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July 21, 2004

New York boards: We want two-year budgeting

This week New York Gov. George Pataki is proposing to extend the deadline for a state budget from Aug. 2 to Sept. 12. The original deadline was April 1, the start of the state's fiscal year. Most school districts send out their tax bills at the end of August. If no state budget is agreed upon by then, school districts will set taxes for their districts, with little idea of how much state aid they'll receive, reports the Post-Standard in Syracuse. Late budgets are not new in New York. But this year the rancor and the extended delay make the situation perilous for schools.

School districts lose if they overestimate, and they lose if they underestimate, the article reports. "This is the first time school districts have faced sending out tax bills without knowing state aid levels, and school officials hope this isn't a sign of things to come," the paper reports. The Albany Record opines: "It says so much about how this state is, pardon the word, governed, that the state's leaders can't act in a way that's about both equity and expedition. Instead they put the victims of inequity at further risk, by leaving the task of fixing the school-aid formula to someone who's not even elected." Meaning a court-established "master" who will do just that by July 30, if the state's elected officials cannot agree on a formula themselves. Some fear the new formula could take additional money away from Upstate communities to fund New York City schools.

The New York State School Boards Association is making a push for an important change: two-year budgeting. Read NYSSBA's letter to Governor Pataki, here.

Posted July 21, 2004 12:00 AM