Published: May 09, 2008 02:07 am            

ROY-HART: District shows off budget to the public

MIDDLEPORT — Royalton-Hartland residents were able to see the district’s proposed budget for the 2008-09 school year Thursday at the school board meeting.

The budget was presented by Kelly Griffith, the district’s business administrator. The $23.4 million budget is an increase of 1.21 percent in spending from the current school year’s budget. It calls for an estimated 3.9 percent tax levy increase, which could raise the tax rate anywhere from 81 cents to 96 cents per $1,000 of assessed land value, depending on where a resident lives. Six different towns comprise the Roy-Hart district, and until assessments are figured out, a final tax rate increase won’t be finalized.

Griffith said some of the biggest increases in the budget were utility costs, transportation fuel costs and in general support for auditing.

“We have to pay for a claims auditor, an internal auditor and an external auditor,” she said.

New York state requires all districts have to show a proposed budget in a three-component format. Each budget is broken down into administrative, capital and program components. The largest part of the budget is the programs, which are things such as instruction, pupil services and summer school costs. Programs take up about $17 million of the proposed budget.

Griffith also compared Roy-Hart’s spending per student to other districts. According to a state school fiscal accountability report from 2005-06, Roy-Hart spent about $6,751 per student. On average, similar districts spent about $8,399 per student and the New York state average for public school spending per student is about $9,168.

She added the budget was kept to as small an increase as possible.

“It’s a minimal increase,” she said. “We’re basically keeping everything the same.”

Roy-Hart will receive $13,320,966 in state aid, a 7.67 percent increase from the current school year. The tax levy, the amount of money from property taxes needed to fund the district, will account for $8,817,789 of revenue.

Incoming school board member Keith Bond attended the meeting and said he liked what he saw in regards to the budget.

“It looks good,” he said. “They were able to keep the tax down, while everything else is going up.”

Bond added he looked forward to getting started as a member and with the proposed budget in place.

School board throughout the state will hold elections and budget votes on May 20. Roy-Hart residents will be voting from noon to 9 p.m. in the high school gymnasium, 54 State St., Middleport.

Also, the board elected to cancel its May 22 meeting, but instead meet at 8 p.m. May 20 before voting closes. The next board meeting will be June 12.

Contact reporter Joe Olenickat 439-9222, ext. 6241.

        

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