Massapequa school officials say the district may have to resort to program cuts as they head into this year's budget season.
Deputy Superintendent Alan Adcock outlined the first draft of the 2013-14 spending plan at Thursday's school board meeting.
He pointed out the many budget hurdles Massapequa is facing next year, including several measures imposed by New York State, such as cuts in financial aid, mandated spending, and the two percent tax cap.
In addition, Adcock cited cuts to Federal aid, as well as huge increases to health insurance and pension premiums, as also having a huge affect on next year’s budget; pension rate hikes alone are resulting in a whopping $4,753,609 increase over the 2012-2013 school year’s figures, with health insurance inflation adding an additional $938,954 in expenses over and above the norm as well.
All told, the 2013-2014 spending plan leaves the district facing an estimated deficit of $6,021,818. Adcock says that will ultimately result in cuts to school programs.
“In order to live under a tax cap at that level, and absorb the cuts in Federal, State, and local funding, we’re working to come back to the Board and the community with areas which we can find, for lack of a better term, those kinds of savings or reductions,” he said. “That’s where we are right now.”
Adcock did say that there are currently no plans to cut any staff positions for next year.
His presentation Thursday covered the District’s General Support Budget, including Employee Benefits, Debt Service, Transportation, Electric/Gas/Oil, and Tax Certiorari.
The sole omission was the District’s Instructional Budget, which will be covered on a future date, according to Adcock.
“The point we’re at now, we’re at about $3.8 million in Instructional Programming,” Adcock said. “However, that part of the budget is not being discussed tonight...we will discuss that at the meeting on March 7.”
The preliminary General Support Budget Thursday, is currently set at $82,068,759, which represents a 7.42 percent increase over the previous school year’s figures.
Due to the budget’s early stage, a Tax Levy is not yet currently available.
