Bellmore puts up $32.9M spending plan for a vote

The Bellmore School District will ask voters to approve of a budget for the 2013-14 academic year that has no decreases in spending for instruction of students, officials said.

Administrators in the district, which includes the Reinhard Center for Early Childhood Education and the Winthrop Avenue and Shore Road Schools, have crafted a $32.9 million spending plan. The budget, which was adopted by the Board of Education at its April meeting, represents a nearly 3 percent spending increase over the current year’s plan.

Assistant Superintendent for Business and Technology Services Deirdre Gambino explained that soaring employee benefit costs represent one of the largest spending increases in the plan, with more than $870,000 being put toward retirement services, Social Security and workers’ compensation, and the unemployment, disability, health, dental and life insurance funds. She said the state-mandated increases, combined with state aid decreases in recent years, created a budget shortfall.

“There was a study that was recently done showing that in the past four fiscal cycles, had we received the same amount of state aid as we did in the year 2008-09, we would have had an additional $2.7 million in revenues,” she said.

To fill the gaps, Bellmore officials will dip into reserve funds, while trying not to burden local taxpayers.

The 2013-14 budget has a proposed increase in the tax levy — the total amount the district needs to raise through property taxes to meet expenses — of 2.79 percent. While this exceeds the state-mandated 2 percent cap, Gambino explained that the district would not need a 60 percent supermajority vote to pass the budget because, owing to exceptions in the law, a 2.79 percent tax levy falls under the district’s allowable levy of 2.82 percent.

District officials will also use savings and reserves to maintain programs, current class sizes and continue technological advancements in spite of financial constraints.

Gambino explained that about $600,000 of a $2.6 million reserve pool will be used to support the expenses for employee retirement costs. The district will also use more than $4 million in savings to fill budgetary gaps.

Superintendent Joseph Famularo said he is proud that the district will be able to contain or reduce non-instructional expenditures to maintain student programs. In a letter to the community, Bellmore’s Board of Education also explained how officials researched cost-saving measures to maximize the use of taxpayer dollars. According to the letter, the district is able to secure the lowest prices on services and supplies through cooperative bidding.

Voters will have the chance to vote on the spending plan on May 21. District residents can vote at Reinhard between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.