At the January Board of Education meeting, Assistant Superintendent Dan Carlin gave an overview of the upcoming budget process. He began with a reminder that the district has already begun cost-cutting measures this year, reducing $200,000 from equipment and supplies. He also announced further freezes of non-essential items, expecting to generate another $100,000 in cost savings.With that backdrop, Carlin described the "rollover budget" projecting what it would cost to operate this year's programs in 2009-10. This projection incorporates contractual obligations, utility increases, and the known cost of benefits. The projected figure, $45,257,442, represents a budget-to-budget increase of 3.73%. This figure - with no additional funds for new programs - is the lowest in ten years except for last year's increase of 3.63%.
However, Carlin added, we also anticipate shortfalls on the revenue side, including reductions in state aid, investment income, and sales tax proceeds. This gap in revenue places more pressure on the need to raise tax monies, and would result in a tax levy increase of 4.99%.
Finance Committee chair Tibi Guzman made a distinction between the tax levy (the net amount needed to operate the schools) and the tax rate, which varies with property appraisals and certioraris. Carlin went on to describe the amounts that would be needed to further reduce the budget. In order to reduce the tax levy to 3%, about $759,442 would need to be cut from the rollover budget. In order to reduce the tax levy to 0%, an additional reduction of $1,145,268 would be required. As a point of reference, Carlin estimated that $1 million would be the equivalent of ten or more teachers.
The detailed budget will be presented to the Board of Education on Saturday, February 7, at 9:00 Am in the Yeager Room.
