March 19, 2024 - American Public News

TOMPKINS COUNTY, N.Y. — Nearly all of the school districts serving Tompkins County are counting on a slight decrease in aid from New York State next year. The change reflects expected shifts in enrollment — downward, in most Tompkins County districts — as well as a change to the formula the state uses to determine aid allocation. Final dollar amounts could change depending on how the 2025 state budget shakes out. The final budget is due on April 1 — although in recent years, Albany lawmakers have often missed that deadline. In the meantime, school districts are in the process of hashing out their own budgets — including local property tax rates — in time for school board elections in May. The projections are based on Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed state budget for 2025. While the budget includes an overall 2.4% increase in education aid, it’s a far cry from the increases of the past two years, when Hochul restored funding to the state’s Foundation Aid program.“As much as we may want to, we are not going to be able to replicate the massive increases of the last two years,” Hochul said in her presentation of the 2025 state budget.Hochul’s budget also proposes several changes to the formula used to allocate that money, which has further shaken up the allocation process. The proposed formula would use a 10-year average to calculate the rate of inflation rather than a single year. It also would eliminate the so-called “hold harmless” clause which insulates districts from certain budget cuts. Those changes led to a shake-up when it comes to allocation to different districts.Advocates said the proposed budget would likely have the starkest impact on rural school districts, which derive a significantly larger portion of their operating budgets from state aid. For instance, state funding made up more than 70% of this year’s budget for the Newfield Central School District compared to 25% for Ithaca.Newfield, in particular, has faced financial woes in the past few years — the district has been designated by the state comptroller’s office as “under fiscal stress” for the past three years. The school district has in the past attempted to shift its budget to rely more on local tax dollars rather than state aid, with mixed success. An attempt to raise the tax levy in 2022 failed to gain enough voter support.On average, school districts outside of the state’s “big five” cities (New York, Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse and Yonkers) receive enough state aid to cover roughly half of their yearly operating budget. State aid to Newfield last year made up over 70% of the district’s operating budget.While Tompkins County as a whole has seen a gradual decline in enrollment over the past few, its rural schools have seen a more drastic decline. Fewer students means less state aid.Ithaca, which has by far the largest tax base of any of the six main Tompkins County school districts, derives the majority of its revenue from local property taxes. A decrease in state funding could push the district to rely more heavily on local tax revenue to cover more of its expenses — otherwise known as a tax levy increase.“Our expenses are going up,” Ithaca City School District Chief Operation Officer Amanda Verba said to board members. “Our state aid […] is not going up. Our Foundation Aid, which is the largest component of our state aid, is actually going down.”As of March 13, Ithaca City School District (ICSD) projects its expenditures for next school year at $170,935,371 — a 7.8% increase from the current school year. Even with an increase in projected property tax revenue, Verba said the district currently has a deficit in excess of $6 million.Board members may opt to dip into the district’s rainy day fund to fill that deficit. Verba said the district’s final budget will fluctuate until the state budget is finalized.Even with the cuts, Tompkins County districts fared better than some of their nearby neighbors. Southern Seneca Central School District is expected to see a 21.7% decrease in total state aid, based on an initial draft of the state budget. It is one of the deepest cuts to state aid of any district in the region.American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten visited the district earlier this month as part of a lobbying campaign against the proposed changes in the state budget. Weingarten’s organization represents teachers’ unions nationwide, including those in New York.“That’s a recession or a depression-like cut. That’s never appropriate, to cut education like that, but there’s no recession right now,” Weingarten said during the tour. “These draconian cuts that are happening because of some real misinformation about the formula [used to determine state aid].”The post Tompkins County schools expect less state aid next year appeared first on The Ithaca Voice.

Daily Archives: March 19, 2024

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