Lee is right about mandates. In a few minutes, County Exec Astorino explains the NYS Legislature's mandate "scam" at a League of Women Voters Unfunded Mandates Forum in Rye - see http://vimeo.com/41332643 - skip to minute 13:00 (Re. Lee's comments about local control, see Rye Neck Superintendent Dr. Mustich at minute 41) The NYS Legislature imposed a tax cap which limits spending by school districts, towns, and counties, but not the Legislature's own excessive spending. The Legislature forces local governments to diet, while it eats/spends all it wants. Feast for them, famine for local government. This imbalance has ignited a statewide wave of layoffs which will continue for the next few years if nothing is done. See "64% of schools cutting teaching positions" at http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201205090849/NEWS/305090091&nclick_check=1 Feast for overspending Legislators, famine for laid off teachers. Ask BCSD school, and Pound Ridge/Bedford town, board members - they'll tell you that for years a majority of the Legislature has ignored repeated, reasoned, school and town pleas for mandate relief. Solution? Voter pressure to support school and town board requests to the Legislature for mandate relief. As Astorino/Mustich say, town, school, county governments AND VOTERS need to unite, speak, and vote, with one voice for Mandate Relief Now. To stop the flood of teacher layoffs, this year, next year, the next year (Last March, BCSD Wollin projected cutting 70 staff positions EVERY YEAR if nothing is done). One kind of pressure is to sign BEST4NY's online Mandate Relief Petition linked at BEST4NY.org Signers include the NYS School Boards Association; Assemblymen Robert Castelli and Steve Katz; Bedford Supervisor Lee Roberts; BCSD Board Pres. Susan Wollin and board members Suzanne Grant and Graham Anderson; Lee Goldstein; and Chappaqua's School Board Pres. and 3 board members. Hopefully other BCSD, Pound Ridge, and Bedford board members and voters, also will sign and speak for meaningful mandate relief with one united voice. The tax cap is half a loaf, mandate relief is the missing, other half. Let's end the NYS Feasts paid for by Local Government Famines. NYS needs to share the burden, not impose it solely on local government. View Comment

The article doesn't mention mandates. If the candidates ignored unfunded mandates, they're ignoring an approaching financial hurricane. In a few minutes, County Exec Astorino explains the NYS Legislature's mandate "scam" at a League of Women Voters Unfunded Mandates Forum in Rye - see http://vimeo.com/41332643 - skip to minute 13:00 ( K-L board members and candidates also see Rye Neck Superintendent Dr. Mustich at minute 41) The NYS Legislature imposed a tax cap which limits spending by school districts, towns, and counties, but not the Legislature's own excessive spending. The Legislature forces local governments to diet, while it eats/spends all it wants. Feast for them, famine for local government. This imbalance has ignited a statewide wave of layoffs which will continue for the next few years if nothing is done. See "64% of schools cutting teaching positions" at http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201205090849/NEWS/305090091&nclick_check=1 Feast for overspending Legislators, famine for laid off teachers. Ask K-L school, and nearby town, board members - they'll tell you that for years a majority of the Legislature has ignored repeated, reasoned, school and town pleas for mandate relief. Solution? Voter pressure to support school and town board requests to the Legislature for mandate relief. As Astorino/Mustich say, town, school, county governments AND VOTERS must unite, speak, and vote, with one voice for Mandate Relief Now. To stop the flood of teacher layoffs, this year, next year, the next year. One kind of pressure is to sign BEST4NY's online Mandate Relief Petition linked at BEST4NY.org Signers include the NYS School Boards Association; Assemblymen Robert Castelli and Steve Katz; Bedford Supervisor Lee Roberts; and Bedford Central School District President Susan Wollin; 2 other Bedford School Board members; and the President and 3 members of Chappaqua's school board. Hopefully all 4 K-L candidates, existing K-L school and neighboring town board members, and voters, also will sign and speak for meaningful mandate relief with one united voice. The tax cap is half a loaf, mandate relief is the missing, other half. Let's end the NYS Feasts paid for by Local Government Famines. NYS needs to share the burden, not impose it solely on local government. View Comment

