Comments on: Long Island’s Special Taxing Districts

By: boblothrope

boblothrope — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:25:48 +0000

“This special district has the lowest assessment. We have a very small commercial base in Baldwin and it’s non-existent in South Hempstead.”

Well, if they consolidated Sanitary District #2 into the general town garbage district, they’d get the benefit of all the commercial taxes in the rest of the town.

And nobody’s saying the workers on the street are doing a bad job, just that the overhead costs of all the tiny districts, and the fragmented tax bases, make things much more expensive than they have to be.

By: proud "hemper"

proud "hemper" — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:10:26 +0000

Why is this “garbage” being brought up again?? Ms Mallay is a non-issue in this town, not wanted, not needed, not liked. The super majority of this great neighborhood love it here and love the services we get. Our garbage men and the fire dept do a great job and we would have to pay for these services no matter who provides them. so just leave south hempstead alone and crawl back into the pile of “garbage” you came from!!!

By: South Hempstead Resident

South Hempstead Resident — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:11:45 +0000

I’ve lived in South Hempstead for 28 years. Ms. Mallay DID NOT restart the civic association. That was done at least 10 years before. I know because I was on the board. Seems her “facts” aren’t quite accurate. She also DOES NOT have broad support from the residents of SH. I was also at the meeting at the local school in which we were given 4 days notice. Most of the yelling was done by Ms. Mallay and her cronies and there were NO firemen in uniform from Albany. Members from the SHFD were there. Did she expect them to not be there? Hello? They pay taxes too. If she’s so unhappy here, move.I think whomever wrote this story should check their facts next time. By the way, I’m pretty sure Levinson was voted out the next election.

By: Gina

Gina — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:57:07 +0000

First and surely,
These two women need to get a hobby instead of wasting their time paying attention to the special districts, they should get a second job and then maybe afford nassau county taxes. Firstly regarding the sanitary districts…They do a more then excellent job, the one around me picks up garbage 3 times a week. And happen to do a more then excellent job. There men work their butt off..I think that these two women should run beind a truck one day and see what its like to be one of them as well as see what an amazing job they do and see that its NOT EASY!
secondly, one of these women lives in suffolk. WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING TALKING ABOUT NASSAU?
Thirdly, seriously, you sit there thinking this all out??

By: Paullll

Paullll — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:59:36 +0000

I wish I lived in a ‘special’ water district–I couldn’t possibly pay more than the $200 I just paid Aqua water for 2 months of service!

By: set the record straight

set the record straight — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:27:13 +0000

For the record, Ms Mallay did not “rekindle her blocks dormant civic association” it was a thriving organization until she took over as president along with all her cronies. she was the president at the time when she took on the fire dept and the sanitation dept. Sounds a little like she was power hungry to me!

By: gunner

gunner — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:18:26 +0000

NIKOLA, Really! easier to track your tax dollars? Sewer taxes go toward running the sewer plant. Can you tell me where your Town, County, State, & Federal Tax dollars go? You can’t because these entities are to big with to many different functions with less transparency. What are the most important vital government functions? What could you live without? Sewer, water, fire & rescue? Is it prudent to allow these services to be swallowed up by a large bureaucracy? How’s the MTA doing? NYC balances its budget through a water tax! and itwas NYS that approved the pensions that were later found to be bogus! The bigger the government the bigger the abuses…..

By: SH Resident

SH Resident — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:52:53 +0000

It always strikes me as strange when someone “flips sides” . 10 years ago when Ms. Mallay was remodeling her home on Weber St, it became a daily occurence to see a Sanitation 2 garbage truck at her house hauling away her demolition debris. Now that she has no need for them she’s attacking them. Hmmmmmmm somethings not right!

By: enough is enough

enough is enough — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:33:01 +0000

Stop going after the fire depts and sanitation depts. we pay sky high taxes because of the school districts!!! no one does anything about them. We need to get rid of all the extra principals and administrators at the top, then we can talk about real savings. Getting rid of teachers and aides does not save real money upper management is where we waste tax dollars!!

By: stop attacking the fire depts

stop attacking the fire depts — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:28:36 +0000

“volunteer” firemen are real firemen!!!! They are just as” real” as the fdny. When there is an emergency no one cares if it is a paid or volunteer that shows up, just glad that they are there. If you think we pay high taxes now do the numbers for going to all paid. If we went to an all paid fire dept system we would ALL have to leave long island. we would not be able to afford to live here. “volunteer” means they do it for nothing, just the satisfaction of helping their neighbors. So what if they have a room in the firehouse to relax in. Most firehouses on long island do not have fancy rooms certainly not plush. I bet if you ask anyone who has had to use them to save a life or to run into their burning bldg to save them, they would have nothing but praise for the good job they do, so mr crankypaul do me a favor and if in the future you find yourself in the need of an ambulance call the police dept they will gladly help you and give you a ride to the hospital and then send you a lovely bill in the mail for their “service”

By: Nikola

Nikola — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:00:53 +0000

Gunner wrote “You could eliminate all special Districts and it would not reduce taxes unless the services provided were also eliminated.”

