Superintendent Presents
Tax & Budget Overview
With Huntington School District officials already developing the 2015/16 budget, Superintendent James W. Polansky provided a preliminary overview of where things stand during a public meeting of the Huntington School Board this past Monday night.
Mr. Polansky stressed that although it’s still very early in the budget process, district executives are keeping close tabs on various potential increases in spending. One bright spot is an expected large decline in the contribution rate levied by the state Teachers Retirement System on the salaries of teachers and administrations.
Preliminary budget assumptions include the following:
• The district’s assessed property value will decrease by $200,000, which translates to a loss of more than $450,000 in taxes. Declining property values put upward pressure on the tax rate.
• Health insurance costs will rise by eight percent or about $900,000.
• The cost of contractual obligations will increase by about $1.2 million.
• Non-instructional/operational costs will increase by about $800,000.
• Mandated programmatic costs will increase by about $600,000.
• Costs associated with the state Teachers Retirement System will decline by about $1.5 million. The current contribution rate of 17.53 percent is expected to drop to between 13.0-13.5 percent of certificated payroll.
“We remain hopeful that the anticipated reduction in the district’s required New York State Teacher Retirement System contribution will help to offset other mandated cost increases,” Mr. Polansky said.
Mr. Polansky said the district currently projects the 2015/16 tax levy increase will be capped at 2.17 percent. The superintendent walked trustees and audience members through a complicated series of formulas created by the state to calculate the tax levy cap increase estimate.
There are many variables at play this early in the budget process. The district doesn’t know what level of state aid it will ultimately be allotted for 2015/16. The district has been told it will receive about $1.4 million in funds from the state’s Smart Schools Bond Act that voters passed last month, but how this money will affect next year’s school budget is not yet known.
Mr. Polansky said Long Island enrolls nearly 17 percent of all students in the state, but receives only 12.2 percent of state school aid. The state’s gap elimination adjustment, which has reduced aid to Long Island districts by more than $1 billion over the past five years Long Island school districts, continues to hit Huntington hard. The district has lost about $8.6 million to the GEA since it was enacted to reduce the state’s budget deficit in the 2009/10 fiscal year.
“Despite the fact that Long Island school districts receive only 12.2 percent of school aid, 21 percent of the statewide GEA reduction is absorbed by Long Island school districts,” Mr. Polansky said. “Long Island school districts will receive $26 million less in state aid (without building aid) in 2014/15 than they received in 2008/09.”
The district also does yet know how the state’s property tax freeze/government efficiency plan initiative will impact the school budget currently under development.
Trustees will be given a draft budget developed by district executives in late February. A series of four public budget meetings dissecting the draft plan will be held on March 2, 9, 23 and 30. The budget will be adopted by trustees on April 13. A public hearing on the adopted budget will be held on May 11. Residents will vote on the budget on May 19 at Huntington High School from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.