I.P. schools spending despite smaller budget

Island Park’s budget will be smaller next year but the district is adding a school bus and four new staff members.

Next year, the district will buy a new school bus for $52,000, because it is time to replace one before maintenance costs start. The district will also hire a general education teacher, social worker, an academic intervention services teacher and an English as a second language teacher — for a total cost of $163,584.

The district is also anticipating an increase of $365,000 — for a total of $7.3 million — to send high school-aged students to Long Beach High School and West Hempstead High School.

As the district discussed in February, the budget for the 16-17 school year will be $38.78 million — a $120,000 decrease from the current year. This is due in part to a reduction to the proposed $31.82 million tax levy — which is a $56,000 reduction.

Since 2012, the state tax cap has limited municipal tax increases to approximately 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. Factors such as existing debt and Payments in Lieu of Taxes also help determine the cap. In Island Park’s case the district had a smaller exclusion within the formula because it has paid off some debts. As a result, the allowable tax levy limit is .18 percent smaller.

“We actually have a decrease this year,” said School Business Official Marie Donnelly. “Dropping off some debt service, which is a good thing and a bad thing, because of the [decrease] in the tax levy calculation. But we were able to make the decrease without cutting any programs because of the reduction in debt service.”

Districts can exceed the cap, but those that do need a supermajority of at least 60 percent of voters to approve their budgets. Island Park will not try to pierce the cap.

Another factor affecting the tax levy is a Nassau County Supreme Court ruling on taxes paid by LIPA. In February, the Nassau County Supreme Court ruled that the Long Island Power Authority had to pay school districts money it withheld from the current year’s tax rolls because of a dispute over the utility’s tax liability to the county. That money, however, will be counted as a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT.