A different view on the budget

To the editor:

How to reduce the tax bite to 10 percent without eliminating a single student program or service.

The Northville School Board and Superintendent would like us to believe that a 21 percent tax increase is the best they can do. Anything less and the students will suffer, educational programs will be gutted and as a community we will all be sorry for ever after. It is time to put the record straight.

First of all, keep in mind that this irresponsible and unjustified proposed increase is partially driven by the NYS legislative threat of a 2 percent property tax cap next year. It is hard to judge if the cap will come about and/or how much wiggle space there will be at the local taxing level if it does get adopted. In the face of such uncertainty, the educational establishment (and apparently our Board) figures that a large tax increase in the 2011/12 school district budgets is a good thing. They figure that it will provide some breathing space to continue the status quo for a few more years — after which political supporters in Albany can perhaps water the tax cap down to irrelevancy or find some other pot of money. We, the tax payers in the Northville School District, cannot go along with this tax increase. Besides the tax cap issue, we have other problems in Northville: declining enrollment (now under 500 for 2011-12); high per pupil spending ($19,811 which is average for NYS but average income levels here are far lower than elsewhere); a very high property tax levy per pupil ($11,619 vs. $5,650 average in Fulton County); and a long-term growing budget deficit (exceeding $2 million by 2014). We can afford neither the tax increase nor the status quo.

Here are some simple steps that the Board should have taken to cut the proposed 2011/12 tax rate increase in half. It can still do this NOW. First of all, the audited 2009/10 budget contained no less than $514,744 in padding (the official term is “unexpended appropriations”). This money gets hidden from public scrutiny by playing games with the appropriated fund balance and actual expenditures. It is likely that at least $300,000 in such hidden funds is available in the 2011/12 budget. This is the equivalent of more than 6 percent in tax levy. Elimination of one principal with the superintendent functioning also as elementary school principal will save another 2.5 percent (this should have been taken care of years ago). We also have a Business Official who does not need two account clerks for an operation of this small size. Elimination of one account clerk saves another 1 percent of tax levy. That adds up to 10 percent without eliminating one student program or service. Now, how hard was that?? If the teachers union would do its part and agree to a freeze in salaries and benefits, we slim down another 2 percent.

We will take a look at academic programs next week. There are quite a few percentages in additional savings to be found there as well — some of them short term and others longer term. As usual, the devil is in the details. The main thing to keep in mind is that in order to bring the tax levy down now, several things need to happen. Start by contacting the Board members and remind them that they are our elected representatives and accountable to ALL the tax payers. If they cannot be fair-minded, they should resign. There is a public meeting on May 10 — next Tuesday — at 6.30 pm. Please attend and use the opportunity to address the Board in public. Request that they (1) take another close look at the proposed budget and (2) present a realistic and legal contingency budget. Any budgets with a greater than 6 percent increase in taxes should be considered dead on arrival. The 2011/12 average increase in Fulton County is 6.3 percent; it is 4.1 percent for all of NYS. Are you starting to feel like a patsy yet with that 21 percent increase? If no realistic proposed budgets materialize then the next step is to vote the proposed budget down overwhelmingly on May 17 and slug it out over the contingency budget.

Remember the HRBRRD meeting at the school of a few years ago — change can happen.

Willem Monster,

Northville