By Anthony Rifilato
Because of the narrow margin, school officials had initially said that the vote was too close to call on Tuesday and that they needed to tally 18 affidavit ballots with the New York state Board of Elections. In the end, the budget passed by only five votes.
The $99.8 million budget raises taxes next year by $350 on the average home in Baldwin, currently assessed at $397,600.
The slim vote in Baldwin comes after nearly 85 percent of school budgets on Long Island - totaling more than $9 billion - were passed by voters, following two years of budget rejections in the wake of the Roslyn scandal and rising taxes.
Baldwin school officials attributed the 6.2 percent budget increase to a slew of state mandated expenses such as health insurance and state retirement contributions, among others, as well as a new position for a state-mandated internal auditor.
In the months leading to the vote, school officials had discussed some additions to the budget, such as two full-time nurses and one part-time nurse for the entire district, as well as additional special education and Academic Intervention Services staff. The budget also includes a 3.5 percent boost in teacher's salaries. The budget would also maintain current programs such as full-day kindergarten and instructional programs.
Baldwin school officials said that if the budget were to have been defeated twice, the Board of Education would be required to adopt a contingency budget limiting expenditure increases to no more than four percent, in addition to the bond debt.
If that happened, officials said that the school board would have been forced to cut $2.1 million from the budget, and make significant reductions to programs, staff and services.
Votes for school board candidates were clear on Wednesday, however. Two incumbents, B.A. Schoen and Mary Jo O'Hagan were re-elected to their three year seats, winning over challenger Stanley Gittleman.
Library Board of Trustees incumbent Tony Tarantino was re-elected to his seat, over candidate Ethell Smith. The 2006-07 Baldwin Public Library budget passed on Tuesday when voters approved the $3.5 million expenditure.
