Tioga Central School District Scot Taylor speaks to taxpayers during a May 6, 2015 public hearing on the district’s proposed 2015-16 budget. Voting will take place on May 19 in the district’s office building, on the Route 17C side of the campus.
One thing is often overlooked when debate is opened about the 2015-16 Tioga Central School District budget. Yes, there is a 30 percent increase in the tax levy requested, which would raise taxes from $9 per thousand of assessed value to $12. But even with that, school taxes in the Tioga Central District would remain the lowest in the entire Broome-Tioga BOCES system, according to TCSD Board of Education Member Ryan Bombard.
However, facing the prospect of a 30 percent tax increase to their already strained household budgets, 24 citizens attended a public hearing on May 6, 2015 in the Tioga Central High School cafeteria to voice their concerns about the school’s 2015-16 proposed budget. Tioga Central Superintendent Scot Taylor faced the voters and tried to answer their questions for two hours. Even if their taxes are still lower than others, most of those in attendance questioned why the district was asking for such a large increase.
Taylor said that one of the largest increases to the district’s budget came from increases to health care costs, going up from the 2014-15 budget of $2,903,270 to $3,150,176. The first question asked how much teachers contribute to their health insurance costs. Taylor answered 20 percent, and that went for all staff, administrators, teachers, and support staff such as custodians. That employee contribution was high compared to other districts, Taylor said, which can be as low as a 5 percent employee contribution.
Taylor went on to say that some teachers are beginning to opt in to a less expensive plan now being offered by the district. Some discussions have also taken place with the teacher’s union to expand enrollment in the less expensive plan, according to Taylor, but teachers are reluctant to switch because of the new and untested less expensive insurance.
The employee contribution to health care, like a 2.75 percent increase in salaries, is part of their current contract, which expires in two years, Taylor said.
Benefits like health insurance and wages paid are two factors which effect the quality of education offered by the district, Taylor said, through teacher recruitment and retention. Since they’re built into the district’s “cost of doing business,” according to Taylor, if the budget is rejected by voters on May 19 cuts will come from areas that can be cut – athletic programs, extracurricular activities, English intervention for struggling students, half-time kindergarten, band and more.
In total the district can cut $985,000 in non-mandated items in the budget to make up for the $902,000 the district is asking for with the 30 percent tax increase, Taylor said. That would drastically change the educational experience, he added, and may lead to a district where kids don’t want to come to school, and teachers don’t want to come to teach. With a low expenditure per pupil for New York, at $15,851 per pupil, Taylor said the district gets good results. Graduation rates for the district are between 85 and 90 percent, Taylor said, with 68 percent going on to college.
That assertion of high college matriculation rates begged the question from one taxpayer: if taxes go up, how will parents afford to send their kids to college? Taylor replied that there were no easy answers.
District health care costs and employee salary increases are among the largest contributors to the proposed budget’s increase of $417,513, according to Taylor. The remainder of the $902,000 to be raised from the 30 percent tax increase offsets a reduction in the amount drawn from the district’s reserve funds of about $2 million, Taylor said. Last year $1,050,550 was taken out of reserves, this year the district is planning on taking only $275,000 from reserve funds.
With the district’s costs going up, and district reserves nearly spent, Taylor said that to maintain current programming the money will have to come from somewhere. Another question asked how even a teacher who was getting a raise of nearly 3 percent this year was supposed to afford the 30 percent tax increase. Taylor said the district’s responsibility was to provide kids with the best education they can have, and the decision to ask for such a large tax increase was based on maintaining current class availability for the kids’ future.
Bombard asked the audience to consider what a no vote would mean to the district’s future. He sees the very future of the district at stake, with a no vote possibly leading to consolidation or dissolving the district in as little as three to four years. “What happens in five years when the district needs to dissolve or be absorbed?” Bombard asked rhetorically.
Bombard acknowledged that “taxes suck,” and said he didn’t want to pay higher taxes either. However, he pointed out that if the district were absorbed by Waverly, taxes would be going up more than 30 percent. And if the district went to Owego Apalachin, school taxes would nearly double, Bombard said.
“The school district has done everything it can for the last seven years,” Bombard said, “now we desperately need your help.” Voters will decide on May 19 if they are going to dip into their wallets to fund the district at its current level. If the budget is not passed by voters, Taylor said the Board of Education will meet on May 20 to decide on how to proceed.
