve” their taxes. You can grieve your assessment, but not your taxes.

Assessments not taxes – Assessments are determined by local assessors when they determine the value of your property

[Editor’s Note: We have it on unconfirmed information that the Town of Coeymans will be announcing on or about May 1, 2013, the news that single-family homes in the town of Coeymans are decreasing in value. Do you wonder why? Just check out the town’s feeble-minded plan for rezoning! Or would you want to live in a place that gets the pubicity that RCS has been getting from the Times Union? Sure, everyone likes Nazis, especially everyone wants Coeymanazis to run their lives for them! Sure buy property in the town of Coeymans and regret it for the rest of your life…]

Tax levy – is the term used to describe the amount the school board, town board, etc. needs to recoup to meet their budget requirments. If the budget goes up (more staff, more services, more programs, more spending) the levy is likely to go up. If staff, services, programs, spending are cut, the levy is likely to decrease to zero or even become negative. (The terms “tax levy” and “to levy taxes” are only distantly related; they are not really the same.)

Taxes are determined by school boards, town boards, city councils, county legislatures, village boards and special districts.  These jurisdictions are responsible for taxes, not assessments.

• Your assessment could increase, and your tax bill decrease.
• Your assessment could increase, and your tax bill remains the same.
• Your assessment could decrease, and your tax bill increase.

For example, the illustration below might help to understand this:

This figure illustrates how tax assessment, levy, tax bill interact.
[Source: NYS Department of Taxation & Finance, Assessments vs. Taxes]

(If you feel your assessment is too high, you should discuss it with your assessor and consider contesting it.)

So, you see, dear readers, it’s confusing only if certain people want to make it confusing. I guess they figure if your head’s spinning and your ears are ringing you’ll do anything just to make it go away. Even vote they way they want you to vote. We’re here to make certain you vote as an informed voter and not as a ventriloquist’s dummy.

[Editor’s Note: If you want to read about how the state formula works for figuring out the levy in relation to the tax cap, here’s an interesting read from the NYS Education Department: Tax Cap Guidance (NYS) March 2012.]

Listen Carefully to Reason,
Not Ignorance and Hype!
The Editor

P.S. for John Rousseau, who  recently publicly commented that he

” …had some time so I thought I’d pull out some old records and do some ‘math.’ Did a quick random sampling (that’s an actual statistical term, for all you math-folk) [Editor’s Note: Very impressive, John; thanks for prejudging everyone to be ignorant! But maybe you should take a closer look at the socio-demographics—that means the affiliations and the composition of the board at the time, John.]

• Under Scott Hughes – 98%
• Under John Bonafide – 99%
• Under Gerry Deluca – 99.875%*

That’s as far back as my records go. I’m sure they aren’t completely complete. But why should accuracy get in the way of statistics.
Mathematically speaking, those guys were pretty good too, right?”

Wrong! All that your figures show is that you’re a sure winner when you play with loaded dice or with a stacked deck! All you have to do is get your clubmembers on the board and Hey, MAGIC! The numbers soar! That’s not statistics nor is it math. It’s Coeymanazi politics!

Moreover, if Rousseau has that much time on his hands to do that kind of statistics he really needs to find a life.

JR, You’re a Dancing Turkey!

* Judging by the number of “significant figures” John Rousseau is a member of the Deluca fan club, and is an outspoken contributor to the Times Useless blogs.

This article is NOT intended to provide tax or legal advice. It is purely for general information and discussion purposes. It is not being provided to assist the reader in making specific or general decisions regarding specific tax questions. If you feel you need tax or legal advice regarding the subject matter discussed in this article, please consult with a professional tax advisor or with a licensed attorney. Thank you for your visit and understanding.