The following, quoted from Gilson's report, is of interest to those who pay property taxes in the Hudson City School District:
The school board also asked about overriding the tax cap. That would require 60% approval from voters, as opposed to the simple majority that suffices when the budget does not go above the tax cap.
According to a state law, if the budget does not pass after two votes, New York state would step in and prepare a contingency budget under which many new costs are prohibited, including equipment purchases, salary increases for non-union employees and new capital projects. A contingency budget would have deeper cuts than the district's proposal, Bailey said.
"A contingency budget would be a disaster, that's safe to say," school board President Mark DePace said.
Where are Ben Wyatt and Chris Traeger when you need them?
COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK
This comment was submitted by email by Susan Troy:
ReplyDeleteThere's zero doubt in my mind, based on experience, that there isn't crossover readership between TGOR, and both the Hudson, NY Community Board and the Unfiltered Hudson NY Community Board.
Interestingly, there's been next to no community conversation about the current $4 million crisis the HCSD finds itself in. The $4 million mismanagement the HCSD taxpayers find themselves in. Crickets.
And I find it impossible to believe that the HCSD's pricey Public Relations firm that taxpayers neither got the opportunity to interview nor hire, isn't reading TGOR along with the unions; elected School Board members; and every single HCSD staffer from receptionist up to Interim Superintendent.
Yet, nada. No response. Their individual and collective non-response(s) is somewhere between mockery and outright disrespect. After all, except for the School Board members, all of whom stood up, put their hands up, and said, "Pick me!! I want to volunteer. I know the answers!", everyone else gets paid by the taxpayers, supposedly their actual bosses.
Maybe silence is the strategy. Maybe they are all being counseled by attorneys and that pricey Public Relations firm to "just let it ride". "Just get past the vote". "Don't talk about it".
So then we are left with deciding which is worse: mockery, outright disrespect, or strategic silence.
So by not commenting on social media, they are not doing their job and being disrespectful? If there is just silence all together , I get it, but no one is required to respond to you or anyone else's comments on Facebook.
Delete"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
Delete~Upton Sinclair
How many families in Columbia County and the City of Hudson, Greenport, NY... have one or more family members, in-laws, or neighbours, drawing full or partial salary or retirement benefits from HCSD / City of Hudson Youth Center?
That might explain the silence?
Of course that’s their strategy. The local taxation systems and governance are purposely complicated and obscure. It’s the systemic reason how we got to the place we’re in.
DeleteFirst of all, barely anyone I know, even people I consider smart and informed, have any real understanding about property taxes. Assessments vs market value, equalization rates, mil rates—and the zero sum game where faux nonprofit exemptions, PILOTs for developers like Galvan, and the unequal “welcome stranger” assessments—all of which punish middle and working class taxpayers and renters.
Then you have a school board and budget that purposefully hold their elections and budget vote on a nondescript day in May, not with the normal primaries or general elections most people are aware of. They barely advertise the vote so that only people in the know, and those few who benefit from the high budget, show up. And if for some reason the budget actually gets voted down by the people, they can actually try it over on another day and hope people won’t bother to come back. Banana republic type democracy.
And, yes, unfortunately the Facebook groups are “low information” citizens/voters. Their lack of civic education is taken advantage of. (Do they teach local government at HCSD?). For example, many Greenport residents don’t understand that they don’t live in the municipality of Hudson and cannot vote for mayor. But they can vote for this budget since they are part of the school district. The confusion is understandable. But if they want to finally push back against the major cause of housing unaffordability (homeowners and renters alike), now’s the time to come out and vote.
Looks like we have work to do. Talk to your neighbors and fellow voters. This will never stop until the voters push back.
It seems to me the routine is to keep things quiet and the voter turnout low. Very few people actually vote to approve these budgets. It would be interesting to see what the ratio is, school taxpayers to non taxpaying renters, on these budget votes.
ReplyDeleteEveryone wants a better school, but the budget is pretty huge and keeps going up and up, with limited results. Constantly throwing more money into a sinking ship isn't helping, someone needs to go in there, throw some stuff overboard and patch up the holes before the whole thing goes down.
Why people who rent and pay no school taxes get to vote to increase the taxes of those who pay, seems strange. We have a lodging tax for lodgers, perhaps there should be a school tax fee on rentals?
Renters are affected by property taxes, which school taxes are part of. The crushing property taxes are a huge part of why their rents keep going up. Now do renters understand how that works? That’s a whole other story…
DeleteIt would be nice to see as much attention paid to the kids' development in reading and math skills as we're seeing to the budget. It's sad that less than 1/3 of the kids are proficient in math and English, and Peter Meyer seems to be the one person ringing the alarm bell.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kristal. That's a sad compliment! (Or is it a sad complement?) But I love the wonderful -- and very sad -- comment by Board President DePace: "A contingency budget would be a disaster, that's safe to say," school board President Mark DePace said. This is unfortunate -- thank you Susan Troy -- blissful ignorance from our board president, who doesn't understand that HCSD has been a rolling disaster for the last five years.
ReplyDelete