High tax levy irks board member
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The Fredonia Central School District approved its 2023-24 school budget at the most recent meeting of the Board of Education, but the vote was not unanimous. Board member Tom Hawk voted against the budget after taking issue with a 3.25% tax levy -- the largest figure the district has seen in a decade.
In the previous four budgets, Fredonia's tax levy was 1% or less, including 0% in 2019-20 and in 2021-22. Beginning in 2014-15, Fredonia stayed under a 2% tax levy each year until the latest budget was approved by the Board of Education in mid-April.
"I consider this budget meeting one of the most important meetings the board has during the year," said Board of Education President Brian Aldrich. "We have not been rubber stamped to increase taxes for the district. We take this pretty serious."
Fredonia's highest allowable tax levy for the upcoming year is 3.51% -- or $575,444. While the tax levy is noticeably higher this year, it is still within the parameters the district is bound to.
But that doesn't mean everyone is happy with asking for as much as the district has.
Hawk criticized the decision to increase the tax levy, especially because of the increase in state aid the district received this upcoming year. Fredonia receives full foundation aid of $1,823,584, and a total increase in aid of $1,938,644.
"The whole piece I've heard over the years is we need to raise taxes because we don't have full foundation aid," Hawk said. "We get full foundation aid this year – we received $1.9 million. It seems kind of funny that all of a sudden, our expenses fit that size of an increase."
Board member Lisa Powell Fortna called the increased funding this year "lucky," because of the increased expenses this year. "As we've heard over the last several meetings, we kind of have a perfect storm with these increases over a number of things. If we weren't getting full foundation aid, we would be in that much worse shape," she said.
Among the major cost increases include $687,334 in salaries, $625,192 in BOCES costs, $601,775 in contractual expenses – including transportation and out of district placements, and $457,720 in benefits. Just those four major increases amount to nearly $2.4 million in extra cost to the district this upcoming year.
"From my standpoint, we've had virtually everything that would come in that would be typically high, all at the same time," said Business Administrator John Forbes. "We're coming off a year where we essentially spent the full amount of the budget and decreased the fund balance, and we're tracking to do that again this year."
The budget as a whole shows an increase of $2,504,546 from the previous year, an increase of 7.84%. The total budget amount for the 2023-24 year is $34,434,570. The previous three years showed increases of $359,789 in 2020-21, $628,541 in 2021-22, and $634,957 in 2022-23.
"Looking at comparative data, it exceeds our norm. It's an outlier, it's a spike, it's a red flag," Hawk said of the sizable increase in this year's budget. "We're looking at a $2.4 million increase. The other years, we were less than a million."
The budget also calls for a $100,000 capital outlay project, focused on blacktop replacement at Wheelock School, along with flooring replacement and a state required architect's fee.
In conclusion of the discussion, Aldrich said, "It's my personal opinion that we are not in a terrible situation. We are not facing an emergency financial situation ... nor are we in a position where we can afford to approve future expenditures that come before this board. We are voting on a purse of money, we are not voting on individual expenses, we are not voting on additional programs or additional teachers. This is a purse of money, and we have to be very careful with that purse of money."
When it came time to vote, Hawk opposed the budget, while the rest of the members in attendance voted in favor. Courtney Gullo was not present for the vote.
"With all due respect, Mr. Hawk, I do appreciate your position," Aldrich said.
The district also approved a proposition for a Fredonia student to serve as an ex-officio member of the board. The member will be entitled to sit with the Board of Education at all public meetings and participate in all hearings, but will not vote, attend executive session, or be entitled to receive compensation. The Gowanda Central School District recently appointed two student board members to its board in a similar capacity. Fredonia's members in attendance voted unanimously in favor of the proposition to be listed.