I reviewed the Patchogue Medford school budget that is slated for vote on this coming Tuesday May 17, 2011. The proposed budget is less than last year. In other words, the budget has been cut by about $2,000,000. The tax rate percentage increase is 4%, but the budget is being reduced by 1.2%.
Class sizes will increase and 60 teachers will be lost through attrition and elimination. If the budget is voted down, the board can recommend a re-vote or adopt a contingency budget, which will require over a million dollars of additional cuts.
Some of the factors contributing to the budget are the rising cost of fuel and energy, health insurance rates are projected to increase by 15% and pension costs are projected to increase by average of more than 30% during 2011/2012. The school district used cash reserves of $6,676,385 to balance the budget.
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Also, it says the tax levy increase is 2.64%. If somebody could explain what the tax increase is, I would appreciate it. Are our property taxes going up 2.64%, 4% or 3.8%? These things are always so confusing!
This budget looks well thought out to me though and pretty responsible. The problem is the same with our country throughout, sky rocketing healthcare and public pension costs due to the aging of the population and the system being strained.
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Admittedly, I am not an expert in this, but how do you get the skyrocketing pension costs down? Do teachers have pensions or 401K Plans and if they schools shifted the pensions of newer employees to 401K’s, would that help this issue in the future? Our schools and teachers are of the utmost importance. Our highly educated workforce is one of the primary reasons America is so prosperous, but the taxpayer is maxed out at $9000 in property taxes. Just not reasonable and scary. How has government spending gotten this out of control?
Below is a link to the budget.
