By Cindy J. Roth
The delayed school-budget vote will allow school districts to actually know the amount of state aid they will receive for their budgets instead of having to craft them based on anticipated state revenues.
"By enabling school districts to accurately account for the additional state aid they will receive, the Legislature has acted responsibly and prudently to provide taxpayers with necessary property-tax relief," said Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre).
The vote delay will only help school district, however, if the Legislature passes a state budget in the next few weeks.
Both houses of the Legislature plan to approve a budget by Friday, according to Tom Dunham, press secretary for Skelos. After that, Pataki has 10 days to veto it, which he plans to do. The Legislature then would have to override the veto for the budget to pass.
In addition to the budget vote postponement, school board trustee races have been lengthened as well. School districts have extended the petition filing date for candidates until May 5, and the election will take place on June 3.
In accordance with state law, which requires school districts to hold a budget hearing a minimum of seven days prior to a vote, school districts will be planning additional budget hearings. East Rockaway's budget hearing is scheduled for May 20 at 6 p.m. at the high school. The original May 6 hearing has been cancelled. The Malverne and Lynbrook school districts had not set new hearing dates as of press time.
While the Legislature is selling the delayed vote as a gift to school districts, some superintendents say the delay is more hurtful than helpful, since districts will have to incur additional costs to publicize the new election and budget vote date. "I'm not [happy about the delayed vote] because I don't know ultimately if this is going to make any difference," said Arnie Dodge, East Rockaway superintendent. "[The Legislature is] still going to wrangle about the budget itself and not come up with a number for us, so I don't see how the two weeks are going to help. I don't want to give out false hope to people."
