As we begin the new year, our towns and the district are busy preparing budgets for Fiscal Year 2016 (July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016). The towns and the district all face a similar set of deadlines that for many reasons seems to run contrary to the budget deadlines for our legislative and executive branches in Massachusetts. While our finance committee members understand my statement, let me explain in more detail for those who may not spend as much time working the numbers.
As per our regional agreement, the Gateway School Committee must have a budget to the towns 45 days before the first town meeting, meaning they have to have a budget adopted and shared with the towns by mid-March. Our annual town meetings must all be held no later than June 30 and must have a balanced budget in place. Let’s look at the logistics of this based upon the real ‘key’ to adopting the school budget, which is the final educational assessments to our towns. With a significant portion of the revenue coming from the state (both Chapter 70 Aid and Regional Transportation Reimbursement) the district cannot set a definitive assessment amount to the towns until those numbers are approved by both the legislative and executive branch (which might change mid-year as with this year’s 9C reductions in regional transportation reimbursement). While this sounds simple, in a good year we may get some solid figures if the House and Senate agree early on a local aid resolution; in years that are not as stellar, these figures may not appear until mid-summer or even later—well after the towns’ mandated dates for holding their town meetings.
Please also note that I used ‘local aid’ rather than educational aid. This is because the towns also must count on state aid in developing their budgets whether it be Chapter 90 (highway funding), PILOT payments (Payments In Lieu Of Taxes) on state owned land, or direct local aid (such as lottery funds)—the so called ‘Cherry Sheet’ figures.
This is not to say we don’t have some glimmer of what might be expected, after all the “House I” budget is usually released at the end of January (this is the Governor’s proposed budget, which our legislators label a ‘dream’ at best). We’ll see how our new governor addresses this timing as he has an additional 30 days to develop his first budget in office. These are the first revenue figures the district provides in a preliminary and draft budget for the purposes of discussion and planning, although we know those numbers can change dramatically as first the House and then the Senate provide their own version of the state’s budget. Generally speaking, the Governor releases the House I budget in January, the House releases their version of the budget in April and the Senate in May. We’ll see how this year’s budget process unfolds at the state level, which may be further complicated by the deficit in this year’s state budget (estimated to be between $700 million and a billion dollars). Needless to say, this will certainly complicate the process of developing school and town budgets even without considering the other unknowns (the biggest of which is the potential withdrawal of Worthington).
I know that the school committee’s budget development schedule is posted on the website (www.grsd.org), that the first budget presentation (also on the website) was made in December, and that a preliminary expenditure budget will be shared with the communities this month. As the school committee works on the FY’16 budget, we’ll be sharing the information they get with the communities through the district’s website. As always, we hope everyone will take the time to gain an understanding of the educational budget prior to town meetings.
