RSS 2.0 FeedJune 24, 2011, Wantagh Seaford Citizen
Seaford budget fails
Budget voted down a second time.
Seaford residents turned down the proposed school budget for a second time on June 21. Residents - 1,479 to - 1,278 voted down a proposed tax levy increase of 8.35%. The proposed budget was for $54,920,057, a budget-to-budget increase of 2.43%.
However, residents will still see an increase in their property taxes. Under the contingency budget, the school district may raise the tax levy to 8.12%, “a difference of $15 a year [from the defeated tax levy increase for the average homeowner],” Mr. Conboy told The Citizen in an earlier interview.
The contingency budget is based upon a combination of the most recent federal set cost-of-living allowance plus an allowance for additional debt service. For 2011-2012 the allowable increase is for $1,209,701 or a 2.26% budget to budget increase.
This was the second time the budget was defeated. The original budget which appeared on the May 21 ballot asked for an 8.99 tax levy increase. When voters turned down that budget, the district slashed an additional $261,623 from the budget.
But it didn’t prove to be enough and the budget was defeated by 201 votes.
What cuts may residents expect from the Seaford school’s contingency budget?
“That depends,” said Ken Aldrich, Assistant Superintendent of Business for Seaford Schools. “The contingency budget is not complete. We will most likely look at equipment. We can only buy [new] equipment if what we have is broken,” he explained. “We need to decrease $95,394 from the budget and the equipment budget is for a little more than that,” he said.
Mr.Aldrich said the budget was made up of three parts – administrative, program services and capital. “We’ll also look at the administrative component of the budget which can’t exceed 8.31%; that translates to about a $5,000 reduction in administrative costs,” he said.
Mr. Aldrich cautioned that the decision would be made “by the [school] board. There is a school board meeting on June 30 and at that time the school board will probably finalize the budget.”
To date, the district said it would cut middle school sports for winter and spring and eliminate one position in facilities as well as make a cut in athletic supervision.
This year the Seaford School District was the victim of the “perfect storm” – an weak economy, cuts in school aid from New York state and little money from its reserve funds from which to draw.
Seaford resident John Brooks, in a letter to the editor here at The Citizen, also pointed to the lack of commercial property in the community in helping to control taxes. “We have done the job in controlling expenses, and Seaford has paid more than its fair share of property taxes while receiving far less than its fair share of state aid,” wrote Mr.Brooks.
He urged the community to reach out to state officials for a tax stabilization grant of $3 million that would have brought the tax levy increase for Seaford to about 2%.
But that did not happen. In the end 1,479 voters told the district, the tax levy was more than they wanted to spend.
“Seaford residents, you need to ask yourselves a simple question,” wrote resident Stan Stuart in the June 16 edition of The Citizen. “Can you afford an additional $650 to $1,000 a year increase in property tax?”
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