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Budget loaded with bad news
By BARBARA BEHRENDT
© St. Petersburg Times, INVERNESS -- With early budget numbers in hand, school Finance Director Sam Hurst had little good news for the School Board during a workshop Monday. There are no dollars available for employee raises, there will be more of a funding burden on local taxpayers and the district could have to take $1.2-million out of its fund balance just to make ends meet. "The Legislature was not good to us," Hurst told the board. On the surface, the district's proposed 2001-02 budget shows an increase with the total proposed spending plan jumping 7.1 percent to $133-million. The general fund portion of that is increasing 2.3 percent to $86.6-million. But the problem is not in the overall amounts but the details of where the money can be spent, Hurst said. This year, lawmakers shifted more state funds into areas called categoricals, which are funds earmarked for certain expenses such as transportation, technology or training. At the same time, the Legislature reduced the per-student allocation amount by $3.55 to $3,413 per full-time equivalent student. If more of that flexible category of money had been provided, the district might have some dollars available for pay raises, Hurst said. Most teachers will see $850 bonuses. The state is providing the district $947,340 for that purpose, a half-million more than what was provided for teacher recruitment last year. The one-time bonuses will be for teachers employed in Florida last year, employed again this year and who have satisfactory evaluations. Still, board members have no choice about how to spend that money. It must go toward the bonuses and they do not add to the teacher salary scale and are not counted toward retirement benefits. Hurst said those are the drawbacks to one-time bonuses. Board members and Superintendent David Hickey noted that by tying up so much state money in categoricals, lawmakers were taking away local control from the schools. Other bad news in the budget will impact those who pay property taxes. While Hurst still didn't know what the tax rate would be, early numbers show that the state expects the district to raise about $4-million more than last year. The district's bottom line, the so-called undesignated fund balance, was a small piece of good news for the school system at an estimated $3.7-million. That is about 4.35 percent of the district's revenue and Hurst said a good goal is to shoot for between 3.5 percent and 5 percent in that fund. Board Chairwoman Patience Nave said that the previous board was very concerned about not allowing the fund balance to fall too low. She said that keeping it at 4 percent of the budget should be a priority. Board member Carol Snyder asked if whatever ended up over the 4 percent could be set aside for raises but Hurst cautioned that the budget numbers were still estimates and it is hard to know where the final fund balance will be. Board members were also concerned that Hurst's spending plan includes taking $1.2-million out of the contingency fund to balance the budget. Board member Sandra "Sam" Himmel said that if the district always knows it is going to spend more than it receives, why not put that extra spending into the budget to make it balance in the first place? Hurst said the budget process is more complex than that. While finance officials try to make the revenue and expenses match without using the fund balance, it is very difficult to do. Still, both he and Hickey said that they are looking at the overall spending plan proposal to see where expenses can be trimmed to reduce that draw from the fund balance and find monies for employee pay raises. The district suspended negotiations with employee unions pending the receipt of more state budget information. Hickey said he did not expect to see contracts settled before school begins again in August. The first public hearing on the spending plan and tax rate is set for July 31 with the final hearing and approval on Sept. 11.
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