North Syracuse — While all municipalities in New York state are feeling the crunch of a 0.12 percent tax increase cap this year, school districts are in an especially precarious position as they await final state aid numbers from the state legislature.
“We’re like a district that’s living paycheck to paycheck, but we don’t know what our next paycheck is,” said Don Keegan, the North Syracuse Central School District’s associate superintendent for business services.
At the Feb. 1 school board meeting, Keegan presented an outlook on the district’s preliminary projected tax levy for the 2016-17 budget. The full initial budget will be presented to the board Feb. 22.
“When you get to the bottom line, our estimated levy at this time … will go up about 0.95 percent,” Keegan told the board.
The district collected $81,884,213 in taxes for the 2015-16 school year and could increase that by $777,459 to $82,661,672 for next year. Keegan said that comes out to about $22 more per home assessed at $100,000 before STAR exemptions.
While the state’s tax cap is primarily based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Keegan said other factors are at play, including payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreements, taxes levied on capital and a tax base growth factor. The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance sets the school district tax base growth factor — which is 1.0079 for North Syracuse in 2016 — each year.
“The state has reported a phenomenal amount of growth,” Keegan said.
Keegan said there are two “break points” in the North Syracuse district. Families moving from the city of Syracuse tend to settle in the Roxboro Road Elementary School territory. Many of these families’ children require special education services and other supports.
“That’s typically a higher-needs population. That can be a more expensive population to service,” Keegan said.
continued — On the other hand, some families are moving to newer housing developments in the Cicero Elementary School area, causing a “bubble” when it comes to buses or attendance distribution.
“When you add a housing development, it really stretches out bus services,” Keegan said. “[Enrollment] is flat or declining, but those kids are more spread out. It’s not only the capacity but it’s the time it takes for those buses to run — sometimes we have to add a bus.”
The district collected $583,700 in PILOT revenue during the 2015-16 school year and expects to collect the same next year. Keegan said if PILOT revenue goes up, the district can collect less in taxes, and vice versa: if PILOT revenue dips, the district can increase the tax levy a bit more.
BOE President Patrick Svoboda expressed his frustration with the tax cap at the Feb. 1 meeting. He said between tax exemptions for veterans and businesses asking for PILOTs and exemptions, the projected $777,459 increase in taxes is “not money that we have extra to play with.”
“We’re trying to beg, borrow and steal to keep every last dime that we have, and people are asking us to give that away,” Svoboda said. “We are in a pretty tough spot.”
North Syracuse certainly has been in a “tough spot” since the recession and a depleted fund balance forced the district to make serious cuts in recent years. For the 2010-11 school year, North Syracuse cut 102 positions and many extracurricular activities and sports teams; for 2013-14, 21 more positions were cut, and clubs and sports suffered once again.
“Several years ago, we just didn’t have the fund balance to fall back on and therefore we were forced to make cuts that might have worked themselves out over time had we had a little bit more money in the bank,” Keegan said.
continued — Keegan said the district’s fund balance has recovered enough to earn North Syracuse a healthy credit rating, which leads to reasonable interest rates on capital projects and working capital, and “no designation” of fiscal stress from the state comptroller.
As of June 30, 2015, the district had a total fund balance of $12,715,950 and an unassigned fund balance of $7,110,792. In October 2015, the board voted to use $500,000 to establish a capital reserve fund. Keegan expects the district will appropriate $750,000 toward the tax levy for 2016-17, which will leave North Syracuse with an unassigned fund balance of $5,860,792 by June 30, 2016.
“We’re really going to have to hold the line on expenses in order to balance this budget, so we’re going to have a challenge over the next couple of months,” Keegan said.
The BOE will hear the initial 2016-17 budget at its Feb. 22 meeting and is expected to adopt the budget April 18. District residents head to the polls May 17.
