Cazenovia — It’s budget time again, and the Cazenovia school district is starting its budget process with the assumption that the district will be short more than $400,000 — and some unpopular actions may be necessary to fill the gap.
“This is a very fluid process; it’s changing as we speak,” Assistant Superintendent Thomas Finnerty told the board of education during its Feb. 23 regular monthly meeting.
This number was based on all the information the district had available to it at the time, he said, which included the rising costs of health insurance and special education, the lack of any available fund balance in the district coffers and the fact that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s state budget offers no increase in districts’ Foundation Aid and it withholds about $350,000 in state aid to Cazenovia through the Gap Elimination Adjustment.
“The governor has once again disappointed us, angered us,” said Superintendent Matt Reilly. He added, however, that the district will once again seek to mobilize its residents to demand that state legislators eliminate the GEA. “We’re revving up this campaign again for equitable and adequate funding,” he said.
During the school board’s January meeting, Finnerty said that the district is owed $568,000 in GEA restoration this year but, under the governor’s current budget proposal, Cazenovia will receive only $198,000. That small amount of state aid, plus the reality of the state-mandated tax cap (which this year will allow for only a .12 percent growth factor or the ability to raise an extra $19,000 in taxes for a $3 million budget) makes the district’s fiscal position in 2016 extremely untenable, he said.
Finnerty told the board last week that there were still many unknown variables in the budget process, such as final state aid decisions (which should be resolved by April 1 when the state must pass its budget) and the final number of retirements in the district for next year (which will be known after March 1).
continued — Reilly said that while the district will have “greater clarity” in its budget numbers after March 1, even if full GEA funding is restored to Cazenovia this year, the district is still looking at a $63,000 shortfall in the budget.
He said the district’s spending also appears that it will increase by about 1.37 percent this year — which is the same as last year.
Finnerty said the way the district can respond to the current budget outlook is to deny requested spending increases by program leaders in the district, reduce the current programs and services offered by the district or consider exceeding the state-mandated tax cap in this year’s budget. If the district decides to exceed the state tax cap number, then its budget must be passed by a 60 percent supermajority of voters or else the entire budget fails and must be presented and voted on again.
The district still has more than two months before the final 2016-17 budget comes up for a vote before district voters.
The board has scheduled a public budget work session to be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 10, in the board meeting room, and the board’s next regular meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 21.
For more information on the school district’s budget and budget process, visit cazenoviacsd.com.
Also at the meeting, the board:
—Approved a change to the district policy manual to say that all the schools in the district will include in their emergency plans a protocol for responding to health care emergencies involving opioid overdoses.
—Gave permission to District Facilities Director Matt Erwin to proceed with the Smart Schools investment plan that would update district security and technology, as Erwin proposed to the board at its January meeting. Erwin will next refine and narrow plans and solicit feedback from stakeholder groups, and a more detailed plan will ultimately be presented to the public and subject to a public hearing before the board approves or rejects the plan.
—Unanimously approved a resolution calling for the immediate eliminate of the Gap Elimination Adjustment. Reilly said he would forward that resolution to all of the district’s state elected officials.
