May 2014 • Estd. 1892 • Vol. 122 #4 • Published Monthly • www.ihstattler.com
IMAGE: AUDREY KAN
Ithaca High School, 1401 N. Cayuga St, Ithaca, NY 14850 • FREE
District Faces Harsh Budget Reality; Problem Has Many Sources By CHRIS SKAWSKI
Salaries of ICSD teachers like Mr. Lesser are still less than those of teachers in comparable districts.
ICSD Teachers Still Don’t Make Much: An Update To start, it seems as though non-salary benefits once did outweigh ICSD Last month, we discussed the drastic teachers’ salary deficiencies, but ICSD difference between the salaries of ICSD teachers’ benefits currently lag behind teachers and those of teachers throughout those of teachers at many comparable the state. school districts. To summarize, the median teacher Consider the Baldwinsville School salary in ICSD is $50,756, which is about District, which has approximately the $9,000 below the Central New York me- same number of students, staff, and dian, and puts Ithaca at a dreadful 584th wealth as ICSD and, notably, a mediout of 697 districts in New York State. Al- an teacher salary $15,000 greater than though everyone agrees there is a problem, that of ICSD. ICSD’s health-care plan nobody agrees on how to solve it. pays 70 percent of an individual’s preBut, in case that wasn’t enough, oth- mium costs, while Baldwinsville’s pays ers have suggested that ICSD teachers are up to 90 percent of the cost—and an actually compensated fairly because the additional 30 percent of the difference non-salary benefits they receive outweigh should the individual use a more exany deficiencies in their salaries. One pensive plan through a different promonth later, things are only slightly clearer. vider. The Fayetteville-Manlius Central Continued on Page 4. By RUBIN DANBERG-BIGGS
ICSD is facing a dilemma over the 2014–2015 academic year budget. In what was described by Brad Grainger of the Board of Education Committee of Finances as a “difficult situation”, ICSD must grapple with a lower revenue stream and growing costs. But this has been true in each of the last four years. How is this budget difficulty substantially different from its predecessors? The answer comes in three parts: the Gap Elimination Adjustment, depleting reserves, and a decreasing fund balance. The first thing that needs to be addressed is the idea of a tax cap. Taxes are the primary way that governments take in revenue, and property taxes in ICSD amount to about $75 million. This amount comes from a tax rate of between 2.4 and 2.9 percent annually, which is the official tax cap. The tax cap prevents the district from simply raising taxes to cover its budget, unless it can get a two-thirds supermajority: if 66 percent of Ithacans vote for a tax levy (increase), then the district can raise the tax rate and be able to spend more. This is an issue for our budget. While it is possible that voters will not vote to increase taxes, they may be unaware of the district’s other options should the district not be able to raise more taxes. “Fund balance” is money the district made up as a result of what are essentially Continued on Page 5.