Thursday, August 19, 2010
$17M surplus surprises East Ramapo school board
The East Ramapo school board is holding an estimated surplus that tops $17 million as members meet tonight to try to set a tax rate for the 2010-11 budget year.
The surplus comes after a tumultuous budget debate resulted in massive personnel and spending cuts in the $196 million budget, which district voters approved in June on the second attempt.
The projected tax rate increase is between 4.09 and 7.09 percent, depending on the amount of surplus that is used by the Board of Education.
The nine-member board can draw from the surplus funds to set a lower property tax rate increase — even one below 4.09 percent — when it meets at 7:30 tonight at district headquarters on Madison Avenue in Spring Valley.
Superintendent Ira Oustatcher said he hopes the board will restore some positions to staff school programs.
"There will be no more program cuts," Oustatcher said, suggesting the board set a tax increase of less than 7 percent.
The surplus — several million dollars more than in previous years — rose through lower expenditures in several areas, including costs in retirement, transportation and maintaining school facilities, officials said.
Surplus money has been dedicated to a special reserve fund that is used to pay businesses that challenge their property assessments and are awarded tax decreases.
The district also has set aside money to lower future taxes or for emergencies.
The school district also has a potential $3.1 million windfall from the sale of Hillcrest Elementary School to a New Square congregation. As part of the sale, the board designated that the $3.1 million be put into a fund to purchase property for construction of modern school buildings.
The district hasn't closed on the sale, which a district parent is attempting to block through an appeal to the state education commissioner.
Steve White, the parent, has argued that the public has the right to vote on selling public property and that the district did not get a fair market value for the building and the property's 12 acres.
http://www.lohud.com/article/20100818/NEWS03/8180351/-17M-surplus-surprises-East-Ramapo-school-board
The surplus comes after a tumultuous budget debate resulted in massive personnel and spending cuts in the $196 million budget, which district voters approved in June on the second attempt.
The projected tax rate increase is between 4.09 and 7.09 percent, depending on the amount of surplus that is used by the Board of Education.
The nine-member board can draw from the surplus funds to set a lower property tax rate increase — even one below 4.09 percent — when it meets at 7:30 tonight at district headquarters on Madison Avenue in Spring Valley.
Superintendent Ira Oustatcher said he hopes the board will restore some positions to staff school programs.
"There will be no more program cuts," Oustatcher said, suggesting the board set a tax increase of less than 7 percent.
The surplus — several million dollars more than in previous years — rose through lower expenditures in several areas, including costs in retirement, transportation and maintaining school facilities, officials said.
Surplus money has been dedicated to a special reserve fund that is used to pay businesses that challenge their property assessments and are awarded tax decreases.
The district also has set aside money to lower future taxes or for emergencies.
The school district also has a potential $3.1 million windfall from the sale of Hillcrest Elementary School to a New Square congregation. As part of the sale, the board designated that the $3.1 million be put into a fund to purchase property for construction of modern school buildings.
The district hasn't closed on the sale, which a district parent is attempting to block through an appeal to the state education commissioner.
Steve White, the parent, has argued that the public has the right to vote on selling public property and that the district did not get a fair market value for the building and the property's 12 acres.
http://www.lohud.com/article/20100818/NEWS03/8180351/-17M-surplus-surprises-East-Ramapo-school-board
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