State Budget Passes-What it means for HCS

Today, school districts throughout New York State received their final budget numbers from Albany for the 2011-2012 school year. Last week, the Senate and the Assembly restored approximately 230 million dollars of the 1.5 Billion that the Governor cut from education. Due to this, the Hamilton Central School District had $94,000 in state aid restored to the district in next year's budget, and will now have a deficit of $360,051 to consider in our budget decisions for the 2011-12 school year (when we consider the state and federal aids received by the district in 2010-11).

When we first got the new budget run we were confused. Our 13.55% cut, or -$486,000 (without building aids) or 11.03% (with building aid), went to -$141,000 or less than a 4% deficit with an additional 94,000. The numbers didn't add up?? After much comparison, we realized that the Governor's run received in February included the Jobs money in this year's (10-11) funding. In the new runs, they took the Jobs money out so it looks like districts are being cut far less than they are. The numbers are deceiving and look much more favorable. They show Hamilton losing -3.38% in aid (with building aid) instead of 11.03%.

The new run also increases projected expense driven aids. These are estimates and are dependent on usage. Our BOCES and Transportation expenditures have decreased this year due to cuts so we already know that these aids will not increase. The numbers in the new budget run have been inflated. In reality, even with an increase in projected expense driven aids, we are now at -8.38% in aid loss, using the original values as they were depicted in February.