The Garden City School District may soon see their state aid slashed by $460,000, announced Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Feirsen at the November 17th meeting of the Garden City Board of Education. Gov. David A. Paterson has proposed midyear state aid cuts for public schools in an effort to close a serious budget deficit estimated to total $3.2 billion.

Dr. Feirsen explained that districts are not allowed to make midyear tax adjustments to compensate for any cuts, and would instead be called upon to make major changes in its financial planning. The tax levy, which was based on state aid, has been set and cannot be changed.

“We are in good financial shape,” said Dr. Feirsen. “Nevertheless, a cut of that proportion would significantly impact our district’s ability to continue with its planned expenditures for the rest of the year.”

He urged residents to monitor the debate as it evolves in Albany. Dr. Feirsen said there is a coalition of Long Island and upstate legislators who feel that the midyear cuts would be “extraordinarily difficult” for school districts.

The governor threatened midyear cuts last year, but they ultimately did not go through. The last time the district experienced mid-year cuts was in 1990-91 during former Gov. Mario Cuomo’s tenure.

In other financial news, Al Chase, the district’s assistant superintendent for business and finance, commented on an article appearing in Newsday last week that posted the tax rate increases advertised by school districts with the actual increases. In Garden City, the article reported that the advertised increase was 1.7 percent and the actual was 3.5.

“While it might be true that the 3.5 percent tax rate is correct, basically what I am here to tell you is that the tax rate itself is meaningless,” he said.

The district looks at the overall blended tax rate because of a belief that it is most representative of what happens in the community. The blended tax rate was, and still is, 1.57 percent.

This year the county did not release their base proportions, which is needed to determine the tax rate for each property class, until Sept. 23. Those figures are usually released in the first week of May. When the district received the base proportions, they determined that the actual tax rate increase rose to 2.17 percent on Class 1 properties, which includes single-family homes.

Chase explained that several things affect the tax rate. A few years ago, the county changed its assessment computation, and went from one percent of assessed value, down to .5, down to .25. Chase said that effectively quadruples the tax rate.

“The information reported by Newsday, in my opinion and in the opinion of many of my colleagues around the county, is that that information is meaningless, it’s misleading and people should not go by that.”