True. But think — it would be a LOT easier to keep track of if there weren’t so many of them. Town, county, state, federal — that’s four, without even counting the school, fire, water, village, etc. districts.

By: gunner

gunner — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:08:49 +0000

The last time I checked the bigger the government the bigger the budgetary woes …Schools….County….State….Feds…..of course they would have you believe just the opposite….wake up! You could eliminate all special Districts and it would not reduce taxes unless the services provided were also eliminated.

By: Paul Cartier

Paul Cartier — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:01:28 +0000

As Chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners of the South Hempstead Fire District.. Both then and now.. all I would like to mention is that had Mr Levinson not ambushed us and South Hempstead, I’m CERTAIN things would have been different. I received a mailing on Good Friday stating there would be a Town Hall Meeting on TUESDAY! topics include Sanitation 2 and the South Hempstead Fire District. I called Mr Levinson’s office Friday afternoon to see if they would tell me exactly what they would be talking about.. Was told Mr Levinson was not there and I would “just have to go to find out”. They were not at liberty to talk to me. I read Mr Levinson’s website and all the talk about consolidation. Would it have been difficult for Mr Levinson to contact the fire district advising us what his intentions were prior to this announcement? Of course not, that was not how he wanted it to work. ..
Five years later.. MANY Freedom of information requests.. Five audits.. and still no wrongdoing has been found..
The sensationalism regarding the town hall meeting makes for good reading, I suppose. I don’t know of ANYONE from ALBANY who attended to support us. If someone knows who this was I would love to thank him/her for their support.

By: Right to Arm Bears

Right to Arm Bears — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:50:13 +0000

All of these districts are little more than the personal cash cows of the employees which administer them.

The founders knew how to deal with self serving vermin such as these individuals.

Take a page from their book.

Ballots or Bullets, better do something soon.

By: peachis

peachis — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:09:32 +0000

The village taxes are a big rip-off….here in Lindenhurst, if you live in the Village, you pay more taxes, but get way worse services. On snowy days, the roads are terrible. They don’t even sand them. If you’re lucky enough to live outside the village, the Town of Babylon Sanitation Dept does a great job clearing the roads.

There is just no need to have these villages, with their patronage jobs given to people who get paid a lot and do NOTHING to earn their salaries.

By: Samm

Samm — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:18:40 +0000

This shows the amount of wasted tax dollars, without a real advocate for the tax payer, we are doomed to be ripped off. Let’s face it, if you live on Long Island, you are not getting your tax dollars to work for you. In my town if you do not tip the sanitation workers, come snowfall they actually raise the plow as they pass your house. I documented it, complained to my town supervisor and the sanitation supervisor. Nothing done, not even a call back. They don’t care folks, the system in place allows them to use your tax dollars as they wish. Forget about the school tax, no one in Nassau or Suffolk government has the cajones to stand up to them. Find one instance that they have. Remember when they found those lawyers that were paid by multiple school districts multiple times for the same job, hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars………what ever happened to them or our money…………NOTHING………Absolutely NOTHING. So here is the reality we are facing. Most of us middle class will be pushed out of Long Island, care to think who will buy the home next to you, the same one that has lost it’s property value by at least 25%…..

By: Jeff D

Jeff D — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:21:31 +0000

“The auditorium was packed to the brim,” Levinson recalls. “And what was parked outside? A big fire truck! And they had brought in firemen from Albany in full-dress uniform to picket me! That meeting got to be very, very tense because they were convinced I was trying to close the fire district.”

I HIGHLY DOUBT THAT HARVEY. Talk about sensationalizing your fairy tale of a story. Why don’t you just enjoy your big fat pension from the residents of Nassau County while you’re living in Florida. Perhaps you might want to tell everyone what EXACTLY you did to address this issue?? Did you do anything???
Or are you just now telling tales of how the “big bad Firemen” were thweatening poor wittle old me:??????

By: crankypaul

crankypaul — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:15:50 +0000

In the area of the Village of Patchogue there is a sanitation department and the taxes are part of the local taxes. At homes just outside the village are special Town of Brookhaven assessments for trash removal to pay for the private haulers. Theo TOB rate is higher than the Village of Patchogue Rate.

As for the Fire Districts, we need to abolish “volunteer” fire departments. In most if not all of the districts there are now pensions paid, I have no idea what other stipends are doled out. The trucks purchased are generally twice the price of a typical NYC truck and they are replaced far more frequently, especially when taking their actual use to fight fires into consideration. We need paid fire departments with “real” firemen, not volunteers who are treated to plush game rooms and bars and frequent parties and get aways. Long Island Firemen aren’t worked anywhere near as hard as a FDNY member is but they are given perks far in excess of what the FDNY gets.

By: wil

wil — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:24:58 +0000

What did Tom Suozzi say made him lose? The School tax not special Sanitary districts. Get real thats where the waste is !
Please ! Cut the waste in the school system FIRST !
The sanitation dept does a great job in my area.

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