The East Hampton School Board voted Tuesday to put an over-the-tax-cap spending plan for 2024-25 on the budget ballot in May, citing a need to preserve all academic, extracurricular, and support programs as students continue to cope with the aftereffects of the difficult Covid-19 school years.
“I do not think the timing to blow up the academic program is now, for what our kids have been through the last four years,” said Adam Fine, the district superintendent, before the board voted unanimously to update its tax-cap filing with the state comptroller’s office.
The final dollar amount of the 202425 budget has not yet been set in stone, but administrators anticipate it will be $82,885,992. This is a spending increase of 4.8 percent, or about $3.8 million year-over-year.
A projection of the tax-levy increase was also released on Tuesday: 9.77 percent. This, too, could change, depending on whether the New York State Legislature restores the $775,000 for East Hampton that Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed cutting earlier this year. The state budget is due April 1, but school administrators across the region anticipate it will be late — which means many will have to move forward assuming the worst-case scenario.
To stay within tax-cap parameters, Mr. Fine said, the district would have to cut $3.6 million, which would have meant teacher layoffs, program cuts, and fewer resources for both students and their families.
Floating an over-the-cap budget is complicated: It requires a supermajority of at least 60 percent voter approval to pass. If it fails on May 21, there’s a revote in June. If it fails a second time, the district will have no choice but to adopt an austerity budget, meaning cuts to most if not all sports, clubs, field trips, new technology equipment, and more.
“I just refuse to sacrifice it,” Mr. Fine said. “I think the community supports our schools and I think they are going to support this budget.”
East Hampton is one of at least three South Fork districts planning to present an over-the-cap budget this year; Springs and Amagansett are the others.
The state’s tax cap has been in place since 2012. Two years later, East Hampton attempted to exceed it and was successful, receiving about 73 percent voter approval. Christina DeSanti, now vice president of the school board, was on the board at that time as well, too, which she called “a really bad year.”
Despite the voters’ go-ahead, there had had to be cuts. “There was lots of crying. It was an awful, awful time,” she said. “We were cutting so many things and jobs and programs. We were cutting extracurriculars. A lot of things went away. I would rather see us go ahead and ask the community for their support [this year].”
“Inflation is off the charts, and the cost of living is so much, and this is the reality of what we have to deal with,” said Sarah Minardi, a school board member. “Hopefully the community will support what we decide.”
“I support this proposed budget as it is, and I think the community should support it, and I hope we get everyone out voting . . . because the alternative is austerity,” said John Ryan Sr., another board member. “We saw it happen to our neighboring district in Wainscott. We have tried hard to be fiscally responsible, but we do not want to change the school in a negative way that staying under the cap would force us to do.”
The board is expected to approve the budget proposal at its next meeting, April 16 at 6:30 p.m.