WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. March 6,2010. The following is adapted from an address to the White Plains Downtown Residents Association February 27: Rob (Tamboia, President of the WPDRA) asked if I could comment in what could happen in the next ten years of the CitizeNetReporter.
First, despite holding the line on the school budget last year, and saying they will hold the school budget to last year’s budget this next year, the school district continues to face a dwindling tax roll and cannot sustain itself except by drastically increasing taxes. I am not making this up.
It is what the numbers say, and presently the school board seems to be burying its 7 heads in the sand. It is as if they never picked up a calculator. This week, as I mentioned earlier, assessed value on the 2010 City Tax Roll declined $3.9 Million, a $2.8 Million decrease in revenue for the school district. It is the eighth year in the last nine the roll has declined.
The tax increases the middle class and White Plains seniors face are going to be devastating as real estate values and certioraris plummet. The city of White Plains can do nothing about this unless a way is found to get tougher on commercial and residential properties filing of certioraris. This is a problem.
The district so far has shown no taste for drastically cutting this year’s budget, by drastic…I mean cutting expenses to meet their revenue shortfalls. For that matter, the city has not either. Cutting $2.3 Million off the city budget is not a lot. Not when you are facing $12 Million shortfall, and another $6 Million in fund-balance shortage.
Leadership’s failure to act decisively now affects the ability of persons in White Plains to continue to afford their homes and fuel the city economy with discretionary spending, home improvements, and make investments.
The people of White Plains believe in the good will of the district and believe education is important to their housing values and their children, however the school district reliance on citizens’ good intentions, no matter how many school budgets are passed do not bode well for citizens’ tax bills. The taxes are going up at the rate of $1,000 a year approximately. They have doubled over the last 10. Going in to the revenue presentation Monday, the school district has to make up the decline in revenue from the tax roll. Then they have to fund the teachers raises around 5.5% for this year (including the longevity increases). They say they are looking at unloading 30 highly paid teachers eligible for retirement and probably, a lot of teaching assistants this would be especially true if they replace some of those 30 retirees with new teachers.
Last Wednesday the prediction in the above paragraph came true. They said they are looking at a budget of $184.7 Million, cutting 41 teachers and 39 support staff -- along the lines of what WPCNR predicted in January. And they also admitted they negotiated a 2-1/4% raise in February 2012! Together with the step increases (2%) this means a 4-1/4% raise in 2012 when the assessment roll is going to be down another $8 Million ($4 Million in 2011 and $4 Million in 2012). How irresponsible is that extension? Very. You can't give what you are not guaranteed you will have.
Come on you're giving the teachers 5.5% on average this year, next year and 4-1/4% in 2012? That's roughly 15% up going into the 2012-13 year that they'll be negotiating in the beginning of 2012. Again, please send your unused calculators to the school board. The problem here is they are not cutting enough now. The revenue is not going to be there to fund these raises. Not at the way the assessment roll is declining.
Another district issue I see is that their expenses have to go up because the enrollment is going up. The district has to do better demographic analysis fast to predict future populations. You are going to need another elementary school soon and perhaps a new middle school in 10 years, as well as complete staffing of those schools. That means probably another $100 Million bond to build those two schools. Pure speculation you say? Fear mongering?
One person’s fear-mongering is another person’s way of looking ahead.
If this year’s enrollment trend (highest kindergarten enrollment ever) continues, it is alarming. Previously future enrollment predictions have been based on each year’s birthrate projected five years ahead. The predictions of five years ago are already wrong.
Another thing: the population is changing. In the community 51% of the population is white (according to 2007 statistics), 29% is Hispanic, 13.4% Black,and 5.8%Asian. In the school population, however, the population is a different mix: 45% are Hispanic; 33% white and 19% Black, 3% Asian (2007-2008 year). This will mean White Plains has to build a more bilingual-savvy teaching staff.
It means that more than ever an aging, childless white population will be educating a rapidly growing Hispanic population. It is to White Plains residents' credit that we enjoy our diversity and get along so well. But the financial burden of a growing school population which we had been lead to believe would stablize as short as five years ago is growing while revenues are evaporating. They're burning up!
That is a problem. It is as if the school district is micromanaging feel-good projects while ignoring the influx of a growing population in the schools. They need to pay attention to this.
