2011-12 Pine Plains distric budgets rejected

PINE PLAINS — The Pine Plains school budget failed to pass during the Tuesday, May 17, districtwide vote.Two additional propositions — one to purchase five school buses and one to create a reserve fund that would finance capital improvements throughout the district — were also voted down.Two seats on the Board of Education (BOE) were also on the vote. Brian Croghan kept his seat with 438 votes and Gary W. Griffen won the second seat with 356 votes. Todd Bowen lost his seat with 329 votes and Mary Bowen received 302 votes.The proposed budget was for $27.9 million. That would have been roughly a $1 million or 3.996 percent increase over the 2010-11 budget, and an estimated 4.61 percent increase in the tax levy.The BOE plans to revisit the budget as a jumping-off point and develop a new fiscal plan to put before the area residents before reverting to a contingency budget.Contingency budgets have more state mandates, which restricts the BOE’s freedom to decide where to cut costs.The budget will be revisited at the next BOE meeting, which will be held Wednesday, June 1, at 7 p.m. in the Seymour Smith school.If the new budget fails to pass, the contingency budget will automatically go into place. The contingency budget would amount to $27.6 million, which is a $734,000 or 2.731 percent increase from the 2010-11 budget.The failed proposition regarding the bus purchases would have allowed the school district to buy five buses — two 65-passenger buses, two 12-passenger buses and one bus with a wheelchair lift — at a total cost of $373,000, which would have been spread over five years.The failed proposition regarding the creation of a reserve fund would have allowed the district to create a new Districtwide Renovation Reconstruction and Construction Capital Reserve. The reserve, which would have had a five-year restriction, would have used available year-end funds to finance building improvements throughout the district. A similar reserve was approved during the 2005 vote. This reserve would have continued that reserve, which also had a five-year cap.Understanding the budgetThe budget is broken down into three components: administrative, program and capital.The administrative component covers things like general support, building administration and employee benefits and accounts for $3.1 million, or 11.3 percent, of both the failed budget and the contingency budget. The administrative component in the contingency budget is $23,800 less than the failed budget.The program component covers things like regular school teaching, special education, summer school, the school library, interschool athletics and pupil transportation. It accounts for $22 million (79 percent) of the failed budget and $21.9 million (79.3 percent) of the contingency budget. The program component of the contingency budget would be $178,041 less than the failed budget.The capital component covers things like operations, maintenance, assessments, employee benefits and debt service. It accounts for $2.7 million (9.7 percent) of the failed budget and $2.6 million (9.3 percent) of the contingency budget. The capital component of the contingency budget would be $138,000 less than the failed budget.A specific breakdown of all the costs included in the budget can be found on the Pine Plains School District website, www.ppcsd.org. Click on the “District” drop-down menu and select “Business and Finance.” In the menu on the left of the screen, click on the link called “Budget Information.” On the bottom of that page, click the related link called “2011-2012 Budget Information.” That will take you to a page where you can find PDF files with specific information about the budget. The file entitled “11-12 Budget — Public Hearing Presentation 5-4-11” lists specific costs in the budget, details the differences between the 2010-11 budget and the 2011-12 budget, and explains the difficulties in creating this year’s budget.Taxpayer impactThe Pine Plains Central School District serves parts of nine towns in two counties.To calculate the school tax rate, three elements are taken into account: local assessments, local equalization rates and the tax levy. The first factor is determined by the local assessor and the second is determined by the state of New York. Only the total tax levy for the upcoming school year is decided by the school district.The equalization rates vary among municipalities and are set by the New York State Office of Real Property Tax Services. They are computed by dividing the total assessed value of all properties in the municipality with the market value (as established annually by the state) and multiplying that number by 100. Therefore an equalization rate of 100 means that the properties’ assessed value and market value are the same.Using prior years’ local assessments and assuming an equalization rate of 100, the school district can provide taxpayers with a rough estimate of tax rates, called a True Value Tax Rate, which provides an estimate of the impact that the proposed tax levy will have on property owners.The projected True Value Tax Rate estimate based on the failed 2011-12 budget would have been $12.21 per $1,000 of assessed property value. That is an increase of 54 cents from the 2010-11 budget.In other words, a taxpayer with a property assessed at $100,000 (and assuming an equalization rate of 100) would have seen their yearly taxes increase by roughly $54.