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Last week, the board approved a resolution that calls on Cuomo "to amend his Executive Budget proposal to include a state aid proposal that allocates and distributes to school districts the approximate $1.1 billion school aid increase.”
School officials throughout the state have been concerned that in the governor’s proposed Executive Budget, the money for school aid distribution – known as “runs” – is being withheld until April 1, which is delaying districts attempting to prepare the 2015-16 school budgets.
In a letter to Cuomo from New York State Educational Conference Board Chair John Yagielski, he and other top officials demanded that the state immediately “release a state aid proposal and corresponding school aid runs allocating the approximate $1.1 billion increase” that was presented by the governor during his address.
“In our collective memory, it is unprecedented for the state to withhold the release of Executive Budget aid runs,” he wrote. “These aid runs are not simply a state budget ‘tradition,’ they are necessary and indeed critical to the local budget development process for hundreds of school districts across the state.”
According to the Board of Education’s resolution, by withholding the runs, districts are unable to calculate their tax cap number before the March 1 State Education Department deadline.
“The property tax cap, first proposed and enacted by the state in 2011, requires school districts to utilize the executive budget aid runs that are currently being withheld to formulate a tax cap calculation,” the Board noted. “
“Under tax cap law, school districts are required to submit a ‘2016 proposed levy’ to the state by March 1 in order to calculate a district-specific tax cap figure. Establishing a proposed tax levy is impossible without knowing projected state revenue.”
With the resolution passed, board members are now calling on the community to assist them in a letter and email writing campaign as they try to put pressure on Cuomo. The complete resolution can be found here, and those looking to send a message to the governor can do so here.
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