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June 20, 2008

Schroon budget passes on second vote

By LOHR McKINSTRY

SCHROON LAKE -- The second time was the charm this week as voters approved a revised Schroon Lake Central School budget that will raise taxes 9.5 percent.

The original budget, defeated last month, included a 13.8-percent increase in the tax levy -- the amount of the budget to be raised by taxes.

But a reduced spending plan passed Tuesday, 203 to 172.

Superintendent Michael Bonnewell said Thursday they knew from the first budget defeat that they had some work to do.

"We heard from our taxpayers that this was too much. Our goal was to balance what we heard from voters and the needs of our kids."

The district slashed $168,615 from the original budget, Bonnewell said, and came up with a $6.36 million spending plan to replace the $6.53 million budget that failed, 239 to 189, on May 20.

School District Treasurer Danielle Fosella said district officials were elated the budget passed.

"I was very glad. It was a lot of hard work (to compile). But it's worth it."

Most of the tax-levy increase in the revised budget, 7.3 percent, was for a school building project approved by voters last year. Only 2.2 percent of the increase in the amount to be raised by taxes was for school operations.

"It was not an easy task (to make cuts) when you don't have that much spare in there," Fosella said. "Some of the things we had to delete we have to discuss."

The district took out a new administrative post that state auditors had recommended creating to assist with financial operations, Bonnewell said.

"We could have used that position. The district treasurer runs the business office, and I run the rest. We have a lot of work between us."

The price of fuel figured in the new budget is also too low, Fosella said, even though they put it at $4 a gallon.

"That was way off. When we started work on the budget, it was $3.10 a gallon. All of a sudden it started shooting up."

If the budget had been defeated a second time, state law would have mandated the district adopt a contingency budget.

Because they'll be working with such a bare-bones budget in the next school year, the district will have to carefully compile the following budget, for 2009-10, Bonnewell said.

"We know from this (issue) that we have continuous work to do. We really need to work on next year's budget. The positive is we have 11 months to work on it."

lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com

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