School districts in New York State are facing another difficult budget cycle for the fiscal year ahead, with inflation still at challenging levels, dramatic increases in health insurance coverage for employees, and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recent announcement of changes that could leave some South Fork districts coping with as much as a 20-percent decrease in state support.
Both Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., a Democrat, and Senator Anthony Palumbo, a Republican, have denounced the proposed cutbacks.
“If unaltered, the governor’s proposal will have a devastating impact on schools, students, and communities and will place additional burdens on Long Island homeowners, who already pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation,” Mr. Palumbo said in a statement Tuesday.
Mr. Thiele said outright that he would not vote to support a state budget that includes this $20 million decrease in school aid. “It would violate the compact between the state and local school districts to provide a quality education to every child,” he said in a Jan. 22 statement. “The losers would be both the local taxpayer and our children. There must be long-term certainty and stability in funding state education. Historic increases cannot now be followed by a substantial cut.”
The state budget is supposed to be approved by April 1 each year, but in recent years, haggling between the governor and the Legislature — which must present its own draft of the budget before voting to approve the final version — has stalled past that deadline.
Jennifer Buscemi, who heads the business office for Sag Harbor schools, said her district is facing a more than $880,000 increase in health insurance alone, while the state-imposed cap on tax-levy increases says the district can only increase the tax levy by around $777,000. The district has kept these increases below the maximum amount for much of the last decade.
“We hope that when the [state] budget is adopted, that changes, and they give us some of that money back,” she said. “Right now, we’re going to have to plan for a decrease in that state aid. It’s over a 20-percent decrease right now. It’s just going to be a tough year.”
In the East Hampton School District, Adam Fine, the superintendent, expressed a similar sentiment in an email to media outlets: “The proposed cut is very disappointing, but we remain hopeful that the Legislature will restore the funding we need to continue to provide high quality education to East Hampton students. We consider New York State to be our partners in the education of our students and I am hopeful for a positive resolution.”
East Hampton is looking at “significant increases in health insurance, the retirement system, BOCES, special education, and a drop in tuition enrollment,” Mr. Fine said. “This is coupled with a focus on maintaining our current academic program and increased security costs. Across the board, this will be a challenging budget planning process.”
Joshua Odom, the Montauk School District’s superintendent and principal, is also choosing to remain optimistic. Last year, with a different school administration in place, the Montauk community approved an over-the-tax-cap budget, but Mr. Odom is hopeful that the hamlet won’t have to repeat the situation this year.
“That initial [state] budget seems to be more of a conversation at this point,” he said.
Some districts here are weighing whether or not to put an early-retirement offer on the table for longtime teachers and other employees, but as Mr. Odom recently told Newsday, East End districts typically face greater challenges than their counterparts farther west in attracting and retaining teachers and support staff.
“Veteran teachers are key to the culture of the school,” he told The Star this week. “We’re still on the fence with incentives because of potential people leaving who we don’t want to leave yet.”
Another local district that pierced the tax cap last year was Springs. Already paying some of the highest school taxes in East Hampton Town, Springs is also impacted by the factors hitting East Hampton and Sag Harbor hard.
However, one boon, Springs administrators said, is that the projected class of incoming ninth graders, 72, is smaller than the graduating class of seniors, which could be as many as 105. That’s a significant savings in the amount of high school tuition Springs will have to pay East Hampton — as much as $335,798, according to a Jan. 23 budget presentation.
On Friday, the New York State Comptroller’s office classified Springs as one of 12 districts statewide that are “susceptible to fiscal stress.”
“Although federal relief packages and state aid provided much-needed assistance, school officials should remain diligent and closely monitor their financial condition in the current and future budget cycles as one-time federal funds are depleted and state aid is uncertain,” Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said in a release.
The potential state aid cut is something that “people need to petition their representatives to restore,” said Barbara Dayton, president of the Springs School Board.
The Wainscott Common School District is so small that it doesn’t receive state funding, but David Eagan, who heads its school board, is worried that there will be a trickle-down effect “in the form of increased tuition payments to our receiving districts, particularly East Hampton and Sag Harbor, which are facing significant proposed reductions in state aid.”
Last May, Wainscott — whose students in fifth grade and up attend school elsewhere — failed to rally enough voter support to pass a cap-busting budget, and the district is operating this year on an austerity budget. The main factor influencing Wainscott’s budget is the number of students requiring the payment of tuition, which reached unprecedented levels the year before, causing a budget deficit.
“That may have been a one-off event given the fact that the current number of our tuition students has decreased to more historical levels,” Mr. Eagan said. “The board has begun to discuss next year’s budget and we are in the process of planning additional voter outreach in an effort to increase our voters’ understanding of our unique school and district.”