23 Monroe County school districts file suit over tax plan

A total of 23 Monroe County school districts, including some that include a portion of the county, have formally filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court.

The lawsuit, said Jody Siegle of the Monroe County School Boards Association "is the only voice" school districts have in the county's Sept. 26 decision to adopt the so-called FAIR plan and reduce, by 50 percent, the amount of sales tax revenue schools receive from the county.

In the lawsuit, which names not only Monroe County but also the full County Legislature and Legislature President Wayne Zyra and County Executive Maggie Brooks, the school districts are asking the court to set aside the county action.

The court is also being asked to order that the county pay school districts the amount of sales tax that it would have paid if it had not elected an intercept plan to pay Medicaid costs.

"The primary issue here is a legal one," Siegle said in a Wednesday, Oct. 24 press conference held in the West Irondequoit School District's administration building."There is really only one question: Does the county have the right to alter the (sales-tax sharing) formula for distributing sales-tax money?"

Monroe County Attorney Daniel DeLaus said the lawsuit is not a surprise, "but we remain confident in our position that the county executive's FAIR lan will be upheld by the courts."

Siegle said that in filing the lawsuit, the school districts have also asked for the case to be on an expedited path, since any decision will have "budget considerations" for school districts and the county.

But we believe the arguments supporting our interpretation of the law are clear and logical," Siegle said. "We believe the county plan to balance their budget is based on assumptions that are not supported by the law."

West Irondequoit Superintendent Jeff Crane, who is also president of the Monroe County Council of School Superintendents, said that when the county sued, more than a year ago, school districts and towns to see if it could do the intercept, it cost each school district $2,500 to defend itself. The court took no action at the time, he said, because the plan had not yet been adopted and "caused no harm."

Crane said that preliminary legal work on that case, however, should mean that the current lawsuit will cost the participating districts less than $2,500 each. Siegle said a 24th district is expected to participate in the lawsuit, but is not scheduled to vote on it until Nov. 2.

Attorney Dennis Barrett of the Ferrara, Fiorenza, Larrison, Barrett and Reitz law firm, based in Syracuse, is representing the school districts.

The county has contended that it can reduce the amount of sales tax revenue going to schools because they have received record state increases in the past year.

But, Siegle says, "These sales tax dollars assigned to education are not the county government's money to use."

"We don't have the kind of flexibility in school funding that other businesses have," Crane added, explaining that much of the new aid was directed for programs to improve schools and student achievement.

By using the additional state aid, schools are accountable to the Governor, Siegle said, noting that he (Gov. Eliot Spitzer) is expecting to see results.

"It's misleading to justify this (the FAIR plan) on the basis of that extra state aid," she said.

In fact, five districts will lose more, under the FAIR plan, than they have received in additional in state aid, Siegle said. "They're just looking at deficits."

Siegle also contended at the press conference that the county executive's media campaign around the plan is misleading.

"I'd like to have seen that energy expended before the plan was adopted, rather than after," she said.

Crane also called the way the FAIR plan was adopted an "insult."

It jeopardizes local decision making, he said.

"From May to October every year, school boards struggle with developing budgets, then to have a unilateral decision, outside our own communities, dictate that, in this (West Irondequoit) district's case, they will lose $600,000 a semester until this is solved ... well that is just treating us in a cavalier way."

Linda Quinlan can be reached at (585) 394-0770, Ext. 350, or at lquinlan@mpnewspapers.com.