MCS Faces Budget Gap

Costs, Revenues Still Up in the Air for 2024-25 Budget

By David Avitabile

MIDDLEBURGH - Middleburgh Central School officials are hoping that a restoration of state aid will help fill some of a large budget deficit in the 2024-25 budget.

The current budget gap stands at about $333,000, if state aid is restored and spending cuts are made, and $1.2 million, if there are no spending cuts and no increase in state aid, school business manager Robyn Bhend told school board members at their March 13 meeting. School officials are expected to approve a spending plan for next year at their April 17 meeting. The public will vote on the plan on May 21.

The current preliminary budget stands at $25.019 million, which is $707,000 or 2.91 percent higher than the current budget. The preliminary budget has been cut by $148,000 since it was last presented in February. The spending plans still includes more field trips, a college in the high school program, and the afterschool program at the elementary school, but not $50,000 for an annual trip to Washington D.C. Teaching salaries in the preliminary plans, are up from $5.18 million to $5.52 million, about 6.58 percent.

Ms. Bhend presented the board with several different tax levy scenarios. If the district approved the maximum tax levy hike, it would raise the levy by 2.01 percent, or $206,103. A hike of 1.5 percent would increase the levy by $153,836.

A huge sticking point is a reduction of 9 percent in state foundation aid, a decrease of $8.5 million to $7.7 million for Middleburgh. Overall state aid is down from $12.7 million to $12 million for MCS, a drop of 5.27 percent.

A restoration in state aid in the final state budget by the state legislature would go a long way in decreasing the budget gap for MCS, Ms. Bhend said.

If there were no restoration of state aid and no reduction in spending, the district would be facing a budget of $1.2 million, Ms. Bhend told school board members. If state aid was restored and there was a spending cut of $119,500, there would still be a gap of $333,000.

Officials are hoping that final health insurance costs, due by the end of March will help close the original gap. Costs are currently expected to increase by $30,000, but if they went up by 20 percent, they would be able to cut spending by $95,000. An increase of 10 percent would allow officials to cut spending by $190,000.

Board members have several options on how to fill the gap, no matter how large.

Ms. Bhend said they can: use funds from the debt service fund (up to $231,000), worker's compensation reserve (up to $55,000), employee retirement reserve (up to $420,000), teachers retirement reserve (up to $594,000), or increase the fund balance (an increase in $500,000 would put the amount of fund balance use at $1.42 million).

She warned board members that none of these fixes are "long-term sustainable strategies."

If there is no new state budget by April 17, the board will have to vote on the budget with the current state aid totals.