Latest Budget Draft Lowers West Hempstead Tax Levy Increase to 2.9%

In response to feedback from its school board and residents, the West Hempstead School District has lowered its proposed budget increase by seven percentage points.

The latest budget draft presented at Tuesday's meeting carries a tax levy increase of 2.9 percent, . Both of these figures fell within West Hempstead's maximum allowable tax levy increase under the new cap law, but the newest version of the budget lowers the total amount the district would collect from taxpayers from to $41,062,979 to $40,998,816. The amount that each resident pays will vary depending on the assessed value of their home and if they qualify for any tax exemptions.

Superintendent of Schools John Hogan expressed his satisfication with the diligent work that was been done by the board and administration to arrive at a preliminary budget number of 2.9 percent.

"We're in decent shape because of the way the board has budgeted the last couple of years in troubling economic times," said Hogan. "We've been a little more prudent with our spending, but still need to be cautious in what we spend in the future as far as what we want as opposed to need."

Not everyone though was happy with the 2.9 percent number.

"The people that I have spoken with in our community have a final budget number of 2 percent in their heads," said West Hempstead resident and . "When they go to vote on the school budget they are not going to be happy with the 2.9 percent number."

Trustee Vincent Trocchia was in agreement with Walsh. "To me 2.9 percent is more than a fair number but the public is not going to be happy about it," he said. "If there is any way of making this number 2 percent, this budget will pass on its own, no problem."

Much effort was put into trimming the budget to get to the current proposed tax levy while also maintaining existing programs and class sizes. The budget does not call for any faculty cuts, with the exception of one high school guidance counselor, whose position was paid for last year by Federal Jobs Funds. Since this money is no longer available to the district, this position was never included in the 2012-2013 budget, leaving three full-time counselors to deal with a student body of 800. 

Since the first draft of the budget was presented in early March, there's also been an $8,000 reduction in the amount of money appropriated for equipment and professional meetings for school board members, but there still exists funds for the possible purchase of computers and software that would bring board meetings into the digital age.

"Cutting items out of the budget is one of the toughest decisions we have to make as board members," said Board President Walter Ejnes. "We are not going to cut something for the sake of cutting and then have an issue with one of our schools that we can't do anything about because we cut the funding for it."

The district could also tap into its fund balance, its reserves, to lower the tax levy even further. (Since it presented its first budget draft earlier this month, it has allocated $101K from its uenmployment reserves to bolster its proposed revenue budget.) However, if the district continues to deplete its fund balance, it could lead West Hempstead on a path to

To show the impact of using the reserves to achieve a 2.25 percent or 2 percent tax levy, the district created a short presentation which can be viewed in the PDF section above or on the district's Web site, along with the latest line-by-line proposed revenue and expenditures for 2012-2013.

The board will vote to adopt the final version of the budget at its April 17 meeting and a final budget hearing will be held on May 8 before residents vote on the adopted budget May 15.

If the budget vote was today, would you support the version currently proposed? Vote in our poll below and tell us your thoughts in the comments section.