Sullivan West to adopt budget

By CHARLIE BUTERBAUGH

LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — Financial consultant Charlie Winters helped the Sullivan West School Board wade through thorny budget decisions last week, yet board members face a difficult decision as the April 22 deadline approaches.

On Thursday night at the Lake Huntington High School, one of two propositions that deal very differently with leveling the imbalance between revenues and expenditures must be adopted with the budget.

The board hired Winters in March to produce a five-year fiscal management plan. Although he said next year’s budget was “a nightmare to make sense out of coming in cold,” his analysis enabled the board to flesh out two propositions.

The first proposition would request voter approval to raise an additional levy for a planned balance. It would result in a 10-percent decrease in taxes next year, followed by a 30 to 35 percent spike the following year. Following the substantial levy, the district would return to normal, Winters said.

The severe fluctuation would result from the district’s excess payments ($2.5 million over two years) to the state’s building aid account, which the state asked for based on an assumed amortization scheduled “far higher than local debt payments would have allowed,” according to a report submitted by Winters.

“Starting in 2004-2005, the state amortization schedule will run substantially below the payments that the district will actually incur, resulting in a much higher local tax share than would have occurred normally,” Winters wrote.

He said the district’s tax base has grown 1.25 percent over the past five years, which gives the plan balance idea feasibility. But many of the board members said the tax spike was not an option.

The second proposition would capitalize on low-interest rates by taking out a $2 million loan to pay down the district’s debt.

Beyond the April 22 school board meeting, a public hearing for the budget is scheduled for May 6. The school budget vote and board election will be held May 18 in each election district.

For more information call 845/887-5300, ext. 3000.