By JOSEPH KELLARD
Villagers will head to voting booths on Tuesday to either support or oppose the proposed $29.4 million spending plan that school officials say is fair to taxpayers and maintains virtually all programs and services for students with no major additions.
Both Superintendent Dr. Ed Price and School Board President Steve Foster said the budget is similar to recent spending plans, maintaining programs for students in all areas, from technology and the arts to staff development, as well as the district¹s commitment to benchmark testing, the data from which it develops instruction.
³We¹re able to do all this and yet we¹re doing this on a 4.7 percent increase in taxes, which, from what I¹ve seen throughout the county, is one of the lower increases,² Price said.
³It¹s lean without hurting the kids,² Foster said about the proposed budget.
Price attributes the reduced tax levy increase to two main factors: lower interest rates and the district¹s inclusion in a banking consortium with other villages, school districts and libraries. ³We¹ve been getting better rates because of that,² Price said.
Moreover, Island Park applied the increase in state aid it received toward reducing the tax levy increase. State senators and Gov. Eliot Spitzer struck a deal that netted Long Island more than $205 million in additional education aid, and Price said the foundational aid the governor provided came out to about $40,000 for Island Park, a bit more than last year. On top of this the state Legislature provided about $100,000.
³What the Legislature was able to put in high tax aid really did come back to help us,² Price said. ³That made a little dent.²
However, the district was hit with a substantial 38 percent increase on its bus contract after the budget was set. Past increases generally averaged about 3 to 4 percent, and the district¹s bus contract had been renewed for many years. But this year the bus company refused to renew, according to Price. After discussions between the two parties, the district and bus company agreed on a one-year contract under the nearly 40 percent increase.
³They went through with us why they felt they needed to have more money,² Price said, ³and they gave us prices they were charging per bus in other districts, to show that, in their belief, that we were underpaying in the past and hadn¹t renewed on the state approved consumer price index increases.²
³We¹re very angry about this,² Foster said. ³It¹s hurting us a bit, but we¹ll find a way to swallow it up and make it work in some way.²
Price said that the district is exploring ways to rearrange its busing to condense or reduce some services. ³This will have an impact on the number of late buses we can run,² the superintendent said. ³Doing things like that is going to enable us to accommodate this increase.²
Island Park¹s general big-ticket items include teachers¹ salaries, retirement, health care and special education. The district is in the second year of a three-year contract that provides teachers with a 3.5 percent annual pay increase, while retirement remains expensive, Price said. ³That¹s because it¹s market-driven² he added. ³If the market¹s down, they have to make up for it.²
And while health care costs will go up about 10 percent in 2007-08, down from the annual 15 to 20 percent increases that are typical in each budget, special education also remains a high-cost item for a comparatively small district such as Island Park. ³There are kids with special needs who we cannot accommodate here,² Price said.
One ongoing issue is KeySpan¹s Barrett Power plant, a utility property that is on Island Park¹s property tax rolls. It remains possible that KeySpan, which has plans to renovate or ³repower² the plant, may sell it to LIPA. Put Price said even if the plant were sold, it would remain a funding source for the district.
³We have been assured by LIPA and by people in the Legislature who were involved in the whole LIPA development deal, that we would receive payments in lieu of taxes, which in essence means whatever KeySpan would pay in tax, we would get as a pilot payment,² Price said.
In 2006, Island Parkers voted to pass the district¹s $28.1 million budget by a vote of 605 to 481.
The budget and school board vote in Island Park will be held from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on May 15, at Lincoln Orens Middle School.
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
