Jan Bernstein Rosenblum and Other Suffern Central Staff Misled Taxpayers on Tax Increase | Suffern Central School District
Suffern NY — The Suffern Central School District tried to push a tax increase and increased budget down the throats of taxpayers in May of 2020. They tried to tell the taxpayers, even though they had close to $30 million in reserves, that if they didn’t raise taxes or if the budget failed, draconian measures would take place and the Suffern Central School District’s world would be on fire!
Suffern Central Taxpayers Got Schloicka’d!
Steven Schloicka, the Assistant Superintendent of Business, claimed that the budget levy increase at a 1.50% would only cost the tax payers around $90 per household. He claimed that the tax rate % change would only be about .87. He said anything he needed to get this budget passed. It was important that his salary increase, after only being here for a few months, would not be affected. Steven Schloicka was suspended without pay from a previous district for almost 9 months, then went to another school district for a few months, before ending up in Suffern Central School District. It appears as though nobody vetted this guy.
This image below (without the arrows and comments) was taken from the 5/11/2020 meeting:
Jan Bernstein Rosenblum, A Suffern Central School District Employee Takes The Misinformation Campaign To Facebook
It didn’t take long for the Suffern Central School District Staff and Suffern Education Association representative to take to Facebook and start spreading misinformation. On May 23, 2020, Jan Bernstein Rosenblum, a Teaching Assistant at Montebello Elementary School and Suffern Education Association Building Representative took to Facebook to claim that the 1.25% budget levy increase would only cost the taxpayers $100 a year. Not sure how Jan Bernstein Rosenblum determined that the increase would not be a hardship on taxpayers. Seems very presumptive. Seems as though she spread the bad information that was provided by Steven Schloicka, however, as a representative of the school district, any information that she would spread would be deemed more credible than someone not employed by the district and that could have swayed votes.
It turns out that this is not the case. According to Suffern Central School Board Member, Melissa Reimer, the tax increase was closer to $225 per $50,000 assessed homes. That is more than double! Jan Bernstein Rosenblum is a representative and employee of the Suffern Central School District and she made a claim that people that many people would weigh heavily as a district employee. Did she do this in order to ensure a secure environment for the union? To ensure that the Suffern Education Association would get their raises and coaches would still be continue to get paid for not coaching? So the Union could continue lining their pockets? So administration would continue to get raises even though there was no evaluations? So just stick it to the taxpayers, even if you need to lie and deceive them to enrich the union members!
More Suffern Central School District Staff and Suffern Education Association members liking Jan Bernstein Rosenblum’s post telling the taxpayers that the increase would only be $100. When district staff is telling the public that the information they posted are facts, it is terrible to find out that the information they provide was completely wrong.
Some people might say it is their First Amendment Rights! And yes it is, however it is horrific that they would spread completely false information, representing the Suffern School District, and they directly benefit from the budget passing at the expense of the taxpayers paying the bill. It seems as though as long as their salaries go up, all is good in the world and the taxpayers should just keep on paying!
School District employee’s have the right to say almost anything they want, but they should also be held accountable when they are wrong, as they represent the district, especially when comes to a vote that benefits them personally. It seems like they will say anything to help themselves! If Jan Rosenblum wasn’t sure that the information was correct, she should have stay quiet rather than represent spreading misinformation, as a district employee, that could sway a vote and benefit her and her colleagues.
Melissa Remier, Suffern School Board Member Called Out Schloicka’s Misleading Information
At the 5/12/2020 (at about the 22 minute mark) warned tax payers that the $60 per year increase was not realistic and actually out right false. Reimer spoke out at several meetings, questioning the numbers, yet Steven Schloicka would quip back and try to make the numbers dance, so that the public would think that the increase was minimal. Maybe this was the reason he was suspended for 9 months from Gloversville School District? We don’t know because Lisa Weber never vetted Steven Schloicka!
Matthew Kern seemed to be confused by the numbers.
Tom Donnelly aka “Taxem Tom” — Suffern School Board Member
Tom Donnelly, also a School Board Member, referred to the increase as “coffee money for the week”. Seems pretty cold and callous, however, Donnelly is used to legally robbing the tax payers blind.
According to an article called “One Local Cop Earned $442,000: How Police Rob Taxpayers Blind in Pay, But Refuse to Reform” on the website themindunleashed.com, “Tom Donnelly, the now-retired Ramapo school safety officer with the several hundred thousand-dollar cushion, earned the largest paycheck of any police officer outside New York City — as one of almost 175,000 employees sharing $9.7 billion total paid in salary from taxes for the 12-month year ending on March 31, 2017, reports the Empire Center.”
Donnelly’s pension is tremendous and his daughter works for the school district, so he doesn’t mind recommending that the residents get taxed at the highest rate possible, every budget. Taxem’ Tom also known as 2% Tom doesn’t mind taking the taxpayers hard earned money. It an assessed home at $50,000 has an increase of $225 at a 1.25% levy increase, what would Taxem Tom’s 2% increase look like? It would look pretty scary.
So we the taxpayers got played again! We trusted the school district and their staff to tell us what the bill was going to be. In what other scenario would someone ever say just take my money even though I don’t know what it is going to cost me!
Originally published at https://www.sufferncentralschoolswatchdog.com on August 19, 2020.