Thanks to increases in state and federal aid, the Kingston school board is considering keeping taxes the same in its 2021-22 budget, the final version of which will be put to a public vote next month.
The roughly $196 million draft budget represents a spending increase of around 4.57 percent over the 2020-21 plan. With $21.6 million in federal aid and a surprising increase of 9.4 percent in state aid, the tax levy would remain $107.42 million.
“Looking at the increase in (state) revenues and the federal money that we have coming in, and having consideration for going to zero (percent tax levy increase), we’re keeping all of our programs, all of our personnel, we’re making no cuts to programs,” said Superintendent Paul Paladino at the April 7 school board meeting. “We’ll be adding to our programs to help with the learning gaps that we’ve had through the 13 months of this crisis. But our community has also suffered through the 13 months of this crisis. The consideration of looking at a zero or lower than the limit of the tax levy increase is reasonable for the board to consider.”
Allen Olsen, deputy superintendent for human resources and business, said the district has a long track record of finding ways to meet the needs of the students while considering the ability of local taxpayers to pay. Since 2014-15, the district has never sought to exceed the tax levy increase limit imposed annually by the state, and has on four occasions – the years 2015-16 through 2018-19 – asked for less. (This coming year, the state formulation would allow for a levy increase of 1.31 percent.)
“The board has been very modest about raising taxes over this amount of time,” said Olsen.
Olsen provided said the federal funds come from two congressional acts: $6.4 million through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act enacted on December 20, 2020; and $15.2 million through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act enacted on March 11, 2021.
“The federal funds are not as well-described quite yet as we would like,” Olsen said. “But there’s a lot of money involved.”
The CRRSA funding is available for the district to use through September 2023.
“We’ve been led to believe that the flexibility in spending that money is fairly broad, but the rules have not really been published yet in terms of what the money can be spent on,” Olsen said.
The ARP funding can be spent through September 2024, with at least 20 percent of the $15.2 million required to be spent on “learning loss” during the pandemic. Learning loss could be addressed with after-school or extended-day activities, summer learning or enrichment, or extended school year. Learning loss spending should consider underrepresented student subgroups, including but not limited to children from low-income families, children with disabilities, English learners, homeless children and foster children.
Padalino said the district should receive further details on rules for the non-learning loss funding no later than the first week of May.
The ARP funding will also require school districts to formulate a plan to return to in-school instruction for the 2021-22 school year.
In addition to the federal funding, the district learned last week that it will see an increase of $6.52 million in state aid under Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget, bringing the total up to $76.14 million.
Does this reliance on aid mean when the aid dries up taxpayers will be on the hook for new initiatives? Padalino says no.
“Strategically speaking, the combination of the smoothing of this money over a number of years with the increase of the [state] foundation aid that’s been promised back up to full funding helps with that cliff,” he said. “And I think that’s where we should look at non-recurring expenses to invest this in.”
Trustee Nora Scherer said she liked the idea of keeping the tax levy increase at zero percent.
“It’s been a horrible year for everybody,” Scherer said. “And this board has been very, very judicious in the way that they have approached the tax levy and whether or not we would want to go up to the max. We have very often not done that in consideration of all of the taxpayers in our district…I would be in favor of a zero percent tax levy increase.”
The KCSD Board of Education will hold a budget hearing on Wednesday, May 5. Voters will have their say on the 2021-22 budget at the polls on Tuesday, May 18.
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