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General News: School District Paints Gloomy Budget Picture
March 02, 2011
By Charlie B. Scirbona
The 2011-2012 Cornwall school budget is being dubbed The Program Preservation Budget.
During the Monday night meeting of the Cornwall board of education, assistant superintendant for business Harvey Sotland outlined a budget that would focus on one thing: maintaining the district’s current program in the face of a $2.7 million cut in state aid.
The overview, dubbed the Program Preservation Budget, showed that even maintaining the current programs in the district would require an increase of 3.73 percent, or an added $2.1 million to maintain the current programs and staff. The district would also see an 8.57 percent increase in its school tax levy.
Retirement, Salaries and Special Ed Tied to Budget Increase
Sotland noted that these increases are caused by three factors: increases to teacher and employee retirement funds, contractual salary increases and the need to increase funding to special education summer programs because of a reduction in state aid.
Sotland said another factor came from the retirement fund being based on stock market investments, which has caused fluctuations over the years.
“The bottom line there is that we’re being whipsawed by state policy,” said Sotland.
State Aid Cuts Likely to Endure
Sotland reminded the board that the final figures on state aid for the school district have not been decided yet, but would likely face a reduction of $2.7 million. While the budget gap reduction proposed by Governor Cuomo hasn’t been decided on yet, school superintendent Timothy Rehm said thing didn’t seem likely to change.
“I just came back from a meeting in Albany and things look the same as they did when I was there Friday,” said Rehm. “It doesn’t look like the governor will budge on the $2.7 million reduction.”
Rehm added that it now looked like the governor wanted to make that number a permanent reduction in state aid to the district. He was also quick to note that Monday’s budget overview didn’t identify any specific cuts, or include any of the $2.8 million in new needs asked by the district’s schools and departments during the board’s February work session.
School Board President: “A Little Shocking”
Sotland ended his presentation noting that future budget presentations would likely be different because the state representatives still had to debate the state governor’s budget plan.
The board seemed stunned by the district’s situation.
“I think I can speak for everyone when I say it’s a little shocking,” said board president Larry Berrger. “This is the first time we’re seeing these numbers, so I think this will take a little time for all of use to process this.”
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