Margeret Puzio, superintendent of Batavia City Schools is very worried about the coming year.
She's worried about possible cuts in state aide to schools and she's worried about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed property tax cap.
"It will be interesting to see, in the governor's budget, how state aid will be affected," Puzio continues.
"Frozen state aid is probably our best-case scenario. And with all of our costs going up, frozen state aid means we'll need to make significant cuts. But if there are cuts to state aid...that would be disastrous for us."
In the face of those probable cuts, Cuomo is also proposing a 2-percent property tax cap. If that goes through, Puzio sees dark days ahead.
"The tax cap is a rather extreme solution to the problem," she says. "This year the expenditures on the retirement systems go up significantly. So it's going to be difficult to maintain our educational program, and stay within a 2-percent tax cap.
"It might be impossible. And I'm not given to saying that things are impossible - but it just might be impossible."
Would Ms. Puzio like a little
Would Ms. Puzio like a little cheese with that whine? Property taxes are simply out of control in New York ( http://www.cptr.state.ny.us/propertyTaxCap/CPTRFactSheet_NewYork%27sRan… ), it's killing businesses, killing jobs and killing families. Owners have more to pay on their tax bill and renters will see more rent increases if there are more explosive tax increases. It's time for reform.
If school districts cannot get by with their current budgets, they will have to cut spending in order to prevent ridiculous tax increases on an already overtaxed John Q. Public. I do not believe that 2 percent is unreasonable. We have to re-make government from the bottom-up.