School districts put out best budgets they can in economic worst times

The public vote for both the Webutuck Central School District and the Pine Plains Central School District is coming up this Tuesday, May 19. On that day taxpayers living in those school districts will have the opportunity to weigh in on whether they believe the fiscal plans drafted by the schools’ superintendents and worked on by the boards of education are appropriate for their children and their wallets.

Both districts faced the same challenges this year — creating plausible budgets while juggling dwindling state aid, working to improve scholastic and extracurricular offerings and capping the tax burden at reasonable rates.

Yes, the federal stimulus package helped equalize some of Gov. David Paterson’s deep cuts to the state aid on which our schools rely so heavily. Webutuck’s state aid decreased by $450,000 while Pine Plains’ state aid decreased by $700,000; sadly enough, those numbers could have been a lot worse. The money from the stimulus package, however, will only balance off those state aid losses for two years, then it’s back to crossing our fingers and holding our breath while we await figures from Albany.

Webutuck is proposing a pretty tight budget this year of $20.5 million, which is roughly a half of a percent increase in the tax levy from this year. According to Superintendent Richard Johns, that’s the third smallest tax levy increase in the district during the past 29 years.

The school board has done its best to keep the budget from getting voted down. If it fails twice, the district will be forced to adopt a contingency budget. That’s a worst-case scenario budget. Budget lines like equipment purchases would be cut and services like providing district buildings for community use would not be allowed under a contingency plan. In Webutuck’s case, under a contingency budget, the tax levy would drop below zero and the school board fears that would risk state aid now and in the future.

In Pine Plains, where the district is currently operating on a contingency budget due to its proposed budget being voted down by taxpayers twice last year, there is fear of another year repeating the same pattern. This year the school board could not purchase much-needed buses for the district; to prevent that from happening again there’s a separate proposition included on the ballot Tuesday to purchase five new buses for the district, costing Pine Plains $340,000 (after state aid is accounted for).

The Pine Plains Board of Education approved a $26.4-million budget, which means a 6-percent tax levy increase (of course this is over this year’s contingency budget). That’s even with a $600,000 cut from the various lines in the fiscal plan. Without the stimulus package, Superintendent Linda Kaumeyer said the state’s contribution that the budget relies on so heavily would have been nil.

“Without the stimulus package, state aid is essentially flat-lining,� she said. Aptly put.

The Pine Plains district created a contingency budget for the 2009-10 academic year, just in case it’s necessary. It would shave off $19,000 from the original plan, thus saving taxpayers a whopping $1 a year.

For that price, in either district, is it really worth not supporting your school district and the budget it believes will best serve your children? The superintendents and the school boards in your district have worked hard on these budgets. They may not be perfect, but they do represent what will work best in the worst of situations. State aid is nominal. Cuts are at every corner. If it weren’t for the stimulus package, who knows how badly our districts would be hurting right now? Contingency budgets have their place, but they are by no means ideal. They limit our school boards in what they can do and it’s clearly best for the voting public to back the boards and their budgets, so they can operate with  fiscal plans that can allow them to run their schools to the best of their abilities.

Throughout the budget process, the public has had many chances to learn about the budgeting process and to voice its concerns, so there’s no excuse for being kept in the dark at this point. Board members from both Webutuck and Pine Plains have been open about their concerns and conversely have listened to members from the public vent theirs. Now is the time to support the work the school boards do, voluntarily, to ensure a better experience for everyone involved, taxpayers included. Come Tuesday, vote “yes� for your school district’s budget.