ELDRED, NY — The Eldred Central School District is said to be in significant fiscal stress according to a report released on January 25 by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

The district has a fiscal score of 65 in a system where a higher score means greater stress. Eldred had the second-highest score in the state, behind only to the East Aurora Union Free School District in western New York, with a score of 73.3. This year, 26 school districts were found to be in some degree of fiscal stress out of a total of 674 school districts in the state.

Interim superintendent John Morgano said that one of the reasons the school is deemed to be in significant fiscal stress is because it has a low fund balance. He said that’s because some of the fund balance last year was used to pay down debt. He also noted that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said that districts should keep spending their fund balances rather than raise taxes on property owners.

Morgano also said the district needs more state aid and that he will go to Albany to meet with Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther and State Sen. John Bonacic about the matter. He said, “We need to re-think how we fund education in New York; they’ve been talking about it for years. It has to be an income tax or a sales tax or a combination off the two. Eldred, for example, is considered land wealthy; our land is worth money. People don’t pay their property taxes with their land worth, they pay it with their paycheck, and the people here can’t afford anymore.”

He said that people in upstate districts such as Eldred are at a disadvantage when it comes to receiving resources from Albany as opposed to districts that are in the suburbs of New York City.