Trustees Strengthen District's
Reserve Funds
The Huntington School District has traditionally been one of the least indebted of any school system its size on Long Island. This lack of long-term borrowing has been used to avoid burdensome interest costs and helped hold down tax increases, as well as to free up monies to continue offering a strong academic and co-curricular program.
District officials credit conservative budgeting, realistic financial assumptions and stringent oversight of spending for ending each year with a budget surplus. Those annual surpluses have been returned to taxpayers by keeping the tax rate as low as possible while following a pay-as-you-go approach to meeting the district's expenses.
At their public meeting on Monday, October 1, Huntington School Board members allocated more than $4.9 million in surplus monies to four reserve funds which will ultimately be used to hold down taxes and prevent the need for borrowing or excessively cutting programs to meet the district's needs.
"As we continue to face the unfortunate fiscal reality, it is important that we maintain the ability to fund our reserves," Superintendent James W. Polansky said. "Thanks to our maintenance staff, our buildings are in good shape. Nonetheless, they are over 50 years old, so our long-term capital (reserve) plan is critical. In much the same way, our other reserve funds will help us to properly address both anticipated and unanticipated non-discretionary costs."
Cullen & Danowski, a certified public accounting firm hired by the Huntington School Board to conduct an external audit of the district, calculated the Huntington School District's excess fund balance at $4,921,970. This figure is in addition to the district's undesignated fund balance, which is at the statutory maximum of four percent. Trustees designated $2,127,376 from the fund balance to the 2012/13 school budget to keep the tax rate lower than it would have been without these monies.
Trustees approved a series of four resolutions at their October 1 meeting that authorized allocating the $4.9 million in surplus revenues among the Employees Retirement System reserve fund, capital reserve fund, Workers Compensation reserve fund and the unemployment insurance reserve fund.
Specifically, Huntington School Board members unanimously approved the transfer of $2,171,970 to the ERS reserve fund "for the purpose of funding retirement contributions for the 2012/13 school year and thereafter and for any purpose authorized under General Municipal Law, Section 6-r." Trustees also increased the maximum contribution amount to the fund to $2.3 million.
The transfer of $2 million to the capital reserve fund was approved by a 7-0 vote. The fund was authorized by district voters in a 2008 referendum. Annual allocations from surplus monies are capped at $2 million. The funds can only be used for renovation and reconstruction projects approved by a vote of district residents.
Trustees also authorized the transfer of $500,000 to the district's Workers Compensation reserve fund and $250,000 to Huntington's unemployment insurance reserve fund. The two funds are used to meet the district's expenses in these areas.