The fifth iteration of District 300's 2010-11 budget revealed Monday showed why Board President Joe Stevens was quoted last week complaining about an $11 million shortfall when the most recent projection had been only $3.5 million in the red. Finance Director Cheryl Crates' told the Board of Education according to her latest estimates $4.3 million short will be the best the district can do this year and an $11 million deficit is not only the worst-case outcome but the most likely one, too.
Crates said her old worst-case scenario is now the best one but even that isn't very realistic. It depends on comparatively light cuts to general state aid and support for special education and transportation. Crates called a second scenario involving deeper state aid cuts a "voodoo budget" since it's based on the legislature's 50-percent unfunded state appropriations measure. The most realistic assumption now, she said, is deep cuts to general student support with aid for special ed and transportation chopped in half.
All of the projections include about $9 Million worth of cutbacks in expenses the Board's approved in the past several months.
Complicating matters, Crates reported the State has still only reimbursed about half the money it owes the District for the school year just ended. That number now totals about $12.3 million and the General Assembly just extended the payment deadline to Dec. 31.
"They're probably going to pay the $12.3 million but they'll pay it in 2011," Member Chris Stanton said. "I don't think they'll do either one," replied Stevens.
Supporting that conclusion Crates said buried in the extension legislation is a proviso that if the state doesn't pay what it owes by the end of the year it doesn't have to pay it at all. If that happens, she said, it would wipe out all the money the district's saved in the past three years.
"The hardest part for us is we don't have a big (carryover) fund balance," said Crates. "There's not enough there to help us very long."
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1 comments:
Maybe they should get out the deeds and sell some of their land holdings.
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