Manlius — Fayetteville-Manlius School District residents are invited to attend community meetings with Superintendent Craig J. Tice and Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Michael Vespi to discuss the 2016-17 school budget.

There are a variety of challenges school officials across the state are facing in developing a balanced budget for the next school year, including the state’s continued use of the Gap Elimination Adjustment.

F-M’s estimated tax levy limit is currently at a 1.89 percent increase, which when combined with the $1 million in lost aid due to the GEA that is proposed in the governor’s budget, creates an approximate $1.1 million budget gap.

If the state legislature does not do away with the GEA and restore funding to the district, programs and services will have to be cut, Vespi said.

The state established the Gap Elimination Adjustment, or GEA, in 2010 as a tool to take back promised state aid from school districts to fill the state’s own budget gap. However, the state no longer has a deficit, and many education leaders are questioning why the state is still using the GEA. The state has used the GEA to take back from F-M more than $18 million total in promised state money. Gov. Andrew Cuomo included in his Executive Budget Proposal that the state use the GEA to take another $1 million from F-M in 2016-17.

State aid is one of two main revenue sources for New York school districts. The other source is the tax levy, the total amount of money the district collects from local property owners to support its operating budget.

To learn more about the factors influencing the development of F-M’s proposed 2016-17 budget, attend one of the meetings listed below.

1 p.m. Thursday, March 3, Manlius Library, 1 Arkie Albanese Ave., Manlius.

6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3, Enders Road Elementary School, Music Room, 4725 Enders Rd., Manlius.