Mid-Hudson school leaders uneasy about late budget

Officials in some area school districts are lamenting the state budget being late, saying it’s keeping them in the dark about financial aid and tax revenue needs for 2017-18.

Rhinebeck Superintendent Joseph Phelan said state aid in the draft of his district’s budget has been estimated conservatively but that more certainty would help district officials communicate better with residents and would provide those residents with the knowledge they need at the polls next month, when school budget across the state will be up for public approval.

“Like most school districts, we were hoping on more foundation aid than the governor had seen fit to include in his budget back in January,” Phelan said. “That’s a critical piece as we work toward getting our budget to be compliance [with the state] tax levy cap or at least track closer to that.”

Phelan said he found it ironic that Gov. Andrew Cuomo long has touted the adoption of state budgets by the April 1 deadline but then this week agreed to a two-month budget “extender” that could push approval of the state spending package past the date of school budget votes.

“The governor has been crowing the last several years about how an ontime budget is a signal of a government that’s functioning well,” Phelan said. “So one would only have to assume that a budget that is not on time and potentially not be resolved for another couple of months ... is a sign of dysfunctional government, I think.”

It might not get to that point, though, as state lawmakers on Wednesday appeared ready to approve the new budget.

Rondout Valley Superintendent Rosario Agostaro said the state uncertainty comes as administrators in his district are ready to release a draft budget.

“We are actually ... [giving] our first full presentation to be board tonight (Tuesday),” Agostaro said. “Our estimated state aid is pretty minimal. We’re going with the governor’s [aid] projection, which is slightly under a $100,000 increase.”

Budget negotiations that take place after the governor unveils his plan often result in school districts getting even more aid.

Red Hook school district business official Bruce Martin said this late state budget is an outlier because there has been a recent history of on-time adoption.

“This kind of takes us back to that time where we are looking to finalize a budget and there’s the prospect we won’t really have a very definitive number on the state aid,” he said.

“Back in the day when it was year after year of late budgets, I think that we all got pretty good at sort of predicting where it (state aid for schools) was going to finally land because it tended to follow a pattern year after year,” Martin said. “With it (a late state budget) coming up this year for the first time in a long time, I actually think it’s going to be more difficult to try to come up with a number.”

Onteora Superintendent Bruce Watson said the state delay creates uncertainty but should not significantly change the district’s state aid forecast.

“Tonight (Tuesday) we have a presentation to the

board, and our recommendation is when the state aid finally comes in, what we’d like to do is basically earmark it for tax reduction,” he said.

“If ... the world was perfect, we would love to have the exact numbers,” Watson said. “But I don’t

think it’s something that would cause us alarm. ... We like to give out the message that it can’t be a negative impact, it will be a positive impact for people because we’re going to use it to lower the taxes even further.”

Kingston school district Superintendent Paul Padalino was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.