For those that may have missed it, the Post Star did an excellent expose this past weekend on local school districts that regularly overcharge the taxpayers and stick these overcharges in “reserve funds”.
By law, a school district is allowed to keep an unreserved fund balance that equals 4 percent of the upcoming year’s budget. However many districts have kept more than this on hand and simply create other reserve accounts for different items.
The school districts and their supporters do not like it when challenged on this and “jeer” at those who complain about school spending. I have been a critic of this practice for some time and intend to continue.
Recently I’ve heard a new and novel argument from these same people that spending from these different accounts “can’t offset taxes.” What this simplistic argument overlooks is that all school expenditures – regardless of which accounts they come from — come from the taxpayers.
In the case of our local school district, most dollars come from taxpayers residing in Dresden and Whitehall, and a small shrinking amount comes from state aid, which itself comes from guess who? The taxpayers.
If money for a “comfortable” gym and plush building (where enrollment is plummeting like rock) comes from a reserve account which can’t be used to offset taxes, the fact remains that the taxpayers filled that reserve account after the Board overcharged on the yearly budget and put only one option in front of the voters; to put the money in a reserve account. It is a sad shame that the powers that be in the school district continue down this road when it will not assist a student get into a better college or get a job, as businesses continue to flee Whitehall and their oppressive property taxes.
Please read the entire Post Star piece. My favorite line is where Superintendent Ella Collins of the Abraham Wing School in Glens Falls is reported as saying this when questioned about her school districts fund balance of $621,642, which equals 16 percent of the budget.
“Collins said the surplus piled up because of expenses that came in below budget.”
Hmmm ….. must have really come in under budget.
Ms. Collins should talk to the Whitehall School Board, where they have come in under budget for over 10 years and keep raising taxes. But then again, we can’t use the excess to offset taxes.