Bethpage-Tribune_1972-11-16

              BETHIKGE
i* V.
OLD BETHB>GE
also serving I S L A N D T R E ES
PLAINVIEW PLAINEDGE SEAFORD
VOL. 7 NO. 1
Thursday, November 16, 1972 J •«
"Happiness Is Winning"
10 cents per copy
County Budget Dips
FOP Second Year
VICTORY HUG: Assemblyman-elect Stuart Levine
(R-Bethpage), left, receives a victory hug from State
Senator Ralph Marino after both were declared win­ners
in the 1972 election. Levine, seeking office for the
first time, won by more than 8,000 totes.
lESSMANiN^HE^FftMtLYT^oTIgfeiJsmun^f
elect Angelo D. Roncallo, right, shares the joys of
victory with his two sisters and his father. Roncallo
was elected in the newly created Third Congressional
District by a plurality of more than 30,000 votes.
• IN-QSS&u County
Ralph G. Caso today has
proposed a 1973 budget calling for
a tax cut of more than 12 cents
per $100 of assessed valuation for
most county residents - the
second reduction in his two years
in office.
In presenting the budget to the
County Board of Supervisors and
asking for approval, Caso said,
"This will put to rest the
speculation^ that last year's tax
.aiL,.was^^*iJiUceJ!L.,4rtie--«Gunty-'
executive said he was able to
recommend the tax reduction
because "my government has
been cost conscious and single-minded
in its determination to
stabilize taxes in the county."
Caso's 1972 budget, the first of
his administration, reduced the
county tax-rate by 19 cents per
$100.;., That ,w,as. accomplished
while overcoming a $20,000,000
deficit that he claimed he
inherited" from the previous
administration. Caso's first
budget showed a 10.9 per cent
increase in spending. The budget
proposed today shows an 11.3 per
cent increase. In the six years
prior to his taking office, county
spending rose an average of 23
per cent a year.
The budget offered to the
supervisors today shows a tax
reduction of 12.1 cents for the
Town of Hempstead and 11 cents
for the towns of Oyster Bay and
North Hempstead.
Caso said that his budget
"satisfies my twin objectives -
providing essential Government
services at the lowest possible
cost and achieving stabilization
of the awesome tax burden thrust
upon our taxpayers." The county
^K«eutiv.a*aidriiiai.^
dilemma in which we are trapped
by the onerous fiscal burdens
imposed upon us by state and
federal programs that are
inadequately funded."
A total of 65.7 per cent or
$31,700,000 of the projected
$48,300,000 increase in 1973
spending is a direct result of
ACTION SHOT - Nassau County Executive Ralph G.
Caso (right), has his suit coat off, his shirt sleeves
rolled up and his sharp pencil ready for action, while
Deputy County Executive Thomas G. DeVivo, the
county's chief fiscal officer, explains a point in the
proposed Nassau County budget for 1973.
federal and state mandated
programs over which the county
administration has no
discretionary authority, Caso
said. He noted that internal
administrative reforms had
qualified the county for more
state and federal aid than ever
before but that such aid is still
Caso said the inadequacy was
offset to some extent by the fact
that his administration has in­creased
non-local tax revenues
by 45 per cent during his first twOj,
years in offic«*#This 45 per cent
increase is all the more
remarkable when you consider
that we had hoped to receive
$3,000,0000 in ' offtrack betting
revenue and $1,500,0000 from a
transfer tax - funds which did not
materialize," Caso added.
Caso said that revenue sharing
does not compensate for
inadequately funded mandated
.programs, The county executive
.said that while the county
sharing funds this year and will
get another $10,500,000 in 1973,
"Congress emasculated the
original intent of the President's
revenue sharing proposal by
discriminating against suburban
areas in favor of urban and rural
areas."
Community Schoolers Question
Plainedge's Plans For Them
RETURNED TO FAMILY COURT: Achieving a
victory of more than 120,000 votes over his closest
opponent. Family Court Judge Martin Ginsberg thanks
his supporters while the election returns were still
,be.in8. Posted Jit Nassau Republican Headquarters-. ••>
By Richard Wood
David Crosby, Stephen Stills,
Graham Nash and Neil Young
sang a song once, part of which
went something like this:
"Youth who're on the road,
Must have a code
That they can live by....
And so, become yourself."
The road, of course, can be
called the road of life. The song
was called "Teach Your
Children."
The intent of the song's lyric
and the philosophy of the
Plainedge School" District's
Community School Program, two
concepts which at first glance
may seem incongruous, are
neither dissimilar nor
unrelatable.
In a regular business meeting
of the Plainedge School Board,
held last Thursday evening,
November 9, at Plainedge High
School, the future and nature of
the district's experimental
Community School Program was
placed in doubt.
The program, which takes its
basis from an important and
realistic concept, that of learning
through living, has permitted
certain selected students to
forego normal courses in favor of
other, comparatively un­structured
educational pursuits.
If, an analogy had to be drawn,
Plainedge's Community School
Program could probably be
compared with the so-called Free
Universities that have developed
on the fringes of many university
campuses in recent years.
Students participating in the
special Plainedge program audit
college classes, visit museums,
do hospital work, attend court
cases, the cinema,^concerts and
ballets, and enroll in various off-campus
workshops.
•/•rAtM*' 'the program -appears to
V-3Jf (Continued on Page 8)