NYS contingency law (Accord: how much, layoffs, school district)

[kmrlongisland]

Hi. Can anyone point me to a website that describes in detail the contingency law that regulates how a NYS school district can function if their propsed budget is voted down? I want to understand what budget items can be cut from the contingency budget and which of them cannot.

[I_Love_LI_but]

He says the governor has set all NYS school district contingency budgets at 0%.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/13928481-post13.html

Perhaps he can point you to the documentation you seek.

This years contingency is set at 0%. That means zero budget to budget increase in the event a budget is not passed.

Whatever it takes to cut programs, increase class size, layoffs etc, must be made to reach that same figure as last year.

I have no public opinion one way or the other as far as any inpact this could have, as I believe in democracy you can vote for your individual budget and see where that takes you.
I am only providing information that I've been called out on.

Contingency Budgets:Educational Management:NYSED

[Kbinspections]

When they made that law they never thought about deflation, only inflation....oppps.

[corky101]

According to the article, the contingency budget increase will be 0%.

So, why did I get a letter saying that the increase for the contingency will be 12%? (which is 3x the increase of the proposed budget). I don't get it.

Maybe it's .12% of a tax levy; despite a 0% increase in spending, your tax base could change depending on the State Gov't input- which has yet to be figured out. I'm not entirely sure about this case though. Scan the document- so that I can decipher it.

[corky101]

Originally Posted by grant516

Maybe it's .12% of a tax levy; despite a 0% increase in spending, your tax base could change depending on the State Gov't input- which has yet to be figured out. I'm not entirely sure about this case though. Scan the document- so that I can decipher it.

This is from the School District site:

[SIZE=3]Proposed Budget % 3.82 Contingent Budget % 0.06 [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Proposed Tax Rate % 3.99 Contingent Tax Rate% 12.64 [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Proposed Inc.Cost/Home $315.10 Contingent Inc. Cost/Home $997.85[/SIZE]


I don't get how it's more money for the contingent cost (?)

[Jdawg8181]

If budgets get voted down, do my taxes go down?

Again, all information is non-biast for or against schools. I merely deal with facts and numbers, and sometimes a smidge of inference.

This district is likely using reserve funding or certain cuts within it's own primary budget to keep the numbers so low, and in a contingency budget this is not a requirement- only to maintain that the numbers remain the same year-to-year.

Major changes in tax-levy to the community come from dwindling state support. This part must be picked up currently by local tax payer.

What isn't mentioned is how much reserve money is being spent in the primary budget, which would be leftover in the Contingency budget, and when in fact that money may be tapped.

Essentially this district has a sum of money it's willing to put into the budget this year to avoid contingency budget. This is the rainy day it's been waiting for, sometimes made up from tax money put in during better years.

At the end of the day it comes down to-
If you feel the money is well used in your district, then I'd accept the budget.
If you feel the money is not spent well on the students, reject it, though in this case it may cost more up front.

[I_Love_LI_but]

So, at the very end of the day, the "0% contingency budget" does NOT mean there will be a guaranteed 0% rise in property taxes for every single contingency budget that goes into effect. Figures. There's always fine print and asterisks to watch out for.