Taxpayers in at least three school districts in East Hampton Town — Amagansett, Springs, and East Hampton — could be faced with approving over-the-tax-cap spending plans in May for the 2024-25 school year.
School administrators still have several weeks to make changes before the state’s mid-April deadline by which districts must adopt their budgets for the ballot, but state spending remains a big question mark and is one factor that could drive up school taxes. Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed dramatic cuts totaling $419 million to education funding — potentially leaving East Hampton with $700,000 less in revenue, Amagansett at least $75,000 less, and Springs about $247,000 less — but this week, the State Legislature countered Governor Hochul’s plan with proposals that restore that money fully.
The state budget is due April 1, but many administrators are predicting it will be late, further complicating school budget talks.
In a statement Tuesday, New York State United Teachers, a statewide union, lauded the Legislature for its updated proposals. “We thank the Senate and Assembly for making it clear that our students, educators, and schools are a top priority. . . . In New York, we are united across party lines and legislative chambers to support them with the re
sources they need,” Melinda Person, the union’s president, said.
School districts, like other municipalities, are bound by New York State’s cap on tax-levy increases, which requires a supermajority of voters — at least 60 percent — to approve a cap-busting budget. Springs did this for the current school year’s $35.4 million budget, which received 64.6-percent voter approval last May. East Hampton did this 10 years ago, and Amagansett eight years ago.
Districts have two chances to pass a budget, once in May and once in June. At that point, if a budget fails twice, districts are automatically plunged into austerity budgets, likely requiring drastic cuts to sports, clubs, field trips, and new equipment. That’s the situation faced this year in the Wainscott School District, which had to seek tens of thousands of dollars in outside donations in order to provide field trips and music, art, and technology classes for its students.
During a March 5 budget workshop in East Hampton, Adam Fine, the superintendent, said it may be necessary to float an over-the-cap budget in his district.
“Our kids in this school district, and other school districts, have gone through an adverse time over the last three or four years,” he said. “I, personally, as the superintendent of schools, am not willing to risk dismantling our academic program to get under a cap at this point. I don’t see it as a prudent educational decision. I understand the financial impact that could conceivably have.”
The next day, however in an email to The Star, Mr. Fine appeared to backtrack a bit, saying, “We don’t even know our state aid projections with any certainty. The state permits us to amend the anticipated property tax levy needs for next year later in the budget formation process. When the board makes a more definitive determination, such information will be transmitted to the state.”
The tax-cap calculation form submitted to the state by the Springs School District indicates a “yes” answer to the question “Do you plan to override the tax cap for fiscal year 2025?” The form shows an approximately $3.26 million difference between the tax-cap-compliant dollar amount and the number that Springs would need to reach by cutting programs and services. This, too, can still change.
The Springs School Board has not yet publicly discussed piercing the cap. Neither the interim superintendent, Debra Winter, nor the board president, Barbara Dayton, were available for comment yesterday.
But at a budget workshop on Tuesday, Katie Sarris, a board member, requested “a more detailed list of things that would need to be cut if the budget does not pass.”
Erik Fredrickson, the board vice president, asked what steps the district’s communications committee can take to “convey the story side of the budget that makes more sense to people sometimes than the raw numbers. . . . What items that we can identify would be removed, but also generally how this money is being used in a non-numerical way in terms of the overall services that we provide.”
The Amagansett School District laid out the situation clearly on Tuesday, projecting a 7.77-percent tax-levy increase, over the tax cap by about 4 percent. The difference is just under $513,000, already including cuts to some staffing and benefits, and using reserve money and savings to offset what would have been an even bigger increase. Again, this could still change.
“The more we use our savings and don’t replenish it, it eventually will go away, which eventually will lead ourselves into a deficit,” said Tom Mager, Amagansett’s district treasurer, who has been predicting for a few years now that the district would find itself in this position again at some point. Piercing the cap for the 2024-25 budget, he said, is a way to achieve financial stability.