State budget is done, extra funds for district
With the passage of the New York State budget on March 31, the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District ended up with $141,055 more in state Foundation Aid (general aid) than it received in 2018, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Sheboy said.
The district had been planning for an increase of about $65,000 in its budget preparations because that’s the figure Governor Andrew Cuomo first put out in his budget. In being “very conservative”, Assistant Superintendent Denise Cedeira said she didn’t want to use a higher amount of aid and then have to cut from planned spending if it wasn’t received.
“Receiving more foundation aid is a win for the taxpayers,” Sheboy said on Monday, saying district officials are pleased with the final result.
The additional $74,164 will go toward lowering the tax levy, and allow the district to use a lower amount of its appropriated fund balance in the 2019 budget. It will not, Cedeira said, be used to fund any additional expenditures.
In the 2018-19 school year, the HF-FMCSD received $6,263,299 in Foundation Aid.
Now that the state aid portion of the budget is able to be filled in, the Board of Education was expected to meet at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday (April 4) to adopt its budget.
It’s a $32,087,219 budget, that is up $1,480,447 from the current school year. The work on the budget is mostly compete, at least on the Board of Education’s end, because there is no projected shortfall between revenues and expenditures.
At its meeting last week, the board did pull two items from planned spending — a $42,000 truck, and a $20,000 forensic audit. After meeting with Senator James Skoufis recently, they are hoping he will be able to secure ‘bullet’ aid for the district to use for those two items.
“These are one-time purchases,” Lawless said. “Bullet aid — which is great — helps in meeting expenses like these that don’t need to be funded again in the years going forward.”
Once adopted, Cedeira’s office files the property tax report card with the state, prepares budgets to distribute to the public, and prepares a presentation on the budget for the mandated public hearing on May 9.
The budget vote is set for Tuesday, May 21. In the weeks ahead, Sheboy and Board of Education members will visit other municipal meetings, and the meetings of civic organizations to talk about the budget and answer questions from the public on it.
Those who need to register to vote in the election can do so locally on Saturday, May 11, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Highland Falls Library.
