New York state school districts are going up to the chopping block in a special session of the state Legislature today and expect to see the increase of state aid that was allocated to them in April reduced.
Gov. David Paterson issued a proposal last Wednesday to cut state expenditures, including about $585 million to school districts.
Most districts will still receive more aid in the 2008-09 school year under Paterson's plan than they did in the previous school year, but opponents say cutting the budget in the middle of the year will put a debilitating weight on districts. Rising costs may mean the diminished aid increase will amount to a de facto decrease in aid.
Paterson is reportedly meeting with resistance on his plan in Albany, but school districts in Tompkins County are not expecting to get the increase in funding they were promised, superintendents say.
Local districts are preparing to tighten their belts, but superintendents aren't speaking specifically about where they will make up the difference.
“We are already working on a budget based on zero percent state aid increase — which is effectively a reduction since our expenses are increasing and we can't put this burden on our taxpayers,” Dryden Superintendent Sandy Sherwood said. “Dryden runs a very lean budget and a lean staff, so we are all working together to identify ways that we could decrease spending without cutting staff or reducing offerings for our students.”
Dryden's district receives about half its funding from the state, Sherwood said, and implemented a spending freeze in October.
In the Ithaca City School District, Superintendent Judith Pastel said the board hopes to receive, at a minimum, the same amount of funding though the administration is not counting on an increase. For the 2008-09 school year, Ithaca was to get $25.7 million from the state, and Paterson's proposal would reduce that to 1.66 percent less than what they received in the 2007-08 school year.
“It's important the state not renege on the pledge they made last year,” Pastel said.
Ithaca school board member Brad Grainger said he is unsure where the board will go to make up for losing the usual increase in state aid.
“The only other place to go is to cut expenses or go to the property tax, and I think there's a reluctance to go to the property tax,” he said. “We were successful at keeping the property tax increase to less than 3 percent last year.”
Trumansburg Superintendent Paula Hurley said she expects the state cuts to have heavy consequences for school districts.
“I do believe that districts will be hit hard as we are a people business,” Hurley said. “A good majority of our budget, somewhere around 60 percent, is based on staff salaries and benefits.”
Ithaca's budget has about 70 percent allocated to personnel.
At Newfield Central School District, even more of the budget depends on state aid — nearly two thirds, said Superintendent Bill Hurley, husband of Paula Hurley.
Bill Hurley said the Newfield board of education had foreseen trouble and tried to cushion the district last year, including creating reserves.
“In this current year's budget there are many ‘one-shot' items that were purchased this year and will not require continued funding next year” like classroom furniture and a tractor, Bill Hurley wrote in an e-mail. “That will help a little bit and will be the first budget lines we cut.”
Though he is optimistic about his district's ability to manage the financial difficulties crashing over the state, Bill Hurley said it's an unhappy contrast from expectations.
“What is most unfortunate is that New York increased our expectations when they made dramatic funding increases for economically challenged districts like mine and promised to continue them for four years,” he said. “We ramped up our spending using the new funding but now we will have to cut things we just started.”
Newfield's Hurley said he will be watching how what is left for schools gets distributed after the Legislature scythes the budget.
“Upstate versus downstate, city versus suburban versus rural, wealthy districts versus poor districts, Democrats versus Republicans — it is going to be interesting to see whether New York's Legislature and governor will make decisions based upon on principles or politics,” he said.
Even after this year's cuts are over, the state will be facing an estimated budget gap of $12.5 million next year, and districts will again have to consider their financial positions as they receive their share of cuts.
“The money that Newfield will not receive as state aid, if the governor's proposals (are) adopted without change, will hurt a bit,” Bill Hurley said. “We will probably institute some immediate expenditure freezes and use up some fund balance. We will get by this year. Next year is much more of a worry.”
