By Mike Schnitzel
The district unveiled its proposed $27.4 million budget to the public for the first time at a budget session on March 13. That is a $1.53 million increase over the current year's $25.87 million budget.
The average East Rockaway homeowner would see an increase in taxes of 4.24 percent on the school portion of their tax bill. The new tax rate has not yet been calculated, because new assessment data will not be available from the county until April 1.
Superintendent Dr. Arnold Dodge said that contracts the district must honor, increasing fuel and energy costs, and insurance and retirement costs were the main factors in the increase. "Our fixed costs have continued to rise," said Dodge, "but the tax increase is just over 4 percent, and [the Board of Education] feels it's important that we keep it that low, and we've worked hard on that."
East Rockaway Board of Education President Mary Boccuzzi said that in order to keep the budget as low as possible, the board started from scratch rather than roll over numbers from last year's budget. "This way, we knew that everything in [the budget] is essential," said Boccuzzi.
The school district has two major capital projects in the works for the 2006-07 school year. According to Dodge, there will be an extension added to the high school, and a library media center will be built at the Centre Avenue School. The projected costs are $4.2 million for the extension and $1.5 million for the media center. Dodge said that the money for the projects will be appropriated from the $18.7 million bond issue approved by the voters last March.
The state budget proposed by Gov. George Pataki contains a preliminary estimate of $4.65 million in aid to the East Rockaway district, which is an 8.81 percent increase over the state aid received by the district this year.
Boccuzzi said that if the district received less state aid than what is currently proposed, it would probably impact the tax levy, but that "nothing was set in stone because [the budget] is a living document."
Dodge said that the Board of Education was still working on the budget, and that there would almost certainly be some changes before a final proposal is offered to the public for a vote in May.
The Board of Education will pass a resolution on a final budget proposal on April 24, said Boccuzzi, and the district's budget hearing is scheduled for May 4.