Pleasantville voters who wish to aid their school board's mandate relief agenda need to contact their NYS Senator and Assemblyman. A majority of the NYS Legislature has for years ignored requests from school districts and town boards and county legislators to provide mandate relief. Voter involvement is required to change Albany minds, because voters have the power to hire and fire legislators in the votting booth. Mandate-supporting legislators are more likely to listen to the voters who can replace them than local elected officials who can't. So voters can write letters and call their legislators. They also can sign BEST4NY' s online Mandate Relief petition. Go to best4ny.org and please sign the petition. Several years of serious layoffs lie ahead if nothing is done. View Comment

Thank you Astorino and Feinstein for telling the truth. As Astorino said, voters are the victim of a scam, namely, a tax cap without mandate relief. and the economic situation is "frightening." The NYS Legislature won't admit this in an election year, because its unchecked and excessive mandated spending in county, school, town budgets is to blame. Voters can't fix a problem they aren't informed about, so the Legislature withholds the storm warning. The Legislators correctly assume voters won't support them once voters understand the state's scam. How does the scam work? The Legislature's tax cap limits county, school, and town spending, but permits the Legislature's mandated spending to escalate uncontrollably. The Legislature eats all it wants, but forces local governments onto a diet. Result, many teacher and other employee layoffs will occur throughout the state in the next 2-3 years if nothing is done. The Layoff Legislature is becoming the teachers unemployment agency - a serious threat to quality of public education. Two things are needed. As Galef says, voters must pressure Senators and Assemblymen, including her, for mandate relief. One way to do this is to sign BEST4NY's Mandate Relief petition - google that group for its website and petition, then please sign. Assemblyman Bob Castelli, the NYS School Boards Association, various school board members and mayors and many voters, have signed. Uninvolved voters allow the destructive status quo to continue. The other thing needed is for NYS Senators and Assemblymen, one vote at a time, to publicly endorse mandate relief legislation that fixes things. For example, at the meeting Galef endorsed Assemblyman Bob Castelli's bill for a 2 year freeze on the Triborough Amendment and then endorsed extending the freeze to 10 years. Bravo - that's progress. Her bill for an income tax school surcharge is not - it perpetuates the status quo by not limiting spending.. The tax cap is not the problem and overriding it isn't a sustainable long-term solution. The tax cap is half a solution - mandate relief is the missing half. Please sign the BEST4NY Mandate Relief petition and help make mandate relief happen. View Comment

A school board and a town board uniting for action on mandate relief is terrific and a potential game changer if school boards and town boards across New York State follow Rye's lead. Here's hoping they do. Congratulations on your initiative and leadership from BEST4NY, a group of Westchester residents also working for mandate relief. Voters can support Rye's great effort by signing BEST4NY’s online petition for NYS Mandate Relief Now. Signed by the New York State School Boards Association, by Assemblyman Robert Castelli, by various Westchester school board Presidents, school board members and town Supervisors, and by voters all over NYS, the petition is linked at BEST4NY’s website. School boards and town boards lack the legal authority to impose solutions on the Legislature. Voters have power over the Legislature through the ballot box. Voter inactivity perpetuates the destructive status quo which Rye's elected board members wish to correct. BEST4NY's Mandate Relief petition asks NYS’s Layoff Legislature to provide meaningful mandate relief and stop the wave of teacher and other employee layoffs caused by the Legislature's out of control and unsustainable mandated spending. Legislators keep spending while their tax cap forces school and town boards to cut local spending. Layoffs are one result. Also ask your school and town boards how you can work with them to inform and involve more voters in this effort. Without voters insisting that the Legislature provide long overdue mandate relief, the layoffs will continue year after year to compensate for the Layoff Legislature’s unchecked spending. Please visit BEST4NY.org to find and sign the petition. Albany is the problem. View Comment