Budget season gets under way in Oceanside

The Oceanside School District began presenting its proposed 2012-13 budget to the public at a Board of Education meeting on Feb. 7.

Still in the preliminary stages, the spending plan that was offered at the meeting wasn’t even the full document — it was 11 pages that administrators discussed with the board and residents. The full budget, which will include crucial details on exactly how much spending will increase, will be available on March 6.

The reason for the delay in releasing the full budget is the new laws that the state enacted this year. “It’s basically a new environment for school budgets in New York state, and we have rules to follow that deal with a 2 percent tax cap,” said Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown. “Which is not necessarily 2 percent — every school district has its own formula to follow by state law. And in some cases the tax cap might be 1.9 percent; in some cases it might be 2.9 percent. We’re still working on the state formula.”

Under the new law, if a district proposes a budget that exceeds the tax cap, it has to be approved by a supermajority — 60 percent or more — of residents, rather than a simple majority. School official hope, however, that won’t be an issue in Oceanside this year.

“We’re going to present a budget to this community that is only going to require a majority vote, not a supermajority,” said Louis Frontario, assistant superintendent for business. “It’ll be within the cap.”

But what Oceanside’s cap is, exactly, is yet to be determined. Many districts, Oceanside included, are still waiting for final figures from the state on what needs to be included in calculating the cap.

“Because it’s the first year, I think there’s probably some shakedown in Albany where there are some questions they didn’t anticipate, and I think they have to work through it,” said Brown. “I think there are some pitfalls, that they might realize they made some mistakes going forward.”

With the data they did have available, Brown and Frontario showed some pages of the budget to the community, discussing transportation, building operation and maintenance, employee benefits and more.

The single greatest increase that was discussed was in the Employee Retirement System. It is increasing more than $724,000 from the current year’s spending plan, topping out at $2.974 million. The district’s Social Security costs are also increasing by a little more than $287,000.

Employee benefits, however, were also where some of the largest reductions came from. The elimination of the MTA payroll tax for school districts is saving Oceanside nearly $288,000. The Teachers Retirement System, along with the district’s health insurance payments, are also shrinking, saving more than $359,000 combined.

The district also managed to reduce its overall costs of building and ground maintenance by $2,835 — .29 percent. This reduction could have been larger, but the district budgeted an increase of $211,500 for heating fuel.

Last week’s meeting was the first of four the district has scheduled. They will continue on March 6 at School 6, where the full budget proposal will be made available. Subsequent meetings will be on March 13, at School 3, and on March 20, at School 6. A main topic of discussion at the March 13 meeting will be staffing, while revenues and tax rates will be the focus on March 20.

The 2012-13 budget will be voted on by the public on May 15.