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Voters will go to the polls Tuesday to approve a proposed $26 million Lansing School District 2012-2013 budget.  Additionally voters will elect two school board members.  Incumbents Anne Drake and Aziza Benson are being challenged by Michelle Uhl-Stark, Julie Boles, and Max Rogan.  Superintendent Stephen Grimm presented the budget in a public meeting Monday, and met informally with taxpayers Thursday.

"Funding the general budget has been a great challenge," Grimm said.  "It's one of the most challenging years in the history of New York State education.  The revenue loss is staggering.  Wall street, the overall economic decline.  It also hits us with the AES Cayuga power plant as they're struggling, and they're our largest taxpayer."

Voters will be presented with four resolutions and will be asked to chose two Board Of Education candidates.  The first resolution will be to approve the $26 million budget.  The second will authorize the district to purchase two 70-passenger school busses and one 29-passenger bus. 

The third resolution will ask voters to set the limitations for transporting students from zero to 15 miles from their residence to the school.  The policy would provide transportation to more Lansing students at no additional cost to taxpayers.  Kindergarten through eighth grade students who live within two miles of the school campus and older students who live within three miles will have to find their own transportation if the resolution does not pass.

The fourth asks voters for permission to establish a capital reserve fund that would eventually cap at $1.5 million.  Voting for this proposition sets the cap on the reserve fund, but does not allot money to it.  When excess money is available due to underspending or other reasons a yes vote authorizes the school board to put that money aside for future building projects.

The budget is 2.60% higher than last year, which will result in a tax rate hike of 4.5%.  About 3% of that is a result of the devaluing of the AES Cayuga power plant.  Grimm presented a five year fiscal plan.  He said revenue for next year is light, but the district is holding the line on expenses.  The district is making up for the budget gap with a combination of appropriated fund balance and cuts to expenses.

"Supporting such a program has been especially difficult as we continue to experience a massive decline in revenue from the renegotiation of the PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) with the AES Cayuga Power Plant," Grimm says.  "This year alone we experienced revenue losses of over $500,000, which is nearly 2% of our total budget and over 3% of our combined tax levy.  While we are proud of our 2.69% budget-to-budget increase, and 2% combined (PILOT and Property Tax) levy increase, we know that the tax rate increase is estimated at around 4.5%, due to the extreme revenue loss from AES.  We are fortunate, however, that state aid has stabilized, and intentional long-range planning for local economic development is well underway."

The school board started with a $3.44 million budget gap.  With appropriations and reductions the gap was reduced to $797,272.  With more reductions it came down to $337,272.  That amount comes to a 2% rise in the tax levy.  Budget reductions come to $1.06 million.

A new feature on the school Web site has videos of presentations about the budget.  Grimm encourages district voters who were unable to make it to budget meetings to view them.

"Despite major revenue challenges again this year, we have been able to retain an outstanding comprehensive educational program for the children of Lansing," Grimm says.  "We continually perform in the exceptional range as evidenced by achieving some of the highest state testing results in all academic areas, and we have been able to continue to support a wide range of extracurricular and athletic activity offerings, along with Advanced Placement a swath of electives and other educational programs that meet the community’s high expectations for opportunities for children.  In order to support whole-child development, our educational program needs to reflect a well-rounded menu of opportunity, and this budget continues to support this vision."

The polls will be open in the teacher center at Lansing Elementary School Tuesday (May 15) from 7am to 9pm.

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