Saturday, March 5, 2011

ROY-HART TO FACE TOUGH DECISIONS

The Lockport Union Sun and Journal featured a story about Roy-Hart's dire straits...


Thursday Board of Education members met to get a picture of the revenue for the 2011-12 school year budget. And it wasn’t a pretty picture. Roy-Hart is facing a $1.4 million deficit, comprised of a rise in costs and a $492,000 decrease in state aid, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget.

That means in order to keep the tax levy — the budget revenue covered by the taxpayer — low for residents some major cuts will probably have to be made. If the current school year’s $22.1 million spending plan wasn’t altered, it would feature a tax levy increase of over 16 percent thanks to expected increases in costs.

To help offset that the board may have to use reserves. Members already plan to use $378,571 from a reserve containing money accrued in interest during building projects in 1998 and 2000. The money has to be spent within the next three years, when the projects are paid off.


Read the rest of the article here:

http://lockportjournal.com/local/x1609122382/Tough-decisions-ahead-at-Roy-Hart