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School Business Administrator Mary June King Wednesday told the Board of Education that the Lansing School District underspent its $27.82 million budget by $1.651 million dollars last school year.  King said Lansing underspent by 5.94% of its budget.  But she said with the fate of the Cayuga Power Plant still undetermined, the money may be used to keep future property taxes at a reasonable rate if the plant is closed.  She added that if the plant stays open and regains some of its lost value it will be up to the school board to decide whether to give some of the money back to taxpayers in the form of lower taxes.

"That's a significant number.," King explained.  "That's almost 6% of the projected budget.  That's the most we've underspent the budget since I've been here.  The Comptroller's staff came this year, partly because they said we ended our year with a big fund balance.  They said we're ending our year with a lot of money left over.  And they want to know why."

King stressed that local taxpayers could be facing a significant rise in property taxes if the Cayuga Power Plant is shut down.  While proponents and opponents of repowering the plant still hold out hope that the state decision will go their way, the drawn out decision has wreaked havoc with municipal budget planning, because the plant is Lansing's largest taxpayer, despite having lost much of its value over the last half dozen years.

"The reality of the property tax cap law is that if we loose a $60 million value in PILOTS (a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes agreement that Tompkins County and Cayuga Operating Company negotiated to determine the taxable value of the plant), the next year we could have an enormous property tax increase and only need a 50% majority of the voters," King said.  "Every year after that we'll still be limited to the 2% property tax cap.  But that initial year we could really put the taxpayers right on their knees.  But I don't think that's how you want to do business.  So if you have some money in the bank, if we were to lose that plant, you could help to offset those tax increases."

King broke down the district's spending by categories, noting that the largest savings of $806,000 last year was in instructional salaries.  $223,000 was saved in general support spending, and $144,000 in the Transportation Department.  At the same time the district received more revenue than expected, with more state aid recovered than originally projected, and various fees for things like sporting events.

"Last year we were once again very successful in utilities savings," King said.  "I think it was soley the result of our 'turn it off' campaign.  we didn't do anything new relative to energy savings, except that we had somebody sending an email out every Friday and before every vacation saying, 'Hey, unplug stuff'.  And people were doing it.  It has that kind of an impact."

She also said that because the District gets relatively lower state aid for building projects than other districts, the Board has to plan carefully for future capital projects.  Taxpayers are responsible for 35% of the cost of capital projects, which tend to cost millions of dollars all together.  She said that by saving money in reserves the district can continue to fund capital projects without adding taxes at the time the projects are realized.

King said that based on the past five school years it is difficult to predict where underspending will occur,, because for the most part it is in different budget lines each year.  Last year BOCES expenses were less than projected, and with fewer Lansing students attending the New Roots Charter School than projected, Lansing's charter school tuition was about $50,000 less than projected.  She said that aggressive use of Transfinder software that analyses school bus routes to make them more efficient has resulted in significant savings each year.  And she added that outsourcing some functions to BOCES has saved a significant amount of money for the District.

"We under-spent the Treasurer's budget, and that's a BOCES budget, by about $30,000," she said.  "That's the realization of economies of scale.  We initially joined the BOCES program for the Treasurer.  We wre ethe only school in that program.  We paid the full ride for the portion of a treasurer that we purchased.  Last year, late in the process, Ithaca came into the game.  BOCES had to increase their staff a little, but because that bill is based on Resident Average Daily Attendance, Ithaca had to take up a big share of that treasurer.  That's where we realized a significant savings."

King said her business office staff also spent less than projected, in part because they are doing more electronically, and less with paper and paper-related supplies.

King told the board that she had a cordial and productive audit by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's staff.  The State recommends about 4% of a budget remain in the fund balance.  But King said Comptroller's Office staff was sympathetic to the district's plight, especially  with the uncertainty of the power plant.  The results of their audit will be released later in the school year.

"We start every year saying 'How can we save money?'", King said.  "How can we find efficiencies?  How can we underspend?"

She told the Board that once the fate of the plant is determined the District will be in good shape for future budget planning.

"If we get final word on what the plant's going to do your long term planning is all set," she said.  "You can give money back to the taxpayers.  You can invest the money in capital improvements.  You can use it how you need to use it."

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