Seniors' property taxes, Project 2025 impact on education, housing shortage, fatal hit-and-run sentence, Israel and Gaza

Why do seniors pay to help town hires?

Next year’s Social Security increase will be only 2.5% [“Social Security benefits to rise 2.5% in ’25,” News, Oct. 11]. How can seniors who rely on Social Security as their main income source afford a higher increase in taxes, stemming from the rising costs of pensions and health insurance premiums for town employees?

Rather than continuing to overly subsidize these employee costs at the expense of taxpayers, it is time for towns to pass these increases on to the employees themselves.

It is unfair that retirees on a fixed income must pay for their own rising costs while also paying increased property taxes that are associated with the costs of town employees.

— John R. Volpe, East Meadow

Project 2025 would hurt education on LI

Voters concerned about education should be aware of Project 2025, a detailed report proposing education policies under a new administration of former President Donald Trump.

Project 2025 would phase out Title I, the largest federal program providing over $18 billion to help students from low-income families close achievement gaps.

The Center for Academic Progress reported in a July 2024 article that this would lead to the loss of 10,000 teaching positions serving about 121,000 students in New York alone.

Some 32% of Nassau County students and 44% in Suffolk are classified as economically disadvantaged. To preserve current staffing, taxpayers could be asked to absorb the financial loss by supporting increases in school budgets, i.e. higher taxes.

Project 2025 would convert special education funding from categorical to block grants. Block-grant recipients have flexibility in how dollars are spent, making it difficult to track the money, ensuring it is used for its targeted population.

Project 2025 calls for eliminating the Department of Education, consequently reducing the oversight of whether programs are following regulations for compliance, due process, and program implementation. In other words, are students receiving their entitled services?

The plan also recommends eliminating LGBTQ+ programs, abolishing Head Start, and scaling back school meals by establishing new criteria for eligibility.

Our school districts bring value to our children and our property. We cannot allow Project 2025 to take any of that away.

— Philip Cicero, North Massapequa

The writer is a retired superintendent of the Lynbrook school district.

We need housing, not more warehouses

An industrial park is being put where Computer Associates used to be in Islandia “Warehouses multiply on LI,” LI Business, Sept. 29]. Why? There already is enough empty commercial space, including the prefab monstrosity opposite BJ’s Wholesale Club.

There will be more truck traffic in the area, and the exit ramp from the Long Island Expressway to Veterans Highway will be even more dangerous as cars jockey to the right lane as they sprint off Exit 57.

If the plan is to only allow trucks to exit the rear of the property onto Motor Parkway, that would be just as dangerous. That’s because the trucks would have to use Old Nichols Road to get to the service road, and residents would be none too happy with the noise and traffic.

With the dearth of housing, why wasn’t consideration given to building homes instead? The village could have required a set-aside for affordable housing and would bring many new residents to Islandia. The village could easily make any zoning changes if needed.

— John Del Grosso, Islandia

Hit-and-run sentence a tap on the wrist

The 90-day sentence of Steven Syrop, a retired police officer and firefighter, is another travesty of justice that has become the norm in New York State [“Family assails 90-day sentence in fatal wreck,” Long Island, Sept. 27].

All too often, we see examples of the disregard for life in the form of fatal hit-and-run sentences. Syrop’s status as a first responder should warrant a heavier sentence because he knewthe gravity of his crime. Instead, he gets a tap on the wrist by Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice John Collins.

— Karen Sheerin, Islip

This old quote, alas, is still true today

Todd Pittinsky’s op-ed on the Middle East was well-reasoned [“A year later, Israel needs more than sympathy,” Opinion, Oct. 14].

How is one supposed to negotiate with people who do not believe in your right to exist?

Over half a century ago, Prime Minister Golda Meir made a statement as true today as then.

To paraphrase: “There will be no peace in the Middle East until Palestinian parents love their children more than they hate Israel.”

— Gary Aronowitz, Plainview