1 Golden Bomber Dr.
Ilion, NY 13357
Phone: 315.894.9934
Fax: 315.894.2716
Superintendent
The school funding crisis—is it for real?
Superintendents and school boards throughout the valley claim that their districts are running out of money and will soon be unable to maintain the basics of a sound education.
Even the television stations and newspapers have begun suggesting that schools may be in trouble.
But after years of warning of deep program cuts and job layoffs, are the cries for real this time?
Survey results reveal residents have doubts
One of the questions in our eight-question merger survey (take the survey) asks, "Do you believe the Ilion Central School District will soon run out of the money needed to continue providing our students with the opportunities they need to be successful in college and the workplace?"
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Only 56 percent of the respondents believe that Ilion Central School will soon run out of money.
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14 percent do not believe it.
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Another 30 percent are not sure.
Why look for solutions if you don't believe we have a problem?
"The fact that almost half of the people who answered the survey don't believe or aren't sure we will soon be out of money shows we have some work to do," said Superintendent of Schools Cosimo Tangorra, Jr.
"If our community doesn't see the tough times ahead, why would they consider a merger or support a school budget?"
Mr. Tangorra understands why many have a hard time believing that the problem is real "this time."
What's different today?
In the past, the governor proposed a budget based on low income tax estimates. His proposed budget included school aid cuts. The school board, Mr. Tangorra and District Business Manager Ken Long began building a budget based on those aid cuts. The school and the media began warning of trouble.
But, as the April tax deadline approached, the state updated its revenue figures. Senators and assemblyman restored the lost aid and often increased payments to schools.
That all changed in 2009-10 when Gov. Paterson—facing a state budget deficit— froze school aid at 2008-09 levels.
The following year, Gov. Cuomo was unable to close the state's budget gap, so he not only continued the freeze, but took money away from schools under his "Gap Elimination Adjustment."
Ilion lost $1.2 million in state aid in 2010-11. Two federal programs—the American Recovery and Restoration Act and the Federal Jobs Bill—injected one-time money into our school that softened the effect of the cuts. Those federal monies are gone and the Gap Elimination Adjustment continued.
Ilion lost another $1.6 million in 2011-12. This year, Ilion stands to lose another $1.385 million in basic school aid.
Fund balance is almost gone
Since 2010, Ilion has lost more than $4 million in promised aid. To preserve educational and extracurricular program and to avoid drastic staff layoffs, the district used its fund balance (or savings).
"Thankfully, our board of education set money aside over the years," said Mr. Tangorra.
"We began using it in 2010 to make up for the lost state aid. But, now that savings is almost gone. Our current projections show that we will not have enough to avoid program cuts in 2012-13."
Tax levy cap will limit revenues
The state's new tax levy legislation has set strict limits on how much school districts and municipalities can raise the tax levy (the total amount of revenue raised by property taxes) and still need a simple majority to pass.
Districts may choose to exceed the limit, but must secure more than 60 percent of the votes for approval. The difficulty in getting that supermajority makes large tax increases almost impossible.
Districts will likely live with very modest increases in the tax levy.
The problem is real
Tax levy limits combined with school aid cuts mean serious problems ahead for Ilion.
District officials have frozen all purchases for the remainder of the school year with plans to apply it toward next year's budget.
"We don't know exactly where we will end up, but our early projections show will will not have enough fund balance to avoid cuts to our program," said Mr. Tangorra.
"Our hope is to get past this coming year in anticipation of a possible merger in 2013-14. A merger looks to be our only real hope—it may be a short-term answer, but it will buy us time to seek a more permanent solution to funding our schools."
