District Releases Draft Budget
for 2013-14
The long process of developing a budget to fund Huntington School District operations during the 2013/14 school year is heading into the home stretch. A draft budget document was released to the public Monday evening and became the focus of a presentation by Superintendent James W. Polansky.
School officials have been working on the broad outlines of the spending plan for several months. The draft released this week is still a working budget and is subject to further reductions to conform to the state's property tax levy cap law.
District executives said the budget contains the funding necessary to keep Huntington's academic, co-curricular and athletic programs intact and make strategic improvements in various areas. There is money for new library books, textbooks, workbooks and computer software, along with funds for the equipment and supplies necessary to maintain the district's buildings and grounds.
After several years of layoffs, Mr. Polansky said he does not anticipate any personnel reductions except those that might develop as a result of the normal course scheduling process. He said the district has been striving to control expenses and instituted a stringent review process for all spending of any nature beginning last fall. Officials are trying to squeeze out savings and efficiencies wherever they can in the current year's budget.
"School districts continue to face budgetary challenges as a result of cuts and costly mandates dictated at both the state and federal levels," Mr. Polansky said. "In this light, we will continue to maintain careful fiscal management practices in an effort to preserve the integrity of our educational programs and the opportunities we routinely provide to students at all levels."
The first budget draft contains estimates for the amount of state aid the district expects to receive and for the total value of taxable assessed property, which officials believe will continue to decline mainly as a result of successful assessment challenges.
Increases in the cost of health insurance ($586,636), Social Security ($328,533), the state Employee Retirement System ($345,000) and the state Teachers Retirement System ($1,975,251) along with an expected jump of $268,904 in bus transportation expenses are among the main factors driving up spending in the 2013/14 budget.
One budget bright spot is in the area of debt service, which will decline by $930,662 as the district continues to substantially pay down its outstanding bonds. Huntington has one of the lowest levels of indebtedness of any district its size on Long Island.
To meet the district's tax levy cap requirements, the working budget will have to be adjusted by $461,465 over the next month through a combination of spending reductions or revenues increases. Should the district be allotted more state aid than Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed or should the property tax base stabilize the need for extensive spending cuts would be minimized.
The working budget includes an estimated tax rate increase of 4.01 percent. Mr. Polansky said that will be brought down as the spending plan is refined and as more information on both expenditures and revenues becomes available.
Upcoming budget sessions include:
• Monday, March 11: Budget workshop session on employee benefits, debt service, inter-fund transfers and capital.
• Monday, March 18: Review of instructional budget and staffing.
• Monday, April 1: Review of revenues and overall budget.
• Monday, April 15: Budget adoption.
• Monday, May 6: Public hearing on 2013/14 budget.
• Tuesday, May 21: Budget vote and trustee election.