Draft Budget Takes Shape
in Huntington
It's another tough budget year in school districts across the state. With continued increases in state pension costs and employee health insurance coupled with New York's tax levy cap law, spending reductions are an essential ingredient in every district's budget development process.
The Huntington School District will release its first draft budget of the 2013/14 cycle on Monday, March 4. Huntington School Board members will meet that same night in the Jack Abrams School auditorium at 7:30 p.m. to take up the budget draft and begin going through it line-by-line in public.
Superintendent James W. Polansky said the budget is being developed based upon several assumptions, including an increase of $1.975 million in contributions to the state Teachers Retirement System and a jump of $345,000 in costs associated with the state Employees Retirement System.
The district is also planning for an 8.7 percent or $588,636 increase in its health insurance costs. Mr. Polansky said the budget draft also assumes assessed property values will fall $300,000 in 2013/14 from the current year's level.
Based upon a preliminary calculation, the tax cap law limits the increase in the Huntington School District's property tax levy to an estimated 2.83 percent over the 2012/13 levy. The corresponding budget-to-budget increase amounts to $2,508,569 or 2.24 percent.
To meet the tax levy cap requirements, Mr. Polansky estimates the district will need to reduce discretionary costs by $461,465 in the 2013/14 budget. District officials are currently at work finalizing the budget draft. It will be posted on the district's website at www.hufsd.edu.
"The cap on the tax levy and rising non-discretionary costs continue to provide a fiscal challenge for school districts," Mr. Polansky said. "It is important for us to continue monitoring our expenses carefully and to realize economic efficiencies that allow us to preserve opportunities for our students without adding to the taxpayer burden. It is also important for the budget process to be as transparent and as informative as possible, and in that light, for residents to take advantage of the opportunity to attend upcoming budget sessions."
During their March 4 meeting, trustees and community members will be provided with a 2013/14 general budget overview along with a review of proposed spending in the codes that fund the board of education, central office, department and building level administration and supervision and student transportation.