The Jamesville-DeWitt Board of Education began the arduous task of setting the framework for the district’s 2012-13 school budget on Wednesday night at the high school.

With a Powerpoint presentation titled Challenging Financial Times: The Budget Development Dilemma, President Virginia Murphy outlined the difficulties facing the district.

“We’re very early in the process and we do not know what our revenue will be like,” she cautioned a room of 50 or so concerned citizens. “We don’t have specific expense plans yet.”

The presentation started off by outlining many of the problems the district has to deal with: revenue decline, New York State education reform standards for students and teachers, the cost of those new state regulations and the restrictions the state has placed on local tax levy limits.

The biggest problem of all appears to be that the federal stimulus package, which schools have received the last two years, has run out. For the 2010-11 year, state aid made up 24 percent, federal and city taxes seven percent and property tax levy 69 percent of the revenue. This year, those figures are 21 percent from state aid, eight percent from federal and city taxes and 71 percent from the property tax levy.

In terms of dollars, JD received $12.4 million from state aid, with $1.7 million coming from the federal stimulus two years ago. In 2010, the state gave $11.1 million with $641,000 of that from the stimulus. Last year, JD received $9.8 million from the state. The decline, Murphy said, was directly related to New York State budget deficit restructuring and the elimination of the federal stimulus. She said JD could get up to $10.2 million from the state in 2012-13, but added: “We cannot plan for estimated state aid, but we’re hoping it remains there.”

Special education funding has gone down from $1.22 million two years ago to $789,000 this year. Again, the absence of stimulus fund is the reason, Murphy said.

She said the district projects to lose about $160,000 in city sales tax revenue.

In 2009-10, the tax levy was at $31.9 million, a 1.9 percent decrease from the previous year. In 2010-11, the levy was at $32.7 million, and $33.9 million this year. The tax rate per $1,000 was $20.43 two years ago, $20.74 last year and $21.37 this year, meaning fixing the problem relies on taxpayers.

Murphy gave an estimate for 2012-13 on the tax levy based upon a 0.51 percent tax base growth factor and a two percent consumer protection index of $34,769,189.

Dealing with the tough economy the past few years has been tough, she said, especially in making staff reductions to form a cohesive budget. In 2010-11, 10.2 non-instructional jobs were cut, while 8.9 instructional jobs were cut. Last year, 17.5 non-instructional jobs were lost, including a total of 13 coaches. In the classroom, 11.7 jobs were slashed.

Murphy also spoke about the district’s reserves, which she says are necessary to dip into so the full burden doesn’t fall to the taxpayer. In each budget, about $700,000 is planned to go into the following year’s budget.

But the designated reserve to affect the tax levy has fluctuated. Two years ago, it was $950,000, compared to $875,000 last year. This year, the district started with $1.98 million. In 2009-10, there was $1.88 million in the undesignated fun, or the money left in the district’s bank. Last year it was $1.89 million. This year, it dwindled to $1 million.

“We have dipped into the reserves the past few years, and it shows by what’s left,” Murphy said.

In closing, she said early estimates show there will be an $870,000 gap between what the district thinks it will have in revenue and what it will have to spend. That can be fixed by either applying it to the reserves, or reducing expenses in the form of more cuts.

On Jan. 23, the district will begin a string of meetings where it shows budgets for different departments. That night will be the transportation and maintenance budget. The following will be athletics and fringe benefits, followed by central office and technology. These meetings will happen until a budget is adopted April 2.

Murphy said the district will know a lot more about its current budget status when Gov. Andrew Cuomo releases his executive budget on Jan. 17.

Voters will decide the fate of the proposed budget on May 15.

Neil Benjamin Jr. can be reached at [email protected].