By Sarah Hall
Editor
In response to an audit by the New York State Comptroller’s Office in 2016, the Baldwinsville Central School District’s 2017-18 budget draws heavily from its reserves: a total of $4.3 million will be used to offset the cost to taxpayers in the district next year.
The comptroller’s audit, which covered the period from July 1, 2014, to Oct. 31, 2015, said the BCSD maintained too large a fund balance.
“Fund balance represents resources remaining from prior fiscal years that can be used to provide a cushion for unexpected fluctuations in operations, assist with cash flow operations or lower property taxes for the ensuing fiscal year,” the audit report reads. “From fiscal years 2011-12 through 2014-15, the district improperly calculated its unrestricted fund balance and spent nearly $23.8 million (93 percent) less of appropriated fund balance and reserves than were budgeted to finance operations. As a result, the district’s recalculated year-end unrestricted fund balance averaged about 9.4 percent of the next year’s budgetary appropriations over the last four years, which is more than two times the statutory limit [which is 4 percent].”
In its Corrective Action Plan, though officials disagreed with the comptroller’s findings – “We firmly believe that the existence of reserves in our balance sheet — and cash in our bank accounts — is a sign of a fiscally healthy school district,” wrote BOE President Victor Jenkins and Superintendent Matthew McDonald in their official response — the district pledged to spend down its various reserve funds in the future.
They made good on that promise with the 2017-18 budget, which calls for $104,691,624 in spending, up 1.01 percent from last year. Of that, $54,663,512 will come from property taxes, a 2.38 percent tax levy increase (which is within the district’s tax cap). Another $42,722,782 in total comes from state aid. The district will draw another $2.5 million from its fund balance and $1.8 million from reserve funds.
Also on the ballot are two propositions:
Proposition No. 2 asks residents to vote on the purchase of 12 vehicles at a cost of $1,149,514. The vehicles are:
- One Suburban
- Eight 65-passenger buses
- Two 24-passenger buses
- One Chevy Express passenger van
Proposition No. 3 asks voters to authorize the creation of a $5 million Capital Reserve Fund, which helps offset the cost of building projects in the district.
“There is no specific project in mind right now,” said Assistant Superintendent for Management Services James Rodems. “This capital reserve is one the district has used for years. Voters authorize its creation and voters authorize the spending when there is a project vote. We will be using this reserve as we plan for future capital projects. Use of this reserve lowers the cost to the taxpayers for capital projects.”
The life of this fund is 10 years. Money will come from the balance from 2014 reserve; year-end surplus from operations; transfers from board of education-designated reserves; budgetary appropriations and New York state aid.
The public hearing on the budget is at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 9, at Durgee Junior High School. It will be preceded by a meet-the-candidates event at 6:30 p.m. at Durgee; each candidate for the board of education will speak for two minutes about themselves and why they want to be on the BOE.
The vote itself is from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, May 16, at Baker High School small gym.
