The Huntington School District would gain $525,807 in additional state aid if Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal is enacted into law by the New York State Legislature.
Mr. Cuomo has proposed that Huntington’s state aid be increased by more than half-a-million dollars to about $12.7 million for an increase of 4.49 percent. Across the state, regular state formula aid would grow by $608 million or 3.8 percent.
School officials were hoping for a more generous increase in state aid. “The governor’s proposal is disappointing, particularly in light of the fact that we are facing less than a 1.5 percent limit on the allowable tax levy growth factor and with the same mandated expenses in place,” Huntington Superintendent James W. Polansky said. “My hope is that our legislators step in and assist. If not we will likely experience a much more challenging budget development process than we have faced in recent years.”
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“Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed an austere budget for schools,” said Timothy G. Kremer, executive director of the New York State School Boards Assn. “While the governor’s budget contains many laudable issues such as state-funded universal prekindergarten and after-school programs, his state aid allocation falls way short of the mark.”
The proposed state budget continues the so-called “gap elimination adjustment” that was signed into law by Governor David Patterson to help eliminate New York’s budget gap in 2010. The adjustment appears on state aid “runs” as a deduction to each district’s formula aid. The “run” includes a breakdown by state aid category for each district. Huntington’s total state aid figure includes the loss of $2,033,861 as a result of the 2014/15 gap elimination adjustment.
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The loss of state aid caused by the gap elimination adjustment has been made up through tax increases and cuts to programs and staffing in district’s across the state. If the Governor Cuomo’s proposal is enacted into law, Long Island school districts will have sustained a loss of about $1.25 billion in state aid due to the GEA.
Huntington School District executives are analyzing the state aid proposal as they finalize development of a draft budget that is expected to be presented to trustees in mid-February.
