PTA Council Urges Lindy Residents to Attend Legislative Breakfast

With the now in place for the next five years in New York state, residents should surely have some questions for their legislators.

That's the intent behind the , which is designed to offer the opportunity for Lindenhurst parents, homeowners, taxpayers to ask questions of their local Suffolk County and New York state politicians.

It's sponsored by the Lindenhurst Council of PTAs, and is being organized once again this year by two of its members and fellow Lindy residents and parents, Rosie Mourdoukoutas and Donna Fazio.

Mourdoukoutas and Fazio chair the , and as such, they're in charge of getting the local pols to the auditorium, where it's scheduled to take place.

This year the is scheduled for , , starting at 8:30 a.m. And there's no cost to residents to attend.

Fazio told Lindenhurst Patch that to date the following legislators have confirmed their appearances at the Breakfast this year:

• New York State Senator
• New York State Senator
• New York State Assemblyman
• Suffolk County Legislator
• Gordon Canary, Senator Owen Johnson's district office manager

Attendees will be asked to write down their questions on index cards to be collected distributed and collected at the event. A mediator will ask the questions to avoid duplication and keep things moving and focused.

"This year we're asking questions to be short and to the point, and we're asking our elected officials to please do the same," noted Fazio. "We know that the public has a lot of questions, and we'd like to have as many asked as time will allow. We also plan on having a brief open mike session at the end of the breakfast."

An iPad 2 will be raffled at this year's event, too. Tickets to win the iPad are free, and will be given those who attend the .

They'll also be given out to individuals who attend local unit PTA meetings and BOE meetings, according to the PTA Council.

(Dates could be found in the events section of Lindenhurst Patch, as well as listed and , and on the district's website here.)

"Chances are free, but the winner must be present and show identification to claim prize," noted Fazio.

There'll also be coffee, Danish and mini bagels in the LHS lobby, along with music and art displays from Lindenhurst students.

According to PTA Council President , Fazio and Mourdoukoutas have been involved in organizing the Breakfast from the start. The first two years it was held in the LHS library, and has since grown larger each year, Chapter said.

"This year, with the , it's so much more important for taxpayers to understand what their choices are," Chapter told Patch. "The taxpayers need to show support in huge numbers at this event to show elected officials that Lindenhurst and Long Island stand united, and can no longer afford to foot the bill for upstate and New York City schools."

Tax Cap Concerns
She further echoed the that Lindenhurst Superintendent Richard Nathan and the Lindenhurst Board of Education voiced at the most recent BOE community forum on , and have been voicing since before the was put in place last June.

"Long Island taxpayers fill the increasing large void left by state and federal decision-makers when they don't give back enough aid to the districts. We're done," she stated. "Upstate has had their property taxes decrease, but how can this be? Every year our taxes increase, enrollment is down, we a , [there are] unfunded mandates teacher and staff layoffs, programs cut. When will it stop?"

"We need our voices heard, and the only way to do that is to fill every seat and let our elected officials know we mean business," Fazio added.

In addition, Chapter isn't so sure that the new tax cap could help a middle-class community like Lindenhurst, which relies on state aid and doen't have big business to help offset the individual property tax burden.

Thus, she feels this year it's even more important for residents to come out for the chance to , who'll be wrestling in the coming months to complete the state budget and, in the process, finalize the state aid numbers for the 2012-13 school year.

Those numbers were released on , reported in Newsday, and could be found on he NYSED website here. During , Superintendent Nathan called the figure of $1.6 million listed for Lindenhurst Schools "inaccurate."

"Some of that aid is expense-driven," he said. "For instance, we lowered transporation costs; so when you lower costs, you get less aid. So the figure [by which the district's state aid appears to be increasing] - $1,558,375 - would be need to be reduced by $228,000 because we were able to lower transportation expenses."

also encouraged people to come to the annual .

"I behoove all of you to come and ask questions of your ," he said.